"Mix in a pair of inspired performances by Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher, and you've got a certified crowd-tickler with a lot more substance than the last Focker family gathering."
Michael Rechtshaffen HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
"When so few comedies these days are actually funny, Guess Who is an entertaining and diverting way to spend 105 minutes for audiences starved for laughs."
Dustin Putman THEMOVIEBOY.COM
"...I found myself laughing pretty consistently the whole way through..."
JoBlo JOBLO'S MOVIE EMPORIUM
"I'm not ashamed to say that Ashton Kutcher made me laugh in Guess Who. OK, maybe I'm a little ashamed. But it was so unexpected I couldn't help myself."
Larry Ratliff SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
"The comic chemistry between Mac and Kutcher is strong enough to withstand the miscues and to sell the film's stronger humor."
Jack Garner ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
"What's not to like about a movie that concludes that although race can divide people, love can unite them?"
Carrie Rickey PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
"Bernie Mac has a natural delivery and can work a punchline like nobody's business."
John Venable SUPERCALA.COM
"Guess Who is a pleasant surprise. Ashton Kutcher’s at his most endearing and Bernie Mac is the best he’s been in a feature film."
Rebecca Murray ABOUT.COM
"A consciously lightweight romantic comedy that pokes fun at racial stereotyping, it starts out a bit shaky but begins to cook as stars Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher find their chemistry, and by the film's end it's become pretty darn likable."
Tom Long DETROIT NEWS
"No one does choleric better than Bernie Mac and it is always fun to see him get steamed."
Nell Minow MOVIE MOM AT YAHOO! MOVIES
The Inside Story
"It's been a long time since the words 'Ashton Kutcher' and 'hilarious' have appeared in the same sentence, but they'll have to get reacquainted. Kutcher and costar Bernie Mac make a terrific comic team." Colin Covert MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
"Growing up I watched all these great old movies with actors who inspired me and motivated me to perform," says actor Bernie Mac. "The realism of those films like "Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner", was attractive to me. Spencer Tracy and Sidney Poitier were so powerful and eloquent about who they were and Katherine Hepburn was just as powerful without saying a word." It should come as no surprise then that Mac came up with the idea of turning one of his favourite films into a comedy and then took the idea to Jenno Topping ["The Brady Bunch Movie"] who helped produce the smash hit "Charlie’s Angels ®: Full Throttle". "One of the things that really interested me," says Topping, "“was the different groups of people that constitute a family nowadays. This story explores that theme in an innovative and fresh way." It was pure coincidence that actor Ashton Kutcher and producer Jason Goldberg were interested in developing the same idea. "I’m a firm believer that great comedy comes from a real place and doesn’t have to be over the top," Kutcher's partner in Katalyst Films Jason Goldberg said. "The premise of "Guess Who" had the potential to be a really smart comedy and that’s something Ashton and I had our eyes on from the very beginning." Kutcher revealed that it was his friendship with hip-hop impresario Sean "P Diddy" Combs that sparked his interest. "What was really interesting about my friendship with Sean is they way people would look at us hanging out together as if it shouldn’t happening, like we were this weird odd couple," Kutcher explained. "I think that’s when the motivation to act on the idea went into high gear. I said We need to do this." With both parties oblivious to each other they seperately pursued the project. Eventually they would come together. "We had no idea that there was an existing script when we met with Jenno," says Goldberg, "but it has turned out to be a great collaboration. We really joined forces and it’s made for an amazing partnership. The pairing of these two amazing comedic talents with such different styles is magical. Having two guys with that kind of chemistry is extremely rare. We’ve seen it in films like 48 Hours (Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy) and Rush Hour (Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan) but it’s not something that comes along very often." One thing that really stands out in "Guess Who" is the huge amount of chemistry flowing between Kutcher and Mac who had briefly met each other when Kutcher appeared on "The Bernie Mac Show". "I did a little guest spot on Bernie’s show and we were sitting there riffing back and forth," says Kutcher. "There was a script but we went a little crazy. It was so effortless and so much fun, that I knew pretty quickly we were well suited to work together."
