TRYING TO GET TO THE CHURCH ON TIME.

Byline: Bob Strauss

Film Critic

Sort of a morning-after "Wedding Crashers" with lame slapstick but good insight into arrested male development, "Samoan Wedding" also, almost offhandedly, paints a portrait of a vibrant ethnic community that -- at least outside of New Zealand -- has rarely been shown.

Apparently, the city of Auckland has the largest population of immigrant- to-second-generation Pacific Islanders anywhere in the world. The NZ-born, young adult Samoans are pretty much like any other urban youths of their generation: plugged into media, trying to establish careers, listening to rap, clubbing all night, etc.

But the big traditional cultural deal remains the wedding, and getting banned from attending such events is a calamity for even the most assimilated, wildest party boys.

That's what happens after lifelong buddies Albert (Oscar Kightley), Michael (Robbie Magasiva), Sefa (Shimpal Lelisi) and Stanley (Iaheto Ah Hi) fall drunk into too many cakes and drop brides off their shoulders. At the request of the groom -- who happens to be Michael's mortified younger brother -- the community minister bars the quartet from the next scheduled nuptials unless they all come with serious dates who, presumably, will keep them in line.

Trouble is, only one of the guys has anything like a steady relationship with a woman, and his carousing ways soon screw up that one. Misadventures in cellular dateline hookups, superhot "cousins" from the islands and the politics of interracial booty calling ensue, along with smacked scrotums and flatulence gags. Friendships, as you'd expect, are tested to the max, but in a likably Polynesian, hang-loose sort of way.

Co-written by Kightley -- who heads a popular NZ comedy troupe, the Naked Samoans, of which many key "Wedding" players are also members -- and directed by Chris Graham, the film is more serious than not, and pretty universal in its observations of how boys don't grow up. Its pleasures are minor but solid, and the actors are uniformly superb.

Oh, and it'll be out on DVD next Tuesday. What is up with that?

SAMOAN WEDDING - Three stars

(Not rated: sex, nudity, language, mild violence)

Starring: Oscar Kightley, Robbie Magasiva, Shimpal Lelisi, Iaheto Ah Hi, Teuila Blakely, Madeleine Sami, Maryjane McKibbin-Schwenke.

Director: Chris Graham.

Running time: 1 hr. 37 min.

In a nutshell: Four immature guys better settle down or forget about attending any other weddings in a New Zealand Samoan community. Well-observed psychologically, if a little weak in the humor department.