First Trailer for 'Ass Backwards' with Casey Wilson, June Diane Raphael, and Alicia Silverstone

As I noted when the poster hit for buddy comedy Ass Backwards, the reactions I heard while at Sundance were not good. None of them were. Most notably a colleague described it as "Romy and Michele minus the laughs". While I'm no fan of that film by any means, the charming Mira Sorvino and Lisa Kudrow make it more watchable than it probably deserves. Casey Wilson and June Diane Raphael are clearly trying to capture that same energy with Ass Backwards, but judging by the new trailer they may have miscalculated their own likability.

Wilson and Raphael also wrote the irritating and demeaning Bride Wars, so their track record for female-centric comedies is pretty damn poor. They play two longtime friends with a tenuous grip on reality, who leave their big city lives and return to their hometown to try and win a beauty pageant they lost years earlier. There's a strong Dumb and Dumber vibe, and it's a treat to see Alicia Silverstone as a "mean girl" ex-pageant winner, but there's nothing in the pairing of Wilson and Raphael that makes this look remotely appealing.

Directed by Chris Nelson and co-starring Jon Cryer, Paul Scheer, Brian Geraghty, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Bob Odenkirk, Ass Backwards hits VOD on September 30th, then theaters on November 8th.