Marlon Wayans is pretty senseless in Senseless, a movie that is trying to be good so hard that it falls flat on its face.

Wayans plays an inner city college guy who's trying to pay for his family and his tuition at the same time, and is doing several crappy jobs to keep up. When he is offered $3,000 for a science experiment, he is more than eager to do it. Of course, after getting accustomed to the effects (super senses), he decides to take a double dose, which puts everything in his life in jeopardy.

Seriously, who would take a double dose of a glow-in-the-dark substance after the scientist who made it told him specifically not to exceed the specified dosage? This guy is supposed to be smart. Still, it is the main element in the film, so I guessed plot holes be damned.

Unfortunately, the movie isn't very funny. There are a few good moments here and there where I laughed out loud, but compared to most comedies of this sort, Senseless has little too offer. Most of the really funny scenes where Wayans has control of only four of his senses at one time have already been shown in the trailer, so there's not much going for it there. The more sincere, clever jokes are great but there are few in the film. Furthermore, the romantic interest between Wayans and Tamara Taylor doesn't develop well enough to attract the female audience.

The only really big highlight of the film is Matthew Lillard as the cheesy, pierced roommate, who takes it upon himself to free Wayans of his dangerous "drug problem." On the other hand, David Spade is not up to his usual standards, playing a fairly modest and hardly sarcastic figure that he does so well at.

My main problem with the film is that there are just so many unbelievable aspects. When he has only four of his senses working at the same time, he doesn't tell anyone. Why doesn't he just tell everyone he's doing a legitimate science experiment for the university, especially after he starts messing up everything?

Senseless isn't that smart and it isn't that funny, and it could have used a little more sense to keep it on its feet.

Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.