The premise is very simple. Percy Jones (Bernie Mac) is quite horrified when his daughter Theresa (Zoe Saldana) brings home her new boyfriend for her parents' twenty-fifth anniversary celebration. Percy had checked up on our boy Simon Green (Kutcher) and was quite encouraged by his credit report and the fact that he worked for a prestigious investment firm (at least, he did work for a prestigious investment firm - but he quit just before making the trip to meet his prospective in-laws, a fact that no one, including Theresa, knows about yet). Simon isn't what he was expecting at all, though - not by a long shot. It has a lot to do with the fact that Simon is white, but let's face it - every father's worst nightmare is the thought of his baby girl bringing Ashton Kutcher home with her. It's not even completely about race; the boy is just not right in the head, and Percy thinks he's hiding something (which he is). This father takes extraordinary steps to make sure Simon and his little girl don't get up to any hanky-panky there in his house - and who can blame him for that? As the days pass, things don't get any better, much comic hilarity ensues (capped off with a round of ethnic jokes told around the dinner table), and there's a big row that temporarily splits up both couples. Wouldn't it be funny if, just once, a movie didn't go for the pat, obvious ending? I think it would, but we'll have to wait a little longer to know for sure because Guess Who plays out just as you knew it would.

This is a comedy, and it doesn't try to be anything more than that. Without Bernie Mac, it would have flopped like a fish out of water, but Bernie Mac can make anything funny, even scenes with Ashton Kutcher. He really ought to get some kind of award for that - maybe a special Oscar for actually making an Ashton Kutcher film funny and enjoyable.

Mostly slapstick with some filler
Review date: 2005-10-18 Rating: 6 out of 10

This take on "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"
Will never be an Oscar winner
Changing Poitier to Ashton Kutcher
Ensures no statue in the future

Seems Kutch has really got the knack
Of riling up big Bernie Mac
He gets it on with Bernie's daughter
While we wait to see the slaughter

The problem is, old Ashton's white
To Zoe's dad, this just ain't right
Then Kutcher tells a bunch of lies
To build himself in Bernie's eyes

Just like a movie with Ben Stiller
It's mostly slapstick with some filler
And when Ashton starts to do his thing
It's just like watching Chandler Bing

Don't get me wrong, there are some laughs
as they try to calm their better halves
When Mac sees Kutch in a different light
He learns there ain't nuthin wrong with white

Rated 3.5 stars

Amanda Richards

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