Genre: Comedy
Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans
Cast: Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Kerry Washington, John Witherspoon, Tracy Morgan, Lochlyn Munro, Chazz Palminteri, Molly Shannon
RunTime: 1hr 38 mins
Released By: Columbia TriStar
Rating: NC-16

Opening Day: 7 September 2006

Synopsis:

In Revolution Studios’ hilarious comedy Little Man, big things come in small packages. DARRYL EDWARDS (Shawn Wayans) is so eager to become a father that he mistakes a short, baby-faced thief CALVIN SIMS (Marlon Wayans) on the lam for an abandoned toddler. He and his wife take the “baby” into their home while the thief’s partner PERCY P (Tracy Morgan) tries to help him recover a stolen diamond.

After several years in prison, a recently paroled tough-as-nails — though not-quite-three-foot-tall — jewel thief CALVIN SIMS (Marlon Wayans) decides it’s time to retire from a life of crime, but not before pulling off one last big heist. A notorious crime boss has offered Calvin and his former partner PERCY P (Tracy Morgan) $100,000 to steal the famous Queen Diamond. Because there’s a glitch in the jewelry store’s security system, Calvin assumes the job will be child’s play. But the heist goes bad, and Calvin is forced to drop the jewel into VANESSA EDWARDS’ (Kerry Washington) purse. Vanessa and her husband DARRYL (Shawn Wayans) then return to their suburban Chicago neighborhood unaware that they have become pawns in a high-stakes crime.

Movie Review:

Like the Zucker-Abrams partnership which brought us comedic classics like The Naked Gun series, Airplane! and Top Secret! in the 1980s, the Wayans brothers have made their mark, whether you like it or not, with comedies such as the Scary Movie franchise, and the last effort in White Chicks. You'd either love them or hate them for their signature brand of low-brow crass humour and political incorrectness.

In Little Man, Keenan Ivory Wayans directs his brothers Shawn Wayans and Marlon Wayans, who plays the vertically challenged man Calvin with the help of special effects and body doubles. Calvin has just been released from prison, and attempts one final heist before he retires. Suffice to say that to avoid capture, he had deposited a diamond jewel with Vanessa (Kerry Washington), the career minded wife of Darryl (Shawn Wayans), and its up to Calvin to salvage it back by pretending to be an abandoned baby, tugging at the heartstrings of the couple, while looking for and awaiting opportunity to escape with his loot.

Despite being a comedy, don't expect laughs every minute from Little Man, even with a less than aesthetically pleasing baby, whose size actually betrays his age. Nonetheless we can expect that almost none of the characters are aware of Calvin's seemingly adult behaviour, even though it may seem quite obvious with his unusually high libido and physiological makeup.

The story tried to poke fun at almost everything, and there was no off limits even to the colour of skin. Most of the jokes appeared quite juvenile and lame, and some you'd come to expect from a mile away. Most of the best bits were included in the trailer, and without watching the movie, you'd probably could have guessed how the ending will turn out to be, given the shallow plot which during a part emulated Home Alone.

The movie suffered from some bad editing, and my guess is that while there were tons of scenes shot, only some made it to the final cut, thereby leaving continuity gaps from one scene to the next. You'd find a scene pop up all of a sudden, and some which don't make much continuity sense, except to salvage some cheap laughs from whatever was pieced together, making it look like a series of skits.

So unless you're a big fan of the Wayans, you might want to overlook the Little Man.

Movie Rating:

(Little Man is big on missing the mark and short on quality laughs)

Review by Stefan Shih