The Wackness, 15

Verdict: More dope than wack ***

ANY DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince fans in the hizz-ouse?

Here it is, the groove, slightly transformed. Just a bit of a break from the norm.

Just a little somethin’ to break the monotony.

A retro hip-hop movie starring Sir Ben Kingsley. A dope joint set in the summer of ’94. The bald bloke from Gandhi is keepin’ it raw.

And with a pen and pad I composed this rhyme to illustrate what flippin’ random films come out at the end of summertime.

Can I get a hey-owll yeah? Not for cr*p rap, but for this pretty decent coming-of-age set in New York film.

Dope-smoking Sir Ben— Ghanji, anyone?—plays Dr Squires, a New York psychiatrist who spends half his life bongoed out of his tree on wacko tobacco and various other illegal substances.

He’s trying to cut loose from the drudgery, or “wack- ness”, of his button-down existence life, and his friendly teenage drug dealer Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck) is happy to help.

Adding a bit of spice to the twosome’s unlikely friendship is the fact that Luke fancies his chances with Squires’ foxy stepdaughter Steph (Olivia Thirlby, aka the best friend from Juno).

The movie, also starring Mary-Kate Olsen, doesn’t go anywhere much, it’s just the ebb and flow of relationships. But the three stars, and particularly the two young ’uns, give it a massive lift.

Also deserving of high fives up above and down below is director Jonathan Levine’s slavish attention to getting the period details just right.

The ace soundtrack, the slang, blowing on Nintendo games to make ’em work— it’s all in there and makes the film a particularly good watch for ’90s kids.

Coming-of-age movies come and go, and The Wackness doesn’t have quite enough special about it to suggest it’s going down as a classic of the genre.

But as a nostalgic, stylish drama that offers the dubious pleasures of a Knight of the Realm getting mashed up worse than Pete Doherty? You can’t wack it.

OUT FRIDAY