Bernie Mac says he was impressed with Kutcher. "We had such a good time, that the taping went really well and I guess somebody was watching because the next thing you know Ashton’s name came up and I heard how he had wanted to do something similar to what I was planning. How coincidental is that?, asks Mac." So did the project present any headaches for the team? "One of the challenges in telling this story," says Topping, "was finding a balance because so much of the comedy depends on everything being heaped on to the character of Simon Green and you don’t want him to come off as a passive wimp. But Ashton has such a winning personality and such a great talent for physical comedy, he manages to make you love him even though he’s getting the stuffing kicked out of him. After all, he’s just a guy trying to earn the respect of his future father-in-law, something many young men can relate to. The racial element only serves to make him feel more like an outsider in this family and makes you root all the more for him to be accepted." Like many cinemagoers, Director Rodney Kevin Sullivan too is impressed by Bernie Mac who slayed us with his recent appearance alongside Billy Bob Thornton in the adult comedy "Bad Santa". "What’s so impressive about Bernie is that he’s very interested in nuance," says Sullivan. "His potential as an actor is limitless because he’s really interested in the process. He also possesses this great everyman quality. You feel like you know him. His funny bone is your funny bone, when he hurts, you hurt." Mac does a terrific job as Percy Jones, who epitimzes the image many young men have when meeting his partners father for the first time. He is the single guys worse nightmare. No-one is good enough for his little girl. "We really wanted Guess Who to reflect the feeling every father has when realizing that he’s got to let his daughter go," says Topping. "Most fathers have the expectation that their daughter will choose a man similar to them in temperament and substance. But then to meet somebody who’s not only nothing like you, but a nervous, skinny white guy. It was a way of portraying all those dashed expectations in a relevant and comedic way." "Guess Who" is a film that some will find challenging and may discern as being a little racist, but in fact it is a film which many would describe as a mould breaker. "I also love to challenge stereotypes," says director Sullivan. "It’s always fun to flip things on their ears. If you’re going to make a movie about two people from different worlds coming together, you’ve got to be willing to take on some of the unchallenged ideas that are in people’s minds and the assumptions that accompany them." That's something many who see "Guess Who" will latch on to straight away.
Crew Bytes
"GUESS WHO" was .......
directed by Rodney Sullivan
[appeared in "Night Shift", "More American Graffiti"; directed "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" and "Barbershop 2"]; story by David Ronn ["National Security" and "Serving Sara"] and Jay Scherick ["National Security" and "Serving Sara"]; screenplay by David Ronn, Jay Scherick and TWO TIME EMMY Award winner and recipient of the prestigious Peabody Award Peter Tolan ["America’s Sweethearts", "Analyze This", "Analyze That" and "Stealing Harvard"]; costume design by Judy L Ruskin ["Melinda and Melinda", "Remember the Titans", "Born on the Fourth of July" and "Bruce Almighty"]; production design by Paul Peters ["American Pie", "High Crimes", "Out Of Time" and "White Chicks"]; edited by Paul Seydor A.C.E. ["Turner and Hooch", "Under Fire", "White Men Can’t Jump" and "Barbershop 2"]; cinematography Walter Lindenlaub A.S.C. ["City by the Sea", "The Banger Sisters", "Independence Day", "Maid in Manhattan" and "Because of Winn-Dixie"]; original music by John Murphy ["Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise", "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels", "All About The Benjamins" and "Leon the Pig Farmer"] produced by Jason Goldberg ["Homage", "Café Society" and "The Butterfly Effect"], Jenno Topping ["Dr Dolittle", "28 Days", "Charlie’s Angels®: Full Throttle" and "Surviving Christmas"] and Erwin Stoff ["The Matrix", "Hardball", "The Replacements" and "Chain Reaction"].
Casting About
"GUESS WHO" stars .......
