‘You Again’

Officially, the movie's title is "You Again."

But a more accurate one would be "When Bad Movies Happen to Good People."

After all, "You Again" boasts a cast that includes the you-go-girl likes of Sigourney Weaver and Jamie Lee Curtis. Young whippersnapper Kristin Bell's had her moments on screen large ("Forgetting Sarah Marshall") and small ("Veronica Mars"). Even Betty White, one of Hollywood's hottest names at 88, is in on the supposed fun.

And while plenty of folks will, no doubt, consider "You Again" a gut-busting cinematic romp, I'm afraid this particular laugh-o-rama must proceed without me.

Somehow, it's more painful than mirthful to watch such talents as Curtis and Weaver contort themselves trying to fit into "You Again's" slapstick straitjackets.

It's no fun sitting stone-faced as eager actors try to breathe life into dead-on-arrival dialogue. And it's even less entertaining to connect the dots in a plotline that's structured like a Chinese restaurant combo plate: "Mean Girls" from Column A, "My Best Friend's Wedding" from Column B ...

"You Again" seems designed -- make that machine-tooled -- to push the same buttons as last summer's hit "The Proposal," with a multigenerational cast (including the she's-everywhere White) to appeal to every moviegoing demographic, from tweens to the AARP set.

But "The Proposal" had a can't-miss, opposites-attract romance to propel the plot -- to say nothing of Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds as the attracted opposites.

"You Again," by contrast, has hostility and enmity at its center. How could it be otherwise, when the whole movie's about a wedding? Or, more precisely, the main character's attempts to prevent a wedding.

You can't really blame Marni (the feisty Bell). She's trying to save her brother from a fate worse than death: marriage to the she-devil who made her high school years endless hell.

Fortunately, after all this time, Marni's recovered from the nonstop bullying. No longer a bookish, pimply, walking disaster, she's now a poised public relations pro, about to assume command of her firm's New York office.

First, though, she's got a personal campaign to coordinate: stop the whirlwind wedding of her beloved brother Will (earnest James Wolk) to her former nemesis, Joanna (Odette Yustman, reveling in her character's two-faced schemes).

Of course, Will doesn't know his dream girl once made Marni feel like an irredeemable loser. He only knows her as his sweet, generous, adorable bride-to-be.

But Marni remembers. And now, it's payback time.

The Marni-Joanna grudge match isn't even "You Again's" main event, though.

And if you were predicting the movie's other two central combatants, who would you guess they'd be?

That's right, kids! Yes, it's the mothers of the bride and groom!

Well, to be accurate, Ramona (Weaver) isn't Joanna's mother. Poor thing, her parents perished in a car crash, so she's been raised by Aunt Ramona, a fabulously successful businesswoman who runs an international luxury hotel chain.

Once upon a time, however, Ramona was just a small-town girl like Marni and Will's perky mom, Gail (Curtis). In fact, the two were best friends all through school -- until something (or, more precisely, someone) came between them.

And now, all these years later, it's Ramona's turn to get back at Gail, who's had the temerity to live happily ever after with her doctor husband Mark (a nicely flustered Victor Garber) and their kids.

So "You Again's" got like-mother-like-daughter catfights to stage, sprinkling them like confetti throughout the wacky wedding preparations.

Naturally, there's a superstar event planner (suitably strident Kristen Chenowith) to teach everybody how to dance, from hot-to-(fox)trot Grandma Bunny (guess who?) to Will's dreamy pal Charlie (Las Vegas native Sean Wing), who still makes once-klutzy Marni's heart go pitter-pat -- and everything else around her go splat.

High school traumas -- and their lingering impact on outwardly mature adults -- provide a universal foundation for "You Again's" exaggerated hijinks. But Moe Jelline's screenplay arranges the inevitable comic complications like dominoes carefully designed to fall on cue, each one triggering the next strident setup.

Director Andy Fickman ("The Game Plan," "Race to Witch Mountain") guns the engines and keeps things moving -- but, alas, not fast enough to avoid the script's numerous p(l)otholes.

If there's a bright spot to "You Again" (a faint one, but still), it's the chance to watch such pros as Curtis and Weaver in action. They're hardly miracle workers, but they give it the old high school try.

It's a bit sad to see the powerhouse Weaver play a cut-rate variation on her Oscar-nominated "Working Girl" role of the snooty sophisticate, but Weaver delivers, as expected, with throwaway ease. And not even the dullest of scripts -- like the one "You Again" is stuck with -- can fully extinguish Curtis' comedic spark; watching her relive her high school days with an energetic cheerleading routine is a definite kick. And jump.

If only "You Again" gave her -- and us -- something to cheer.

Contact movie critic Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.