Techtite DVD Reviews

The Film : One amusing piece of trivia is that this film isn't as much of a copycat of 1993's Mrs. Doubtfire and 1996's The Nutty Professor, as you might first think. In fact, Martin Lawrence's Fox TV show, Martin, already had Martin in cross-dressing jokes, as far back as 1992! So, in a sense, this is a film of Martin Lawrence's classic humor, finally put on the silver screen. However, isn't this type of comedy overdone by now...?

Lawrence stars as Malcolm, a police detective who is determined to capture a bank thief, no matter what. He thinks the best bet is trailing Sherry (Nia Long), the female accomplice of the thief. The only lead to finding her is the address of her "Big Momma," who she's about to come visit. The trouble is, the actual Big Momma (Ella Mitchell) has decided to leave town for a few days, making the stakeout of the house a big bust (no pun intended)! Malcolm's only chance is to use his undercover skills to pretend to be Big Momma herself, while the real one is away. While Sherry comes to visit, she might confide in her (him) where the money is, as well as the location of the main crook himself...though was her involvement everything it seems to be?

The jokes are well paced, though often a bit stale. From as far back as Some Like It Hot, we've seen these men-dressing-as-women jokes quite a few times already. Even Tom Hanks did his bit as a woman, in the mostly forgotten 1980's sitcom, Bosom Buddies. I think such jokes more or less reached their peak with Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie. Since then, we've had Martin's own sitcom antic's in '92, Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire, and even Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor. Isn't that enough, already?

Regardless, the cast is extremely likeable. You really get to like Sherry and Malcolm, and want to see them get together in the end. Martin's comic timing is still quite good, and, yes, Martin as a "Big Momma" is more than a little funny, no matter how stale the jokes might be. If anything, it's the performance of the actual Big Momma that's a little too much to handle, including one rather gross potty humor joke, and even (yikes!) a brief nude scene.

The overall feeling I had with the film was that it was better than I expected, which was a pleasant surprise. It's also far better to feel that than how I usually feel when seeing a film, that it was so much worse than expected. In Big Momma's case, the film is definitely worth a matinee ticket at the extreme least. If anything, it's probably the last time you'll get to see any more male cross dressing jokes in film. At least, one can only hope so.

The DVD : With admittedly more honesty than I probably should give, I never had the time to check this film's DVD. However, I did hear that the DVD version of the film includes behind the scenes footage, cast interviews, and of course the theatrical trailer. If anyone wants to review the DVD in full, click here, use the submissions e-mail address, and go right ahead. However, I think my Small Crater ranking wouldn't change, one way or another, no matter what the DVD contains.

	Final Rating : Small Crater. Far better than I expected, even though "man dresses as fat woman" jokes are getting a bit old by now. Still, it had its share of laughs.
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Big Momma's House

A Techtite Review