Movie reviewing, already a pretty sweet gig, gets even better when a film exceeds expectations. "Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show" does just that.

Directed by Ari Sandel, the movie documents a month-long show tour of the country that was organized by Vaughn and features four up-and-coming comics who're either Vaughn's long-time friends or were hand-picked by the actor from Los Angeles comedy clubs. Hence the film's laborious but utilitarian full title: "Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days and 30 Nights -- Hollywood to the Heartland."

Starting in Los Angeles, the revue stops nightly in several California cities, then rolls eastward to venues in Arizona, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio and Michigan. Vaughn and his all-male comic compatriots travel in a bus that, by tour's end, is likened by one of the performers to the sticky floor of a fraternity house's basement party room.

The comics are John Caparulo, Bret Ernst, Sebastian Maniscalco and Ahmed Ahmed. Character actor Jon Favreau, country singer Dwight Yoakam -- also friends of Vaughn -- appear briefly. Longtime pal Peter Billingsley is a producer of the movie and occasionally appears onstage. He earned fame as Ralphie in "A Christmas Story," a deserving favorite among yuletide movies.

Mercifully, Vaughn limits his own attempts at standup in the movie. He serves mostly as a gracious emcee and offstage wrangler of the yucksters in his charge.

The movie succeeds as comedy, with the bits getting funnier and funnier as the show moves along. The routines may have been edited into the movie from anywhere along the tour, but the fortuitous effect is one of growing comic momentum as the irreverent band makes its way across the land.

Segments from the shows are interspersed with offstage commentary by the comics and footage of them mixing with appreciative fans. Among the latter are Hurricane Katrina refugees who were given free tickets. Proceeds from several southland shows were donated to the storm recovery effort. The comics are clearly moved by the survivors' plight. As Ahmed says, their hardships make the comics' tour discomforts seem petty by comparison.

Viewers will learn from the movie where comics get their best material -- mostly from their own families and life experiences -- and about the brutal process of building a standup comedy career. They also will watch as the four disparate travelers gradually evolve into a band of solid comrades in comedy.

The movie language is coarse, both onstage and off. Most young viewers won't take offense; it's the way they commonly talk among themselves. But the effect is intensified when compressed into a movie and older folks should be forewarned.