Undercover Brother

Playing on 30-year-old stereotypes, and overtaken on the journey across the Atlantic by the last Austin Powers movie, this blaxploitation spoof is not exactly cutting edge, though the narrative does hinge on the reputation of a brainwashed black General not a million man march away from Colin Powell, who dumps his Presidential bid to open a chain of chicken restaurants. The Brotherhood smells a rat, and puts Undercover Brother (Griffin) on the case. Sporting bell bottoms, an Afro and porkchop burns, Griffin cuts an implausibly funky figure - at least until he's forced to adopt the disguise of bespectacled buppie Anton Jackson, undergoes a crash course in Caucasian culture, and gets a load of Penelope Snow (Richards), The Man's secret weapon. That's when the funk flunks. This probably won't win many Oscars, but if they gave awards for the stuff audiences really care about - best catfight, biggest platforms, squirmiest karaoke scene, and baddest righthand man (Kattan's scenery-spitting Mr Feather) - then The Hours wouldn't have a prayer.