Tim (Paul Rudd) is a pretty successful businessman. And it looks like he’s about to get even more successful when he is offered a promotion by his boss. First though, Tim has to earn his place on the big, bad seventh floor by attending a dinner with his potential future colleagues. But this isn’t any regular dinner, oh no. Tim must bring along the biggest idiot (or ‘schmuck’, as the film’s title suggests - despite the word ‘schmuck’ not being uttered once during the whole film) so that the business big wigs can laugh at them, pretending they’re better than everyone else.

Tim shows a little disgust at this idea, but not much. Especially when he strikes gold by accidentally hitting socially inept Barry (Steve Carrell, who has suddenly got a set of huge, blinding chompers) with his Porsche. But Barry is OK and he gets what he needs anyway - the dead mouse that he will later stuff and add to his extravagant dioramas (which are actually impressive, once you get past the dead rodent thing).

The dinner doesn’t occur until way into the second half of the film, by which time you’re waiting for a full on comedy banquet

Naturally, after seeing some of Barry’s dead mouse art pieces, Tim goes against his girlfriend’s wiser words and asks Barry, the quite lovable idiot, to his Boss’ all-important dinner. And so the hilarity begins...

What follows is a series of bizarre, cringe-worthy moments, strung together loosely by a great cast who don’t get to show off their comedic abilities to their full potential.

This is not to say that Dinner for Schmucks isn’t at all funny. There are some chuckle-worthy moments between Tim and Barry but these are - more often than not - interrupted by celebrity appearances that rely on the weird instead of the humourous.

Jemaine ‘Flight of the Conchords’ Clement’s self-indulgent artist, Lucy Punch’s bunny boiler and Zach ‘The Hangover’ Galifianakis’ crazy mind-reading IRS manager are all characters for instance, that are genuinely funny during their initial scenes. But the comedy-sketch effect soon wears thin and brings little to the story, which in turn, takes a sudden dive into morality amidst all the slapstick.

Director Jay Roach’s (Meet the Parents, Borat) concern for likeable main stars and a Hollywood ending, ultimately hinder the essence of the story, which is of course, mean people pointing and laughing at harmless ‘schmucks’.

This does happen but the dinner doesn’t occur until way into the second half of the film, by which time you’re waiting for a full on comedy banquet. But you end up being served a pretty measly portion.

Rudd and Carrell do brilliantly with the pretty poor script they’re given and it’s great to see the pair back on screen, after much more successful outings in Anchorman and 40 Year Old Virgin. They play characters that we already know and love and together, their antics make Dinner for Schmucks a watchable film - but it's difficult to get past all the celebrities-for-the-sake-of-it, extreme comedy faff.