It's easy to see that See Spot Run comes from the same people who brought us Adam Sandler's Big Daddy.

Once again we have an irresponsible, but lovable geek who ends up taking care of a child.

The child's mother is a gorgeous, available woman (Leslie Bibb), who has previously considered her shaggy-haired neighbour a goof ball and pest.

She'll learn to love him and trust her heart to him.

Gordon Smith (David Arquette) is a mailman, who can barely dress and feed himself, when the woman of his fantasies needs him to take care of her young son while she goes out of town on a business deal.

Suddenly the man-child is responsible for an over-protected, six-year-old boy.

And a dog.

Don't forget the dog.

The canine is the real reason kids will want to see this film.

Spot, as Gordon names him, is a big, drooling bull mastiff whose real name is Agent Eleven.

He's a famous FBI dog who has a contract out on his life.

In the line of duty, Agent Eleven bit a Mafia don (Paul Sorvino) in an unmentionable place.

The don wants the dog dead.

Agent Eleven hides out in Gordon's mail truck and Gordon agrees to let his young charge James (Angus T. Jones) keep him.

Of course, that means the Mafia hit men are now after Gordon as well as Agent Eleven.

See Spot Run offers a lot of low- brow laughs for pint-sized viewers. The younger the kids, the funnier they're going to find all the nonsense that ensues.

There's a scene in a pet store where Agent Eleven foils the attempts of the bumbling hit men (Joe Viterelli and Steven R. Schirripa) that's more silly than funny, but it struck a chord with the preteens at a recent preview screening.

They lapped it up.

They howled.

They also loved the scene in which Gordon allows little James to eat sugary cereal, candy and drink gallons of pop so the tyke is eventually bouncing off walls.

They've been there, done that.

It also seems that the greater the indignity visited on Gordon, the bigger the laughs.

If he smashes into a light post or traffic sign, they giggle, but if he has his clothes ripped off and body smeared with dog excrement, the laughter is near deafening.

Arquette holds nothing back and in the process shows great promise as a physical comedian.

The movie looks as if it's been written by committee and edited with a chainsaw.

All that slipping on banana peels may distract the kids, but it's going to be pretty obvious to their parents that See Spot Run was not properly groomed before it was let out of the kennel.

(This film is rated PG)

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