On second thought, being stuck inside Martin Short wasn't so bad: "In Good Company"

Can't recall if I ruminated on Dennis Quaid before, and not sure I'll start now. I will, however, mention that he only recently got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Yeah, after Ryan Seacrest. Now there's a blow to the ego. "C'mon, people ... 'Jaws 3-D' ... 'Dreamscape' ... 'Dragonheart' ... hello?"

I actually like Quaid all right, especially when he really let's the sh*t-eating grin fly, i.e. "The Big Easy" and "Innerspace." And really, hasn't he aged pretty well? Sure, he was too old to play even an old baseball player in "The Rookie," but he still made a somewhat convincing ballplayer. Or did you want a sequel to "Enemy Mine?" (Pretty sure Lou Gossett Jr. is available. Well, if he's not making "Iron Eagle VIII: Operation Uzbekistan.")

I suppose I should get to my point: Quaid can be decent, and "In Good Company" probably qualifies. What could be a much worse movie is made watchable by Quaid and his young foil, Topher "Bet You Thought I'd Never Do Anything But 'That '70's Show'" Grace. While playing a young corporate punk who becomes "dinosaur" Quaid's boss in the takeover of a sports magazine, Grace stumbles into a romance with Quaid's daughter, played by Ms. Butthole Mouth herself, Scarlett Johansssssssssssssssssson.

Scarlett is lovely as usual, but she's all wrong for the daughter part. Sure, she might be the right age, but she always comes off as so much older -- smoky, pensive, pouty -- that it's hard to see her as a college student with a doting dad. Still, with Marg "I Make Forensics Hot" Helgenberger playing her mom, I hadn't been this riveted by a mother-daughter pair since Blondie and Cookie Bumstead. (Seriously, check the comics page. They're totally hot.)

The guys, though, are pretty believable, with Quaid incredulous that a skinny yuppie like Grace could actually be the boss of anything, especially when he cares more about success than the actual work he does. But Grace doesn't give a one-note performance, showing some depth and honesty when he's around Scarlett. Even if she didn't convince me, I bought his interest in her.

I did not, however, buy her interest in him, especially the pace at which things moved. While the movie's ending helps make up for that, and the guys zing each other with one-liners, I'm not sure everything came together as neatly as it could have. Now if Grace had been able to help Quaid save the world from a new ice age ...