Damn those pesky Farrelly brothers. They opened the door for over-the-top gross-out humor in the '90s with "Dumb and Dumber" and "There's Something About Mary," and since then our multiplexes have been bombarded by too many "American Pies," "Scary Movies" and other sub-par gross-out films. "Another Gay Movie," fails to do much with the decline of the sub-genre. The latest in a long-tiresome trend, it feels and even looks like a carbon copy of the films that preceded it.

Taking a cue - and most of its plot - from "American Pie," "Gay Movie" follows a group of four friends trying to get laid after their high school graduation. Except this time, everyone's gay! Get it? Instead of Stifler, you get Muffler (who's a lesbian). Instead of a MILF, you get Richard Hatch, the openly gay winner of TV's first "Survivor." Can't you just see this film being pitched?

It'd be inaccurate to dismiss "Another Gay Movie" as simply in poor taste, since one of its primary goals is to be campy. But though you might think the movie's obvious editing errors, nude Richard Hatch scenes and ridiculous plot would send it well on its way to cinemaic camp a la the cult classic "Die Mommy Die" (1998), it soon becomes clear that "Another Gay Movie" borrows too much from "American Pie" and adds too little flair of its own.

Someone should've reminded the producers that "American Pie" is seven years old and lacks potent enough material to be properly spoofed, let alone used as source material for anything other than a passing gag. I mean, how many times can you see the penis-in-the pie bit and still laugh, even if they do substitute the pie for a "Queer Eye"-ready quiche. It was barely funny when Jason Biggs did it. And already tired when "Another Teen Movie" copied it in 2000.

Still, the actors are in tip-top shape throughout most of the movie. The group of mostly unknowns makes the most of the movie's late-night Cinemax cinematography and inane dialogue. Token queen Nico (Jonah Bleechman) steals the show as a hilarious hybrid of Joan Crawford and "Will and Grace's" Jack. The other three actors are equally strong until they're all forced into awkward and bizarre sex scenes that cross all lines of taste.

Perhaps the movie's biggest flaw is its effort to out-gross the straight teen flicks. In addition to its excess of "American Pie" allusions, there's a repulsive homage to the prom scene in "Carrie" (replacing blood with another bodily fluid) and even a stab towards the whitebread drama of "Coyote Ugly" (bar-dancing abounds).

"Another Gay Movie" strives for an out-and-proud message by taking on these movies, but its efforts are lost to a sea of body-fluid jokes that come off more gag-worthy than funny. Which is too bad, because the movie could've easily worked as a new spin on meathead-dick humor. Instead it loses any possible credibility, rehashing old semen gags without any special nod to their commerically fresher gay context.