Grade: C-

Verdict: The Tao of John - as in Belushi, Candy and Goodman - is more like it.

Details: Starring Donal Logue and Greer Goodman. Directed by Jenniphr Goodman. Rated R for profanity and drug use. 1 hour, 30 minutes.

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Review: According to Dex (Donal Logue), the genially chubby star of "The Tao of Steve," the way to be cool and get all the girls is to be Steve McQueen. Of course, you don't have to really be McQueen; you just have to learn how to groove into his unflappable Steve-ness.

Explains Dex, "James Bond is a Steve. Michael Jordan is a Steve."

Dex, too, is a Steve. He's got the sexual conquests to prove it. "The Tao of Steve," which charmed a lot of folks at last winter's Sundance Film Festival, is basically about a fat boy who's a babe magnet. Why this would be inexplicable to anyone - his pals make much of a fuss over how he gets as much as he does - seems inexplicable to me. Do the names John Belushi, John Goodman or John Candy ring a bell? Hardly Adonises, but certainly attractive in their own roly-poly way.

Anyway, the twist in the movie is that Dex runs into a brick wall - or, given the McQueen metaphor, a barbed-wire fence - when he runs into a former classmate named Syd at their college reunion. She's staying on in Santa Fe to design sets for the city's famed opera company. Dex tries his usual tricks and convoluted come-ons, but she's impervious. Initially challenged, then obsessed, Dex finds that, not only has he fallen for her but he's violating his own rule of cool: "We pursue that which retreats from us."

The picture was co-written by two sisters, JenniphrCQ SPELLING Goodman, who also directs, and Greer who also stars as Syd. Their gender seems to have given them carte-blanche for conjuring a slight, occasionally charming, but often borderline offensive story. More is made over Dex's looks than seems necessary.

If Dex were a Dexette practicing The Tao of Gwyneth, the character would probably be seen as desperate and pitiful (and, of course, a bit sluttish). Further, the bits of wisdom with which he entices so many women are embarrassingly stupid and obvious - the sort of thing horny college professors have been saying to students for decades.

Logue, who's appeared in such mainstream movies as "The Patriot," is the best thing in the film, with a shaggy-dog appeal that transcends his Steve pose. But the movie as a whole is the sort of thing that no one should take to heart. And that's pretty much a fatal flaw in a romantic comedy.

— Bob Longino, Cox News Service