IS there enough room in one year for two romantic-comedies about booty-calling buddies?

Turns out there is. No Strings Attached proved to be surprisingly good and now it's time to be surprised again with Friends With Benefits.

Both films succeed on the strength of their star chemistry. The Kutcher-Portman pairing proved to be a charming one in Ivan Reitman's rom-com and here we get Timberlake and Kunis sharing a spark and providing plenty of laughs as they try to bump uglies, stay friends and not fall in love - all at the same time.

Timberlake is Dylan, the hotshot webpage editor from Los Angeles who is headhunted to work for magazine GQ in New York by professional headhunter Jamie (Kunis).

You probably know where all this is heading, but in case you don't, it goes something like this: boy meets girl, boy and girl become friends, boy and girl have sex, things get complicated even though they said it wouldn't.

The predictability of Friends With Benefits is a downside but the at-times sharp script dodges the obvious as much as possible by referring to Hollywood movie cliches and pointing out how they never happen in real life.

It's a dis-armingly post-modern approach but there are still cliches aplenty, particularly in the character department - Kunis' Jamie is the quirky-but-strong-but-damaged-typ e typically played by Zooey Deschanel, while Timberlake's Dylan is the attractive nerd-type that seems to be popping up more and more these days.

But knowing where it's going doesn't detract from the film's charms. As with the Kutcher-Portman hook-up, it's the likeability and chemistry of Kunis and Timberlake that really make this work. They're funny and believable and backed by a good supporting cast, particularly from Clarkson as Jamie's free-spirited mum and Harrelson as Dylan's gay co-worker, plus there's also a lot of heart and sweetness, mostly courtesy of a sub-plot about Dylan's family back in Los Angeles.

And there's probably far worse things in the world than watching Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake getting it on.