It's been five years since we last saw Martin Lawrence don the fat suit and transform his miniature frame into that of Hattie Mae Pierce (aka Big Momma). Needless to say, five years hasn't been nearly long enough.
My biggest beef with Big Mommas: Life Father, Like Son is its premise. Lacking any sense of originality or believability, we sit and witness two grown men go undercover at an all-girls school in order to retrieve a key piece of evidence in a large mob-related case. But unlike Mrs. Doubtfire, where the man-to-woman transition was believable and entertaining, the disguises for both Martin Lawrence and newly cast Brandon T. Jackson were horrific beyond belief.
I will say that the all girls school twist showed promise (even if it had been used countless times before), however, screenwriter Matthew Fogel never let it reach its full potential. Instead, he settled for slapstick comedy and immature gender jokes to take center stage, never recapturing the magic that made the original film a huge success back in 2000.
Complications and obstacles faced by our protagonists are always easily overcome, and there is never a moment where I felt either were in any real danger. The teenagers behind me occasionally laughed at what they saw on screen, making me believe that maybe this film was actually good for its target market of pre-teens. Then I woke up and realized that regardless, Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son should have never been made.
