Big House? More like big yawn

 Director:  John Whitesell
Starring: Sarah Jessica Parker,  Martin Lawrence, Mark Moses, Kat Dennings, Emily Proctor
Running Time 99 minutes
Classification: PG

Big Momma’s House 2 sees Martin Lawrence reprise the role of undercover agent Malcolm Turner who finds himself donning the Big Momma suit one more time. When Malcolm goes undercover he finds himself in deeper than he realises, as he starts to grow attached to the family of the man he is trying to investigate. Turner sees his loyalties stretched between the Police force, and the increasing love he is showing towards the family…

Haplessly loveable Big Momma is played by Martin Lawrence and offers the usual variety of comedy these kind of movies promise. The part is simply a rehash of what happened in the first film, which wasn’t a diabolically bad movie to be fair. This time around though, the part seems forced and the novelty of Lawrence dressing up as a woman has long since faded. At times we see Lawrence’s sublime comedic quality come shining through, but all too often the part is ‘dumbed’ down by unnecessary infantile humour. Support acting comes in the form of Mark Moses and a refreshingly good performance from 19-year old Kat Dennings as the gothic yet loveable daughter.

The acting in Big Momma’s House 2 is reasonable; at times Lawrence seems annoyed to be playing such as stupid character, but he has useful acting capability around him to keep it all in check. The problem with the film doesn’t come with the acting, it doesn’t come with the directing (John Whitesell), and it doesn’t even come with the comedy. The problem with Big Momma’s House is the whole package, put simply; it doesn’t work.

At times the film shows all the comedy Martin Lawrence can bring to a production, but too often this subsides to show what is essentially a terrible film. Indeed, even those amused by the original are likely to be disappointed by the sequel six years later. The comedy is more immature, the plot is worse than ever and innovation has been left on the hard shoulder, this film instead replaces it with sheer money making production straight from the offices of whoever commissioned this.

Like I say, Big Momma’s House wasn’t woeful, and it’s disappointing that six years on the film hasn’t kept some of the original comedy the first showed in bags. Admittedly, a sequel to a film to which its comedy derived from the uniqueness of the situation (a guy dressed up as an old woman) was always going to be hard, which is why it perplexes me as to how Twentieth Century Fox thought this would possibly be a good idea. Rumours and hearsay suggest a third outing may be on the way, but I’m taking this news with a pinch of salt for now…

Big Momma’s House 2 is a very bad film, there is no originality, a lack of any decent comedy and I’m still at a loss as to the reason behind a sequel in the first place. Admittedly the film is aimed at kids or young teenagers, but humour has moved on from this, the same Beethoven-esk comedy created in the nineties simply doesn’t pass anymore. Dull, even at just 99 minutes, the film drags on and on, only sometimes brightened by the onset of Martin Lawrence’s brilliant comedic talents. Indeed, if it not for him the film would surely have been scrapped after two weeks into production, but Lawrence isn’t enough to save this movie from a box office disaster. Bewildered as to its conception, I can’t help but feel actually annoyed that I spent £4 to go watch this.

1/5 A dreadful film, only saved at times by Martin Lawrence

Big Momma's House 2 and the original Big Momma's House are available to boy from Amazon.co.uk.