Not my Kind of Film! (Guess Who (DVD))

Member Name: katygriff

Product:	Guess Who (DVD)
Date:	21/10/05 (205 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: About 5% of it was Funny.

Disadvantages: I Just Hated it.

Now I sat down a couple of Saturdays ago and watched Guess Who with my boyfriend, his sister and her partner. It was a toss up between this and Be Cool but Guess Who looked funnier so we decided to rent it.


What is it about?

Now I haven't got the DVD so I cannot read from the back of the box this time but here is what it is about.

Basically Simon Green is your white guy who is dating a black girl Theresa Jones. They travel to spend some time with Theresa's parents but Theresa neglects to tell her father Percy one thing, Simon is white. The film centres around how Simon gets on with the Jones family.


Who stars in it?

Ashton Kutcher - Simon Green.
Bernie Mac - Percy Jones.
Zoe Saldana - Theresa Jones.
Judith Scott - Marilyn Jones.
Hal Williams - Howard Jones.
Kelle Stewart - Keisha Jones.


Features on the DVD;

Commentary.
Deleted Scenes.
Gag Reel.
Three features.


Other Information;

Certificate - 15.
Runtime - 106 minutes.


My Verdict;

Well the film starts off promising enough but to be honest I do not like the humour that I knew I would get from this movie.

If we start with the story, it is unfortunately something that could happen in real life as sadly some people do see colour as a not exactly a problem but more unusual when people are dating. Bernie Mac plays the angry and protective Dad well and as the story unfolds you do get to delve into a bit why he was so shocked and to be honest I bet some people would react the way he does in this film.

The story is not very original and it has been done in lots of things before it so there is no surprises really and the whole film is predictable from beginning to end. Usually I do not mind this but as I did not see the film as being funny or clever I just got bored very easily.

The characters are quite fun but again it is a weak script so you do not really care much about them. I like films when you can really get into the characters and you actually feel what they are going through but in this film you cannot really do that. I think the idea of this film is to just humiliate every character to gain some laughs and although I am sure many people would find this hilarious, it just didn't cut it with me.

I cannot fault the acting in this movie as they are all well-established actors who know exactly what the audience wants. I know that people have criticized Anton Kutcher in the film but I didn't think he was that bad. He always plays loveable geeky characters in other things and this is exactly what he plays here. Bernie Mac is great as always and plays the neurotic Dad to the full. The other actors are very good and I have never seen many of them in anything else but I am guessing that we will see a lot more of them now especially Zoe Saldana who was excellent.

Now the humour is one of those things that I am sure many people will like but for me it just made me feel uncomfortable and I didn't enjoy it.

Other thoughts about this film is that it is shot wonderfully so don't worry about any dodgy camera work and the sets are great and colourful so to give the film a fun and lightening mood. The length of the film is perfect as for a rom-com type film it does not drag on so it is ok to watch and two of the other people who watched it with me enjoyed it and said for them it didn't get boring.

I think my final conclusion on this film that was yes some of it was funny but I actually feel uncomfortable with a film trying to make me laugh about the differences between skin colour. The film also left me confused, I mean was Percy angry because he was white or because his daughter was dating somebody. Although it does seem that he just wants his daughter to be treated respectfully in his house, the idea of skin coloured is repeatedly coming up in this film. If we take this quote from the film for instance;

Simon Green - 'What are three things a black guy can't get? A black eye, a fat lip and a job.

Now I am sorry but I don't find it funny and actually find it disrespectful to everybody who could be watching the film. The story line comes across as racist and I just didn't find most of it funny.

On the plus side, the only parts of the film that I did find funny were when Percy was playing the protective father such as when he wouldn't let Simon and Theresa stay in the same room and the way Percy is portrayed as being a bit threatened by somebody taking his daughter away from him. I can identify with this because when my Dad first met my boyfriend Dave, he went into protective mode and was very wary of Dave to begin with. I think family would like to keep their children safe with them for ever and do not like the idea of them growing up and this comes across in this movie.

I am truly one of those people who do not see colour and I think this film just emphasises the fact that colour is still a deciding factor with some people with how they should be treated. I am only giving this film two stars because parts of it was funny but in the end the humour was not exactly to my liking and the story was a bit too silly.

This film is good if you don't care about anything but watching a stupid film to pass the time but I certainly would wait for it to come out on sky.

You can buy this film from Amazon for £11.99 if you really want to.

Thanks for reading.

xxx

p.s. This was also posted on Ciao under the same username.

Summary: I Just didnt Find it Funny.