| White
Chicks Movie Review
White Chicks offers nothing more
than evidence of clever writer-performers who balked
at the chance to make brutal parody of certain incongruities
between gender, race and high society. Apparently too
manly to delve into the feminine mystique, Marlon and
Shawn Wayans abandon their characters -- characters
they initially go great lengths to inhabit -- whenever
the story threatens to entertain or provoke. As an out,
they turn to scatological humor, the plague of Black
comedy; it's a chicken-hearted decision made all the
more frustrating by the notion that, given free reign
to target at will, White Chicks clearly misses its primary
marks, Paris and Nicky Hilton.
After a crudely constructed
opening, where FBI agents Marcus and Kevin Copeland
(Marlon and Shawn, respectively) botch a drug bust,
the pair accept an assignment to guard heiresses Brittany
and Tiffany Wilson (Maitland Ward and Anne Dudek) during
a weekend of charity balls and social politicking at
the Hamptons. If they can expose the alleged plot to
kidnap the Wilsons, Marcus and Kevin will be back in
good standing with their boss (Frankie Faison) and once
again put in charge of meaty cases. But when an accident
temporarily mars both girls, the boys have to put on
a happy whiteface and head east, where they'll encounter
the Wilson's friends, societal enemies (Brittany Daniel
and Jaime King, both wasted), and potential captors.
I can accept the obvious
joke that the Copelands could never pass themselves
off as facsimiles of the Wilsons, but I'm still amazed
at the Wayanses' lazy and cowardly approach to their
low-minded concept. Laughs don't come easy, save a scene
where the girls toss around "the N-word" (which
was abruptly chopped, undoubtedly to keep the film's
PG-13 rating intact) and a dance-off, which are cliché
but always funny. It's almost a relief when Terry Crewes
injects some good old Black Fear into the mix as his
character falls for Marcus, but he's just playing a
heterosexual version of Damon, the ex-con he portrayed
in Friday After Next. Don't worry of you read any gay
subtext into the story, because there are fight scenes
and romantic subplots (Marcus' suspicious wife, Kevin's
love interest) to keep things straight. And stay half-conscious
and you'll be able to telegraph the ending before Wilson
pal Karen (Busy Phillips) vomits out a clue which enables
Marcus and Shawn to tear through the upper crust.
The mess does little
to warrant writing off White Chicks as simply a bad
movie. The question remains: Why create such a scenario
and then shy away from seeing it through? And why put
on the make-up if you aren't going to work it? Marlon
and Shawn should have handed their make-up kits over
to Method Man and Redman; sure, their new television
show (Method & Red) is terrible, but at least those
two know you have to truly infiltrate a society before
you can successfully exploit it.
|
More Movie Reviews links for White Chicks Movie |
|
|