GUESS WHO
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2005 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): **
GUESS WHO, a chemistry-free film, is a romantic comedy which is sort of inspired by GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER. Simon Green (Ashton Kutcher) is a boyfriend coming to meet an all black family led by a head-strong dad named Percy Jones (Bernie Mac). Unlike the original, it isn't a black man coming to dinner with an all white family but the other way around. Mr. Jones is shocked to find a secret about the man his daughter Theresa (Zoe Saldana) is bringing home for the weekend. Green is white. Are you laughing already?
Percy is very disappointed in his daughter's choices, but it falls to Percy's father to say what the whole family is thinking, when he asks his granddaughter, "What? They don't have any available black men in New York?" Around the dinner table at a most uncomfortable meal, Percy goads Simon into telling a series of increasingly more racist jokes. The audience, like the family, initially loves the humor, laughing very hard. But Simon, of course, finally goes too far, thus causing a further rift in an already strained relationship.
The setting for the plot is a renewal of vows ceremony by Percy and his wife to celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. At the same time, the younger love birds, Simon and Theresa, are planning on announcing their engagement, unbeknownst to the rest of Theresa's family.
Mac is consistently funny and likeable, but the same can't be said for the rest of the cast. Kutcher, in particular, appears awkward, uncertain of himself and most certainly not in love. His lame performance makes Mac's sparkling work look even better in comparison.
Mac and Kutcher share a bed together, but they are no Steve Martin and John Candy duo. Most of the movie's recycled humor is at best cute. And without Mac, the movie would have been pretty much unwatchable.
GUESS WHO runs 1:44. It is rated PG-13 for "sex-related humor" and would be acceptable for kids around 12 and up.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, March 25, 2005. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com
Want free reviews and weekly movie and video recommendations via Email?
Just send me a letter with the word "subscribe" in the subject line.
========== X-RAMR-ID: 39609 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1371560 X-RT-TitleID: 10003691 X-RT-SourceID: 703 X-RT-AuthorID: 1271 X-RT-RatingText: 2/4
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews