The slapstick is funnier for the nifty CGI, and the script gets in some sly digs at racist cops and multitasking soccer moms.
Little Man (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:87
Fresh:11
Rotten:76
Average Rating:3.2/10
Consensus: Another gimmicky comedy from the Wayans brothers, Little Man comes with the requisite raunchiness, but forgot to bring the laughs.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for crude and sexual humor throughout, language and brief drug references
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:Jul 14, 2006 Wide
Box Office: $58,255,287
Synopsis: Despite small budgets and a lack of bona fide star power, the Wayans Brothers have proven to be one of the most commercially successful comedy teams in the Hollywood of the early 2000s. The... Despite small budgets and a lack of bona fide star power, the Wayans Brothers have proven to be one of the most commercially successful comedy teams in the Hollywood of the early 2000s. The brothers rose to fame in the 1990s via the IN LIVING COLOR sketch television show and later the gross-out satire-lite of the SCARY MOVIE series. Similar to their 2004 movie WHITE CHICKS--about two undercover black police officers posing as rich white girls--2006's LITTLE MAN is a raunchy crime caper that likewise uses a grotesque fish-out-of-water scenario as its comedic focal point. Marlon Wayans plays the diminutive and unquestionably weird-looking jewel thief who poses as a toddler in order to retrieve a diamond he hid with the childless-but-trying couple Daryl and Vanessa (played by Shawn Wayans and Kerry Washington). Hilarity ensues as the movie runs wild with a slew of breastfeeding jokes, crotch shots, and scatological humor that recognizes no boundaries. When Calvin's boss, Walken (Chazz Palminteri), tracks down the little man and his new family to snatch the diamond that is rightfully his, the movie turns into a familiar riff on HOME ALONE: when a criminal is after you, hit him in the crotch. Calvin and Daryl join together to defeat the evil Walken and his henchmen, and in the process learn a little something about what it means to love and be loved. To discuss matters of taste in the context of LITTLE MAN defeats the purpose of its mere existence--this movie revels in its own base-level humor. However, even the Wayans brothers themselves acknowledge that they are making silly movies for as broad an audience as possible. While some of the sex jokes are perhaps a little too raunchy for children, the movie is packed with sub-Looney Tunes tomfoolery, not to mention a Looney Tunes plot (remember when Bugs Bunny took in Baby-Face Finster? The Wayans brothers certainly do), making this perfect fodder for kids--or adults with a juvenile sense of humor. [More]
Starring: Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Kerry Washington, Tracy Morgan
Starring: Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Kerry Washington, Tracy Morgan, Chazz Palminteri
Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans
Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans
Screenwriter: Keenen Ivory Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans
Producer: Joe Roth
Composer: Teddy Castellucci
Studio: Sony Pictures Entertainment
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Release:
Nov 7, 2006
Reviews for Little Man
Oscars will not be forthcoming, but the Wayanses have hit on a formula -- gross-out humor, goofy sight gags, a flashy concept -- that works.
[Little Man] gets a surprising share of laughs by digitally placing Marlon Wayans' head on a small boy's frame.
There's nothing like a well-placed nod to the classics to help elevate a dumb summer comedy.
This feature-length rewrite of a 1954 Bugs Bunny cartoon stages its expected comic humiliations, ridiculous sight gags and gruesome sex and potty jokes with unfussy efficiency.
Marlon's no-limits performance, relying only on his voice and facial expressions, proves to be the film's strongest asset.
Although you'll likely hate yourself in the morning for having succumbed to the sophomore silliness of it all, at the time resistance proves ridiculously futile.
Give the Wayans brothers some credit. For a movie that could have fallen flat on its infantile face, Man scores some points for thinking big.
Everybody looks like they're having fun in Little Man, another inane outing from the Wayans brothers. And with some ineptly made comedies, that's good enough.
when I went to see Little Man, I laughed, then hung my head in shame. Are they going to take away my movie critic license? Will all of the other critics find out and ridicule me? Will they let me play in their movie critic games?
We went to this movie to laugh. Instead, we left yearning for a baby to cuddle. Ew.
Could you really have expected better from the people who made "White Chicks"?
(Y)ou'd have to be brain dead to defend such illogical plotting, one dimensional characterization and aimless middle act meandering supposedly passing itself off as humor.
Some verbal jokes simply don't work, and Darryl's persistent I-wanna-be-a-daddy musings are more insipid than inspiring. But some of the physical comedy scores.
I'm sure it's fun to be a multi-millionaire, but whatever creativity and dignity Ivory Wayans had to offer the world in his youth is lost for good in Little Man to a series of crotch wallops and fart jokes.
In short, Little Man is not only height-challenged, it's comedically-challenged as well.
All the adults are complete idiots, of course, because no one seems to notice or care about how freakish baby Calvin is - the fact that he has a full set of teeth, for example -- not even the doctor who examines him.
In spite of the admirable effort that the Wayans brothers went to in digitally transplanting Marlon Wayans head and facial expressions onto the two-foot-six-inch body of a nine-year-old actor, "Little Man" is a bawdy and violent comedy that rankles more t
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