The Opposite Sex and How to Live With Them

The clunky title award this month goes to "The Opposite Sex and How to Live With Them," a dreadful semi-off-the-wall romantic comedy, which is a rehash of many other bad romantic comedies, most obviously "About Last Night . . .,"

Strewn with vulgar, sexist gags, each more lame than the last, "The Opposite Sex" is just about as desperate as they come.

Arye Gross stars, his second dismal comedy this year (after "Hexed") — and it's only the first of April! He plays a bachelor with a roving eye, one of those guys who keeps score and is encouraged in his worst male chauvinist attitudes by his best friend (Kevin Pollak).

Gross meets and is attracted to Courteney Cox, who pretends to be leery of romance and men in general, and she is encouraged in her worst attitudes by her best friend (Julie Brown).

Naturally, Gross and Cox fall in love, move in together, have a falling out and separate, then reunite. And just as they are about to be married, they again have second thoughts. But no one ever doubts there will be a happy ending.

The cast members, primarily Pollak, speak directly to the camera on occasion and some of the film's episodic moments are bridged by romantic ploys shown as chalk diagrams, as if the battle of the sexes is a football game.

Pollak is a very funny, deadpan stand-up comic (who gives a fine straight performance in "A Few Good Men"), and he provides a few laughs here. But most of his material is so strained and sexist that his character isn't very likable.

And director Matthew Meshekoff and screenwriter Noah Stern are their own worst enemies. This movie's idea of a big laugh is sand sculptures at the beach of a giant phallus or women's breasts.

Rated R for considerable profanity and vulgarity, along with some sex scenes, "The Opposite Sex" was scheduled for release in November of 1991 as "Rules of the Game." Maybe it should have stayed on the shelf.