Oh, look. All these little television actors are trying to make a movie. Isn't that adorable?

In the last few years, there has come to be a certain subset of comedy, movies that use some of the secondary performers on "Saturday Night Live" in minor roles. Having Fred Armisen or Jason Sudeikis in supporting roles is almost guaranteed to be a sign of mediocrity.

"The Rocker" has Sudeikis and Armisen. And a host of others of their ilk: Demetri Martin, Howard Hesseman, Will Arnett, Jane Krakowski. It's like a Who's Who of people who shouldn't be in the movies.

The star is Rainn Wilson, who is also not ready to leave the confines of the small screen. As Robert "Fish" Fishman, he plays the drummer in an up-and-coming hair band of the 1980s. But in order to get a deal with a record label, he is unceremoniously dumped from the band.

The scene in which he is dumped and he goes running after the band's van is so ghastly, so ruinously unfunny, that it damages the rest of the movie. That's a wound that will not heal. As Wilson says in another movie, that is one doodle that can't be undid, home-skillet.

Twenty years later, Fish is still fuming about being kicked out of the band, which has since gone on to greatness. So when his nerdy nephew's high school band is in need of a new drummer, it does not take much to talk him into joining them.

The young band picks up an older drummer and suddenly develops a new sound that catches on with audiences. Boy, "The Wishbones" is a great book, isn't it? It was optioned for a movie, but none was ever made, alas.

Writers Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky do not do enough with the inherent joke that Fish is twice the age of his bandmates. He gives them fatherly advice every now and then, and tries to teach them the finer points of rock'n' roll partying, but the only decent bit about the age difference comes when he tries to pick up the lead singer's mother.

"I don't date my son's friends. That's icky," she says.

The mother is played by Christina Applegate, who is by far the best thing about the movie. Applegate is the only actor in the film who seems to believe in her character -- everyone else is doing sketch comedy -- and she gives the best line readings by far.

Not that the lines are that good to begin with. The one thing that can be said about them is that they are better than the efforts at physical comedy. In fact, one line about a ruggedly handsome young man ("It's like Abercrombie is making people") is so unexpectedly funny that one cannot avoid the assumption it was written by someone not associated with the film.

Peter Cattaneo directs with so little inspiration and such little feel for character that it is hard to believe he directed "The Full Monty" just 11 years ago. Boy, that was a great movie, wasn't it? Maybe Cattaneo should try to make "The Wishbones."

Apparently, somewhere in the cast is Pete Best, the drummer dumped by The Beatles in favor of Ringo. That's a funny idea. But the rest of the film is not ready for prime time.