Yeah, that's Ben Affleck grinning out at you from the cover of this direct-to-DVD release, but don't let that turn you off of the film completely. Man About Town may be rehashed from Jerry Maguire, Taking Care of Business, and, well, about a half-dozen other well-trodden slapstick comedies, but don't let that get you down. Mike Binder, whose The Upside of Anger was a quiet gem just a year earlier, has enough of a sense of humor to overcome the Affleck-induced malaise that you might otherwise be expecting.

The film involves an angst-ridden talent agent (stay with me!) who discovers his wife (Rebecca Romijn) is having an affair with one of his clients. Poor Jack (Affleck) decides to... take a journal writing class as therapy. Er, OK. Only then the journal is stolen, a creepy journalist (Bai Ling) threatens to publish a story based on it, and Affleck basically goes nuts trying to get it back and figure out if he should reconcile with the wife.

This is some familiar material, to be sure, but there's plenty of humor is in Binder's dialogue. Turns out Affleck is not remotely afraid of making himself look like an ass, getting beaten up and then fitted with oversized tooth implants. ("I look like Tom Cruise's retarded cousin!" complete with Bugs Bunny grin.) I laughed out loud more than once, even if the humor is on the blatant side.

Don't look to Man About Town for too many life lessons. We end up rather quickly back in Jerry Maguire territory, with Jack learning life lessons that arrive courtesy of the countless insights one can find in the Hollywood agency scene. I didn't really care much about Jack's romantic problems or his journal. Gimme more buck teeth and bruises.

The DVD includes deleted scenes, gag reel, and a couple of featurettes.