Guess Who | | Cast : | Bernie Mac, Ashton Kutcher, Zoe Saldana | | Director : | Kevin Rodney Sullivan | | Studio : | Columbia Tristar Hom | | Format : | Color, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | March 25, 2005 | | DVD Released Date : | August 02, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 08, 2005 | | Summary | Not all it's cracked up to be | Content
 | My husband and I were slightly disappointed with Guess Who. With Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac, we were expecting constant hilarity. Don't get me wrong. It was funny. We did laugh quite a bit. However in this day and age, a movie that relies on racial bashing continues to tell us it's ok to judge people on the color of their skin. Simon (Ashton Kutcher) and Theresa (Zoe Saldana) were a happy, in love bi-racial couple. From the moment Simon arrived at The Jones home he was judged solely his race. When his girlfriend's father thought he was black everything was wonderful. Simon was all but forced to tell "black jokes" at a family dinner and when one was told that the Jones's didn't like, he was almost lynched. Simon never had an issue with his girlfriend's African-American heritage. The Jones family obviously had an issue with his heritage. Eventually, Simon is accepted in to the family after his relationship is almost destroyed by a judgemental family. In this day and age we are supposed to be teaching our children racial equality and practicing that ourselves. Do we have it now? No. With movies like this, we never will. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 07, 2005 | | Summary | LOVED IT!!! | Content
| In this adaptation of the original "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner," Ashton Kutcher stars as Simon Green--a successful, handsome young businessman who is going home with fiancee Theresa to meet her parents and announce their engagement. But Simon, of course, is White, and Theresa has not prepared her parents--specifically her father, played by comedian Bernie Mac--for the shock of it all. This movie is completely engaging and funny; from the opening scene where Mac mistakes his daughter's fiancee for the cab driver (instructing him to "drop the bags by the front door,"), to the dinner scene where Kutcher finds himself in the awkward position of having to tell Black jokes that he's heard, to Mac's grudging acceptance of his daughter's choice by movie's end, viewers will find themselves laughing out loud and pumping their fists for the couple..whatever their position on interracial dating. This is one of those movies that is just so much fun, viewers will want to watch it again and again...good chemistry between Mac and Kutcher and the movie's delightful "reversal of fortune" plot makes this one great fun.
DYB |
| Rating | | | Date | August 07, 2005 | | Summary | GUESS WHO? is a LAME comedy | Content
| I just got done watching Guess Who and I was disappointed. With the talents of the hilarious Bernie Mac and the up and comer Ashton Kutcher, I expected to be rolling on the floor through the whole thing! I hardly laughed at all! The whole movie was ludicrious and looked like a 'Meet the Parents' rip off. It in no way compared to the original that the moved was supposed to be based on 'Guess who's coming to dinner.' The ending especially was awful. It was too syrupy sweet and did not feel true to life. Skip it and rent either the original 'Guess who's coming to dinner' or 'Meet the parents' instead. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 07, 2005 | | Summary | Watered-Down Comedy Has Warmth But Lacks Genuine Relevance | Content
| To say this movie is not as bad as I was anticipating is actually my way of complimenting director Kevin Rodney Sullivan for his patently inoffensive, occasionally perceptive update of 1967's "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner". Whereas Stanley Kramer's earlier film is often lambasted for deifying its principal character, the esteemed, tragically widowed black doctor portrayed by Sidney Poitier, the race-reversed 2005 film goes the opposite route by making its protagonist, a self-absorbed Wall Street trader named Simon Green, a morally flawed, buffoonish romantic.
The conceit of the switch is fine, but the execution is simply not as gutsy as the concept. Consequently it is useless to make any further comparisons between the movies as the former was written as a 1960's social statement at the height of the civil rights movement, while the latter feels like race is being used as a generic plot device for a series of soft-hearted comedy bits similar to those in the "Meet the Parents/Fockers" movies. The threadbare plot focuses on Simon, the upwardly mobile boyfriend of Theresa, a free-spirited photographer. Of course, he's white, she's black and they travel to New Jersey to meet her parents, Percy and Marilyn Jones, who are planning a celebration around their 25th anniversary and - color me surprised - don't know Simon is white.
What happens thereafter until the inevitable conclusion is relatively inconsequential, as most of the comedy is predictably derivative - the mistaken identity greeting; Percy and Simon having to share a bed (a pale rip-off of the much funnier "Planes, Trains and Automobiles"); the testosterone-driven go-kart competition gone awry; a sexually questionable party organizer that recalls Martin Short's loopier turn in "Father of the Bride"; the male-bonding all-nighter between Simon and Percy; and a hen-party of men-bashing women cackling and giving poor advice to Theresa and Marilyn (shades of "Waiting to Exhale").
An hour into the film, there is a surprisingly provocative dinner scene in which Simon tells a succession of "black jokes" at Percy's goading until he inevitably crosses the line to offensiveness. If the rest of the film maintained the edginess of that moment, it could have gained some much-needed resonance. But instead of a thoughtful look at contemporary racism, we have a "fish out of water" story that flows downstream. Yet, the movie somehow manages a genuine sense of goodwill by the end, for example, there is a subtle moment when Theresa explains Simon's work situation in surprising detail to her father and then catches herself caring about him before going further.
Bernie Mac plays Percy with his trademark comic bluster - hilariously brilliant on TV but here rather constrained by the conventions of his character and the weak-willed script. The female performances help the proceedings considerably - Zoe Saldana is refreshing as Theresa, exuding a Thandie Newton-like quality of dewiness but with greater verve; Judith Scott makes Marilyn the ideal wife and mother - sexy, no-nonsense and sympathetic; and Kellee Stewart makes her moments count as sassy little sister Keisha (she delivers the movie's best line when she first sees Simon: "Oh my God, are we being audited?"). Unfortunately, like Adam Sandler and Ben Affleck, Ashton Kutcher is part of a generation of actors who suffer from a lack of dramatic gravitas. Although likeable at times, he lacks sufficient depth and texture to carry a movie with a social message, even one as watered-down as the one presented here.
The DVD is a fairly standard package that includes Sullivan's thoughtful commentary on an alternate track and a making-of featurette that reflects the actors' vaunted opinions of the movie's intended social message. There are a handful of deleted scenes, which honestly seem as good as what is left in the movie, as well as a disposable goof reel. There are also an inordinate number of previews included, including one for the upcoming film adaptation of "Rent" which actually got me excited. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 06, 2005 | | Summary | Great Movie | Content
| This movie is great. This movie is for anyone who has ever been in an inter-racial relationship, anyone who has ever been so comfortable with friends of other races to sit around and laugh about racial differnces... and for those who know that their parents would take it all more seriously than they do. It's funny. Bernie and Ashton rock this movie. |
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