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Ashton Kutcher is the hapless white boy who struggles to impress his prospective African-American father-in-law (played by Bernie Mac) in comedy Guess Who. Although it's billed as a remake of Katharine Hepburn/Spencer Tracy classic Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, it's actually "more like Meet The Parents, only less funny". It opened to mixed reviews but director Kevin Rodney Sullivan could console himself with respectable ticket sales.
White Bait
"Race is the hook of this song but love is the melody," explains Sullivan in an intermittently interesting 'making of' featurette. It mostly deals with casting, but the only point of interest in this respect is the unlikely pairing of Mac and Kutcher. As the big guy tells it, they first worked together in an episode of his TV sitcom The Bernie Mac Show and the suits at Fox immediately saw dollar signs.
Following tedious discussion about the casting of Zoë Saldana and Judith Scott, there's a fleeting analysis of the infamous dinner scene where Kutcher cracks racist jokes in a misguided effort to ease tension. "It's comedic and provocative," states Sullivan and thereby sums up the proposed tone of the film. Meanwhile, Kutcher squirms in his seat as he recalls the difficulties in trying to pitch his performance at just the right level of offensive.
Black List
Unfortunately there's nothing very funny in seven deleted scenes, which spend a lot of time setting up the main characters, eg Simon (Kutcher) tearing up the men's room after quitting his job and Percy (Mac) frowning and grunting a lot. In his optional commentary, Sullivan reveals that he had to get "brutal" in the editing room. "I know you're smart," he says. "Scenes like this where I give you information you can intuit on your own always end up on the cutting room floor." Perhaps that also explains why he doesn't give a commentary for the main feature.
You can usually depend on the gag reel for a chuckle, but sadly not on this occasion. Altogether this is a laugh-free, lacklustre, sometimes self-important and downright stingy set of extras. In short, like the spineless boyfriend, it just isn't worth taking home.
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