Juwanna Mann

This trite Tootsie redux, set in the world of professional basketball, stars Miguel A. Nunez, Jr. as a rich, arrogant, showboating, tantrum-throwing NBA star who gets kicked off his team, goes broke and decides to dress up in drag so he can play in the women's basketball league, thus learning to curb both his sexism and his ego. Director Jesse Vaughan displays zero creativity, slogging through the inevitable locker room shower and slumber party scenes, peppered with cheap gags about women ballplayers being especially hairy and/or lesbian. As a woman, Nunez bonds with the team's one beautiful ballplayer (talented Vivica A. Fox, trapped in trash as usual), so to get her in the sack after being exposed as a man, he offers up one of those insincere apologies ("look, I messed up...") that all stupid movie women fall for at the end of men-centric comedies. Nothing but a string of shopworn clichés, Juwanna Mann is not just unoriginal; it's also inept, lifeless and humor-free. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include two audio commentaries (one by director Jesse Vaughan and star Miguel A. Nunez, Jr., the other by costar Tommy Davidson), a 22-minute behind-the-scenes “Juwanna Mann: In and Out” special, a pair of two-minute featurettes on the movie's premiere at Mann's Chinese Theater and a press day contest where Juwanna Mann's stars judge a contest held by Burbank's Power 106 radio station, nine deleted or expanded scenes, the “What's Luv?” music video by Fat Joe and Ashanti, cast film highlights, and a trailer. Bottom line: an impressive extras package for a film that can't even score a rimshot.] (R. Blackwelder)