A small impaled dog, a transsexual stripper and Megan Fox as Mother Teresa — that's got to be funny, right. No, not necessarily… but throw Simon Pegg into the mix and you're bound to be entertained.

Not quite as entertained as you were in 'Shaun of the Dead', 'Hot Fuzz' or 'Run Fat Boy Run', but entertained nevertheless. Even the insipid Kirsten Dunst, the over-reliance on small animals and the glaring similarities to 'The Devil Wears Prada' are unlikely to seriously mar your enjoyment of the film.

Pegg is a funny guy — he looks funny; he dances funny; he makes funny little comments and he plays funny characters. Unfortunately, he's also funnier in English than he is in American.

'How to Lose Friends and Alienate People' is just too slapstick, too Hollywood to do justice to the comic genius of Pegg or the snarky memoir by Brit journalist Toby Young on which it is based. However, the chuckle:time ratio is still well worth it.

Sidney Young (Pegg) is a British journalist and editor of the struggling Post Modern Review. A strange paradox, Young both despises celebrities and longs to be part of the A-list clique. When a stunt involving a hyperactive pig, Clint Eastwood and a headlock catches the attention of the editor of Sharps magazine in New York (think Vanity Fair), Young gets his big break.

Attacked by a sudden bout of nostalgia, the editor Clay Harding (Jeff Bridges) hires the completely inappropriate Young because he sees something of himself in the obnoxious journalist.

Once in New York, however, Young quickly discovers that he doesn't fit the mould of a Hollywood celebrity journalist. He despises the sycophantic pandering; he despises his slick boss Lawrence Maddox (Danny Huston); he despises the all-powerful publicist Eleanor Johnson (Gillian Anderson); and pretty much everyone despises him.

However his infatuation with the vapid actress Sophie Maes (Megan Fox) soon sees him diluting his journalistic integrity and clambering up the ladder of success.

It's all pretty predictable really. There's the 'real' love interest in the form of fellow journalist Alison Olsen (Kirsten Dunst); there's the epiphany; there's the happy ending; and there's that odd scene where a half-naked Pegg dances like an injured pig.

As always, Pegg delivers, but the irony of him acting in a film about the corrupting, soul-destroying influence of Hollywood is inescapable.