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Juwanna Mann
Warner Bros.
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for language and sex-related material
Starring
Miguel A. Núñez Jr.,
Vivica A. Fox,
Tommy Davidson,
Kevin Pollak,
Ginuwine,
Kim Wayans,
Kimberly 'Lil Kim' Jones,
and
Omar J. Dorsey
The story of a professional basketball player who blows his career but gets a chance to bounce back by trading his jock strap for a sports bra. (Warner Bros.)
| GENRE(S): |
Comedy
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Bradley Allenstein
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Jesse Vaughan
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: November 19, 2002
Video: November 19, 2002
Theatrical: June 21, 2002
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
90 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Ray Conlogue
Here's a truly novel sports film: It actually has a script, decent acting, sympathetic characters. And it's fun.
70
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
But even though, most of the time, you know exactly what will happen next -- you don't much mind. Nor do the many plot holes and improbabilities -- undermine its silly, raucous spirit.
50
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Predictable to its very core, and in a funny way the predictability is part of the fun. The movie is in on the joke of its own recycling.
50
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
Director Jesse Vaughan keeps the ball in play through the aw-shucks lessons in humility and generosity, but the teamwork is shoddy, the plays lack surprise and, finally, Juwanna Mann misses more than it hits.
50
TV Guide
Steve Simels
Comic Tommy Davidson, in particular, is hilarious as gangsta rapper Puff Smokey Smoke, who falls for Juwanna and then, in a twist lifted directly from the queen of all drag farces, 1959's "Some Like It Hot," decides he still loves her after she's exposed as Jamal. After all, nobody's perfect.
50
USA Today
Mike Clark
This isn't the worst movie Warner Bros. has brought out this summer (Scooby-Doo, boo on you), but for it to work, you have to accept the irredeemable stupidity of almost every character. Time better spent: a Shaquille O'Neal film festival on video.
40
Chicago Reader
Ted Shen
The idea of transposing the story to the macho, greedy world of big-time sports is promising, but director Jesse Vaughan delivers only flat dialogue and predictable situations.
38
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
Excruciatingly flat comedy.
38
Boston Globe
Janice Page
It is Kevin Pollak who steals what there is of a show as Jamal's passive-aggressive, pressure-cooked agent. His comedic timing, particularly given the thinness of the script, is the only genuinely impressive slam dunk this movie has to offer.
33
Portland Oregonian
Jay Boyar
"Tootsie" meets "Hoop Dreams" in Juwanna Mann, and they don't get along. This basketball comedy turns out to be a total drag -- in both senses.
25
Chicago Tribune
Robert K. Elder
It's tempting to call traveling on Juwanna Mann, except it never goes anywhere. This film fouls out.
25
Baltimore Sun
Chris Kaltenbach
Bottom line: Juwanna Mann is a drag - in every sense of the word.
25
New York Post
Jonathan Foreman
It's all so insincere, you can almost imagine the filmmakers rubbing their hands together at the prospect of ripping off the public.
25
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
As anyone who has peered in on the actual WNBA for five minutes knows, professional women basketball players are as tough as men. That the film treats this as a joke isn't funny -- it's the height of lame condescension.
25
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
A postseason basketball comedy that shoots and misses at a rate that would embarrass even the Los Angeles Clippers.
25
San Francisco Chronicle
Carla Meyer
Women had to struggle for years to launch their own basketball league; it's a shame that the first movie to address their success is a drag comedy, and a lousy one at that.
20
New Times (L.A.)
Robert Wilonsky
This limp gender-bender-baller from a first-time director and rookie screenwriter steals wholesale from that 1982's "Tootsie," forgetting only to retain a single laugh.
20
Los Angeles Times
Gene Seymour
When the outtakes at the end don't make you laugh, what does that tell you about the movie that preceded them?
20
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Keith Phipps
Relies on the most time-tested basic moves of farce for laughs that just don't come.
20
Variety
Dennis Harvey
Bringing absolutely no fresh angles to a time-tested formula that's seemed particularly overworked of late.
20
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
If this sounds like "Tootsie" with a ball, well, it is. Screenwriter Bradley Allenstein should be hauled up in writer's court for his shameless cribbing of that far superior comedy. Someone call a foul.
11
Austin Chronicle
Russell Smith
This is one that, like a 1am rerun of a late-season Cavs-Grizzlies matchup, deserves to play out in darkness and obscurity.
10
LA Weekly
Paul Malcolm
So what in this high-concept lame-a-thon makes screenwriter Bradley Allenstein think he can diss the Clippers?
10
Village Voice
Laura Sinagra
This flat run at a hip-hop "Tootsie" is so poorly paced you could fit all of Pootie Tang in between its punchlines.
0
Miami Herald
Charles Savage
A sad and rote exercise in milking a played-out idea -- a straight guy has to dress up in drag -- that shockingly manages to be even worse than its title would imply.
 The average user rating for this movie is 6.9 (out of 10) based on 13 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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