THE GREAT BUCK HOWARD

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John Malkovich plays an "Amazing Kreskin-styled" mentalist (don't say "magician") in this tempo-challenged movie from writer/director Sean McGinly.

Tom Hanks helped produce the film in which his son Colin plays Troy Gable, a law school dropout who takes a personal assistant job to the Great Buck Howard, whose primary claim to fame comes from having appeared 61 times on the Johnny Carson show, back when that meant something.

Buck travels the country performing his dated act in small regional theaters where he finishes every show with his trademark trick of guessing the location of his night's paycheck, which someone in the audience as hidden.

Buck plans for his big comeback when he isn't berating those around him for their unprofessional conduct.

Emily Blunt sporadically energizes the movie as a go-getter publicist named Valerie, but the script's grinding machinations all but cancel out Blunt's best efforts.

Ostensibly about nostalgia for a vaudeville breed of entertainer that was never very good to begin with, "The Great Buck Howard" doesn't know whether to mock or celebrate its tragic protagonist.

Perhaps the best favor an audience can do for itself is ignore it altogether.

(Magnolia Pictures) Rated PG-13. 87 mins.