Great special effect, bad movie

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, July 13, 2006

On the one hand, “Little Man” is a Wayans brothers movie, which means it serves up expected doses of slapstick humor and raunchiness.

But on the other hand, this movie is a technical achievement that, in its own way, is really pretty amazing. I’m not sure anybody has pulled this off before.

And yet, it’s still a bad movie.

As in the immortal “White Chicks,” the two stars are Marlon and Shawn Wayans, while big brother Keenen Ivory Wayans is the director. This time out, Marlon is cast as a feared criminal named Calvin Simms, who stands exactly two feet, six inches tall.

When the diamond from a jewel robbery lands in the accidental custody of a young couple (Shawn Wayans and Kerry Washington), Calvin pretends to be an abandoned baby, the better to get into their home and retrieve the diamond.

This escalates into a weekend spent masquerading as a toddler, a situation that supposedly contains the movie’s jokes. Perhaps you can see some of these coming, especially the gags involving diaper-changing and breastfeeding.

The movie knows what level it’s on. It’s about the same level as Calvin’s head, which we know because objects are repeatedly aimed at the crotches of various characters.

It’s all incredibly broad, but the Wayans brothers are smart enough to hire good people to handle peripheral jokes, such as comic John Witherspoon and former “Saturday Night Live” guy Tracy Morgan.

For that matter, both Marlon and Shawn Wayans are adept performers. Shawn has gotten especially good at playing the sensitive-guy roles and gently spoofing himself.

But let’s get to the visual effects. For his entire performance, Marlon Wayans’ head was photographed giving its performance in front of a green screen. It was later digitally added to a body performance given by a small actor, who was actually in the scenes with the other actors.

In the past, this kind of thing has looked utterly fake, but the effect here is remarkable and creepy. If this were the kind of movie that garnered critical respect, people would be talking about it as a Gollum-like feat.

Give the Wayans brothers credit. “White Chicks” was widely derided, but it made a tidy sum. “Little Man” will probably do the same, respected or not.

Marlon Wayans’ head and Shawn Wayans in “Little Man.”