Our Rating: 2.00
Remember the Saturday Night Live sketch that put Eddie Murphy in whiteface and sent him out on the streets to infiltrate the Caucasian conspiracy that rules the world? It’s the guiding influence in this Wayans Brothers race-reversal farce. The diff is that FBI agents Marlon and Shawn W. are meant to look freakishly unconvincing – and they do – as they impersonate a pair of high-society party girls targeted for a kidnapping. Beneath the obvious gibes at cross-dressing and upper-crust vacuity, the movie has some valid points to make about the uneasy intersection of black and white culture and (especially) the behavioral masks men and women put on to impress each other. But most of those good intentions are undone by a script that’s all but devoid of creative or even effective gags. If you’re up for a comedy that has its heart in the right place but isn’t actually funny, then have yourself a time.
This article appears in Jun 23-29, 2004.