GUESS WHO (2005) ** Why it's Ashton Kutcher, that ought to be enough to concern any prospective father-in-law, for reasons going well beyond whether or not he's a honky. As suggested by the title it's a (ahem) pale-and by no means elaborated-remake of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? . The heavy thinking, such as it is, seems to have been along the lines of "Hey, I know! We'll make the guy white, and the girl black, and it'll be the black people who don't want him! And we'll give the cars new radios and stuff..." Works about as well as you could hope for 45 minutes or so, until you realize that Ashton's not too bad but he's not going to be able to make his character interesting either, and they pretty much just write the substantially more interesting females-Zoe Saldana and Judith Scott-out of the script. Which leaves you sitting around hoping Bernie Mac does something cool, which he does with some regularity, saving it to a substantial extent. Could have used Sidney Poitier or Katherine Hepburn, but most films could.

back to Brilliant Observations on 2120 Films page, or Index

go back home, or send me email

Reviews won't do it any more! I need sustained brilliance! I want to buy your exciting new terrorist novel!

I've already read both of your novels. Thank you, they're amazing. Now I want to check out your weekly blog on everything

Internet Movie Database