Anyone with an erect sense of humor will tell you "This Is Spinal Tap" was one of the funniest movies ever made. It single-handedly introduced the "mockumentary" format, a style that actor/director Christopher Guest has revisited, most notably in his glorious "Waiting For Guffman." "Guffman" was about delusional theater director Corky St. Clair and his cast of local performers who dream of Broadway stardom. It was great... and if you've ever done community theater, you know it was absolutely true.<br /><br />Since then Guest has directed "Best In Show," a muddled mockumentary about dog pageants, and "A Mighty Wind," a film about faux-folksingers that verged on a traditional Hollywood narrative. As a logical next step comes "For Your Consideration," a classical-narrative comedy about Oscar hype and Hollywood buzz.<br /><br />I'll keep it short and sweet since the movie was just that. It's painless but forgettable, amusing but never cracklingly funny, enjoyable but inconsistent. It's a mixed bag of about 6 different movies (within movies) and actors perform without any unifying style: you have the broad buffoonery of Fred Willard as an oafish TV host and Guest himself as a caricature of a Jewish director negating the down-to-earth believability of Harry Shearer and Catherine O'Hara as earnest, aging actors aching for a comeback. It doesn't gel.<br /><br />Add to this the fact that Guest has added to his ensemble with each of his subsequent films... at this point that group has snowballed into an unmanageable size. Wasted in tiny roles are Michael McKean, Don Lake, Michael Hitchcock, Larry Miller, Ricky Gervais and the great Jennifer Coolidge: "What about telling people NOT to see our show?" We're also stuck with actors who are less-than-hilarious: Ed Begley Jr, Jim Piddock, Jane Lynch, Bob Balaban, and a woman who has gotten progressively worse in every Guest film to the point I now consider her completely talent-free: Parker Posey.<br /><br />I hate to complain about appearances but it doesn't help that the majority of Guest's troupe are up-there in the age department. It's starting to become a distraction, especially when said stars are getting "funny" make-up jobs, like Willard's bizarre bleach-curl and O'Hara's plastic-surgery parody cheeks. The Carnival Factor is considerable...<br /><br />Even if all of the above had somehow magically coalesced it wouldn't have mattered: Guest did this story of fame-hungry hopefuls much better with "Waiting For Guffman." It was a lot more exciting to watch the town dentist come alive as a stage actor than watching a Hollywood actor pine for a trophy. Leave the Hollywood scripts to the hacks, Mr. Guest, and get back to what you do best: the mockumentary. I bet you still fit into Corky's dance pants.<br /><br />GRADE: C