Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son (2011)

Admirable film.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

FBI agent Malcolm Turner and his son, Trent, go undercover at an all-girls performing arts school after Trent witnesses a murder. Posing as Big Momma and Charmaine, they must find the murderer before he finds them. Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son was meant to be Martin Lawrence last theatrical film since then he is only doing stand up comedy. Once again this 3rd and final installment of the Big Momma Trilogy is fun, ridiculous and pretty damn funny plus Tony Curran makes for a very good villain and Jessica Lucas is pretty damn hot to say the least.

Short summary: Agent Malcolm and his son, Trent hide themselves in the "Georgia girls school for the arts" by being dressed as women. Trent witnesses a murder and together with his father, they are trying to locate the killer. Malcolm tries to find evidence against the murderer and with Trent, they make lots of adventures at school!Content: Trent passed the high school and was accepted at Duke University. His stepfather, Turner wants him to continue studying, but he wants to be a rapper. He tries to sign him a contract after his mother is on vacation, but he refuses. To get the signature, Trent chases his father and witnesses a murder, committed by the Russian Chirkoff. Therefore, they dress up as women and go to the "Georgia girls school for the arts". Malcolm is looking for a USB stick containing evidence against the killer Chirkoff. He discovers that the USB stick is in a music box, which was stolen from the library. Trent screws up the undercover mission when he was seen by friends during a date with Haley, as himself. The gang members of Chirkoff introduced themselves as record producers to Trent's friends and asked to inform them if they saw him. The members can not find him when he goes undercover as Charmaine Daisy Pierce. Unfortunately ,Trent exposes himself when he sings a song with his own voice. Therefore, he escapes with Turner and Haley but get caught by Chirkoff. The school guard, Kurtis shoots him and rescues them at the last moment. Finally, the killer and his accomplices are arrested. They return to their house and then, the movie ends.Opinion: Big Mommas: Like Father, Like son is an American comedy movie which contains American humor. The passage in which Turner talks with a white person on the phone occurs a typical American humor scene. The white person calls him chocolate and this is a situation humor. Turner, as Big Momma is pretty and gives spontaneous reactions. His jokes are simple and you don't require any background knowledge. So I think that this is a great American comedy movie because the jokes were easy and it amused me. From my viewpoint, this is a must-watch movie!

Ahh, what can I say? It's lame and dry. At times I wanted to leave my seat. And instead of laughing, I suffered the absence of laughing or even smiling ! To know why it was like that; I have one fair answer to you : The Script. This story is worn away, and the writing didn't spend much effort on renewing it a bit. I recalled (Some Like it Hot) all the way, (White Chicks) for some time, and the original Big Momma's movie; (Big Momma's House), naturally. Though, it isn't bad for a movie to be like older movies, the real bad is being anything ELSE them as well. And that's what this movie pulled off perfectly !I saw all the events miles away before happening, and to add a ton of fuel, the comedy didn't compensate. In fact, I didn't run into comedy in the first place. All what this movie had to make laughs was the ancient situation of man-disguised-as-a-girl seeing a real girl taking off her clothes (and he throws a line Sean Connery has said in Goldfinger, 47 years before !), plus some nauseating situation where Martin Lawrence as big Momma was forced to be naked in a fine art class, and no need to say that both ended as unfunny ! So there was no new story, new dealing or any comedy. The third alone is sad for a comedy to achieve. Add to that side bugging notes. To instance : While the sight of Big Momma is horrible, she always finds a man who falls for her. And this time the man who fell for her before then knew her secret as a man, does it again ??!! The teacher of the fine art class sure got enough time to know Big Momma's fact as a man, though the movie rushed that moment strangely. And when we see the guard entering the class earlier, we easily predict his line while suggesting that Big Momma poses naked; which tells you how there is something wrong with the comic sense of the movie's directing or editing !Nevertheless, it wasn't all bad. It had some, rather a few, merits. It preferred not to use the nasty stuff that every comedy nowadays obligatorily has (sex jokes, rude language, and – yes – some farting). Although it contained an unnecessary urinating scene, but thank god it was just one ! Brandon T. Jackson gave so right performance. Dancing with Martin Lawrence, in one scene, was done without any artificiality. And the moment of writing a song during the first date was inspired and sweet, being the only "original" moment of this ceremony of failed rehashing ! I was sad the most for Martin Lawrence. That guy assured, with many movies, that his mentality is poor. Look at him choosing no daring project, no original idea, one after another. And he just doesn't work it out smartly. Thus, this time I messed him on screen. There was no actual funny stuff for him to perform, and clearly he didn't come up with a material of his own. This is one of his least enjoyable comedies. The thing is, you can say the same about most of his comedies lately !I have always said that Lawrence doesn't have it to do pure action, drama, romance like his fellow Well Smith. But according to movies like (Big Momma 3), I knew that he doesn't have the clever mentality of Smith too ! So he must learn himself a lesson and think twice, or think, about the scripts he selects, since there is nothing uglier than non funny comic star ! The problem of (Big Mommas : Like Father, Like Son) isn't about having no originality with the formulaic plot; it's about having no juice inside this formulaic plot, as if the writers didn't have time to make any creative situations or amusing lines (I bet, this movie doesn't make its own makers laugh !). So with another script, or true script, it could have been comic and memorable. Because being the way it is, makes it a disposable movie to be watched and forgotten. Dully watched and quickly forgotten to be precise !

I have to re-watch the previous Big Momma movies, but my memory of them was that they were mediocre. I don't remember them though being as bad as this one, which is one of the worst movies of the year so far in my opinion. The film doesn't look anything special visually, likewise with the soundtrack which was nice to listen to but forgettable not long after. The direction is often unfocused and while Martin Lawrence is good Brandon T.Jackson tries too hard and ends up over-compensating. It was the humour, characters and the story that sinks the film. The story is rushed and predictable, the characters are annoying and little more than irritating stereotypes-some of whom also verge on offensive- and the script is dire and the jokes tasteless. All in all, really quite dire. 1/10 Bethany Cox