Dudes Show Heart in Loopy ‘Where’s My Car?’

Halfway through the relentlessly idiotic but moderately entertaining teen comedy “Dude, Where’s My Car?,” you can almost imagine the film’s director, megaphone in hand, screaming at the crew: “Bring on the dancing elephants!”

Acting more like a demented ringmaster than a filmmaker, director Danny Leiner has, using a chaotic screenplay by Philip Stark, turned this picture into a pastiche of such psychedelic proportions that his continuous efforts to evoke laughter through the wackiest and silliest of situations begin to feel downright desperate.

The movie begins with a simple enough “high concept”: two pot-loving, ambition-free and sexually obsessed best buddies-roommates in their late teens or early 20s (Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott of “American Pie”) wake up one morning to find themselves in a surreal scenario and realize that they have no recollection of the events of the last 12 hours.

Soon enough, the two find out that their car has disappeared. And through an angry phone call, they also learn that the previous night involved thoroughly trashing their girlfriends’ home.

The pair’s objective, then, is to find out exactly what happened during this intense night of partying, and to get hold of their car so that they can visit their girlfriends, offer them anniversary presents and get some much coveted “special treats” in return.

Such an absurd crusade, which takes place in the average American city where the protagonists live, would be easy enough if it weren’t for the Fellini-esque cast of characters they encounter along the way: a transsexual stripper demanding a suitcase full of money that our heroes allegedly borrowed from him/her; a wannabe Zen master and his stoned dog; a gang of neighborhood bullies; a bunch of alien invaders from another planet; and a herd of wild ostriches.

Following these two clumsy, unpretentious doofuses as they jump from one brisk gag to another is a gentle, cozy experience, especially if you compare these harmless vignettes to the brutal and vitriolic spirit of, say, a comedy by the Farrelly brothers. Indeed, “Dude, Where’s My Car?” leaves you with a reassuring view of today’s adolescents. Sure, the film’s protagonists have the attention span of a mouse and inhabit an ultimately sad universe devoid of commodities such as books, high aspirations, or, more important, a sense of purpose.

But even during those politically incorrect moments when the picture finds laughter at the expense of blind children or homosexuals, there’s a benign, peace-loving air about it all that forces you to accept and embrace the film’s two central characters. Just as in “Wayne’s World,” a film that is clearly a constant point of reference here, the core of the story has less to do with the loosely connected scenes at hand than with the undying friendship that motivates these two wide-eyed characters.

* Rating PG-13 for language and some sex- and drug-related humor. Times guidelines: Lots of politically incorrect jokes but too good-natured to be considered offensive.

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‘Dude, Where’s My Car?’

Ashton Kutcher: Jesse

Seann William Scott: Chester

Jennifer Garner: Wanda

Marla Sokoloff: Wilma

Twentieth Century Fox presents a Rice/Netter production, released by 20th Century Fox. Director Danny Leiner. Producers Wayne Rice, Broderick Johnson, Andrew Kosove, Gil Netter. Screenplay by Philip Stark. Cinematographer Robert Stevens. Editor Kimberly Ray. Costume designer Pamela Withers. Music David Kitay. Production designer Charles Breen. Art director Charles Butcher. Set decorator Jeffrey Kushon. Running time: 1 hour, 23 minutes.

In general release.