Gary Thompson: Three bland flicks released - only one is a standout

MOVIE TITLES aren't what they used to be - witness the DVD releases this week of "Life as We Know It" and "It's Kind of a Funny Story."

Or the theatrical release today of "Just Go With It." The titles reflect the converging blandness of contemporary comedy, though the movies themselves offer markedly different payoffs.

"Funny Story" is a quirky, warmhearted independent about a mildly troubled teen (some kid who looks like Justin Long) who checks into a psych ward and learns he doesn't really belong. Zach Galifianakis contributes one of several nice supporting turns.

"Life as We Know It," on the other hand, is every bit the unfocused, unappealing mess its plain-oatmeal title promises, yet another attempt to shoehorn Katherine Heigl into an uncomfortable rom-com premise. Here, she's godmother to a child whose parents are (and I wish I were making this up) killed in a car accident, so she is legally bound to raise the child with a skirt-chasing guy (Josh Duhamel) she dated once and now hates.

The movie sets creepy new lows for bad taste. When Heigl and Duhamel learn in a lawyer's office that they're the new parents of their dead friends' child, it's actually played for spit-take laughs.

Tyler Perry's "For Colored Girls" didn't get much traction in theaters. Adapted from the play, this downbeat ensemble story of troubled African-American women is outside Perry's comedy brand, and its poetic monologues made a tough transition to screen.