Stupids, The

If nothing else, "The Stupids" is a testament to truth in advertising.

Calling this film stupid is redundant, of course. What else would you expect from a movie with that title — especially when Tom Arnold's name is above it?

A painfully unfunny enterprise, "The Stupids" stars Arnold and Jessica Lundy as Stanley and Joan Stupid, who, with their children Buster and Petunia, sail blissfully through life without ever being part of the world around them.

Sound like the "Brady Bunch" movies? It should. (Except that "The Stupids" makes the "Brady" pictures seem intellectual.)

The story begins with Stanley trying to figure out who keeps stealing his trash each week. Sure that it's a conspiracy, he dons roller blades and follows a sanitation truck to the city dump. There, he stumbles onto an illegal arms deal and realizes he must act quickly in order to save the world.

Meanwhile, Joan panics when Buster and Petunia are "kidnapped" by the police. She meets up with them in a downtown newspaper office, which they promptly short circuit, and they all catch up with Stanley just in time to head for a television station, where they hope to track down the evil Mr. Sender. They're sure he has some evil plot with all that "Return to Sender" mail he's been collecting.

Oh, wait — I forgot about the nose-picking aliens!

Sound dreadful? Trust me, it's worse.

Arnold, who wore out his big-screen welcome three or four films ago, is as annoying as ever, and though Lundy (who had supporting roles in "Single White Female" and "I Love Trouble," among others), Bug Hall (who played Alfalfa in "The Little Rascals") and newcomer Alex McKenna try, their efforts are wasted. (There are also a computer-animated dog and cat — and they aren't funny either!)

Veteran comedy director John Landis, whose wildly uneven career has included hits like "National Lampoon's Animal House," "An American Werewolf in London" and "The Golden Child," as well as flops like "Beverly Hills Cop III," "Spies Like Us" and "Amazon Women on the Moon," hits a career nadir with "The Stupids." From here it's all uphill.

And in addition to his usual film-buff casting of famous film directors in small roles (David Cronenberg, Norman Jewison, Robert Wise, etc.), he has somehow also talked Bob Keeshan — better known as "Captain Kangaroo" — and horror superstar Christopher Lee into taking part. Oh, yeah — and the ever-obnoxious Jenny McCarthy.

"The Stupids" is rated PG for violence and one profanity.