White Chicks-2004
Director Keenen Ivory Wayans
Starring Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans
Scott’s Review #647
Reviewed May 29, 2017
Grade: D
Anything but high art, though at the time of release (2004), it seemed like a clever yet silly slapstick farce, White Chicks was a film I found rather enjoyable.
Watching the film in 2017, however, some thirteen years later, it feels dated beyond belief and as dumb as can be.
The film also contains Paris Hilton’s gimmick characters and racial overtones that were lost on me when I first saw the film.
Influenced by the drag comedy (and classic) from 1959, Some Like It Hot, the premise sounds interesting and comical.
Kevin and Marcus Copeland (played by the comical Wayans brothers) are a pair of black, masculine, F.B.I. agents who bungle an undercover investigation and are given one last chance to redeem themselves before being booted from the bureau for good.
They are assigned the task of protecting the mega-rich cruise-line heiresses, Brittany and Tiffany Wilson, who are in town (at the Hamptons) from a planned kidnapping plot over Labor Day weekend.
Kevin and Marcus don blonde wigs, and freakish makeup, and awkwardly pose as the Wilson sisters to save their jobs.
As the story goes on, Kevin and Marcus (as Brittany and Tiffany) develop relationships with various characters, including millionaire Latrell Spencer (Terry Crews), who takes an interest in Marcus (thinking he is Tiffany, and white).
Other antics unfold as the “girls” try their best to form friendships with the heiress’s snotty friends while attempting to foil the kidnapping plot.
Similarities to the classic Wilder hit, Some Like It Hot, are tough not to notice, and director Keenen Ivory Wayans is smart to borrow from a film considered one of the greatest comedies of all time.
Just as Joe and Jerry (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon) go on the lam to escape mafia figures out of desperation, Kevin and Marcus are desperate to keep their jobs, causing both sets of “impersonators” to suffer from dire circumstances.
Also worth mentioning are similar conclusions in both films: love interest Osgood Fielding III, also a millionaire, as is Spencer in White Chicks; each is not fazed by the “big reveal” as the men are de-masked as actually being men.
Clever in 2004, the incorporation of celebrity Paris Hilton in 2017 now seems dated and of the past.
In real life, being a hotel heiress, characters Brittany and Tiffany (cruise line heiresses) mirror Hilton as spoiled, self-centered, and oblivious to everyone around them.
The aspect was a good idea at the time of the release of the film, but now it is irrelevant, not even as a nostalgia gag- perhaps in the year 2037, White Chicks might be appreciated more, but I would not hold my breath.
The overall tone of White Chicks is also fraught with silliness and with one gag after another. Rather than being believable as females, the Wayans brothers look downright frightening and robotic as Brittany and Tiffany.
In comedies, suspension of disbelief is required, but the producers should have done a bit more to feminize the characters instead of playing them as goofs.
The ending of the film is no-frills and formulaic, with no real twist or surprise ending to speak of.
The ridiculous misunderstandings involving Kevin and Marcus’s real significant others, who foolishly believe the men are having affairs with other women, seem forced and amateurish.
Predictably, when the men profess their love for the girls earnestly, they fall for it hook, line, and sinker, and the film wraps in disappointing, standard fashion.
Cute and fresh at the time, White Chicks (2004) now feels stale and tired, with racial overtones that were deemed amusing back in the day but now seem mean-spirited and unnecessary.
The film is an attempt at recreating a classic comedy for a younger audience. Still, I would recommend seeing the original Some Like It Hot (1959) instead- it is much more enjoyable.
