Walk Of Shame | 2.5/5

SINGAPORE – I loved watching Elizabeth Banks spar with Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey as Avery Jessup on American television series 30 Rock. And I thought she made a wonderfully eccentric Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games films. But on her own and as a comedian, Banks just doesn’t quite cut it. At least, not in her new movie Walk Of Shame.

The actress plays Meghan Miles, a news anchor who is stranded in downtown Los Angeles without a phone, identification or money after a wild one-night stand with a handsome bartender (James Marsden). With only eight hours to the most important job interview of her life, Meghan has to negotiate with prostitutes, crack addicts and policemen, and find her way back to her office.

There are two things I appreciated about the movie. The first is that it is almost never boring, mainly because it doesn’t take itself too seriously. (Just watch the ending and you’ll see what we mean.) The second is that Banks truly rocks that tight yellow dress that she remains in nearly throughout the movie.

But besides that, Walk of Shame is a bland comedy that tries, rather than is, ever truly funny. Most of its jokes fall flat, and James Marsden’s appearance as Miles’ love interest is almost as short as it is perhaps pointless.

Better luck next time, Banks?

(NC16, 96 mins)