Want humor? Skip 'White on Rice'

WHITE ON RICE — ★★ — Hiroshi Watanabe, Nae, Mio Takada; with English subtitles (Japanese dialects); rated PG-13 (vulgarity, profanity, violence, brief gore, slurs, brief drugs); in general release.

Where "Napoleon Dynamite" succeeded — at least for those who enjoyed the 2004 comedy hit — was its creation of a uniquely iconic main character.

With considerable input from director Jared Hess, LDS actor Jon Heder created a high school slacker who was completely dorky but who wasn't completely unlikable.

Since then, many films have tried to duplicate that sort of comic character work but with little success. That includes "White on Rice," which also has strong Utah ties.

Unfortunately, the main character of this unfunny comedy is never endearing, he's just an irritant. So we're not all that interested in his personal and professional plights.

That character is Jimmy, played by Hiroshi Watanabe. He's on the cusp of middle age but is still reliving the supposed "glory days" of his past, which included a movie role (in a samurai film, which is shown in parodic opening scene.)

Now divorced, Jimmy is living with sister, Aiko (Nae), and brother-in-law, Tak (Mio Takada), whose patience is running out quickly.

It doesn't help that Jimmy is a bad role model for his 10-year-old nephew, Bob (Justin Kwong), with whom he's sharing a room.

In addition to the family squabbles, a large part of this film concerns Jimmy's spectacularly unsuccessful attempts at romance. ("Heroes" co-star James Kyson Lee shows up as his more suave co-worker, who gives him advice.)

Screenwriter/director Dave Boyle never gives us a real reason why we should care about this selfish nincompoop. We can understand why Tak wants to boot him out of his house.

The film does have one "Easter egg" for sharp-eared viewers. Yes, that really is cult favorite actor Bruce Campbell who's doing some of the dubbing in the samurai movie parody. (It's probably this film's best moment.)

"White on Rice" is rated PG-13 and features crude humor and references (some of them sexual in nature), scattered strong profanity, brief violent content (including a gory samurai battle and some vehicular mayhem), derogatory language and slurs (some based on nationality and racial heritage), and brief drug references. Running time: 86 minutes.

e-mail: jeff@desnews.com