Dick in Ad Corp

Andy Dick wears a hairdoo even creative types would worry about in "Ad Corp," directed by Marshall Cook, who himself has impressive bit part acting credits in TV shows such as "JAG."

The film is available both at iFilms.com and AOL's Moviefone.com.

Dick dominates this 12-minute short about a bunch of ad agency types trying to come up with the perfect campaign idea for home depot type store that sells, among other things, trash cans made of chrome. Talk about glorifying garbage and proverbial conspicuous consumption...

Dick, accomplished though he is, can't really save this from draggy lack-of-material syndrome, which he can blame only on himself, since he wrote it. Woody Allen, it's not. Where are the jokes?

Short comedies were the engine that created movies as we know them. Those early shorts by Keaton, Chaplin and Lloyd, among others, had a comedic energy that still makes people laugh today. This static, overly verbal piece doesn't come anywhere near the silent comedians in their effective and evocative use of cinema.

You have to applaude Dick for writing and appearing in a short film at all, but he might want to consider more physical comedy for shorts and shorter, quick, one-line jokes for sound. I'm still wondering why more modern comedians do not engage in a bit of physcial comedy. It still works. Think about Kramer bursting through Jerry's apartment door or doing some outrageous body and face reaction in "Seinfeld."

As it is, this only rates...

12 of 24 frames....