Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son Blu-ray Movie Review

The height of unnecessary sequels.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater July 6, 2011

Was anyone expecting another Big Momma movie? Were comedy fans really hoping that Martin Lawrence would once again don his fat suit and wig for more tired gender-bending, crime solving hijinks? You’d think the answer would be “no” to both questions, but Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son, the third entry in the series, unfathomably raked in almost $84 million box office dollars this February, despite being an entirely uninspired, impossibly bland, and completely unnecessary sequel. Tyler Perry has been stealing some of a Lawrence’s thunder lately, especially with his “Madea” franchise, which also involves a sex-swapping fat suit, and this latest—and hopefully final—Big Momma film seems like Lawrence’s way of saying, “Hey, remember me? I made Big Momma’s House five years before Diary of a Mad Black Woman.” Unfortunately, the movie is more of a strike out than a strike back. Devoid of any original ideas, screenwriter Matthew Fogel and director John Whitesell mash-up Fame and Some Like It Hot for a tiring, 107-minute slog that’s as funny as it is unpredictable. That is, not very.

You don’t need any prior Big Momma knowledge before going into Like Father, Like Son, except this: Martin Lawrence plays Malcolm Turner, an FBI agent whose modus operandi for crime-solving is—inexplicably—to disguise himself as an overweight elderly woman. Hey, if it works, it works, I guess. The set-up for this new film is even thinner than the plot of the first two movies, if that’s possible. Turner’s son, Trent (Brandon T. Jackson, taking over for Jascha Washington), is a high school senior who wants to forgo college—he’s just been accepted into Duke—to focus on his nascent rap career. There are two catches: 1.) Malcolm is dead set against this, and 2.) since Trent is only 17, he needs his dad’s signature on his new recording contract. Trent goes the site of an FBI sting operation to bug his dad about signing the document, but he’s put in danger when he inadvertently witnesses a Russian mobster named Chirkoff—yes, it sounds like “jerk off”—killing an informant. Chirkoff is after a flash drive that, for some reason, is hidden on the campus of an all-girls performing arts school. To hide his son in plain view and ferret out the location of the jump drive, Turner decides that they’ll doll up in drag and infiltrate the school. Big Momma gets a job as a “den mother” in the dormitories, and Trent— morphed into the dowdy “Charmaine”—enrolls as a student.

You can see where this is going. There’s not a single surprising beat in Like Father, Like Son, which plays out exactly like you’d expect. Will the hormonal charmer Trent act like a horny wolf in sheep’s clothing when he first gets to roam the halls of the dorm, where girls walk around wearing nearly nothing? You know it. Will he then fall in love with Haley Robinson (Jessica Lucas), the singer/songwriter who befriends the chubby, unpopular “new girl,” Charmaine? Why, of course. Will his need to stay in character ultimately conflict with his feelings? Naturally. It’s a scenario ripped straight of the infinitely better comedy, Some Like It Hot, in which Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon put on wigs, dresses, and make-up to join an all-girl jazz band. But where Some Like It Hot uses sexual innuendo that’s both verbally and visually sly—the film was a covert rebellion against the Hollywood censorship of the Hays Code—Like Father, Like Son can only muster broad, cheap, obvious slapstick jokes. During an impromptu lunchtime jam session, Big Momma dances on a cafeteria table before slipping backward and cracking it in half. She/he poses almost-nude for an art class and plays a gross-out game of Twister with the school’s heavyset janitor, Kurtis Kool (Faizon Love), a sex-starved oaf who likes his women large and in charge. (He calls Big Momma “one fly Zulu woman.”) The film is one dumb gag after another, with the whole business about the incriminating flash drive serving only as a thread to string them all together.

We’ve come to expect this from the once-charismatic Lawrence, who’s star power now seems to be on the wane, but what’s Brandon T. Jackson doing in this mess? After high-profile turns in Tropic Thunder and Percy Jackson, you’d think he’d want to steer clear from such obvious b-grade material. The thing about Like Father, Like Son is that it doesn’t even feel like a film. It’s more like cinematic white noise— empty, meaningless, trance-inducing. The movie has an antiseptic quality; it’s so commercial, focus-tested, and family-friendly that it’s almost sterile. Built from racial and gender stereotypes, clichéd plot turns, and recycled jokes that have been done better elsewhere, it seems to have been created by a committee whose sole job is to churn out films that turn a buck with minimum creative effort. If that weren’t enough, the film spoons out a soporific message about growing up and realizing that you should only follow your dreams after you’ve got some higher education under your belt. It’s worth noting, then, that neither Lawrence nor Jackson went to college—both moved straight to Los Angeles after high school. But perhaps Lawrence intended this last Big Momma movie as a cautionary tale: Hey kids, go to university or you might end up wearing a fat suit in a sorry excuse for a comedy.

Do note that this disc includes both the theatrical cut and the extended version, which is five minutes longer.

Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

It's no saving grace, but Like Father, Like Son at least looks great on Blu-ray, with a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that's bright, colorful, and reasonably sharp. The movie was shot on 35mm and retains its natural filmic appearance, with a rich-but-thin grain structure that hasn't been touched by digital noise reduction. I'm not lying when I say the film is colorful; the costumes are vibrant—see Big Momma's red moomoo—and the set design looks like it was done by a thirteen-year-old girl with an affinity for pink. Inky blacks and a tight sense of pop and contrast underscore these saturated hues, while skin tones are consistently warm and natural. Clarity is excellent too. Just check out the nubby texture of Big Momma's terrycloth bathrobe, the weft of the janitor's heather-gray polo shirt, and the resolution of the actors' hair and faces. Edge enhancement isn't a concern at all, and there are no apparent compression issues, like banding, excess noise, or macroblocking.

Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Like most comedies, Big Mommas' sound design is noticeably restrained, with most of the emphasis on dialogue. That said, other than a lack of involvement, there's nothing wrong with this lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. The voices are indeed clean and clear, and there's no muffling, peaking, or heavy fluctuation in volume. The surrounds channels are very sparsely used, but they do kick in on occasion for added ambience, like chatter in the school cafeteria. I can't recall any distinct cross-channel effects, though, and most of the mix is definitely located up front and center. While the track doesn't have much need for heft or extreme dynamic range, Trent's hip-hop music carries some thick bass, and the rest of the film's music has better-than-merely-acceptable punch and presence. It may be understated, but this mix does exactly what it needs to do.

Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Director John Whitesell, Producer David T. Friendly, Brandon T. Jackson, Jessica Lucas, and Portia Doubleday
• Deleted Scenes (1080p, 11:44): Includes seven deleted scenes.
• Song and Dance - Momma Style (1080p, 5:47): A behind the scenes look at the process of writing and recording the music for the film.
• Bigger Busts Countdown (1080p, 9:47): A top ten countdown of the "most memorable and classic Big Momma moments."
• Gag Reel (1080p, 2:18)
• "Baby You Know" Music Video (1080p, 3:25)
• "Lyrical Miracle" Extended Music Video (1080p, 2:51)
• Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:00)

Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Let's hope Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son is the last of the series, because I'm not sure it could get any worse. This is inoffensive, brain- draining comedy at its most tepid. 20th Century Fox's Blu-ray release is solid, but a strong picture and lossless audio won't save you from the film's suffocating dullness. Stay away.