Funniest thing about 'Juwanna Mann?' The title

By Marshall Fine
The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News

JUWANNA MANN (Rated PG-13 for sexuality, suggestive humor, profanity, partial nudity, violence) One and One-Half Stars (Poor-to-Fair) It's "Tootsie" in sneakers, as a disgraced professional basketball star tries to join a women's professional team disguised as a woman. The funniest thing about the movie is the title. Starring Miguel A. Nunez Jr., Vivica A. Fox, Kevin Pollak, Tommy Davidson. Directed by Jesse Vaughan. Warner Bros., 87 minutes.

Directed by first-timer Jesse Vaughan from a script by Bradley Allenstein, "Juwanna Mann" offers us Jamal Jefferies, a star with the Charlotte Beat in the UBA (United Basketball Association) who is so disruptive and self-involved that he actually gets himself kicked out of professional basketball. The cause? Stripping to the skin on national TV after being pulled from the game by a coach irate at his showboating.

Having spent all his money, Jamal has to stand back and watch as his mansion, cars and lavish belongings are repossessed. He's forced to move back in with the aunt who reared him while he plots his comeback.

He hits on an idea after seeing an ad for the local WUBA team. He calls his former agent Lorne (Kevin Pollak) and tells him he can put him in touch with a new female discovery fresh from the countryand who will take the WUBA by storm. Then he shows up for the tryout with the Charlotte Banshees dressed as a woman named Juwanna Mann.

Juwanna lands the roster position and even a starting spot. But it takes an epiphany involving the team's other star player, Michelle Langford (Vivica A. Fox), before Jamal/Juwanna learns the meaning of teamwork.

Allenstein's most inspired creation is a rap star, Puff Smokey Smoke, a gold-toothed smoothie played by the hilarious Tommy Davidson, who falls hard for the strapping Juwanna. Davidson mangles the English language wonderfully; he actually finds a way to insert the letter "k" into the words "shrimp" and "strawberries."

Otherwise, "Juwanna Mann" is shooting blanks. This is yet another gender-bender story of a guy learning new sensitivity by seeing the world from the other half's perspective. Aside from repeated shots of Juwanna digging his pantyhose out of his rear (and one clever pantomimed moment involving Juwanna and a urinal), the laughs are scarce in the script.

Miguel A. Nunez Jr., who plays Juwanna as a kind of female Little Richard (if that isn't a redundant idea), has energy but lacks the comic skills that someone such as Chris Tucker might have brought to the role. Davidson, on the other hand, plays so far over the top that he steals every scene he's in. Pollak, as Jamal's underhanded agent, also finds laughs where there are none, simply with off-kilter line readings.

It's hard to know what to make of a film such as this, with its implicit message that it takes men to empower women in professional sports. Sure, it's a silly comedy, but it will send signals to young audiences just the same as the more meaningful films do. I can't imagine anyone taking anything positive away from "Juwanna Mann," other than the conviction that it's not a very good movie.

Rated PG-13 (sexuality, suggestive humor, profanity, partial nudity, violence).