Is any film genre quite as devoid of new ideas as the Hollywood satire? Even a filmmaker as formidable as Albert Brooks—with The Muse, far and away his worst movie—was unable to breathe life to the genre, instead falling back on the same hoary gags about moronic studio executives and slimy agents. It's territory covered once again, to little effect, in With Friends Like These…, a comedy about four comfortable but unfulfilled character actors who stumble upon the potential break of a lifetime when they learn that Martin Scorsese is looking for a relative unknown to play Al Capone. Big-hearted lug Robert Costanzo is the first to learn of the part, but soon womanizing buddy Jon Tenney, neurotic Adam Arkin, and mysterious David Strathairn are all angling for an audition, a process that places a terrible strain on their friendship. Back-stabbing in Hollywood? It's not exactly breaking news, and With Friends Like These… does nothing to make it fresh, beyond the potentially interesting novelty of making its leads typecast character actors instead of neophytes or stars. Despite ample talk of the indignity of not having substantial roles to play, no character is developed beyond the level of a cartoonish stereotype, particularly the facile Tenney—who, in the movie's least convincing subplot, is constantly cheating on undersexed wife Elle Macpherson. Throughout the film, portly ham Costanzo is discouraged from "going big," but it's advice writer-director Philip Frank Messina could use, given his irritating tendency to go for the easiest gags and most predictable plot twists. Not even amusing cameos from Bill Murray as a freeloading producer and Michael McKean as a proctologist can keep With Friends Like These… from being as minor as the film careers of its two-bit protagonists.