Starring Kevin Corrigan, Michael Rapaport and Lili Taylor Directed by Matthew Harrison Rated R, with profanity, violence and nudity Running time 90 minutes We give this film a rating of 3 out of 10

(Sept. 26, 1997) -- Kicked in the Head brings together certain familiar ingredients but lacks the recipe to combine them successfully.

The result is a 90-minute slog through the unfunny noodlings and musings of the filmmaker and his friends: in this case, Matthew Harrison and actor Kevin Corrigan (who co-wrote the screenplay) and their pals Michael Rapaport and Lili Taylor, both of whom have made their reputation in exactly this kind of independent fare.

Kicked in the Head goes even farther in its search for credibility, adding the names of Martin Scorsese and his partner, Barbara DeFina, as producers. Add in the offbeat casting of James Woods and this film seems to have possibilities.

All of which are squandered on the dreary, mopey Harrison-Corrigan script. In it, Corrigan's character, a shlump named Redmond, wanders around Brooklyn looking for the meaning of life. He's been either evicted or burned out or both from his apartment, so he's forced to shack up with his hard-partying pal, Stretch (Rapaport).

Stretch is in the midst of a gun-slinging beer-distribution war. Redmond also experiences gunplay when he agrees to deliver a package for his shady Uncle Sam (James Woods), when someone tries to hijack the delivery.

Redmond, meanwhile tells everyone who asks, "I'm on a spiritual quest." But his spiritual ramblings tend toward the mundane: Were there people before Adam and Eve, can radio telescopes detect the souls of the recently dead, and other pseudo-Zen riddles best contemplated during sophomore year.

He's being pursued by Happy (Lili Taylor), who longs to save him from himself. Meanwhile, spurred on by a fortune cookie aphorism, he becomes convinced that an alcoholic stewardess is actually his guardian angel.

Had Corrigan and Harrison tried a little harder, they could have made this pretentiousness actually funny. There are efforts at irony, but most of them fall flat. Corrigan, with his froggy eyes and laid-back demeanor, is better off playing stoner supporting characters than trying to carry a lead.

Kicked in the Head longs for the kind of quirky energy Scorsese found in his underrated After Hours. But it alternately pushes too hard and not hard enough, without ever finding a happy medium.