Rating: 4/10
Running Time: 109 minutes
US Certificate: PG-13 UK Certificate: 12a
Seeing slapstick siblings Shawn and Marlon Wayans dolled up to look like passable socialite white girls is a pretty unnerving experience, but far, far scarier is the fact that it took SIX writers to dream up this middle-ranking sex-swap farce. You cant help but wonder how many of them it would have taken to come up with a comedy that actually contained some humour stretching beyond yelling, dancing, singing and farting.
Under the directorship of big bro Keenan, the Wayans boys play bungling FBI agents Kevin and Marcus Copeland. Their latest assignment involves chaperoning a couple of It Girls (Maitland Ward and Anne Dudek) to a weekend-long party in the Hamptons, where inside intelligence has predicted a kidnapping-attempt is going to take place. But, via the most unbelievable set of circumstances, the girls are unable to make it so our hapless heroes take it upon themselves to go in their places. Of course, that involves transforming themselves from six-foot-plus black guys into a pair of white, blonde, wannabe Hilton sisters. Sounds easy enough, right?
If youve ever seen gender-switch comedies like Tootsie or Mrs Doubtfire then youll know how most of it works. This sort of scenario always involves a bit of suspended disbelief (nobody ever suspects a thing, do they?), but asking us to believe that their friends think them to be the same two girls theyve known for years really is stretching things a little.
Theres no invention involved here. The film takes a clutch of crude tried-and-tested stereotypes and clichés and runs with them for all theyre worth. To the Wayans credit, they play to their strengths by putting their seemingly limitless energy ahead of their distinctly limited material, and to be fair theyre not all that far from pulling it off. I did chuckle a couple of times, and the youngsters sitting behind me never seemed to tire of all those fart gags but then again, youngsters never do.
It's Got: The dad from Home Alone. Hes looking really podgy these days.
It Needs: Some original laughs to match the Wayans enthusiasm.
Summary
Stand them up and not just because theyre really men (although thats a fairly good reason in itself).