Some of the greatest movie comedies of all time have revolved around men dressing up in drag and trying to pass themselves off as women ("Some Like It Hot" and "Tootsie" being the prime examples). Ironically, that's also been the basis for some of the worst comedies ever made ("White Chicks" being the prime example I can think of at the moment). Somewhere in the middle lie the Big Momma movies, both the original, made in 2000,and the sequel from 2006, creatively entitled "Big Momma's House 2." Once again, Martin Lawrence stars as the FBI agent who this time goes undercover as a nanny to the children of a man who may be involved in some sort of major threat to national security (yawn!).

In turns of its storyline, the movie falls somewhere between "Mrs. Doubtfire" and "Mary Poppins," with Big Momma managing to heal the rift in the family and making the neglectful father a model parent by the end of the film. The crime scenario is beyond stupid and leads to a whole host of idiotic slapstick scenes involving Big Momma taking on the gun-wielding bad guys, but if you have a high level of tolerance for this sort of thing, "Big Momma's House 2" should provide you with a good share of laughs amid all the clunkers.

Lawrence exhibits a great deal of energy in the role of Big Momma, but he never brings the kind of insight and believability to the part that Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis or Dustin Hoffman managed to do in their respective turns at cross dressing comedy. Unfortunately, Lawrence's portrayal is all surface imitation, utterly devoid of the kind of subtle shading that might suggest he had actually gotten in touch with his character. This film would be a trifle less innocuous if it hadn't been done so much better already.

While the original movie was nothing great, it was enjoyable enough. This sequel makes the mistakes the previous movies made, but instead of making them better this movie amplifies them. The only things that stop it from being a complete abomination are the locations, soundtrack and the performance of Martin Lawrence which is quite good considering how bad everything else is. The material just isn't funny here, there were actually some funny moments in the original but not here, the dialogue is embarrassing and the jokes tasteless, while the gags take the meaning of uninspired to a whole new level. The story is lame and predictable, the direction this time round this lazy, the pace is very rushed in places and the support can't do anything with their material. Overall, this sequel was pretty bad and unnecessary as well. 3/10 Bethany Cox

The first film is reasonable entertainment, not as good as something like Mrs. Doubtfire, but not bad, and I saw that the critics didn't rate this sequel very highly, so I had to see why, from director John Whitesell (Deck the Halls). Basically Malcolm Turner (Martin Lawrence) is still working for the FBI, but behind a desk and not out on assignments, as his pregnant wife Sherri Pierce (Are We There Yet's Nia Long) is due to give birth to their baby very soon, but after the death of his friend Doug Hudson (Kirk B.R. Woller) he is keen to carry on where he left off. His new sidekick Kevin Keneally (Zachary Levi) is investigating suspected computer virus developing former Military Intelligence Specialist Tom Fuller (Mark Moses) in Orange County, and the job requires someone going undercover. There is an advertisement made by Fuller's wife Leah (Emily Procter) seeking a nanny to take care of the kids and do all the household chores, and reprising his character disguise as Hattie Mae Pierce, aka Big Momma, Malcolm beats the other candidates, including a female secret agent trying to infiltrate too. While investigating what Tom Fuller is up to when he is not at home with the family, Leah feels that "Big Momma" is not doing any of the chores listed, and not doing anything to help the three kids, Molly (Kat Dennings),Carrie (Kick-Ass's Chloë Grace Moretz) and Andrew (twins Preston and Trevor Shores). He slowly gets the family members all on side, and also gets some good leads on the investigation, and the FBI might not have all their information about Fuller's involvement fully correct. By the end, Malcolm obviously reveals his identity to most that need to know, Tom is found innocent thanks to him, the Fuller family show how his presence benefit, and Sherrie comes round and has the baby. Also starring Marisol Nichols as Liliana Morales. Lawrence is still reasonably funny in and out of the fat woman suit, although he was a little annoying as "her" in some scenes, the slapstick isn't as funny as previously seen, the scripting is pretty lacklustre, overall, it's just not as good as the first, a bit of a lazy action comedy. It was nominated the Razzie for Worst Prequel or Sequel. Adequate!