Blankman (1994)

Fighting crime on a budget. Fighting crime in his underwear. The worlds biggest nerd is about to become its newest hero! Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 06/28/2005 Starring: Damon Wayans Robin Givens Run time: 96 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Mike Binder Product Description

geek man!

with unforgettable lines like"slap me around and call me susan",this movie is a gem!a batman obsessed geek decides to be a crime fighter when his grandma is gunned down.so,utilizing junk people send him and his grannies sheets for a cape,this would-be super hero goes out on the prowl.are clever gadgets enough to save a vengeful geek from the heinous michael minelli?can he juggle his geekdom and a relationship?can he......just watch it! October 28, 2008

Outrageously Goofy Superhero Comedy!

Damon Wayans is Darryl Walker, a childlike inventor who is sick of the crime plaguing his neighborhood. When it takes the life of the grandmother who raised him and his brother Kevin (David Alan Grier), Darryl takes inspiration from their childhood hero, Batman, and becomes the most under-funded superhero ever, Blankman! Equipped with bulletproof underwear and a collection of odd inventions made from recycled junk, Blankman takes a stand against crime and woos lovely reporter Kimberly Jonz (Robin Givens), Kevin soon joining up as his reluctant sidekick, Other Guy. Together, the pair does battle with the city's evil crime boss, Michael "The Suit" Minelli (Jon Polito). Jason Alexander co-stars as Kevin's seedy boss, Mr. Stone.

For anyone who grew up with the campy 1960's Batman as one of their big heroes, this movie is a must-see! Loaded with laughs, mostly thanks to goofy Darryl's attempts to be a superhero while screaming like a girl and working with no budget at all, this one's got some heart too. It's not a parody the likes of "Superhero Movie", and if you're going into it with that idea, you won't get it. It's a real superhero movie all its own. The cast is great, and this is Damon Wayans at his best. The DVD is nothing special, but at least gives us a widescreen version that looks great (full-screen on the flipside), and it also comes with the trailer and trailers for "So I Married an Axe Murderer" and "The Pest". And if you like movies like "Blankman" and the "Ace Ventura" flicks, which really let those two "In Living Color" comedians (Damon Wayans and Jim Carrey) loose to do what they do best, I recommend John Leguizamo's "The Pest" as well. Unlike "Blankman", it's a terrible movie, but it's loads of fun!
August 5, 2008

EEaaaGGhhH!!!

This movie is priceless.
A "B movie" for sure.
Young Damon Waynes is hilarious.
The sound track is early nineties and it's hilarious.
The characters and actors are great.

I know a lot of people will hate this movie but it's truly got a lot of finer qualities that can be overlooked by snobs. February 8, 2008

"He's ...uh . . .gone Blank, ma'am."

When watching this movie you have to get rid of all your brain cells for the moment and prepare yourself for a goofy ride through a geek's fantasy of becoming a superhero.

Kevin is the one brother who is heavily into reality with his job at HARD EDITION, a low-level journalist news station that makes up the news as it goes along.

Darryal, on the other hand, has not grown up at all and although he is brilliant in his own way he still has wild-eyed dreams of constantly inventing helpful things. Sadly, all of his inventions are either too good to be true or simply aren't interesting to the public eye. One day, (as in many superhero stories.) a subtle accident at his workplace involving a fly catcher that can fly around the room crashes a combination of chemicals onto darryal's lab coat. This makes the coat and anything that is mixed with the checmical impervious to bullets and knives.

True, there are many flaws with this picture. The story is somewhat tongue and cheek and there are some moments where the humor is corny and overdone but damon wayans plays such a believable geek that it is absoluetly hard not to enjoy watching him struggle to become a bumbling superhero of the streets.

Some of this movie pays homage to the 1960's version of batman and robin. There is also one scene where they mimic the arrival of a villian via an explosion underground which is a nod, or you may think of it as ripp off, to BATMAN RETURNS.

The one thing that I liked about this movie was that DAVID ALAN GRIER plays the perfect straight man to DAMON WAYANS' goofy persona.

The Adventures of BLANKMAN and THAT OTHER GUY is what this movie should have been called. But, all in all, the movie is not groundbreakingly good but it is not that bad. Give it a look.

Enjoy! March 31, 2006

They Were Onto Something

This is definitely one of the strangest superhero movies I've ever seen. Daryl (Damon Wayans) and Kevin (David Alan Grier) are two brothers who grew up watching "Batman"...and nothing else except toilet humor is explored with that opening scene.

Kevin has grown up to be a writer for a crazed tabloid editor. Daryl, on the other hand, is an inventor who, of course, has dozens of ridiculous gadgets that will somehow pay off...or will they? Yes, his tools are creative, but they serve no purpose other than comic relief, which I didn't find funny except for Daryl's embarassment.

Sadly, the two brothers' grandmother is killed because she works for a City Mayor nominee who ticked off a cliche mobster (Jon Polito). Daryl seeks revenge by dressing up in a ridiculous costume, and using those odd gadgets to fight crime and build a secret hideout (which I'm surprised nobody finds since it's at the end of a train track). He dons the name "Blankman"; how he gets this name is most amusing.

Let me make this clear - there are some hysterical moments in this movie. The bickering between straight-laced Kevin and wannabe idealist Daryl is side-splitting. In fact, just about every scene with these two together is very funny. The problem with BLANKMAN is that its occasionally dark, dramatic tone doesn't fit. For example, Blankman takes a reporter (Robin Givens) to his end-of-the-line hideout. Now when these two have a quiet scene together, there's some strange music that reminds me of a despressed version of Danny Elfman's EDWARD SCISSORHANDS score. Now take that unusual mood, and mix it with these comedic characters suddenly talking about the world and love. BLANKMAN repeatedly loses momentum with awkward scenes like this.

There's another oddball moment when the Mayor is going to publicly open a bank and asks Blankman to be present for the dedication. But then Polito's mobster and several thugs chain him up and set off a time-bomb that kills the Mayor, and possibly other people. This Is Not Funny! The movie is not trying to have a dark sense of humor at all, but instead goes for laughs that seem like they belong in DON'T BE A MENACE IN SOUTH CENTRAL...

The contrast of tones and themes don't work. Another case in point, Blankman fights crime on his first night out and confronts a pimp slapping a woman around. Kinda heavy stuff, but woman-beaters are easy to hate, so it's not too offensive. But Blankman's genius idea is challenging the pimp to "Slap me around and call me Susan!" The scene is funny, if improbable...but seeing a woman slapped around and turned into comedic violence feels wrong to me.

Maybe I'm taking this movie too seriously. But I can't understand why BLANKMAN didn't just stick to its strengths. The movie is outrageously funny when it takes some jabs at classic superheroism (Daryl's inability to face life seriously instead of as a TV show is priceless). Why does BLANKMAN have dramatic scenes that are not only misplaced, but also horribly filmed and acted. After reflecting for a while after this flick ended, I concluded that BLANKMAN accidentally ended up trying to be a superhero comedy, an urban drama, and a hip-hop flick. This movie isn't as bad as METEOR MAN or STEEL, but that's not exactly a compliment.

This film is directed by Mike Binder (THE UPSIDE OF ANGER, THE MIND OF A MARRIED MAN), who has a tendency to not establish clear boundaries for the worlds he creates. BLANKMAN is another victim of Binder's lack of focus. The movie has a serious case of split-personality with no hope of control. I really want to like this because it made laugh hard a few times, but it strikes so many wrong notes that I can't quite recommend it. August 11, 2005

More reviews at Amazon.com ...