This race-reversed remake of 1967 comedy groundbreaker Guess Who's Coming To Dinner gets off to a good start: after all, comparing Ashton Kutcher with Sidney Poitier is enough to make anyone chuckle. The lad's actually on affably goofy form here, his chemistry with potential dad-in-law Bernie Mac just about holding its own when compared with the Stiller-De Niro school of antagonism.
But even the funny-ish first half is clogged with lame gags and slack pacing, the latter seizing up altogether in the final act. What's more, the film's take on black-white relations is decidedly beige, the only whiff of provocation arising when racist jokes are served at the dinner table.
It's hard to suppress mirth every time the Mac Daddy fires his glare at Kutcher's fumbling attempts to impress, but it's about time someone built Berniea vehicle big enough to fit his outsized talent.
