Tired clichés on the white-black thing

Guess Who; 1:37; PG-13, for sexual-related humor; Grade: C-

Miss Congeniality 2; 1:55; PG-13, for sexual-related humor; Grade: D-

Ethnic stereotypes have been played on for a very long time in Hollywood. Whites walk with their butt-cheeks clenched and can’t dance, blacks are loud, Asians are good at math, and Mexicans can’t afford cheese. And oh, isn’t it all so funny?

I’m not saying there’s anything inherently wrong with racial humor. Tastefully done, it can be very funny. Problem is, there’s usually not so much tasteful about it, and it’s just plain old hat. Isn’t this the year 2005? Shouldn’t we be moving on to something else by now? Perhaps we never will.

There are two new movies at Hollywood Theater, this week, both of which pull out the old white-black thing, for allegedly humorous effects. They’re two very different movies (Miss Congeniality 2, a buddy-cop chick flick; the other, Guess Who, a sort-of rehash of both Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and Meet the Parents), though they do share one thing in common. Neither one of them is more than intermittently funny.

Guess Who

When Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was made nearly 40 years ago, the idea of an “interracial” marriage was taboo, but ripe for discussion. The classic drama, starring Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, as the white parents not so happy to see their daughter engaged to a black man (Sidney Poitier), received 10 Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture.

The subject matter isn’t so much taboo anymore, but it’s apparently still grounds for comedic treatment. Guess Who, the comedy starring Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac as reluctant father-and-son-in-law, doesn’t so much try to make us think as it does try to make us laugh. Unfortunately, it’s only occasionally successful.

Overall, three writers worked on the script, usually not a good sign, but to their credit, at least they mine this territory without ever being offensive to anybody. The jokes aren’t so much along the lines of “black people do this, and white people do that” as they are a commentary on how race-relations play themselves out across much of the country.

That’s about the only positive comment I can give the team of writers, however. The romance between Kutcher and Zoe Saldana (The Terminal, Pirates of the Caribbean) is virtually nonexistent, so when the movie gets all schmaltzy toward the end, it’s almost barf-worthy. And for a comedy, this movie just isn’t very funny. The vast majority of the jokes are set up so heavy-handily that we can see them coming, at least a minute before they happen.

As far as the acting performances are concerned, well I guess I could tell you that Bernie Mac is good while Ashton Kutcher is more annoying than he is on MTV’s Punk’d, but ultimately, it doesn’t really matter. A comedy with poor writing is a bore.

Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous

Miss Congeniality 2 is, in many ways, a Xerox copy of every other buddy-cop movie that’s ever been made. Two cops are very different from each other. They don’t want to work together, and initially have nothing but animosity toward each other. They even get in a fight. To make matters worse, they screw up their investigation, and are forced off the case. But they take it personally, so they put their differences aside and work to solve the crime on their own time, against their commander’s orders. Inevitably, they become best friends. Stop me if you’ve seen this before.

What makes Miss Congeniality 2 different is that, to the best of my recollection, this is the first time it’s been done with two female leads, in a movie targeted primarily at women. Most buddy-cop movies are made by dudes, with dudes, for dudes.

I didn’t particularly enjoy Miss Congeniality 2, but while watching it, I did hear some laughter in the seats around me, most of it coming from female voices, so perhaps I’ve got the wrong chromosomes to properly enjoy it.

There are a few funny moments here and there, but not many of them. And for a buddy-cop movie, there’s very little action. In fact, there really isn’t any at all. On top of all that, the whole black-white thing between Sandra Bullock and her new partner, Regina King, is often played out rather offensively. This movie blows.