The last three movies Shawn and Mar...

The last three movies Shawn and Marlon Wayans made together have a combined U gros of almost $300 million. That's more than the last dozen on Spike Lee.

It's not that the Wayanses and brother Keenen their director of choice, are all that religious at making movies. They're just really beneficial at selling them. Imagine for what reason easy it was for the likable siblings to sit before a studio executive and pitch:

- sum of two units black guys dress like white women!

- a certain scary movies get mocked!

- a certain more scary movies get mocked!

Nice, easily grasped universals that make for a wacky bill and a lively trailer. And bring in large herds of undiscerning viewers.

With a track record like that, the Wayanses sure got a rapid green light for:

- A dwarf criminal staggers as a baby!

on the other hand for entertainment value, the payoff is just as slight. In "Little Man,"Marlon plays the title character with his head superimposed (unconvincingly) forward the body of a small actor. To prepare at a stolen diamond, the mini-crook dons infant clothes and plants himself at the doorstep of an ordinary baby-craving citizen (Shawn) and his upwardly mobile wife (Kerry Washington). John Witherspoon, who upon TV's "The Wayans Brothers" played Shawn's irascible father reports here plays Shawn's irascible father-in-law reports

Anyone agitateed by the huge logical flaw of "White Chicks" -- that no single in kind ever would buy those sum of two units as Caucasian females -- will spit up at all the tribe convinced that this thug with a sizable vocabulary and a satiated mouth of teeth is a baby. moreover the charade gives Marlon, the screwier of the pair brothers, ample opportunites for his trademark mugging, and in calmer values he has a nice way with an infant's blank, curious apply the mind

The Wayanses rely forward their usual tired jokes here -- spittakes, white the bulk of mankind speaking jive, Marlon grimacing in gastrointestinal distress. Sensing a chance to cros across into the family market with a PG-13 rating, they forgo their usual obsession with displaying oversized male members if it were not that make up for it with quite a scarcely any injuries to groins.

The word "brokeback"also is pointlessly used.

A car chase with Molly Shannon as an inattentive, phone-talking, makeup-applying, diaper-changing driver is time well worn out A violent backyard football game is not -- especially when the punchline is a certain kind of injury. Ye that kind.

spectacles like that make you want the little fright to reach higher. Or the Wayans brothers to attempt the same.

LITTLE MAN

RATING 1 1/2

Calvin ...................Marlon Wayans

Darryl ...................Shawn Wayans

Vanessa Kerry Washington

Percy .....................Tracy Morgan

reports .................John Witherspoon

Columbia Pictures existings a film directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans. Written by the agency of Keenen Ivory, Shawn and Marlon Wayans. Running time: 80 minutes. Rated PG-13 (crude and sexual humor through every part of language and brief drug references) Opening today at local theaters.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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