Malibu's Most Wanted

PREMIERE.COM REVIEW (posted 4/18/03)

It is universally known that movies are where sketch comedy characters go to die. Without network-provided Floaties such as a studio audience, commercial breaks, and the all-important laugh track, even the Will Ferrells of the world can drown when faced with uncharted seas of celluloid. Seeing as Malibu's Most Wanted isn't based on skits per se, but rather a persona from the Candid Camera-inspired JKX: The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, it inhabits a realm all its own: the hazy twilight between prime time and feature film. Some might call it the fourth dimension. Some might call it wack. But despite its inane premise, fuzzy shape, and broad TV-land characters, Jamie Kennedy's latest experiment is ?%*@&!* hilarious.

If you haven't already, meet B-Rad Gluckman (Kennedy), the self-proclaimed rapper from the streets of Malibu who gives a whole new meaning to the term "Gangsta's Paradise." Although he's as white as the driven snow, B-Rad (née Bradley, a moniker he abandoned because "it's my slave name, ai-i-i-ght?") identifies more with his black nanny than he does with his own Jewish background. The neglected child of a gubernatorial candidate father (surreally enough, Ryan O'Neal) and bombshell mother (ditto, Bo Derek), B-Rad divides his time between cruisin' the mall with his posse, and unintentionally corrupting the Gluckman campaign with his gangsta flava. In a move of desperation, B-Rad's dad conspires to send him to Compton in order to "scare the black out of him," as one character puts it. Instead, B-Rad falls in love with a ghetto-fabulous temptress (the equally fabulous Regina Hall) and becomes the most feared and revered brutha in the hood, after scaring away a fleet of would-be drive-by killers.

Sound stupid? Well, it is. The plot is half-baked; the characters are little more than racial stereotypes with first names; and without the aforementioned network lifesavers, the film lapses into some unsalvageable awkward moments, where only the sound of crickets fills in for studio laughs. But for all of its downfalls, Most Wanted taps into foolproof adolescent comedy: There's just something fundamentally funny about watching a white guy act like he's from the hood. Add to that some bizarre casting, an 8 Mile spoof, and a scene in which Snoop Dogg voices a rodent named Ronnie Rizat — and it's the proverbial shiznit.

—Brooke Hauser

PREVIEW (posted 4/11/03)

Yo, check it: Jamie Kennedy (of TV's JKX: The Jamie Kennedy Experiment) plays Brad Gluckman, a rich white kid from Malibu who fancies himself a rapper named B-Rad (and refers to his neighborhood as "the 'Bu"). When his rhymes interfere with the gubernatorial campaign of his father (Ryan O'Neal), his dad hires actors (Taye Diggs and Anthony Anderson) to play badass gangstas meant to scare the rap out of B-Rad.

The Bottom Line: First popularized on Kennedy's TV show, B-Rad is based on a kid he used to see hanging out at a West Hollywood coffee shop. (Warner Bros.)