Blankman Review
For those who don't remember, Blankman had its beginnings as a sketch on In Living Color, in which Damon Wayans played a mentally retarded superhero named Handi-Man. Not surprisingly, the producers of Blankman decided to go the more politically sensitive route, making the character a nerdy genius, which still allowed Wayans to play him in a similarly spasmodic way. Considering the bland result, Mike Binder's film could have benefited from a good dose of incorrectness. Then again, maybe not, since it's a pretty long way from resembling comedy. Viewers might find themselves momentarily swayed by Wayans' sweet interpretation of the hopelessly dweebish Darryl Walker, but the film never gets untracked from this level of precious inoffensiveness. This is not to say it's a kids movie or anything -- it's just that the attempts at adult-oriented humor are delivered like schoolyard flatulence jokes. Other than Wayans' and J.F. Lawton's script being flat and uninspired, there are some structural peculiarities about it that don't sit well, either. For example, at the beginning, the audience is invited to sympathize with Darryl's brother Kevin (David Alan Grier, mostly overacting), who yearns for a TV reporter played by Robin Givens. Halfway through, though, she gets romantically linked with the superhero, as though the writers forgot they set Grier up to be the love-struck protagonist, sloughing him off as broad comic relief for the rest of the film. One performance almost makes Blankman worth seeing, just for the novelty factor: Jason Alexander as the bald, wheelchair-bound, rambunctiously amoral producer of a Hard Copy-style news program. Derek Armstrong, Rovi
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