Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son Directed by: John Whitesell Starring: Martin Lawrence, Brandon T. Jackson, Faizon Love, Portia Doubleday, Max Casella Rating: PG-13 Release Date: February 18, 2011
TRAILER SCORE: 1/10
MY THOUGHTS: It's like Brandon T. Jackson's "Alpa Chino" actually did get Jack Black's character Jeff Portnoy off that tree in Tropic Thunder. Portnoy's fictitious project "The Fatties: Fart Three" has now become a horrifying reality, and the up and coming Jackson (Lottery Ticket) is right in the middle. The metafilm wit of Tropic Thunder is all the more confirmed by this trailer for another sequel to Big Momma's House, which offers a glimpse of a movie that just can't be real. Even the poster, which has Jackson making a "I signed up for this!?!" face, makes the existence seem stemmed from a photo-shopped concoction, one made by a non-professional to parody the garbage barrel taste some folk feel deserve the most attention in Hollywood. Even the damn title, which plays up on the irony of male family roles seceded to slangy women's roles, sounds like something that nightmares and poor jokes are made of.
Let the trailer for this movie stand as a whopping steel-toed-boot-hit-face from reality of what is to come. Having seen this trailer multiple times, basically earning a doctorate for this preview, I can offer some fairly astute predictions about what this experience will offer. (These claims will of course be tested when I see the final product, something I promise I will do.) For one, there will be a decent amount of references to popular hip-hop culture (all the more confirmed by TrailerAddict saying that one of the main characters is an ex-Run DMC roadie). In the trailer, we have at least three references, which also stand as formal declarations that these prevalent elements of the culture have now become expired. Faizon Love says, "Mama said knock you out!" (a reference to LL Cool J) at the end of the trailer, while Lawrence's Big Momma character whimpers out a "Whoop, there it is," remark when he/she is disrobed in an art class. But I suppose if "You better check yourself before you wreck yourself" can get a knee-slap in Due Date, maybe so can Portia Doubleday (the hot girl from Youth in Revolt) when she cleverly calls Big Momma "Mary J. Bulge."
The weakness of this trailer does not just stink from its title, or even its premise. From whatever little chunks of the film this trailer has to dish up, the jokes are delivered with such lack of general passion that it's kind of depressing. For example, listen to Martin Lawrence cry out, "Oh, no, no!" as he hops over a gunfire blazed desk at 1:51. Or listen to how Brandon T. Jackson moans "Ohhhh!" as he falls off the stage in a tutu. This is not their on-screen characters doing poor impersonations of womanly voices in a funny way. Rather, it's a glaring example of actors not doing their jobs of selling comedy. The capable Jackson and Lawrence are letting fat suits do all of their work. Unfortunately, I'm putting my money on it.