FBI: Operazione tata

Some of the greatest movie comedies of all time have revolved around men dressing up in drag and trying to pass themselves off as women ("Some Like It Hot" and "Tootsie" being the prime examples). Ironically, that's also been the basis for some of the worst comedies ever made ("White Chicks" being the prime example I can think of at the moment). Somewhere in the middle lie the Big Momma movies, both the original, made in 2000,and the sequel from 2006, creatively entitled "Big Momma's House 2." Once again, Martin Lawrence stars as the FBI agent who this time goes undercover as a nanny to the children of a man who may be involved in some sort of major threat to national security (yawn!).

In turns of its storyline, the movie falls somewhere between "Mrs. Doubtfire" and "Mary Poppins," with Big Momma managing to heal the rift in the family and making the neglectful father a model parent by the end of the film. The crime scenario is beyond stupid and leads to a whole host of idiotic slapstick scenes involving Big Momma taking on the gun-wielding bad guys, but if you have a high level of tolerance for this sort of thing, "Big Momma's House 2" should provide you with a good share of laughs amid all the clunkers.

Lawrence exhibits a great deal of energy in the role of Big Momma, but he never brings the kind of insight and believability to the part that Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis or Dustin Hoffman managed to do in their respective turns at cross dressing comedy. Unfortunately, Lawrence's portrayal is all surface imitation, utterly devoid of the kind of subtle shading that might suggest he had actually gotten in touch with his character. This film would be a trifle less innocuous if it hadn't been done so much better already.

This film has its high points but not too many. It is gonna appeal more to the kids than the adults. Martin Lawrence does not seem put the same effort into the sequel. The kids provide most of the entertainment as the adults phone in their performances. Not as enjoyable as the original and the script not as sharp. Would not waste money on going to the cinema, save it and wait till it comes out on DVD. Martin Lawrence seems to have run out of good films, have not seen him in one for quite some time. On the whole the children will laugh more than the adults, there is enough to keep the adults mildly entertained but is not a barrel load of laughs. Good but could have been so much more.

My friends and I started watching Big Mama's House 2 a couple months ago, but we never got to finish, and in some ways I was glad because I usually like to see the first film before I see the sequel. Most times you feel like you have missed out on so much and you might not understand the humor. So I rented Big Mama's House and was sorely disappointed, I was really nervous and was thinking that maybe I didn't want to see the second one. But my friend insisted that I see it and to give it a shot.

Malcom is back and this time he's a safety teacher who has felt like he's lost his edge, but he has made a promise to his wife since she is pregnant. But when he finds out there is an investigation on a top secret defense CD being released to some very bad men, he goes undercover as Big Mama to be the man who has the CD and his family. He lies to his wife and work and the family he is caring for, but ends up saving the day for everyone.

I have to say that I honestly laughed a lot more in the second Big Mama's House more than the first one. This one seemed just more light hearted and it was fun, despite it being predictable, I think more should give this movie a better chance, because in my opinion this was better and well thought out more than the first.

5/10

The movie isn't really that good. Most jokes fall flat and the film is predictable, but the movie still has it's laughs and it's enjoyable somehow.

Martin Lawrence gives a mediocre performance as most of everything he says isn't funny at all. Still, the movie has it's moments like the beer-loving chihuahua and that kid that was always falling.

The movie is mediocre, and I wouldn't pay $8 to watch it, but the movie is still watchable. The movie doesn't deserve to be on the Bottom 100 because the bottom 100 is made for painful movies, and this one is at least watchable.

Rating: 2 of 4 stars (Watchable.)

After settling down into a desk job inside the FBI, former Field Agent Malcolm Turner (Martin Lawrence) defies orders to stay out of the investigation of his former partners death and travels to Orange County, California to go undercover as Big Momma, working for an unhappy woman (Emily Proctor) who is under investigation for the murder. Little did he realise that he would become attached to the dysfunctional family

After pouring myself a nice hot cup of tea, I settled down in the comfy chair of Screen 1 to brace myself for the print check and hopefully have some harmless viewing. The result; A relatively brain dead projectionist trying to get to grips of where the last hour and a half of his life disappeared to. Now, to tell you the truth, I've never been much of a big fan of Martin Lawrence to start with but, like Jeremy Clarkson driving from London to Edinburgh and back ECONOMICALLY, shocks are everywhere. For the first time ever, I actually found Martin Lawrence's humour quite funny. Giving the dog a bowlful of tequila gave me a bit of a tickle, as did Big Momma's 'Baywatch' style slow-mo run.

This is probably the only plus side on a film which lacked the power to keep a rather basic storyline going. The characters created weren't complex enough. The family consisted of three children. One who was 3 and wasn't able to speak, which you undoubtedly knew he would by the end. The 8 year old girl was a wannabe dancer, and there was a troubled teen, who would stop her rebellious ways by the end of the movie. Emily Proctor's acting throughout the film was, to be truthful, pretty lame. It's like she took Calleigh Duquesne's character from CSI: Miami and just took all of the weapons expertise out of it. No original work was added to the character.

To sum up, this is a sequel that should have been left WELL alone. If you are of the type of mind that requires a film that will challenge you, I'd look elsewhere. Laughter is guaranteed as this film's storyline is clearly based around Big Momma, allowing Martin Lawrence breathing space to play with the character, but there were never any genuine references to the original film.