Whipped

With that title, what could you expect but a silly sexual comedy? In this quick 'n' dirty flick, Mia (Amanda Peet) shows four playa guys who's boss, giving them a taste of their own scamming ways. She dates and disses, captivates and cajoles, playing the saucy vixen role she's honed so well in her previous roles (WB's Jack and Jill, Simply Irresistible, Body Shots). The film is Peter M. Cohen's debut as a writer and director, and it shows. The four guy friends fit into cliché'd caricatures of guy genres (scammer artist, Type-A Wall Street golden boy, sensitive musician, married friend). And Peet herself seems more a boy-toy fantasy than a likely East Village lady.

Where this mostly boring film amuses, though, is in the fiery dialogue between the quartet during a ritualistic weekend wrap-up of "scams." You may ask who actually uses that word, but it's only the beginning of the laundry list of over-the-top ridiculous and raw language (e.g., "to stuff" "rail," well, you get the idea). Listening to the thesaurus of scamming slang, in fact, makes for some of the few laughs in this supposed "romantic comedy." Peet herself says it best in her closing monologue, where she reveals herself to be the true master in the art of the scam: "Next, please . . . " At the Harbour Mall, Holiday, Hoyts Providence Place 16, Showcase, Tri-Boro, and Woonsocket cinemas.
-- Nina Wildorf