Review: Unfortunately, ‘Bad Johnson’ is a movie of our times

Invariably, our bros-before-everything-else culture was going to produce a comedy in which a penis graduated from object of obsessed discussion to full-fledged, actor-required character (because there just weren’t enough roles for men out there, I guess).

“Bad Johnson” is, therefore, a movie of our times, even if it’s not an especially good, funny or interesting one. Designed to chastise womanizing while mostly reveling in it as a topic of endless fascination, the movie stars Cam Gigandet as Rich (think about it), a relationship-averse horn dog who wakes one morning to discover that his favorite appendage is now a walking, talking, obnoxious jerk in human form (played by Nick Thune, so committed to his not-so-private part he’s tiring).

It might be an amusing idea for one of those half-baked, final-15-minutes “Saturday Night Live” sketches, but writer Jeff Tetreault and director Huck Botko can’t endow the concept with feature-length worthiness. They treat Rich’s healing courtship of a new lady love (Katherine Cunningham) as cynical rom-com mush while showing a tedious over-interest in the boorish behavior of a newly sentient, out-of-control male sex organ. Little more than an 88-minute “it has a mind of its own” gag, “Bad Johnson” should have kept its premise in its pants.

“Bad Johnson.” No MPAA rating. Running time: 1 hour, 28 minutes. At AMC Burbank Town Center 8.