Reviewed at Edwards Greenway Plaza 24, Houston, Feb. Make room for more laughs, more fun.more Momma Martin Lawrence returns in his biggest and most outrageous comedy role as Big Momma, a wisecracking Southern granny with tons of hilarious tricks up her sleeve. Garner set decorator, Frank Galline costume designer, Leah Katznelson sound (Dolby DTS), Whit Norris makeup effects, Spectral Motion prosthetic makeup design and application, Wesley Wofford special effects coordinator, Bob Shelley associate producers, William Paul Clark, Darice Rollins assistant director, Clark casting, Kim Taylor-Coleman, Alexa L. Richmond editor, Priscilla Nedd Friendly music, David Newman music supervisors, Dave Jordan, Jojo Villanueva production designer, Meghan C. Screenplay, Matthew Fogel, from a story by Don Rhymer, Fogel, based on characters created by Darryl Quarles.Ĭamera (color), Anthony B. Executive producers, Arnold Milchan, Martin Lawrence, Jeffrey Kwatinetz, Jeremiah Samuels. Posing as Big Momma and Charmaine, they must find the murderer before he finds them. This is not quite “Big Momma’s House: The Musical.” But maybe it should have been.Ī 20th Century Fox release of a Regency Enterprises presentation of a New Regency/Friendly Films/Runteldat Entertainment/the Collective production. FBI agent Malcolm Turner and his 17-year-old son, Trent, go undercover at an all-girls performing arts school after Trent witnesses a murder. This duet and a handful of other scenes - including an energetic cafeteria-set production number that plays like a “Fame” outtake - likely will make some auds wish the filmmakers had taken even greater advantage of setting their plot in a high school for performing arts students. Indeed, the actor’s trademark charisma doesn’t begin to shine through until, midway through “Big Mommas,” Lawrence and Jackson share an unexpectedly sweet musical interlude as Malcolm and Trent riff on a classic Temptations tune. Lawrence comes across as more strident than usual in pic’s early scenes, as he impatiently rousts a mailman (a wasted Ken Jeong) to grab Trent’s college acceptance letter, then condescendingly dismisses his stepson’s desire to become a free-styling rapper instead of a freshman at Duke. Meanwhile, Malcolm/Big Momma tussles with a mean-girl ballet student (Portia Doubleday), and wards off advances from a lovestruck school security guard (an unbilled Faizon Love).
Read Common Sense Media's Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son review, age rating, and parents guide. Predictably, Trent/Charmaine must struggle to maintain his cool and his disguise around scantily clad femme students, and actually falls for a young college-bound beauty (Jessica Lucas) who’s set on earning a music scholarship. Gimmicky comedy is an unoriginal drag for young teens. Jackson), Malcolm’s rebellious 17-year-old stepson, must join his stepdad on campus and pass himself off as Charmaine, Big Momma’s grand-niece, having witnessed the murder of the aforementioned informant.ĭirector John Whitesell (who helmed “Big Momma’s House 2”) and scripter Matthew Fogel dutifully recycle comic shtick from the previous pics. For “Big Mommas,” Malcolm creatively cross-dresses to go undercover as a housemother at the Georgia Girls School of the Arts, where an informant hid a flash drive containing evidence incriminating a Russian mobster (Tony Curran) before being inconveniently killed.Ĭomplicating the caper, Trent ( Brandon T.
BIG MOMMA HOUSE LIKE FATHER LIKE SON SERIES
Unfortunately, this particular series is just a drag.Once again, Lawrence’s brash Malcolm Turner dons improbably efficient prosthetics and an amply padded fat suit to disguise himself as Big Momma, a kinda-sorta soul sister of Tyler Perry’s Madea. Make room for more laughs, more fun.more Momma Martin Lawrence returns in his biggest and most outrageous comedy role as Big Momma, a wisecracking Southern granny with tons of hilarious tricks up her sleeve.
BIG MOMMA HOUSE LIKE FATHER LIKE SON MOVIE
Cross-dressing is a tried and true movie staple in comedies, and when it works, it can be amazing ( Some Like It Hot, The Birdcage, Mrs. He should be trying to stretch himself, like Jamie Foxx, Will Smith, or even Marlon Wayans (in Requiem for a Dream) did earlier in their careers. It's disappointing, because Jackson - who's made a living playing the comic-relief in Tropic Thunder, Percy Jackson, The Lottery Ticket, and more - is a pretty talented young actor, but he needs to show he can do something clever, not this lowbrow comedy. But aside from a silly little scene in which Jackson and Lawrence do a little dance routine to a Temptations song, even the performances fall flat. Plus, there are a couple of Glee-meets- Fame moments in which Jackson and the girls break into spontaneous song (and dance). There are fewer crude jokes in this threequel, which is obviously aimed at young teens, than there were in Big Momma's House 2 that's the good news.