Wow, this is a REALLY bad movie!

Very disappointed :(

Fantastic!

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Jamal Jeffries (Miguel A. Núñez Jr.) is the wild partying bad boy of pro basketball. After the latest naked outburst, he is indefinitely suspended and his sponsors abandon him. He is completely broke. Even his agent Lorne Daniels (Kevin Pollak) dumps him as a client. He is forced to move in with his only supporter Aunt Ruby. He comes up with a crazy idea to be Juwanna Mann, a female player in the WUBA. He tricks Lorne into representing him. He clashes with team leader Michelle Langford (Vivica A. Fox).The setup is stupid. I'm not even expecting good. I didn't know there is money in female basketball. The character is an annoying douche. This is even worst than I feared. This setup is all wrong and it makes any attempt at humor ridiculously bad. The jokes are broad and obvious. It is terribly predictable. This is nowhere near Tootsie level. That's the target but I'm not sure if the film knows it.Before watching the movie, I assumed that Jamal got injured and forced out of the game. Imagine if he was a dunk machine with no other skills. He gets injured and without any other skills, he can't get work anywhere. In desperation, he tries out for the worst female team and barely makes it as a bench warmer. He humbles himself and learns to become a 3 and D player. That would be my pitch.

A piss poor remake of Tootsie where the action is transferred from the world of acting to basketball. The whole story arc duplicates Tootsie only substituting the girl he falls in love with's father for a sub P Diddy rapper and basically removing any genuine human elements and depth from the film. Also with rapper etc, and the script in general, lame African American stereotypes abound. If it weren't so crap Larry Gelbart and Don McGuire should sue for credit for their earlier, far superior template from which it was derived. The only redeeming element is Fat Joe's What's Luv? playing over the credits and the always gorgeous Vivica A. Fox. Give this a miss and watch the brilliant Tootsie instead!

JUWANNA MANN goes a long way towards proving what I have said for years: That a film can overcome most anything if you care about the characters. In fact JUWANNA MANN is better than THE ENGLISH PATIENT, because in watching that film I was not concerned with what happened, was not engaged emotionally by the events in that story. Ergo, JUWANNA MANN is a better film, at least to me, than THE ENGLISH PATIENT. I'm not sure what to think about that, but it makes sense on some level.I caught this movie on cable one day, and figured it would be a painful retread of TOOTSIE, but after a while I couldn't turn it off. It is about a pro-basketball player who crosses the line and is booted out of the league, his only recourse being to dress like a woman and play in the WNBA. Not exactly high art. However, the lead character, played by Miguel A. Nunez Jr., is so likable and honest I was amazed with his performance. He puts on a wig and attacks the role with such gusto I couldn't help but take notice; there are also more subtle things that he does that help the film along. Nunez is the the lynch-pin holding the film together. The supporting cast is also quite good: the always reliable Kevin Pollak, the lovely Vivica A. Fox, Tommy Davidson, etc.The film was also funny...I laughed which does not happen often, not because I am a humorless miser (entirely), but because most films don't strike me as amusing. Don't get me wrong, JUWANNA MANN has it's share of crude humor and a scene involving a traffic stop that goes on too long, but it does not cripple the film, if adds nothing to it. The damn movie is heartwarming, yeah, you heard me...heartwarming! I've never used that term to describe a movie before, but it is. The ending may be formulaic, but for some reason I forgave the film, perhaps because I wanted the characters to be happy. It was certainly a great surprise to find a film at random, that I had never heard of before, and have it turn out to be a small gem. It does not happen enough, but if other film makers would pay attention to a movie like JUWANNA MANN, there just might be a few more. 7/10.

This movie was funny, but really reminiscent of "Big Momma's House". If you enjoy the movies where people go in disguised as someone else, you would like this movie. It is a pretty funny movie and I would probably watch it again.