These folk are undistinguished yet distinctive, and the film, for all the familiar grind of its plotting, pays them their honest due.

Considering it has to do with infidelity, bribery, drugs, drinking, loutish behavior, fraud and prostitution, Cedar Rapids is really kind of a sweet movie.

Cedar Rapids takes an inordinate number of wrong turns, but it also has an inordinate number of good laughs mixed in with the not-so-good ones.

Helms delivers a performance of touching delicacy, one almost as remarkable as that of Tom Hanks in Big.

Like a slightly twisted, modern-day Frank Capra fable...

I imagine the director, Miguel Arteta, is the reason the movie succeeds as well as it does. He mutes the obnoxiousness and concentrates on the performances, nearly all of which are excellent and marked by a sense of real camaraderie.

A really entertaining effort, aided by some terrific performances.