MALIBU'S MOST WANTED (2003) |
| Starring
Jamie Kennedy, Taye Diggs, Anthony Anderson, Blair Underwood, Regina
Hall, Damien Dante Wayans, Ryan O'Neal, Bo Derek, Kal Penn,
Jeffrey Tambor, Nick Swardson, Terry Crews, Nikki Martinez, Keesha Sharp and the voice of
Snoop Dogg.
Screenplay
by Jamie Kennedy, Fax Bahr, Adam Small and Nick Swardson.
Directed by John Whitesell.
Distributed by Warner Brothers Pictures. 86 minutes. Rated
PG-13. |
 
|
Malibu's Most Wanted
The problem with films
based on comedy sketches is that characters who are imagined for three
minute increments are suddenly expected to carry a 90 minute story. Well,
the character of Brad (or B-Rad as he prefers to call himself) a rich Jewish
kid with no rhythm who thinks he can be gangsta rapper has been a staple of
comic Jamie Kennedy’s act for years.
Most recently, B-Rad has showed up in bite-size
chunks on his variety series
The Jamie Kennedy
Experience.
It is a very funny character. But does he deserve a movie?
This is
especially questionable since the whole idea of a white suburban rich boy
who thinks he’s a rapping gang-banger has been kind of done to death
already. On the plus side, Kennedy has really nailed the role. He is able
to tread the line of sounding completely at home and yet amazingly stupid using words like shizznit. Most hysterical is the
pathetic whininess in B-Rad’s voice when he pleads
“don’t be hatin’.”
This shows you
that this guy is not so much street as sidewalk.
The story to this film, if there really is one, is that B-Rad’s father (Ryan
O’Neal) is running for Governor and his son is becoming an embarrassment.
(Wait a second, wasn’t that
the plot from Chris Farley’s
Black Sheep?)
The candidate’s buppie campaign manager (Blair
Underwood) decides that the best way to get the
kid to give up his ghetto affectations is to let him really experience what
life is like in Compton. He hires two African-American actors (Taye Diggs
and Anthony Anderson) to kidnap B-Rad and let him experience the real
streets. The problem is Diggs and Anderson as Juilliard grads are as out of
place in the hood as B-Rad is. They also are very funny, trying in their
method way to find their characters.
The set-up and
the introduction to all these characters leads the audience to get its hopes
up for this little film. In fact,
Malibu’s Most Wanted
works really well for about a half-hour to forty-five minutes. The film is
quite often surprisingly funny, but eventually it’s a one-joke premise stretched out
way longer than it deserves.
(4/03)
Alex Diamond
Copyright
©2003 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved.
Posted: April 20, 2003.
|
RETURN TO MOVIE REVIEWS MENU
 
Copyright
©2003 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved.
Posted:
April 20, 2003.
|
