They
superimposed Marlon Wayans' (The
Ladykillers, Scary Movie 2) head
on the body of a young dwarf to create the effect of making him look
small, but one part of him did appear to shrink down to tiny size during
the conception stage of this abysmal film -- the size of his brain.
Little Man is without a
doubt one of the worst movies of 2006, or any year for that matter, with
not a single laugh-worthy moment to be found at any point in this 90
minute film. I could give the Wayans' men some credit for taking chances
with their films, as their last movie had the high concept of Marlon and
Shawn dressing up as white women, but somewhere along the line, they
really need to stop with the gimmicks and concentrate on being funny, if
they even remember how to anymore.
Little Man
may be a funny
idea, although some might claim it has been done before in the Merry
Melodies/Bugs Bunny classic cartoon, "Baby Buggy Bunny", which featured
a remarkably similar premise of a hoodlum losing the loot after a heist
and having to don a baby disguise to get it back. Little Man
takes this idea, and concocts a plan for Calvin (Marlon Wayans) to
infiltrate the home of young couple Darryl (Shawn Wayans) and Vanessa
(Washington, Fantastic Four), who
had already been talking about plans of having a baby of their own when
Calvin appears at their doorstep dressed as a toddler. Calvin
plans to pretend to be a baby until he can get his hands on the large
jewel he stole, before the local mob boss (Palminteri,
Running Scared) decides to snuff him
out for not handing it over.
The problem with Little Man
isn't the concept, which is amusing enough to think that something
funny could have been made out of it in the right hands. The
problem is in the execution, with the Wayans' doing what they always
do with any concept they have, which is to infuse every scene
with dick jokes, piss jokes, poop jokes, fart jokes, and boob jokes.
No matter how outlandish the concept, they just keep making the same
movie over and over, concocting new ways to deliver the exact same
material they've been doing for almost two decades now.
A better title for this film
would have been Men Getting Hit in the Crotch, as that seems to
be the one comedic device that the Wayans' never tire of,
trotting it out in nearly every other scene, and sometimes multiple
times in the same one. The rest of the gags are in similarly poor
taste, with something to offend just about everyone. Whether it
plays off of incest, rape, child abduction, child abuse, or child
endangerment, the film is only an attempted child molestation scene from
exploring nearly every disturbing avenue possible with this material and
still hold on to the PG-13 rating.
None of these things offended me
nearly as much as the fact that, considering how twisted the concept is
and how funny the Wayans' can be at times, there just isn't anything for
us to laugh at. As was the case with their previous project,
White Chicks, it's more disturbing
than amusing on so many levels. Looks like they haven't stopped
trying to make movies worthy of being called "Scary
Movie".
I didn't think that I'd find a
film in 2006 that could actually be as bad as
The Benchwarmers, but Little Man
manages to deliver an equally abhorrent assault on our senses blow for
blow. For their next comic venture, perhaps it's time for the
Wayans to finally try something they've never tried before -- grow up.
