Waiting …

Trying to do for steakhouses what Caddyshack did for golf courses, this meager movie aims to make the world of baked potatoes and porterhouses a haven for memorable profanity. Ryan Reynolds stars as a permanent waiter with an affinity for high-school girls, and Justin Long plays his best friend, struggling with his status as a prisoner of the service industry. Gross-out humor—such as an episode where cooks add special flavors to a bitchy customer’s returned order—repulses more than it induces laughter. The shtick whereby male employees must show each other their genitals in progressively creative ways gets old fast, as does Reynolds’ rip-off of Chevy Chase’s comic mannerisms. Except for a couple of parties, the film never leaves the steakhouse, and that’s just boring. Character-actor Luis Guzmán has a prominent role, and his presence does provide most of the film’s laughs. Actually, his presence provides the only laughs.