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People who have seen Jamie Kennedy's
very funny short-lived prank show "The Jamie Kennedy Experiment" will
probably know who B-Rad, the white rapper is. For those of you who have no
idea who B-Rad is, he's a character used by Kennedy in a pretty clever
skit to freak parents out when their daughters bring them to dinner hyping
her new boyfriend and introduce him to them, much to their chagrin.
Kennedy attempts to freak them out and he usually succeeds by rapping in
public as they try to contain their embarrassment and utter shock; it's a
pretty funny sketch. Those who haven't seen his show just know Kennedy as
the crazy movie geek/red herring in "Scream" who belted out movie-based
monologues and theories, and is tortured throughout the film by various
characters, but Kennedy does have a genuine knack for comedy.
Sure, it was a bit presumptuous on Kennedy and his agent's part in
spinning off a mildly amusing character from his rather obscure comedy
show into a feature length movie, and while, once again, all of my
expectations were down, I was pretty surprised to find this
was just so entertaining. The movie no one has been asking for but came to
theaters anyway, stars Kennedy as white rapper B-Rad who lives in the
rough and tough notorious streets of--Malibu California with a large
mansion he declares as small, and friends who are
about as intimidating as gangsters as Britney Spears is talented, not. One
if a Hindu named Hadji (Kal Penn), another is a white boy named Mocha
(Nick Swardson), and the other is a girl with a husky voice named Monster
(Keili Lefkovitz).
So, B-Rad is the son of a campaigning Bill Gluckman played by the awfully
funny Ryan O'Neal who is pretty embarrassed by his son, as is his mother
played by Bo Derek (in a very brief appearance) and refuses to believe he
lives the lifestyle. B-Rad is not ashamed of who he is, and belts out raps
for literally everything convinced he's the next big rapper. Bill's
campaign manager Ted Gibbons played by the appealing Blair Underwood and
Gluckman's team decide to rid him of his embarrassing son and go on a
mission to "scare the black out of him", so they pay two sophisticated
young African American actors money to pretend to be gangsters and kidnap
B-Rad to turn him white again with the help of their cousin Shondra played
by the always funny Regina Hall (the Scary Movie trilogy). The problem is,
the two actors Sean and PJ are far from what you would consider gangsters,
but they must invoke their abilities and pretend to be very scary, but
when B-Rad discovers his father's plot, he decides to play the game and
get back at them.
While the material here is just recycled and re-hashed (ala white guys
pretending to be gangsters, white guys trying to be hip, and even
resorting to talking animals with a voice cameo from rapper Snoop Dogg),
there was just a lot of amusing and endearing material
in the film to entertain any audience. First off, Taye Diggs and the scene
chewing Anthony Anderson are utterly laugh out loud hilarious in the film
as the two actors who don't exactly fit the profile of thugs, and they
even riff about their gang attire in what is obviously an improvised scene
where they try out different hairstyles. Diggs continues to surprise me
with his talent showing some true talent for comedy here as the sometimes
effeminate actor who tries his hardest to scare B-Rad but always ends up
getting more than he bargained for. The chemistry between the two actors
is just fun to watch and some of the best scenes include the two arguing
with one another.
Regina Hall who is really funny in the film plays the love interest
Shondra who is hired to set-up and lure B-Rad into being carjacked, but
soon learns to take an interest in him. Every character in the film is
very interesting and Hall is magnetic as the likable and scene
stealing Shondra. She even manages to steal many a scene from Kennedy who
is at his top comedically. The film has a range of very funny characters
including B-Rad's friends, his father played by the interesting and funny
Ryan O'Neal who is sadly underused, Blair
Underwood as the puppet master setting up the plot, and the hilarious
gangsters led by the intimidating Tec (Damien Wayans) who is intent on
getting money from Gluckman while tolerating B-Rad.
There are many funny scenes in the film including B-Rad's attempt at
battling in a rap contest at a club as he's booed off the stage, there's a
really funny cameo from Mike Epps from the "Friday" films, there's B-Rad's
attempt to rob a Korean convenience store, his
shouting in a theater during a horror movie ("Ru-u-n bitch, he gonna kill
you!!") and his catch phrase that I couldn't help laughing at: "Don't be hatin'", which he spouts throughout the film that hardly ever got old.
Aside from that, Kennedy makes B-Rad a likable guy and hardly ever goes
over the top; B-Rad despite the fact you're never sure if he is exactly
how he is, or if he'll grow out of it is very interesting and is a very
magnetic character. You want to see what's going to happen to him, and
we're taken through a very funny, well-acted, fun-filled trip with a
hilarious climax.
 All of the material in
here is familiar, way too familiar. The rich white guy acting like a
gangster, his attempts at rapping, and then there's B-Rad's often
overused gag in which he thinks of his privileged lifestyle as ghetto
often referring to Malibu as the hard streets and talking about how hard
it is for a brother when the public be on your private beach, his
friends pretending to act like thugs sometimes lay on their gag a little
too thick to the point where we've basically had enough. We get they're
un-cool regardless of how cool they think they are, and all of the gags
here have been done over and over. Kennedy never really manages to think
outside the box here; he continues going for the surefire material to
gain laughs with the shtick a lot of comedians have gone for even
resorting to talking animals for laughter . As well, while Diggs and
Anderson are fun to watch, they also tend to go over the top with their
character's sophistication and lack of acting skills. The movie tends to
spend too much time on them at certain points, and while they can be
funny, the routine slowly becomes old.
While flawed in many aspects and
recycled, and while many of you will consider B-Rad a rip-off of British
Comedian Ali G, don't be hatin', give this film a chance because it's very
funny, fun, well-acted, and well-written.
- The horror movie B-Rad, Sean, and
PJ are seeing at the theater is 2001's "Valentine".
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