Little Man Doesn’t Have Big Shoes To Fill

     I like to think that you get what you expect when seeing a Wayans Brothers movie. The 2004 summer smash White Chicks was a horrible excuse for entertainment but it was entertaining nonetheless. That said, Little Man didn’t have very high expectations to meet. It is pretty lucky for that, too, since it couldn’t even reach that low bar that White Chicks set.

     Little Man feels awfully similar to a failed television pilot. There are a few scattered laughs but the overall effect is that of a series of short skits. Some of these skits involving rectal thermometers, nursing mothers and flatulence in bath tubs are far too uncomfortable to ever be worthy of any laughs.

     Still, there are some scenes that actually do work. I am not going to lie for the movie and say that there is a great deal of heart, because there isn’t (despite the movie’s insincere attempts). Yet, there is some kind of amusement that comes with watching a small person with Marlon Wayans’s head scurry around the screen.

     Marlon Wayans plays the peculiar creature, Calvin, who has just been released from prison. He meets up with Percy, played by Tracy Morgan, and is immediately thrust into a diamond heist. Things don’t go so well and the robbers end up fleeing from the fuzz. Calvin ditches the diamond in a woman’s purse and they wait for the police to give up the search.

     Percy dresses Calvin up as a baby and places him on the doorstep of the woman to try and retrieve the diamond. The woman is Vanessa, played by Kerry Washington, and is married to Darryl, played by Shawn Wayans. The couple has been arguing about having a baby and this ugly bundle of joy comes as a blessing to Darryl who has wanted to be a father for some time.

     Since Child Services is closed for the weekend, the couple decide to care for them baby themselves thus buying Calvin some time to get the diamond. There are many obstacles standing in his way, though, such as Vanessa’s grumpy father played by John Witherspoon as well as a mobile. Meanwhile, Percy learns that if the two of them don’t come up with the diamond soon Walken, played by Chazz Palminteri, will make sure they both wind up six feet under.

     Part of the reason Little Man keeps the interest level high is the constant revolving door of cameo appearances by folks from Saturday Night Live, actors who got their starts alongside the Wayans Brothers on In Living Color and even a few from the Happy Madison crowd. The story itself is not nearly as clever or absorbing as that of White Chicks so it is fair to say that Little Man is a step down from its predecessor, albeit a small one.

     Disgusting jokes and low-quality filmmaking aside, Little Man is not necessarily the kind of movie that you can hate. At the very least it is occupying and it never talks down to its viewer. In a way, Little Man can’t be blamed for its audience’s susceptibility to lowbrow humor.

     Such is the primary fault with the flick, though. While this type of comedy passes for entertainment moviegoers are missing a lot of better material playing in multiplexes if they choose to settle for this. All in all, the Wayans Brothers don’t make such horrible feature films but it would be nice if they got increasingly better, even slightly, than the opposite way around.