Malibu’s Most Wanted

A white wannabe rapper (Jamie Kennedy) is such an embarrassment to his white-bread politician father (Ryan O’Neal) that he hires two African-American actors (Taye Diggs and Anthony Anderson) to impersonate “gangstas” and “scare the black out of him.” Despite the just-this-side-of-demeaning stereotypes, there are a few decent laughs in this labored comedy—mostly from Diggs and Anderson in their spot-on, hilariously in-jokey portrayals of two earnest, self-absorbed actors. But the film runs out of steam early on. The fact is that Kennedy’s character, black or white, is an obnoxious jerk, and we get fed up with him sometime during the first 15 minutes. The supporting actors—Regina Hall, Blair Underwood, Bo Derek and Damien Dante Wayans—are appealing but given too little to do.