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Movie Review - Guess Who (2005)
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(What this rating means)
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| Director: |
Kevin Rodney Sullivan |
| Starring: |
Bernie Mac, Ashton Kutcher, and Zoë Saldaņa |
| Rated: |
PG-13 (for sex-related humor) |
| Length: |
104 minutes |
| Genre: |
Romantic Comedy |
| Tagline: |
Some in-laws were meant to be broken. |
| Studio: |
Sony Pictures |
| Website: |
Guess Who |
| Release: |
March 25, 2005 |
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PLOT
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Black girl (Saldana) brings white boyfriend (Kutcher) home to meet big black daddy (Mac). Interracial hijinks
ensue.
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JOHNNY'S TAKE
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Guess Who is the type of movie I enjoy watching for an hour and a half, but it's not exactly the kind I
like to spend over 3 hours writing a review for. So I won't. Why should I? If I heap praise on all the jokes
that I felt worked is Zoë Saldaņa gonna come running to me, plant a big kiss on my cheek, and shout that I should've
been in the movie instead of Kutcher? Doubtful.
I know this is a "remake" of 1967's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, starring Spencer Tracy and Sidney Poitier,
but since I haven't seen that movie I can't make any comparisons. However, I can confirm that this does indeed have
shades of Meet the Parents.
Zoë Saldaņa and Ashton Kutcher are engaged, and well, she's taking him to ... DUHN DUHN DUHN ... meet her parents.
Sound familiar? Oh, there's a little twist. Saldaņa's parents don't know that her boyfriend is white. In fact,
ol' Bernie Mac is expecting Denzel Washington to show up on his doorstep, not the skinny, pigment-challenged
Kutcher. Mac likes to pretend that race doesn't matter, but we know in movies like this it always does. Well,
until the end of the movie where all the characters go through miraculous 90-minute character transformations
and everybody learns to accept everybody else for who he or she is.
What proceeds is a consistent stream of fun, silly jokes that constantly entertain but never really have the audience
rolling in the aisles. You know the formula. Father sleeps with daughter's boyfriend to keep him out *her* bed?
Check. Father takes ride with daughter's boyfriend and songs such as Ebony and Ivory conveniently play on
the radio? Check. After boyfriend lies about working for Jeff Gordon's NASCAR pit crew it turns out that
girlfriend's father loves NASCAR and Jeff Gordon? Check. It's all very coincidental and convenient, heck, it
could've easily been titled Guess What Plot Contrivance is Coming Next, but it's funny enough for me not to
get all bent out of shape over it.
My biggest disappointment is that the movie decided to stay on the "cutesy" and safe side of the interracial fence
in an effort to not offend anybody. Come on, a little controversy never hurt anybody, right? Things get a little
edgy at dinner one night when Bernie Mac forces Ashton to tell some of the black jokes he knows. Ashton agrees
to do it as a way of not "empowering" such jokes. For example, how do we know Adam and Eve weren't black? Well,
have you ever tried to take a rib from a black man? Mac and family actually find the jokes pretty funny until
Ashton takes it one step too far, causing Saldaņa's 80+ year-old grandfather to attempt to cross the table to take
a swing at poor Ashton.
The movie would have benefited from a little more such edgy humor examining the interracial relationship and the
conflicts between the two backgrounds. Maybe we'll see that in a sequel. I'm predicting right now that in a
couple of years we'll see Guess Who 2: Guess Who's Back Black where Ashton takes his
girlfriend to meet HIS parents. Throw it into the heart of Mississippi, cast Billy Bob Thornton and Delta Burke
as his parents, and you've got some serious potential.
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ODDS & ENDS
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- Johnny really doesn't feel like doing any research on this movie. Is this the type of movie where you
really are interested in finding out what Ashton ate for breakfast every morning while on set?
- This is NOT a documentary about the Canadian classic rock band.
- Ashton Kutcher was in The Butterfly Effect with Jesse James who will
be in Flyboys with Stephen Baldwin who was in The Young Riders with Josh Brolin who was in Hollow
Man with Kevin Bacon.
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MAMA'S APPROVAL
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There are a few profanities (mainly "s" words and one G-d**N) and sexual jokes that'll make mama squirm, but
otherwise it's not that bad. It'll be easily edited for TV.
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TRAILER COMPARISON
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What you see is what you get.
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THE GIST
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Guess Who is a fun, silly, easy-going cinematic experience. Bernie Mac, Kutcher, and Saldaņa all work well
together. If you're a fan of any of those three then give the movie a look. Your sides may never been in imminent
danger of splitting, but you just might find yourself consistently chuckling throughout.
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