Malibu's Most Wanted [DVD] [2003]

It's not entirely unfunny. But it should be a lot funnier. Making amusing jokes about a white boy who thinks he’s black should be like hitting the side of a barn, so when a whole film based on such a premise is released, you expect something special to justify the effort.

The script is hardly exceptional, but the big weakness is Jamie Kennedy's performance itself. Where's the glint in his eye that we've come to know and love? There's no cheekiness to this character, no underlying irony to the delivery. Most of the time B-Rad just looks awkward. And this is no case of so-geeky-he's-cool. Rather than being an amusing Vanilla Sherbet(the definitive wigga – see Fear of a Black Hat)-type character, he comes across more like Adam Sandler in the Waterboy, a sad and unfortunate character. I found myself torn between finding him pitiful and finding him loathsome.

Plus there's all the usual cliches about how despite being a geek, he manages to be down with the hood after all (for a while at least), and how he gets the girl in the end because of what's on the inside (another Adam Sandler parallel). We’re supposed to be following B-Rad on an journey of self-discovery in which he discovers that perhaps, although maybe the front he’s been putting up is not really him, who he really is (cue violins) is far better. The trouble is that nothing in the film quite feels real, due to Kennedy’s lacklustre performance, so this ‘emotional journey’ he is going through in the film doesn’t really resonate.

All of which left me questioning what the motivation behind this film really was. All the usual stereotypes of black behaviour are trotted out in the form of the various ‘ghetto’ characters, stereotypes which could be seen as either harmless fun, or potentially derogatory. And it is in regards to this issue that Jamie’s performance takes on greater importance. As the main creative force behind this film, we can only look to him for the purpose and the message of this film. And if, as his performance would suggest, there is very little heart, and very little point, to this film, then that means that he has trotted out these tired old stereotypes for a cheap laugh and some quick cash.

Perhaps the most worrying stereotype is that which says that black people, although automatically hostile to white people on sight, will immediately accept them unquestioningly once they see evidence of ‘ghetto type behaviour’. In this case, once gang member Tec sees that B-Rad is willing to fire machine guns “with no regard for life or property”, he, and by extension, everyone he knows, suddenly accept him, despite the fact that he’s obviously still a geek. You know, cos black folks are impressed by that kind of thing!

There’s also something a bit sinister about the fact that the only two black characters who aren’t “straight-up-ghetto” are shallow wimps. (One of these is played by Anthony Anderson, who is disappointing after good roles in Romeo Must Die and Me, Myself & Irene, but probably could have done little more with this script). This seems to suggest that either black people stay in the hood and keep it real, or go and live with white folks and turn soft (which is equally insulting to white folks of course).

It could be that I’m reading far too much into the way characters are portrayed in this film. Perhaps I’ve just seen these kinds of stereotypes thrown about once too often. Or it could be that this film just isn’t entertaining enough to allow me to put these questions to one side.

Although Jamie Kennedy’s character is supposed to be the butt of the jokes, I couldn’t help feeling that the culture which the character was trying to buy into was the real target. A film like this is treading a fine line between laughing at the character for trying to be something he’s not, and laughing at the very idea that someone should want to buy into such a culture. Either way, these issues seem to have been approached thoughtlessly, and I found it quite ugly.

If you can suspend your need for a sociological critique better than I can, you may enjoy this film. If you’re with the right people it could provide a few laughs. But it could also be a spectacular flop. Personally, I wouldn’t take the risk.

And look out for the Jeep!!