PLOT: A deskbound FBI agent sneaks back into the field -- posing as a large black housekeeper and nanny to a rich uptight white family -- in hopes of nabbing the designer of a terrorist computer "worm."
There's one thing that's "better" about Big Momma's House 2, Martin Lawrence's utterly formulaic "family" sequel to his earlier hit. His FBI agent character is much better at getting in and out of that obese Momma suit.
He's so good, in fact, and so seamless, that "Big Momma" can go to a spa filled with Victoria's Secret models, get naked under a towel and be worked on by a professional masseuse with no one the wiser.
An Oscar-winning makeup artist couldn't pull that off. (And that might be the only time you see Big Momma's House 2 and "Oscar" in the same sentence).
It's a cheap latex plot device that sets up the movie's only real reason to live -- a random series of sight gags based on a guy passing as a fat woman in a thong (and all given away for free in the trailers).
There's Big Momma leading a bunch of little schoolgirls in booty-shaking cheerleading lessons. There she is in Bo Derek cornrows, bouncing down the beach. And, hey, we already mentioned the spa. Wait'll you see what happens when they put "hot stones" on her back!
What's really startling is that this movie, marketed to attract black audiences, is whiter than a Woody Allen movie (Nia Long, from the first movie, is back as F.B.I. agent Malcolm Turner's wife, but her role is practically a cameo). What we get instead is Mrs. Doubtfire, merged with that old chestnut, the "magical Black man" who straightens out screwed-up white people.
Malcolm, as Big Momma, moves in with a rich, white family and teaches the goth teenaged girl to straighten up, the pre-teen how to be fly, the mom to loosen up and the dad to spend more time with his kids.
How this comes to be is almost inconsequential, but here goes. Malcolm's former partner (who we never see) is killed by bad guys who are trying to get their hands on a terrorist "worm" computer virus. The inventor of the worm (Mark Moses) is the dad in the screwed-up yuppie family. So Malcolm -- who has promised his wife Sherry he'll stay out of the field -- lies to her about attending a convention and goes undercover. (She finds his Big Momma thong and assumes he's having an affair, apparently forgetting that he was undercover as Big Momma when they met in the first movie).
Details, details. What we're really here to see (or not) is Malcolm bouncing around like Jabba the Hutt with game. The kids are cute, and the "two kinds of crazy" three-year-old likes to throw himself off high places. His "thumps" provide the biggest laughs in the movie, but even that well dries up by the time the big group-hug takes place at the end.
BOTTOM LINE: What, Big Momma becomes Big Nanny isn't warning enough? This family-oriented sequel to a not-exactly-a-classic original trades its black matriarch theme for a Hollywood cliche -- the "magical black man" who straightens out screwed-up white people (with a little Mrs. Doubtfire tossed into the bland formula).
(This film is rated PG)
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