Around eight years ago I distinctly remember asking a friend the usual questions about his latest squeeze: ‘How big are her boobies? You porked her yet? What’s her favourite movie?’ When his reply to the latter was WHITE CHICKS I advised him to ditch the bimbo forthwith. Of course, I had never seen said film but I was assured in my foregone conclusion that it was utter guff. Some years later a BFF said the film was brilliant and told me to wipe that snarl of disbelief off my smug mug and quit being a pompous prick. She was right, I am smug and plump with pomp, but this is one prick standing proud to announce to the world that now I LOVE WHITE CHICKS! As a film writer who owns the SCARY MOVIE box set, professes his love of DEUCE BIGALOW… and sticks by any Adam Sandler film (yes, even JACK & JILL), choosing just one guilty pleasure should’ve been tougher. However WHITE CHICKS is undoubtedly the film I take the most flak for, frequently called a moron by everyone from close friends, snippy film snobs, and basically anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear – well see here negative naysayers this in one movie that deserves your attention.
WHITE CHICKS (2004) tells the tale of two black FBI Agents (Shaun and Marlon Wayans – which is which has no bearing on the film itself) forced to go undercover assuming the identity of two white rich bitch IT girls. A gender AND race swap you say? Genius! I Bet Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams are kicking themselves. Before you join the judgemental poindexters hear me out. The Wayans dynasty is largely know for sub-par comedies that play on obvious gags and painfully clichéd stereotypes (LITTLE MAN, SCARY MOVIE 1 & 2, DON’T BE A MENACE…) and they are guilty as sin but ask yourself the chicken and egg question: is it their fault for making it or society’s fault for watching it? After all, the SCARY MOVIE franchise is likely to gross $1 billion globally after the release of the fifth instalment come 2013.
Trite? Yes! Mindless pap? Of course! WHITE CHICKS is essentially a sketch show that takes a simple premise and ties it together with a loose but passable plot. The breezy set-up makes way for a barrage of sight gags, brilliant dialogue and farcical scenarios that gently rib both sides of the gender divide. It’s great success is the use of one of the oldest (an oldie but a goodie) theatrical devices; dramatic irony, and if the likes of Sophocles and Shakespeare could expertly use it to comic effect then so can the Wayans. WHITE CHICKS is packed with great characters, particularly rival agents Lochlyn Munro and Eddie Velez who throughout the film play the dude-game of ‘who would you rather bone?’ This insistence gag only gets better as their pop-culture references get more outrageous, my personal favourites being references to RuPaul, panty sniffing and yeast infections. (high-brow and funny, eh?) The amazing Terry Crews is on top form using his astounding physique to great comic effect as the ego maniacal Latrell Spencer. This film is worth a watch just for Crews’ performance as a black guy with a penchant for white women. Of course, he falls for one of our incognito agents and pursues him unrelentingly, forming the backbone of most of the film’s big laughs.
For all those who attempt to seriously critique WHITE CHICKS consider this – this movie is silly, ridiculous and absurd, but above all it knows this. The whole premise is based on a farce. The idea that these two black men are passing for two white chicks is itself a brilliant comic double bluff. This isn’t a film for which you’re supposed to debate character depth and motivation – it’s a comic strip made as ephemeral fun. However, in caring so little about how it’s received it achieves a god-like sense of self-assurance, it can’t lose! Either it’ll be dismissed by the snobs as garbage or embraced by the drooling plebes as comic genius. So excuse me whilst I wipe the spittle from my chin to reiterate that I LOVE WHITE CHICKS.
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