Silly has a name and it’s Jamie Kennedy. The Upper Darby-raised comedian, known primarily for JKX — The Jamie Kennedy Experiment on the WB — makes his starring film debut in Malibu’s Most Wanted. It’s about as dumb as you might expect, but funnier than you could possibly hope for.
Kennedy plays Brad "B-Rad" Gluckman, an aspiring rapper from Malibu so white, he makes Eminem look like 50 Cent. When his hip-hop lifestyle seriously threatens his father’s (Ryan O’Neal) bid for governor of California, Daddy’s Machiavellian adviser (Blair Underwood) hires two unemployed actors (Taye Diggs and Anthony Anderson) to "kidnap" junior. The plan is to shake up the wannabe rapper by exposing him to the ‘hood, but it backfires when B-Rad not only wins the admiration of his captors, but the heart of an ambitious South Central hottie (Regina Hall).
There is a subgenre of films I like to call "Dumb Movies for Smart People." These are movies in which the characters do really dumb stuff, but are entertaining enough to appeal to fairly smart people. Although it could be argued that the genre began with the Three Stooges, I date the current, ahem, movement to Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and also include most Farrelly brothers movies, every Adam Sandler movie but two, and many others. The best of the bunch deftly combine slapstick, toilet humor, profanity and in-jokes in an often hip and self-referential way that reveals the intelligence of their makers, despite the pedestrian subject matter.
If there is ever a Hall of Fame for Dumb Movies for Smart People, I think Malibu’s Most Wanted has a better-than-average chance of getting inducted in its first year of eligibility. Although it has several things going for it, the main reason would be Kennedy himself. He is a master mimic and also very funny. Anyone who thinks the two necessarily go hand in hand has obviously never been to a Rich Little show. The Brad Gluckman character originates from Kennedy’s TV show. Just as on TV, the actor combines almost De Niro-like obsessive detail to his characters’ nuances with masterful comic timing.
Of course, a whole movie with nothing but Brad Gluckman would get old real fast, but that never happens. Veteran sitcom director John Whitesell (Roseanne and Blossom) surrounds Kennedy with a seasoned group of actors who are themselves supported by a clever yet silly script that milks every laugh without trying too hard.
Is Malibu’s Most Wanted often unbearably silly? Yes. It’s supposed to be. It’s a Dumb Movie for Smart People, after all.
Malibu’s Most Wanted
PG-13
Opening tomorrow at area theaters
Three reels out of four
Standing in the
Shadows of Motown
Available Tuesday
PG
They were known as The Funk Brothers. Their game was layin’ down the most scarifyingly righteous grooves heard at Motown Records or any other label, for that matter. From 1959 to 1972, they did their little thing and they did it better than anybody. They made mediocre artists sound acceptable, decent artists sound better and great ones fulfill their promise. Director Paul Justman combines live interviews, new live performances and archival footage to tell the story of these forgotten geniuses. It’s a story worth watching.
