MANILA, Philippines--?Lower your expectations,? a cynical hockey player tells a young fan in ?The Tooth Fairy.? It?s advice that the movie?s audiences would also do well to follow, because the trick to getting the most enjoyment out of this family-friendly comedy is not to expect too much.

Not that one would necessarily expect a great deal from a Dwayne Johnson starrer?though, to be fair, the former wrestler turned actor has been proving himself to be pretty effective in comedies lately.

Directed by Michael Lembeck, the film stars Johnson as Derek Thompson, a bitter former Major League hockey player who goes around frustrating children?s dreams and suffers the consequences. Thompson, who slogs his way through the minors by regularly body-checking opponents and knocking their teeth out, has been dubbed the Tooth Fairy, and it is this, along with his dream-killing activities, that gets him called up to tooth fairyland.

Weapons

Head fairy, Lily (Julie Andrews), sentences Thompson to real tooth-fairy duty. He is mentored by case worker fairy, Tracy (Stephen Merchant), and kitted out with weapons by fairyland?s equivalent of Q, played by Billy Crystal.

To add to the complications, Thompson is going out with a single mom, Carly (Ashley Judd), with two kids. As he juggles hockey, fairy duty and personal relationships, he gradually learns that it?s good to have dreams, to aim high, and keep trying.

The film is predictably predictable, but it?s not without its charms. While the plot is nothing you haven?t seen before, and the pacing could have been faster, the so-so tale is enlivened by The Rock?s hard-to-ignore presence, a more than occasionally clever script, and supporting actors who strive to sustain their comic timing, even when a badly paced scene drags them down.