A Raja Gosnell and Michael D. O'Shea film
Starring: Martin Lawrence, Nia Long, Paul Giamatti, Terrence Howard, Tichina Arnold
Comedy

Actor and comedian (and executive producer) Martin Lawrence continues his good guy/bad guy/wise guy obsession with law enforcement (Blue Streak, Life, Nothing to Lose, Bad Boys) and finally appears primed to move up the big league box office ladder toward that $100 million mark with his latest comedy. The hackneyed, unbelievable script by Darryl Quarles and Don Rhymer is mild on originality and inspired as a skewered transmutation of Stakeout and Kindergarten Cop, with a pinch of MacGyver. The storyline is one of the biggest illusions in the film, centered on the undercover and ultimately romantic shenanigans of hotshot, semi-insubordinate FBI agent Malcolm Turner (Lawrence) and his ulcer-bound sidekick John (Paul Giamatti). Only the Lawrence "charm," hidden under a ton of rubber makeup makes the film work, with his off-color wide-size quips, padded physical pratfalls, and share-the-joke-with-the-audience situations. But work it does.

The action moves from Los Angeles to a small Georgian hamlet, where the salt and pepper team set up surveillance across the street from Big Momma's house. The film lays there for the next 90 minutes, a comic set up for the expected lame put down of the nasty-crafty Lester Vesco (Terrence Howard) an escaped bank robber in pursuit of his ex-girl friend Sherry Pierce (Boiler Room and Best Man star Nia Long) and two million in stolen loot. The titular fat lady is explained to be the "long lost" grandmother of the frightened object of the nasty criminal's intentions.

That digression aside, when the real Big Momma, Hattie Mae (Ella Mitchell) takes a powder to be with a friend out of town, the cool-headed Turner hightails it across the street, puts on some unsightly silicone corpulence, gets Tootsie-ized, and barely breaks a sweat just as single-mom Sherry arrives in town with her young son, Trent (Jascha Washington). As the heavily-disguised Turner welcomes the long absent grand-daughter, "she" cooks up a disgusting Crisco-smothered southern storm in Big Momma's kitchen, turning stomachs in the audience and heads at Procter & Gamble's product placement department, maker of the venerable all-vegetable shortening product.

The generally nosy but apparently slow-thinking locals don't seem to connect the dots when their 325-pound friend and neighbor takes to slam-dunking basketballs against some kids picking on Trent; or, reminiscent of a segment on television's Martial Law, putting a self-interested karate "master" in his place with some choice moves. This is called suspension of belief for the uninformed. On the other side of the coin, Turner gets a few lessons in humility (although Lawrence imbues any such tutorials with hilarious supporting characters and heartfelt comic results), when he is unexpectedly forced to deliver a baby or revitalize the congregation at the local church.

Often homebound but seldom boring, director Raja Gosnell, the editor of Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire, as well as helmer of Home Alone 3 and Never Been Kissed, is a comedy director who makes his third feature work with well executed slapstick episodes of often outrageous timing and the expressively reactive eyework by Lawrence as he hides behind his makeup.

Rated PG-13