Juwanna Mann: It's a Brick

Juwanna Mann - PG-13

Best for: Mature teens and adults.

The plot: Jamal Jeffries (Miguel A. Nunez Jr.) is a star pro basketball player for the Charlotte Beat whose egotistical, undisciplined "bad boy" behavior ends up getting him kicked off the team. After his possessions are repossessed and his girlfriend leaves him, he goes to stay with his Aunt Ruby (Jenifer Lewis) and gets a crazy idea: Jamal begs his agent, Lorne (Kevin Pollak), to get him reinstated as a player on his old team but he also asks him to arrange a tryout with the Charlotte Banshees, requiring Jamal to disguise himself as a female player named Juwanna Mann. He fools everyone into believing he's a rather large but talented female player. Juwanna hogs the ball at first but eventually learns to become a team player. Along the way, he attracts unwanted attention from annoying fans and prospective boyfriends (Tommy Davidson). Kim Wayans, Lil' Kim also star

The good: Stories about the egotistical athlete learning to become a team player have been done before, but this story still manages to generate a few laughs.

The bad: Even though the movie has some humorous moments, it also has several crude ones: sexually suggestive scenes, Jamal learning to dress like a woman, dealing with his fake body parts, figuring out a way to shower with teammates, groping fellow teammates, fighting off a male date, and lots of crude humor, dialogue and physical comedy. This movie is not "kid-friendly." Stereotypical portrayals include a rap singer who dresses like a pimp and has diamonds across his teeth, a former ball player who gets caught in bed with another woman, and a teammate who walks and talks like a man from "the hood."

Offensive language and behavior: Crude language, lots of slang terms for female body parts, an abundant amount of curse words and several uses of profanity. When Juwanna has too much alcohol on a date, she stumbles to the men's room and urinates for a long time while men look on. Jamal tells a cop he's going through a sex change, and the officer says he also is having a sex-change operation. Some lesbian comments and innuendoes.

Sexual situations: Lots of sexual dialogue, unwanted groping by Jamal and a couple of unrevealing shower scenes. A woman catches her boyfriend in bed with another woman (no nudity is shown). When Jamal is kicked off his team, he strips down to his jock strap, then removes it, launches it into the crowd (we see his bare bottom) and flaunts his nudity. A couple of scenes have scantily clad women in bikinis, etc. A man tries to come into Juwanna's house (with a condom in hand) after a date.

Violence: A few people punch each other. Jamal's a little confrontational and disrespectful to other players. Juwanna knees a man in the crotch and punches Michelle's boyfriend in the face.

Parental guidance: Even though they make this look like a kid-friendly movie, it's not. It has too much adult language and sexual dialogue and behavior for kids.

It's a wrap: Juwanna Mann isn't horrendous but is far inferior to other movies in theaters right now. See one of those instead. This one's a rental, if that.