Malibu's Most Wanted

There are exactly two funny performances in this one-joke comedy about an over-privileged white boy wannabe rapper--and neither of them are by top-liner and co-writer Jamie Kennedy, who fails to stretch a two-bit sketch character from his self-titled variety show into someone worth watching for 80 minutes. A decade too old (at age 33) and 15 pounds too paunchy to be credible as college-age slacker B-Rad (read: Brad), Kennedy also has no screen presence--just tastelessly gaudy tracksuits and an all-slang vocabulary. Almost all the movie's laughs come courtesy of Anthony Anderson (Kangaroo Jack) and Taye Diggs (Brown Sugar), who relish their roles as sissy actors hired by Kennedy's politician father (Ryan O'Neal) to "play" gangstaz, kidnap B-Rad, and drop him in Compton to scare the imaginary "ghetto" out of him before he becomes an embarrassment to Dad's gubernatorial campaign. "This will be the ultimate acting challenge," they exclaim as they try on bling-bling jewelry and practice calling each other "bi-atch." When these two are onscreen, Kennedy is more than just white -- he's invisible. Not a necessary purchase. [Note: Available in both widescreen and full screen versions, DVD extras include audio commentary by director John Whitesell, writer-producers Fax Bahr and Adam Small, and costars Jamie Kennedy, Anthony Anderson and Regina Hall; 11 additional scenes (including an alternate ending) with optional commentary by Whitesell, Kennedy, Anderson and Hall; and a trailer. Bottom line: a so-so extras package for a so-so film.] (R. Blackwelder)