{"id":6882,"date":"2019-02-07T16:07:06","date_gmt":"2019-02-07T21:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=6882"},"modified":"2019-02-07T19:19:04","modified_gmt":"2019-02-08T00:19:04","slug":"review-what-men-want","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=6882","title":{"rendered":"Review: WHAT MEN WANT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The gender flipping remake trend continues with the sporadically funny, but none-the-less dramatically dated, \u201cWhat Men Want.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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This misfire was inspired by the 2000 Mel Gibson film named \u201cWhat Women Want,\u201d that was directed by Nancy Meyers. The helming duties are turned over to director Adam Shankman (\u201cThe Pacifier\u201d and \u201cThe Wedding Planner\u201d), who delivers a by-the-numbers rom com that trades on the goodwill of its predecessor. It\u2019s boosted greatly by an all-in Taraji P. Henson performance and a hilarious supporting role by singer\/actress Erykah Badu. But the saddest thing is how the rest of the cast is misused and wasted in what should have been, at worst, trashy fun in this MeToo age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Erykah Badu steals the show as a funny medium, but this doesn’t save the fi<\/strong>lm.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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When sports agent Ali Davis (Henson) is once again passed over for partner at her firm, she has a complete meltdown. The only thing that will redeem her is to sign a hot NBA prospect. But to do this, she has to charm the prospect\u2019s overly protective father Joe \u2018Dolla\u2019 Barry (Tracy Morgan). And after attending a hen night for a friend, where she drinks some spiked hot tea served by a strange medium named Sister (Badu), she awakes being able to read men\u2019s minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Shankman could have made an entire movie, possibly a good one in the \u201cJerry Maguire\u201d mold, involving a sports agent trying to break the glass ceiling. \u201cWhat Men Want\u201d is not that movie. In fact, those potentially weighty elements are so cheaply handled that they uniformly undercut the bits of humor that actually do work. And there is a gay assistant subplot that is utter cliche, almost to the point of being homophobic. One wonders if there was a script or whether these awkward scenes were improvised by SNL star Pete Davidson and \u201cSilicon Valley\u201d alum Josh Brener. You\u2019ll wince instead of laugh, and that\u2019s not a good thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Henson is a good sport with the subpar material. She\u2019s tasked to play a man-eater with smarts, but the script keeps dumbing her down. Henson, who has shown consistent range, would be more than capable of giving us a full-bodied character. However, she\u2019s merely asked to spout profane one-liners and be insensitive, when she should be exhibiting something akin to real human emotion. Compare Amy Schumer\u2019s work in 2015\u2019s \u201cTrainwreck.\u201d Schumer played a terribly self-centered person, a disaster, however, there was context for her destructive behavior, and the potential for growth. Nothing like that is present in \u201cWhat Men Want.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Richard Roundtree is a nice surprise in the lack-luster film.<\/strong>

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Inspired casting is found in Richard Roundtree as Ali\u2019s father Skip. He runs a boxing gym, and obviously named his daughter after the greatest of all time. But instead of those scenes integrating fully into the goofy narrative, they seem tacked on and foreign. When Skip has to help pick up Ali\u2019s broken life, there is never a sense that she\u2019s really listening to her father, rather, she’s just going through the motions. Also, I couldn\u2019t understand why the sport that was focused on was basketball. Given Skip\u2019s gym, why not have Ali pursuing a boxer? I suppose that access to the NBA fan was a bigger market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The screenplay, from three writers, is not brave enough to fully embrace any one of the promising subplots (like breaking the glass ceiling, dating someone with a small child, or exploring a relationship between a father and a daughter). The surface approach to everything in the film makes it impossible to generate any measure of pathos. This leaves just the gags that come and go with intermittent giggles. The mega-talented Henson deserves a better starring vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Josh Brener is trapped in a poorly written role.<\/strong>

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But remaking a past minor hit offered the chance to also update the thematic content bringing it in line with more modern sensibilities. There too \u201cWhat Men Want\u201d fails. Look no further than the gay character played by Josh Brener. In 2019, a gay man is once again relegated to the role of assistant, a side kick on the periphery. This is really unforgivable. It\u2019s a cheesy and insulting thing, that one would expect from something from Hollywood\u2019s past. \u201cWhat Men Want\u201d is hopelessly dated. After all, when one character is asked where she found the medium, she quips, \u201cFound her on Facebook.\u201d Do I even need to say anything more?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Henson deserves better than this remake, comedy misfire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[1231,1233,1232,1230],"class_list":["post-6882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-adam-shankman","tag-erykah-badu","tag-taraji-p-henson","tag-what-men-want","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6882"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6893,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6882\/revisions\/6893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}