What Men Want

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What Men Want is sort of a gender swapped What Women Want (a film I admittedly didn’t watch all the way through. The film follows sports agent Ali (played by Taraji P. Henson) when she ends up with the ability to hear men’s thoughts. When I saw the trailer, I thought it looked kind of funny, and actually had some potential. The final result was pretty underwhelming. Granted, I didn’t necessarily expect this movie to be great. I want to start with the positives. First, I actually enjoyed the performances by Taraji P. Henson and Tracy Morgan. Henson is a pretty naturally charismatic actress (and she’s clearly trying even though the material is obviously beneath her). Tracy Morgan is one of the few actors who could genuinely make me laugh in this movie. At times, there are jokes that kind of work. There should be a lot more comedic potential than what this movie gave us. The story isn’t really anything new either. I don’t have a problem with this. I just have some more issues with the fact that the filmmakers don’t really do anything with the opportunities they have. The movie is also a little too long. It comes in just shy of two hours. It goes without saying that this movie needed to be trimmed down quite a bit. I can’t really speak to how much that would improve the film, especially because I find that bad comedies are some of the toughest bad movies to sit through—because if a comedy can’t make you laugh, why are you watching it. The movie also has a talented cast that feels criminally underused. Nowhere is this more clear than with Aldis Hodge as Will. The man feels like is just there to be Alli’s love interest and nothing else. I think What Men Want had the potential to be a solid remake. You can tell because, every now and then, a joke will actually work. The biggest problem is this movie doesn't do anything to justify being a necessary remake. It took the first step, but nothing else. 

3 / 10