Stooping to new comedic lows to get a laugh

IT'S only natural for a woman to make friends with two others who have something in common with her - but it's a different matter when that "something" happens to be her scumbag husband who is two-timing her with one of them and three-timing both of them with the third. The Other Woman takes this highly unlikely but potentially interesting premise - and proceeds to make a total hash of it.

This variation on the conventional chick flick/buddy movie could have been formulaic but funny. Instead, it never gets beyond sloppy, unsophisticated and thoroughly predictable, relying on blondes in bikinis, physical comedy gags involving falling over garden hedges and that old standby - gross toilet humour - to grab our attention.

Smart comedies where women take centre stage (such as Bridesmaids, 2011) or have fully developed characters (Knocked Up, 2007) have proven to be successful in the past but it's fair to say that with The Other Woman, the genre is in full regression. Director Nick Cassavetes and screenwriter Melissa K Stack commit the cardinal sin of creating a comedy that is largely devoid of funny moments.