"The Whole Nine Yards" bears all the trademarks of a standard shoot-'em up mob comedy. There's a clueless straight man, a funny mobster, lots of slapstick and a commercial outlook familiar to anyone who saw "Analyze This" or "Mickey Blue Eyes." It's also likable, light entertainment that highlights a round of zany, comic performances from an impressive cast.

The characters are all fairly one-dimensional, but most of the actors manage to give their roles some fresh spin. At the center of the…

Let's talk about Amanda Peet. OK, I know she's not the star of this bubbleheaded farce about mobsters in the burbs, but I thought you'd like the good news first. Peet - you can see her weekly on the WB sitcom Jack and Jill - comes into her own here as a comic bombshell. She plays another Jill, a dental assistant in suburban Montreal whose likable jerk 0f a boss, Dr. Oseransky (Matthew Perry), is being pursued by a contract killer hired by his wife, Sophie (Rosanna Arquette, using zee outrageous…