Coming Up Short

Has anyone seen the trailer for the upcoming movie by the Wayans Brothers? It's evidently called Little Man, and I saw the trailer before Dave Chappelle's Block Party recently, and I had to remind myself that I've never taken acid before, because it damn sure felt like I was having a flashback.

As near as I can figure it, Marlon Wayans is, through some abominable CGI effects, playing a midget who is a "master thief." Through stupid movie contrivances, he manages to steal a valuable jewel, and then lose it. To get it back, he dresses himself up as a baby (!) and infiltrates the home of a childless married couple, one of whom is played by Shawn Wayans. The inevitable jokes about diaper changing, breast feeding, and penis size follow. Hee-freakin'-hee.

Is it too much to hope we had outgrown this? At this point, brother Keenen, the director of this project, has decades of experience and dues paid in Hollywood. Marlon displayed credible dramatic chops in Darren Aronofsky's indie cult shocker, Requiem For a Dream. And Shawn? Um, uh... He's not a bad looking guy, I guess. But in a showbiz climate where the merging of the WB and UPN will most likely mean umemployment for a lot of Black comedy writers (See the article in the April 7th issue of Entertainment Weekly), I need to ask the question.

Sure, the broad, tasteless comedy is a Hollywood staple. And it keeps talent-free comics like David Spade and Rob Schneider employed and off the street. Even at its most potent, the Wayans Bros.' In Living Color trafficked in its share of lowbrow humor. But the brow keeps getting lower. As hideous as it looked, their last movie, White Girls, at least offered opportunities for some social satire (Did it have any? Let me know. I, uh, never saw it.). For this movie, I just don't see it.

There is an actor named Peter Dinklage. He's about four feet and some change tall, but he has kept his career thankfully free of the stereotypical roles that little people mostly get offered. A few years ago, he starred in a great movie called the Station Agent, in which his physical status was barely even referred to. Dinklage seems like a smart, self-aware, and funny guy. I think a commentary from him for Little Man might probably be funnier than the movie itself.