In explaining his move into movies, NSYNC's Lance Bass expressed a desire to have a professional life beyond his super successful singing group.

Too bad he chose this dud of a teen romantic comedy for his first role as a leading man.

Bass plays Kevin, a shy advertising executive -- have you ever met one? -- who meets the girl of his dreams (Canadian actress Emmanuelle Chriqui) on the Chicago "L" train but fails to get her name or phone number.

When Kevin and his friends set out to find her, via flyers and eventually a newspaper article, hilarity is supposed to ensue as hundreds of women -- just not the right one -- respond. It does not.

Bass, who has previously acted on the TV series 7th Heaven, does possess sweet, Southern-boy charm that might have worked in a higher-quality vehicle. (It should be pointed out, though, that his NSYNC bandmates Justin Timberlake and Chris Kirkpatrick exude more energy in their funny cameos during the end credits than Bass does in his 85 minutes on screen.)

Adding insult to injury is the presence of fellow NSYNC-er Joey Fatone as Rod, one of Kevin's neanderthal best friends, whose idea of funny is to fart -- I'm not kidding -- his way through the movie.

Meanwhile, director Eric Bross, who filmed a lot of On The Line in Toronto two summers ago, is clearly at a loss about what to do with the comedic talents of Toronto's Dave Foley (as Kevin's boss) and Jerry "Serenity Now!" Stiller (as Kevin's mail-room employee), who are completely wasted here.

One of the film's better casting coups is the legendary Rev. Al Green, who performs in a concert scene. On the minus side, having Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora on board to play a rocker called "The Mick," idolized by Rod's stuck-in-the-'80s bar-band singer, isn't exactly money in the bank.

Unfortunately, as the film's co-executive producer, Bass has no one to blame but himself: There's no excuse for bad taste.

My advice: Keep your day job, or have someone else vet the movie scripts coming your way.

For those who are interested, there are two NSYNC songs included in the film and on the soundtrack -- That Girl (Will Never Be Mine) and Falling -- previously unreleased in North America.

Never underestimate the power of cross-marketing.

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