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Who Made The Potatoe Salad? (2006) DVD Review
Who Made The Potatoe Salad? (2006) DVD Credits:
Who Made The Potatoe Salad? (2006) Directed by:
Damon 'Coke' Daniels
Who Made The Potatoe Salad? (2006) Written by:
Damon 'Coke' Daniels
Who Made The Potatoe Salad? (2006) Cast:
Daphne Bloomer, Michael Colyar, DeRay Davis, Bebe Drake, Jennia Fredrique
Who Made The Potatoe Salad? (2006) Released by:
Not available at this time
Region:
1
Who Made The Potatoe Salad? (2006) DVD Release Date:
14th November 2006
Our Rating: Extras Rating:

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Who Made The Potatoe Salad? (2006) Synopsis:

An urban romantic comedy about a young San Diego policeman who travels to Los Angeles with his fiancée to meet her dysfunctional family and announce their engagement.

Who Made The Potatoe Salad? (2006) DVD Review:

Whenever a film is a hit success, a dozen duplicates can always be expected. Meet the Parents had a surprising amount of success and suddenly there were plans for a sequel, after only a weekend or two of great box-office numbers. The sequel was planned because the film was a success, but not necessarily because they had any great ideas for a film, and it showed in the way we were supposed to be distracted by the additional stars in the cast. As awful as sequels can be, copycats are often worse. Who Made the Potatoe Salad is somewhat of an attempt at an urban Meet the Parents, and it doesn’t seem at all ashamed to leech itself to the success of the far superior film. Even the back cover of the DVD has the tag line, “Get ready to meet the parents in a hilarious new comedy!” with the words meet the parents in different colors from the rest of the text. We are supposed to associate the two, which are similar in many ways other than quality.

There is something else significant about Who Made the Potatoe Salad?; it is another attempt for Jaleel White to escape the image of geeky next-door-neighbor Steve from television’s Family Matters. White does his best at playing a humorous character while doing his best to stay somewhat tough. There is even a faux sex scene which allows White to strip his shirt off and prove that he isn’t a skinny geek anymore. Unfortunately the humor is so ridiculous that even Ben Stiller would have had a little bit of trouble keeping the film alive, although I don’t doubt that he could have done a much better job than White, who mostly seems to be floundering.

Copying a successful film doesn’t guarantee a failure. Filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino and the Coen brothers have based their career upon drawing from the success of other directors, but this is because they managed to create their own style along the way. Who Made the Potatoe Salad? was written and directed by Damon “Coke” Daniels, whose script relies very heavily upon racial stereotypes. Jaleel White is Michael, a black San Diego cop meeting his fiancé’s family over Thanksgiving for the first time. They live in Los Angeles, which is made to be a completely different world for Michael to be the fish-out-of-water in. His fiancé’s father is an ex-Black Panther, her brother is a gangster and the entire family hates cops. There is no believing that the sweet girl he is dating came from such an ignorant and hateful family, but we are asked to suspend disbelief as Michael is treated like an enemy of all proud black men.

The humor is never short of offensive and obvious, filled with clichés to the brim, and this is just the script. Daniels doesn’t have much better luck with directing either. Scenes are sloppy and production values are even below average. There is hardly a positive element in the film, which is disappointing seeing how hard White works at his role. Even a quick cameo by Eddie Griffin is wasted with masturbation jokes, showing that any talent never had a fighting chance at looking good in this setting.


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Who Made The Potatoe Salad? (2006) DVD review written by: Ryan Izay

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