As much an appreciator of “serious” filmmaking as I am, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with movies that are silly just for silly’s sake – and I really respect actors that aren’t so self-important that they refuse to appear in those kinds of things.

So, this week, I raise my popcorn to Mr. Steve Zahn, a truly talented performer who has never seemed to mind being one of the best comic relief guys in the business. Though Zahn did have a more serious role last year in Werner Herzog’s Rescue Dawn – and he deserved it – I’m looking forward to seeing him this Friday in Strange Wilderness, a wildlife-themed stoner comedy from the entertainingly juvenile folks at Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions. The film, a raunchy, R-rated effort about a low-rent nature show host and his crew’s last-ditch attempt to capture a real-life Sasquatch, is probably going to get savaged by the critics, but fans of pure, unadulterated silliness should find plenty to enjoy.

The same could also be said of 1998’s Safe Men, a silly-with-a-capital-S heist comedy in which Zahn starred alongside Sam Rockwell – another fine actor who isn’t afraid to make an ass out of himself onscreen every once in a while. The film was instrumental in launching the career of writer/director John Hamburg (who went on to co-script both of the insanely profitable Meet the Parents movies), but mostly it’s just a good-natured goof that breezes by, earns a few big laughs, and quickly goes on its merry way – and, honestly, I find something very refreshing about that.

Zahn and Rockwell are Eddie and Sam, a comically terrible lounge act playing humiliating gigs for unappreciative audiences of all kinds. Sam is convinced that the duo is destined to be their generation’s Simon and Garfunkel; meanwhile, Eddie – whose estranged father, we learn, was a career criminal – is getting more and more discouraged by their increasingly pathetic attempt at having a musical career (Sam, he complains, can’t even be bothered to learn the lyrics to their songs).

Enter Veal Chop (Giamatti), a tackily dressed underling for “Big Fat” Bernie Gayle (Michael Lerner), one of the two Jewish crime bosses in Providence (and don’t think we won’t eventually get to meet the other one). “Da Chop,” as he calls himself, mistakes Sam and Eddie for the pair of professional safecrackers (Mark Ruffalo and Josh Pais) his boss is looking to hire for some robberies he’s planning, and soon the boys find themselves forced to put their song-and-dance routine on hold while they unsuccessfully pose as crooks.

Eventually, they cross paths with Goodstuff Leo (Harvey Fierstein), Big Fat Bernie’s arch-nemesis; Sam falls for Leo’s daughter (Christina Kirk), whom he embarrassingly bumps into while he and Eddie try to rob her house; and, finally, the whole ridiculous affair draws to a close at Big Fat Bernie Jr.’s bar mitzvah.

Safe Men’s charm is in its lighthearted, self-consciously wacky sense of humor; this is the kind of movie that assumes things like Casio keytars, Zubaz pants, and sledgehammer-wielding little people will automatically be funny, and for the most part is correct. And although the plot might sound perfect for a Coen Brothers-style black comedy, but there’s nothing remotely dark about this one – if the movie is to be believed, then Jewish gangsters from Providence are some of the nicest folks you’ll ever meet.

The gags, though hardly elaborate, come fast and furious, and connect surprisingly often – there’s a running joke involving the diminutive size of Rockwell’s ass, and the all-too-conspicuous padding he wears to bulk it up; Fierstein spends a good five minutes of screen time delivering a (hilarious) monologue about flammable women’s slacks; and even Ruffalo, who’d go on to be a fine dramatic actor, gets to take part in a super-obvious but still pretty damn funny spoof of Say Anything.

Zahn fans might be a little disappointed that he plays straight man to Rockwell (whose character seems to be borrowing Jim Carrey’s mop-top from Dumb and Dumber), but he’s still a lot of fun – as is Giamatti, another respected dramatic actor whose whitebread thug character steals nearly every scene he’s in.

Overall, if there’s anything to be learned from Safe Men, it’s that most movie comedies take themselves way too seriously, trying to advance feel-good messages or photograph their stars in the most attractive light possible while forgetting that their main reason for existing is to make people laugh. This movie doesn’t have a single other thing on its mind, and for that, you’ve got to give it credit.