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Staten Island Graffiti

Right at the outset, something feels a little bit cheesy in Rhys Thomas's "Staten Island Summer". Now, cheesy isn't necessarily a bad thing, but despite some funny moments and a couple of fun scenes, this one feels like a misguided mix of "American Graffiti" and a whole bunch of silly teen coming-of-age flicks.

Danny (Graham Phillips) and Frank (Zack Pearlman) are best friends in the midst of their final summer together before Danny heads off to Harvard. Danny is the clean-cut all-American boy. Frank is the slightly overweight fast-talker. Their life centers around the Great Kills Swim Club on Staten Island, New York. Both are lifeguards, but with Danny headed out of town to college, it's time to party.

Both are trying to lose their virginity. Danny has a crush on a local beauty. Frank's desires lean towards one of a pair of identical twins, who is every bit as pretty as Danny's girl. On their respective roads to their objects of desire, lots of things go wrong, as expected. While things aren't quite working out for our two young lads, the rest of the cast goes through their side tales, with a definite SNL-influence.

Lorne Michaels is the co-producer. Colin Jost, the head-writer of SNL, wrote "Staten Island Summer", and lots of SNL alumni litter the cast. Among the others in the cast you will know are Jim Gaffigan, Gina Gershon, Vincent Pastore, and Method Man. There is certainly plenty of talent on-hand here.

However, all of the talent doesn't add up to enough. Mostly, it feels disjointed and it tries a little bit too hard, so that no meaningful story flow takes hold. It's fine to have a loose plot, but your funny scenes better turn out to be a whole lot funnier than the featured plots and gags are here.

"Staten Island Summer" isn't bad. It's just not very funny, or very dramatic, or very edgy, or very anything. It's okay, but when the battle for the summer dollars of the teen crowd is up for grabs, this just won't get it done.