DVD
Upcoming Release Calendar
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Recent DVD/Video Releases
65
Adoration
42
Aliens in the Attic
56
American Violet
44
Answer Man, The
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil![]()
54
Bruno
55
Casi Divas
63
Cheri
83
Drag Me to Hell![]()
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
76
Every Little Step
70
Fados
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
74
Humpday
32
I Love You, Beth Cooper
50
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
81
Il Divo![]()
54
Is Anybody There?
32
Land of the Lost
74
Lemon Tree
40
Limits of Control, The
43
Love 'N Dancing
63
Medicine for Melancholy
34
My Life in Ruins
51
My Sister's Keeper
48
Not Forgotten
76
Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!
50
Nothing Like the Holidays
26
Objective, The
42
Orphan
78
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
48
Proposal, The
39
Spread
83
Star Trek![]()
55
Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, The
72
Thirst
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
66
Unmistaken Child
88
Up![]()
45
Whatever Works
34
Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Juwanna Mann

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 25 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 13 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy
Written by: Bradley Allenstein
Directed by: Jesse Vaughan
Release Date:
Theatrical: June 21, 2002
DVD: November 19, 2002
Running Time: 90 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
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.)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
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...
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder
It's tempting to call traveling on Juwanna Mann, except it never goes anywhere. This film fouls out.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Bottom line: Juwanna Mann is a drag - in every sense of the word.
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
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.
Read Full Review >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.
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?
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Relies on the most time-tested basic moves of farce for laughs that just don't come.
Read Full Review >Variety Dennis Harvey
Bringing absolutely no fresh angles to a time-tested formula that's seemed particularly overworked of late.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Paul Malcolm
So what in this high-concept lame-a-thon makes screenwriter Bradley Allenstein think he can diss the Clippers?
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
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.
Ryan P. gave it a1:
Absolute rubbish! I cannot believe this is considered art by some. This movie makes me more squeamish than needles, which make me quite squeamish. Juwanna Man, more like Juwanna "Not a Good Movie" Man. Haha there, now I have had my laugh, which was more enjoyable than this movie. I think I made my point. Peace.
Lynne C. gave it a10:
This movie is great to enjoy a laugh...especially for kids and parents of athletes who always have to be so serious about their sports and the competition.
Sinead M. gave it a 10:
This is a very funny movie! My friend Jon and I still quote the double date scene and the scene where he is trying 2 get into her house! "I'm tired, can i sleep on your couch?" My fave character is puff smokey smoke! He is the funniest! I recommend this movie 2 anyone!
Chris W. gave it a 10:
This is my favorite movie. I get a great laugh every time I watch it!!!
Hangin' Wid Gilbert Mulroneycakes gave it a 0:
A "Black Tootsie", set in th world of Basketball? Hmm, maybe...oh, GOD, IT BURNS! IT BURNS! MAKE IT STOP! MUMMY! MAKE THE BAD THING STOP!
Chelsea C. gave it a 10:
This was the funniest movie...Puff Smokey Smoke was so funny i rewound the movie like 100 times just to see him on the double date...i can quote the whole thing...this was a well thought out funny movie!!
Nolan B. gave it a 0:
Why are movies like this made?
