ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ

If the titular beastie in Mee-Shee: The Water Giant looks familiar, it's probably because helmer John Henderson insisted its facial features be modelled on Walter Matthau's. In so doing, the British director now has his very own odd couple: two family movies built around mythical underwater animals designed by Jim Henson's Creature Shop, made a decade apart but virtually identical in every respect. Unlike 1996's Loch Ness, alas, this pedestrian feel-gooder doesn't even have Ted Danson to recommend it.

In his stead is Bruce Greenwood, effectively reprising his Firehouse Dog performance as a salvage ace forced to cancel a vacation with 10-year-old son Mac (Daniel Magder) when a valuable item of drilling equipment gets lost at the bottom of a far-off Canadian lake. Reluctantly tagging along, Mac is bored to tears by his new surroundings - until a mishap brings him face to face with a giant seal-like mammal whose existence has been kept a closely guarded secret for centuries.

"WISE-CRACKING COMIC RELIEF"

Part digital, part animatronic, this rubbery pinniped is the chief attraction here. What a shame, then, that writer Barry Authors has no idea what to do with him, apart from have him pursued by the usual horde of opportunistic trophy-hunters. If that sounds clichΓ©d, though, wait until you see Joe Pingue's wise-cracking turn as Greenwood's fat assistant (what would movies like this do without their chubby comic relief?), or Phyllida Law's as the stern Scottish landlady who kens more than she lets on. Come back Nessie, all is forgiven.

Mee-Shee: The Water Giant is out in the UK on 17th August 2007.