'King's Ransom' comedy just a dud
By Kevin Crust
Los Angeles Times
| "King's Ransom"
PG-13, for crude and sexual humor and language 97 minutes |
Which is pretty much what this supposed comedy, which opened last week, has going for it.
Malcolm King (Anthony Anderson) is on the brink of selling his company for $25 million just as his gold-digger wife, Renee (Kellita Smith), is divorcing him and seeking half of everything.
Unwilling to share his fortune and with a nudge from his half-wit mistress Peaches (Regina Hall), Malcolm hatches a harebrained kidnapping scheme. Meanwhile, Renee (fearing her infidelities will diminish her settlement), Angela (a disgruntled exec played by Nicole Parker) and a clueless loser named Corey (Jay Mohr) devise competing abduction plots of their own.
Because of a series of mix-ups, Peaches' ex-con brother, Herb — Peaches and Herb, get it? — winds up holding Malcolm's parking valet hostage at a swank hotel, while Malcolm is holed up with Corey in the ramshackle basement of his deaf and drunk grandma. From there, the movie plays out to its dissolute resolution.
Loretta Devine, as Malcolm's sassy assistant, is about the only member of the cast able to walk away from this dud with any dignity. It's no "Soul Plane," but the filmmakers do seem intent on finding equal-opportunity, offensive stereotypes for everyone.
