February 28, 2011 - 11:38pm
Weekend Movie Guide: Big Momma is Back!
BY DAVID TAO
What is it about drag that makes us laugh? There was Jamie Foxx in “White Chicks.” There was every movie Tyler Perry has ever starred in. And there was “Big Momma’s House,” starring Martin Lawrence as FBI agent Malcom Turner, a master of disguise who’s somehow found a bunch of laughable reasons to go undercover as Big Momma, a fat Southern grandma. Despite its schlocky premise, audiences gave Big Momma, and her 2006 sequel, “Big Momma’s House 2,” $187 million worth of combined box office love. And that’s why we’ve got another steaming pile of cross-dressing grandma rolling into theaters this weekend. “Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son” is a transparent attempt to rebrand a conceptually thin franchise, starring Brandon T. Jackson ("Tropic Thunder") as a character who’s supposed to become the new Big Momma. No thanks.
Speaking of well worn premises, Liam Neeson’s latest film, “Unknown,” is also opening wide this weekend. Remember 2009’s “Taken”? It’s basically the exact same movie, except Neeson is blowing up Berlin instead of Paris, and instead of a kidnapped daughter, he’s looking for the key to a MacGuffin. Oh, and he’s married to “Mad Men” ’s astonishingly gorgeous January Jones.
Finally, there’s “I Am Number Four,” the latest movie produced by auteur Michael Bay. In this release, aliens who look like us are being hunted by other aliens, who also look like us only they have really ugly facial tattoos. Everybody has weird CGI superpowers and the good aliens can inexplicably only be killed in a special sequence. Oh and also, since Bay’s a producer, there’ll be lots of things blowing up. If you’re a fan of “Justified,” it’ll interest you to know that Timothy Olyphant is in this. I guess he’s slummin’ it this week.
If you want something moving, convincing and realistic, try “Biutiful,” a powerful film opening this week at the State Theater. Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, the crime thriller is set in Barcelona’s underworld and features a tour-de-force performance by Javier Bardem, who’s also nominated for an Oscar. Or, look for “Waiting for Superman,” a documentary about America’s failing public school systems, on DVD. If you’re looking for something more classical, you should also know that Oscar-winners “Moonstruck,” “All the President’s Men” and the recently Vaulted "Network" are making their debuts on Blu-ray.
