Seeing the on-screen credit for “Original Screenplay” or “Original Story” consistently causes me to chuckle, because nowadays there is virtually nothing “original” about it. With few exceptions, it does seem that Hollywood has run out of ideas. One only needs to take a look at the upcoming summer movies to find a heavy slate of remakes, sequels, and re-imaginings (Hulk, again?).

Even movies that are billed as “original” are actually disguised remakes. Made of Honor, for example, is nothing more than the male version of My Best Friend’s Wedding. Still, does twisting and tweaking a previously-used storyline guarantee a bad movie? Not necessarily. Unfortunately for Made of Honor, lacking originality doesn’t help.

Tom is a dedicated bachelor who has fashioned his own set of personal “rules,” specifically designed to keep women at a certain “safe” distance. Only his platonic friend Hannah is exempt from the otherwise ironclad “rules;” consequently, Tom invites her to family events such as his father’s sixth wedding. But don’t be mistaken—Hannah doesn’t represent anything deeper than friendship. They are strictly friends, and that’s the way Tom likes it.

Or so he thought. When Hannah is sent to work in Scotland for six weeks, Tom feels firsthand how absence makes the heart grow fonder. During her absence, not one of the many women he dates fills (or even potentially fills) the void—Tom must realize (or, perhaps, acknowledge) that he is in love with Hannah. Consequently, when she returns from her work, she is not alone. Accompanying her is her new Scottish beau Colin, and Tom finds himself the odd man out.

Circumstances grow more interesting when Hannah asks her “best friend” (Tom) to be her Maid of Honor. This truly flips Tom’s world on its head, but his friends manage to convince him that being part of the wedding would give him more access to the bride, meaning more chances to disrupt the wedding.

The rest of the film pretty much follows the formula of one awkward situation after another for Tom as he makes his attempts to pre-empt the wedding. After trying to win Hannah’s heart by sabotaging the wedding, he pours his energy into being the best Maid of Honor ever, nearly resigning himself to honorably giving her up for good to the ostensibly “better” man, Colin… almost.

Having been a “maid of honor” myself—or, as we called it, the best man on the bride’s side—I can sort of relate to Tom’s plight. Fortunately, in my case, the bride was not a lost love, but rather my sister; more importantly, however, is that as a man, I was spared the duties of preparing a bridal shower, picking out the dress, etc.

Poor Tom is not so fortunate, and to make matters worse, one of the other bridesmaids is a former flame out for revenge.

For the most part, the film just fizzles. The jokes aren’t that funny, the awkward situations aren’t quite awkward enough, and the womanizer-turned-hopeless-romantic angle just seems forced.

I’m also not convinced that Dempsey has what it takes to carry a movie on his own. Enchanted proved successful, but that was due more to the talents of Amy Adams than Dempsey himself. He has the looks, but he seems to lack the natural charm of someone like Tom Hanks or Hugh Grant.

But at the core of the problem with Made of Honor is the lack of originality. Not just the basic plotline, but the jokes, situations, and even the characters seem like they were taken right out of another movie and plunked squarely in the middle of this one. There’s even the geeky “short shorts” guy who I seem to remember from Grease.

I have no doubt that many people will find this movie “cute”—a word I heard uttered multiple times as I left the theater—but for my money, cute doesn’t quite cut it.

Made of Honor is rated PG-13 for “sexual content and language.” Apparently the movie was originally rated R for some sex-related material, but it’s pretty tame. There are a few suggestive scenes including one involving sex toys, but nothing too offensive.

Courtesy of a local publicist, Jeff attended a promotional screening of Made of Honor.