Big Momma's House
**
Rated on a 4-star
scale
Screening venue: Warner Village (Birkenhead Conway Park)
Released in the UK by Fox on June 23, 2000; certificate 12; 99 minutes; country
of origin USA; aspect ratio 1.85:1
Directed by Raja Gosnell; produced by
Michael Green, David T. Friendly.
Written by Darryl Quarles, Don Rhymer.
Photographed by Michael D. O'Shea; edited by Kent Beyda, Bruce
Green.
CAST.....
Martin Lawrence..... Malcolm
Nia Long..... Sherry
Paul Giammatti..... John
Jascha Washington..... Trent
Terrence Howard..... Lester
Anthony Anderson..... Nolan
Ella Mitchell..... Big Momma
"Big Momma's House" stars Martin
Lawrence as a cop who, for reasons that are inconsequential to the movie's
appeal, has to go undercover as a gigantic elderly woman named Big Momma.
He and his partner (Paul Giammatti) need to put surveillance on Big Momma's
granddaughter Sherry (Nia Long), who has gone to stay with BM, but BM has
gone out of town, and the cops don't want Sherry to leave.
This is one of those makeup comedies like "Mrs.
Doubtfire", where a divorced Robin Williams masqueraded as an English nanny
to keep an eye on his kids, or the remake of "The Nutty Professor", with
Eddie Murphy playing a whole family of zany fat characters. The story is
completely implausible, as Lawrence's Big Momma looks nothing like the actual
character, who we see in the early scenes played by Ella Mitchell. And when
a comedy abandons believability, that means it had better work well on the
level of wall-to-wall slapstick humour.
"Big Momma's House" doesn't. I'm not even sure
that the filmmakers are aware of how implausible the plot is, because surrounding
the comedic scenes of Lawrence in his ridiculous costume are long stretches
of police work, and a romance between Lawrence's 'real' character and Sherry.
This is boring, because the dramatic scenes aren't taken seriously -- they've
just been thrown in because they're seen as obligatory. Compare "Big Momma's
House" to "Kindergarten Cop", a similarly plotted film that is involving
all the way through, and in which nothing feels like filler. The comedy and
drama in that picture come from the same place, whereas here the director
just hopes we'll patiently sit through 'serious' moments in between big
laughs.
It's a one-joke premise anyway -- Martin Lawrence,
a small young urban man, is doing an impression of a big old country woman.
This is amusing at times, such as when he is called upon to give a sermon
in church, or when he's expected to be a midwife, and sees a mother through
her delivery with such utensils as lard and an oven mitt. But it gets tiresome,
y'know?
COPYRIGHT© 2000 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
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