Last Request

Rim shot, please! The shtick factor is high in this campy farce about a dying stand-up comedian (Danny Aiello) who compels his son Jeff (Grey's Anatomy's T.R. Knight) to quit studying for the priesthood and instead sire a grandson. There are enough Borscht Belt-era one-liners here to fill a Henny Youngman marathon, as Jeff innocently stumbles through a particularly bizarre minefield of speedy dates. Sight gags—desperate Siamese twins, a hand that makes naughty gestures, a dominatrix—are as numerous as the groan-inducing punch lines, many of them about Catholics and marriages. Former Saturday Night Live scribe and first-time writer/director John DeBellis calls in his markers to enlist Joe Piscopo, Numb3rs' Sabrina Lloyd, Mario Cantone (Sex and the City), Mary Birdsong (Reno 911) and wiseguys Frank Vincent, Vincent Pastore and Tony Lo Bianco to aid and abet. Barbara Feldon, luminous as Jeff's ditzy mom, plays a scene with a silent Gilbert Gottfried—now that's funny!

Shelf Talk: MTI is pushing Last Request's star power with mass mailings, postcards, Internet networking, radio promotions with talent and a few DVD launch parties in select cities. Aiello and his mob will draw the older demographic, while Knight, Lloyd and the others will get their TV fans to take a look. Recommend Last Request to fans of joke-a-minute comedies (a la Scary Movie) and to anyone who pines for the kind of yuks that were provided by Rodney Dangerfield and the comics of yesteryear. —B.McC.