“Big Trouble,” directed by Barry Sonnefeld, is a movie adapted from a very funny Dave Barry book. The movie stars many funny and talented actors. These three ingredients would usually be all that is needed to make a good film, but something crucial was missing in “Big Trouble.” Instead of being a very funny film, everything is just mediocre.

Like Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard adaptations, “Big Trouble” is all about zany people in Florida getting into crazy predicaments. This time, an ad executive, a housewife and her slimy husband, two hitmen, a corn-chip-loving homeless man and many more miscreants are thrown together in a story about, well, it would take too long to explain the whole plot, so lets just say paths are crossed and hijinks ensue.

Sonnenfeld (“Men In Black”) has made this type of movie before with “Get Shorty,” an adaptation of an Elmore Leonard book, which became the surprise hit of the fall of 1995. In “Get Shorty,” it was the coolness that John Travolta gave off and the newness of that type of ensemble crime caper that made the film so memorable.

More recently, “Striptease,” “Out of Sight” and “Jackie Brown” have all used the same type of tough talking, one-liner spurting characters getting involved in crazy plots that was so fresh in “Get Shorty.” “Big Trouble” becomes the movie that has made this formula seem old and predictable. Sonnenfeld directs this movie exactly like he directed “Get Shorty” and even has the same leading lady, Rene Russo.

This all culminates in making “Big Trouble” very stale and formulaic. There was not one surprise to be had in “Big Trouble,” not even one quotable or memorable joke. The fine actors in the film don’t even seem to be trying that hard, and most of the performances are flat. Tim Allen plays the same ordinary Joe that he has been playing for years; Rene Russo plays the same type of tough-talking woman that she has been playing for years; Dennis Farina plays the same bitter, tough guy that he has been playing for years (see a pattern yet?) and Stanley Tucci ends up playing the annoying, slimy guy that, you guessed it, he has played for years.

The comedic talent of Jason Lee is wasted in a role that requires nothing but a character that can look unkept and crunch loudly on chips. The talent which Lee showed in films such as “Chasing Amy” and “Mallrats” is gone widely unused one a one-dimensional character.

The only actor that shined in his role is Andy Richter, who, in his two minutes of screen time, gave the movie a pulse.

Now was “Big Trouble” a bad movie? No, not really. It has moments that will make you smile, and it is short enough that it does not overstay its welcome. This alone however is not necessarily enough to save the movie however.

The main problem with “Big Trouble” is that the movie is so thin that it leaves your memory the second you leave the theater. Anyone trying to remember a scene to tell their friends about will find it difficult to do so because not one thing in the movie is memorable enough. In a comedy that should have been a stand out, nothing seems to live up to the expectations.

This is not a movie to see at the theater, even if it is a matinee or at a bargain theater. “Big Trouble” is the movie made for Saturday afternoons when there is nothing better to do. It’s the kind of film you would see on cable and watch for two hours without remorse. At that time, “Big Trouble” would be worth your time because you don’t have to pay for it and you have nothing better to do.

But any other time,especially in theaters, “Big Trouble” is just a big disappointment and fails to truly live up to its immense potential.