Has it come to this? Fat Slags is a crass, unfunny embarrassment, from which no one emerges with credit. Its only saving grace is that, perversely, it should demonstrate the British public's fundamental good taste, when no one goes to see it.

The Fat Slags is based on a Viz comic strip in which two northern women spend their time drinking, fighting and shagging. The film adds a semblance of a story: the slags become a media sensation when an American billionaire decides to promote them as celebrities.

The film's one running joke is that northern women are fat, coarse and sexually voracious. Thus we get treated to scenes of giant kebabs, breast baring, and a penis being bitten off. The message couldn't be clearer; the film might as well have been called Women Terrify Us.

The filmmakers clearly knew this was a turkey quite early in the process, as the budget seems to have been slashed mid-shoot. The production values get progressively worse (which is some feat given the dire opening) and the soundtrack unashamedly recycles the same irrelevant songs.

The producers' despair is most evident in the editing, where huge chunks of the plot have been crudely torn out, leaving the film's resolution incomprehensible (but none the less welcome). It does beg the intriguing question, though: given the dreadfulness of what was left in, how bad must the cut scenes have been?