BIG MOMMA'S HOUSE 2
Director: John Whitesell
Stars: Martin Lawrence, Nia Long, Emily Procter, Zachary Levi, Mark Moses, Kat Dennings, Chloe Grace Moretz, Marisol Nichols, Josh Flitter, Dan Lauria, Jascha Washington, Cameron Daddo, Christopher Michael Jones, Preston and Trevor Shores
Reviewed by GREG KING
On the evidence of his body of work (Black Knight, National Security, What’s The Worst That Could Happen?, etc) Martin Lawrence has to be one of the unfunniest and most uncharismatic men working in mainstream Hollywood today. Yet, for some unfathomable reason, his dire comedies seem to be popular with audiences. So much so that we are subjected to this unnecessary and very laboured sequel to his surprise hit from 2000, Big Momma’s House.
Lawrence reprises his “dual” role as FBI agent Malcolm Turner and Hattie Mae Pierce, his undercover alter ego, a grotesquely overweight and ingratiatingly inept black woman affectionately known as Big Momma. Since the original, Turner has given up his work as a field agent for the FBI and become a speaker on safety issues for school groups, so that he can spend more time with his heavily pregnant and long-suffering wife Sherrie (Nia Long, wasted as a suspicious and nagging wife). Then his former partner and mentor is killed during an undercover operation to expose Fuller (Mark Moses), a computer software millionaire who is developing a powerful worm which could undermine the capabilities of the top intelligence agencies. Defying the direct orders of his superior Turner disguises himself as Big Momma, and goes undercover, posing as the new nanny to the Fuller family.
In his Big Momma persona, Turner reluctantly finds himself bringing together this dysfunctional family and resolving a lot of their complex personal and emotional issues. By turns his sage advice and presence helps their rebellious teenage daughter Molly (Kat Dennings), younger daughter Carrie (Chloe Grace Moretz), and two-year old son Andrew, who refuses to talk and spends most of his time leaping off high objects. He also helps highly strung mother Leah (Emily Procter, from CSI: Miami) realise that she keeps the kids on a busy regimen of activities so that they don’t realise that their parents are never around to see them or interact with them.
In what seems a trend in recent Hollywood movies (The Pacifier, Nanny McPhee, Cheaper By The Dozen 2, et al,) Big Momma’s House 2 again explores issue of good and bad parenting, and dysfunctional family relationships healed by an outsider with little knowledge or understanding of the family dynamics. It’s all a bit cliched and passe, and, in this case, very, very dull and laboured. Director John Whitesell (a tv veteran, whose patchy film work includes Malibu’s Most Wanted, etc) directs in pedestrian and ham fisted style, accentuating the obvious. There is precious little subtlety or nuance to be found here. Most of the attempts at humour fall flat, and Lawrence’s forced mugging is simply not funny.
There are numerous worrying glitches in the script from Don Rhymer (the original Big Momma’s House, and Santa Claus 2, etc) – for example in one scene Turner chases a suspect along a beach yelling out “Stop! FBI!” and losing some of his Big Momma disguise, yet no-one seems to take notice, especially members of Fuller’s family. And in another scene he is secretly wired so that his partners in a van not far away can hear his conversations, but then he uses his mobile phone to contact them! And despite being a rogue agent going against orders, the rest of the FBI task force seems to give him an inordinate amount of leeway and respect.
It may only be January, but already the dire Big Momma’s House 2 is on the shortlist of the biggest duds of 2006!
*
Reviewed by PETER MALONE
One is tempted to check whether the director’s name is real or not. After all, this is a Martin Lawrence comedy and, in the US, it has to be a ‘black sell’ rather than a ‘white sell’.
Obviously, a lot of people enjoy Martin Lawrence comedies. He is clearly popular when he teams with Will Smith in Bad Boys movies. And, for ten years, he has been making a lot of come and go, hit and miss, comedies. Big Momma’s House in which he was a detective doing a Mrs Doubtfire was one of his more successful outings. Success suggests a franchise, a franchise means a sequel and here it is.
Lawrence is once again detective Malcolm Turner but is on desk duty as his wife is expecting. But, of course, he is itching to get on a case again – and applies for a nanny’s job as Big Momma. That gives him the opportunity to do a lot of mugging as the oversized Momma, to be the substitute parent figure for neglected and pressurised kids and to do a whole lot of gymnastics dressed (and undressed) as Big Momma.
The plot involves computer and terrorism conspiracies, murder and blackmail, abduction. But, this is more of a PG show, so it is all basically in good fun. The plot lines make huge assumptions and leaps that defy a realistic interpretation – but a realistic interpretation is to miss the point of a cheerful, time-passing entertainment.