NAACP Image Award winner Bernie Mac
["Bad Santa", "Ocean’s 11", "Ocean’s 12" and "Mr. 3000"]; Judith Scott ["Dr. Doolittle", "The Santa Clause", "Opportunity Knocks" and "Dunston Checks In"]; Ashton Kutcher ["Dude Where’s My Car", "Just Married", "A Lot Like Love" and "The Butterfly Effect"]; Hal Williams ["Hardcore", "Private Benjamin", "The Escape Artist" and "The Rookie"]; Robert Curtis-Brown ["Legal Eagles", "Same River Twice", "Catch Me If You Can" and "Bruce Almighty"]; Paula Newsome ["Straight Talk"]; Nicole Sullivan ["Fairfax Fandango" and "Say You'll Be Mine"]; J Kenneth Campbell ["Mars Attacks!", "Bulworth", "Tomcats" and "Collateral Damage"] and Zoe Saldana ["Centre Stage", "Pirates of the Carribbean", "Drumline" and "The Terminal"] as Theresa Jones.
What It's All About
"The odd couple of Mac and Kutcher has such a hilarious ease that you'll be won over by them in the end." E! ONLINE
Theresa Jones and her soon to be fiance Simon are happily in love. Until one weekend nearly destroys their relationship. You see Theresa is taking Simon home to meet her dad Percy [he's the one with the buldging eyes who trusts no man with his daughter] and her mother Marilyn [she's the understanding one who is looking forward to renewing her wedding vows after 25 years of marriage to Percy]. The weekend gets off to a bad start when Percy mistakes their cab driver for Simon. Well, that's to be expected, after all he's black and Simon is ...., well Simon is white! What! Have they run out of eligible black guys in New York? And if this isn't bad enough, things can only get, that's right, worse. When Percy discovers Simon is having sex with his little girl he's far from happy. He's not having any of that under his roof. As Simon and Theresa are about to find out, it's going to be a long testing weekend. Can true love survive? Better yet, can anyone survive a weekend with Percy?
The Verdict
"Who cares what the critics think, "Guess Who" is a lot of fun thanks to the chemistry between Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher who both do a fine job in the lead roles. In fact I would go so far as to say that this is the best we've seen from Kutcher to date. "Guess Who" is more than a comedy it's a story of love and race relationships about crossing the colour boundary. In America they'd probably see this as pretty racist but here in Australia most people will see it for what it is; a good romantic comedy. Recommended viewing."
The Cast
Bernie Mac
Judith Scott
Ashton Kutcher
Zoe Saldana
Hal Williams
Robert Curtis-Brown
Paula Newsome
Nicole Sullivan
Niecy Nash
Kimberly Scott
Denise Dowse
J Kenneth Campbell
Alex Morris
James Eckhouse
Richard Lawson
Archie Hahn
Carl Ciarfalio
David Ramsey
Lisa Kushell
Chad Gabriel
Jonelle Kennedy
RonReaco Lee
Gus Lynch
Andy Morrow
Sherri Shepherd
Kellee Stewart
Amanda Tosch
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Percy Jones
Marilyn Jones
Simon Green
Theresa Jones
Howard Jones
Dante
Darlene
Liz Klein
Naomi
Kimbra
Lisa
Nathan Rogers
Preacher
Workman
Marcus
Bellman
Traffic Cop
Partygoer
Woman at Elevator
Waiter
Winnie
Reggie
Co-Worker
Jason
Sydney
Keisha
Diane
The Crew
Directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan
Original screenplay for "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" written by William Rose
Story written by David Ronn & Jay Scherick
Screenplay by David Ronn/Jay Scherick/Peter Tolan
Produced by Jason Goldberg/Jenno Topping/Erwin Stoff
Cinematography by Karl Walter Lindenlaub
Film Editing by Paul Seydor
Casting by Victoria Thomas
Production Design by Paul Peters
Art Direction by Gary Kosko
Set Decoration by Kathryn Peters-Cardinale
Costume Design by Judy L Ruskin
Run Time 105 minutes
Rated M 15+ [AUST]
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