In theaters

“BIG TROUBLE” Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, written by Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone, 85 minutes. PG-13.

The new Barry Sonnenfeld comedy “Big Trouble” was originally set to open last Sept. 21. But like so many films featuring potentially disturbing themes and images in the shadow of Sept. 11, it was pulled after the terrorist attacks and shelved for re-release along with a handful of other movies, most notably “Collateral Damage,” “Sidewalks of New York” and “The Time Machine.”

It’s easy to see why.

Coming so soon after Sept. 11, it’s doubtful that audiences would have turned out for the film, a screwball ensemble comedy whose big set piece involves two crooks (Johnny Knoxville and Tom Sizemore) slipping a nuclear bomb through an inept airport security system-and then hijacking an airplane filled with terrified hostages.

For Sonnenfeld, the inclusion of those scenes is just a matter of bad luck, but they’re hardly what sink the film. What kills it is the hackneyed script by Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone, a convoluted claptrap based on Dave Barry’s novel that pushes so hard to be offbeat and irreverent, the film quickly becomes more trouble than it’s worth.

Muddled by an endless array of forced story lines that converge into one dizzyingly dull showdown between the film’s all-star cast – Tim Allen, Rene Russo, Stanley Tucci, Patrick Warburton, Jason Lee, Janeane Garofalo and Dennis Farina among them – “Big Trouble” is more interested in recalling Sonnenfeld’s best film, 1995’s “Get Shorty,” than it is in standing alone.

But what a misfire. “Get Shorty” was all coolness and style, a sharp film whose true feat was in its seamless marriage between Sonnenfeld’s style and the substance of Elmore Leonard’s story.

“Big Trouble” sweats to create a similar mood. There are a few big laughs here, particularly when Martha Stewart’s head becomes lodged on a dog’s body, but otherwise the film is without surprise in spite its many incidents, most of which are never as remarkable as Sonnenfeld or his beleaguered cast would have us believe.

Grade: D

On video and DVD

“K-PAX” Directed by Iain Softley, written by Charles Leavitt, based on the novel by Gene Brewer. 120 minutes. PG-13.

Iaian Softley’s sci-fi drama “K-Pax” works as well as it does because of its two male leads – Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges – who keep the story grounded during those moments when it threatens to fly away.

The film is about a mental patient named Prot (Spacey) who may or may not be from another planet. That’s its mystery, on which everything is staked.

It’s a mix of other movies, from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” to “Starman.” But its true inspiration is the film it mirrors so closely: Eliseo Subiela’s 1986 movie “Man Facing Southeast,” which also followed a psychiatrist’s relationship with a man who claims to be from another world.

“K-Pax” is of the life-affirming genre, which means that a good deal of its story is focused on how Prot’s snappy, mischievous charm has the power to lift and change lives. He certainly does so for Powell, whose marriage is a wreck, but also for his fellow mental patients, a colorful group of caricatures who are like teddy bears on Thorazine.

The film never overcomes its insistence that the mentally ill are the equivalent of sheep in a petting zoo, an idea that irritates. But it’s also true that big chunks of the movie work, especially those scenes Spacey shares with Bridges, which are so strong, they punch the material into a realm it wouldn’t have reached without them.

Grade: B-

Christopher Smith’s reviews are published Mondays and Fridays in Style. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.