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'Hoodwinked' misfires with tired jokes

Brothers, co-directors and co-writers Cory and Todd Edwards share an awful lot of roles on "Hoodwinked," a computer-animated take on Red Riding Hood in the vein of Rocky and Bullwinkle's "Fractured Fairy Tales." Their names pop up during the closing credits as directors, writers, producers, songwriters, musicians and voice talent on the film.

The Weinstein Co. 'Hoodwinked' 2 out of 5 stars The verdict: A basket full of cliches Directors: Tony Leech, Todd Edwards, Cory Edwards Starring: Anne Hathaway, Glenn Close, James Belushi, Anthony Anderson, Patrick Warburton Run time: 80 minutes Release date: Jan. 13, 2006 Rating: PG for some mild action and thematic elements. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime [an error occurred while processing this directive]

Maybe the Edwards brothers like working all aspects of a movie, or maybe as independents they set out to give establishment Hollywood the what-for, but either way, "Hoodwinked" ends up as less of a movie and more of a loose-knit collection of gags.

A mildly humorous twist on the familiar "what big eyes you have" scene opens the film, but the clash between the women, the wolf and the woodsman is cut short by the arrival of the police, who immediately arrest the quartet on charges like "intent to eat." A dapper frog detective (David Ogden Stiers) arrives to interrogate the suspects, leading to four takes on the mystery of who's been stealing goody recipes from forest residents.

In this look-how-wacky-we-are forest, Red, voiced by the ever-charming Anne Hathaway ("The Princess Diaries") is a karate-chopping goody-deliverer for her bungee-jumping, snowboarding Granny (Glenn Close). "Seinfeld's" Patrick Warburton (whose voice acting career is skirting perilously close to typecasting) plays a Wolf that's more press than predator, and Jim Belushi brings an indeterminate accent to his synapse-impaired Woodsman.

Plenty of recognizable names fill out the cast, but when all is said and done, the characters are simply an excuse for the filmmakers to fire off a series of jokes like comics reading from index cards. Some of the gags work in spite of themselves, but most don't fit into the story any more than the Wolf fits into his Granny disguise.

With fewer of the tired "Matrix" bullet-time parodies, "Hoodwinked" might have had room for a heart to go along with all the yuks. But without it, there's nothing but empty air in this goody basket.