With autumn settling in and the sun going down around 7pm, it's my favorite time of the year to catch up on all the DVD movies I have been meaning to watch.Tonight I watched "Guess Who", which is a comic remake of the 1967 classic "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." This time,the story is in the reverse as a Caucasian (Ashton Kutcher) wants to marry a black girl. Bernie Mac steals the movie as the girl's father.
Due to the story line, the sequences in the film become highly predictable. The Jones' are having a party and are renewing their vows, and also are meeting their eldest daughter's boyfriend for the first time. Percy Jones is a very aggressive type of father who dearly loves his daughter and wants the best for her. He wants to make sure that her boyfriend can offer her security and happiness for her future. There is just one thing though, Percy Jones does not know that his daughter's intended is white.
It starts off really well when the two main cast first meet, and with the added racial tension it is very funny. In the first 45 minutes it is a joy to watch with some genuine laugh out loud moments. For example:
- the dinner scene, with racist jokes
- the back massage
- sharing the bed
- and the multi-cultural songs playing in the car
But then the film starts to falter very fast with all the usual bonding and schmaltzy stuff, and predictably it all ends happily. It seems that the director knew what to do with all the race jokes and the awkward 'dad meeting' but ran out of ideas half way through.
The leads are very good especially Mac, who has all the best lines and steals the show from any one else. Ashton Kuetcher has a good haircut and looks like a nice clean cut male, not the long haired goof-ball I usually see. It's just that this movie was done so much better in 2000 with 'Meet The Parents' and will be forever compared to this.
Not a bad movie by all means. It's just a case of 'been there, seen that'.
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