'MATT AND BEN' MAKE FOR TOO EASY HUNTING.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

SCHOOL OF defenseless guppies, welcome to your new home - this 2-ton wine cask. Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers: Meet the barrel and the fish. And for your further enjoyment, ladies, here's an arsenal of semi-automatic weapons.

``Matt and Ben,'' the hourlong send-up/love letter to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, feels like a showcase vehicle. Yes, it's a long-running off- Broadway hit. Yes, Withers and Kaling - the piece's co-writers and stars - get in a few well-aimed zingers at Damon, Affleck and the cult of Tinseltown. As satire goes, this is the equivalent of a slam-dunk.

Could the target possibly be any easier to hit? A couple of struggling Boston actors write and star in a script, win an Oscar and become famous. One - according to popular lore - is smart and cerebral, a talented actor with drive and ingenuity. His handsome and charismatic best friend isn't his equal in the talent department, but he seems to be destined to make a splash as well. Throw in J.D. Salinger and Gwyneth Paltrow and something funny is probably going to stick. Kaling and Withers are sure-footed comedians and mildly clever writers to boot.

But there's a problem here.

``Good Will Hunting'' was released in 1997, winning Damon and Affleck the Oscar in 1998. In the seven years since ``Hunting,'' the actors - and, yes, the zeitgeist - have moved on. Big time. And ``Project Greenlight'' gave the nation a case of Damonafflecksia.

When last anybody saw Matt Damon, he was trading Siamese twin jokes with Greg Kinnear in a Farrelly brothers movie. Affleck? OK, he's still very much fresh ``SNL'' meat with practically his own page reserved every week in the grocery store tabloids. He's also getting some of the best critical notices of his career for ``Jersey Girl.''

Not only is ``Matt and Ben'' severely out of date, but also it's kind of a surface-y cheap shot. Withers' Damon feels like an honest attempt to capture at least the essence of the underdog who makes good. Kaling, on the other hand, is playing an Affleck that somebody who intensely dislikes the guy would create. In other words, the two ladies are kind of acting in different plays. As we open, Kaling's Affleck is working on an adaptation of J.D. Salinger's ``The Catcher in the Rye.'' To Affleck, adaptation means typing blocks of dialogue from the novel into his computer. Enter Withers' eager beaver Damon, who knows that Ben's artistic get-rich-quick scheme is bogus, but who doesn't want to rock the boat of friendship.

Cue fate, which drops a completed copy of the ``Good Will Hunting'' script - with the words ``written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck'' on the cover - on Ben's coffee table. Lazy Affleck rejoices. Conscience-stricken Damon feels guilty. What has either man done, he wonders, to deserve the generosity of the cosmos?

Between fantasy meetings from Paltrow (played by Kaling) and Salinger (Withers), the boys philosophize, spar, lie to and back-stab each other before reaching a resolution. There are also flashbacks of Damon and Affleck during a high school talent show (Damon sings ``Bridge Over Troubled Water'' accompanied by a sabotaging Affleck on the tambourine) and performing a scene from ``Waiting for Godot.''

As I said, the zingers are pat and the evening is basically a bauble. I'd like to see Kaling and Withers take a stab at ``Ben and J.Lo.'' And I'd like to see them write it before 2010.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

MATT AND BEN - Two and one half stars

Where: Acme Comedy Theatre, 135 N. La Brea Ave., Hollywood.

When: 8 p.m. Thursday, 7:30 and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday; through May 16.

Tickets: $27.50. Call [phone] or visit www.mattandben.com.

In a nutshell: Funny but easy and severely dated.