Tagline: Some in-laws were meant to be broken.
A remake of 1967’s “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” Ashton Kutcher plays a man marrying a black woman whose father (Bernie Mac) is having difficulty coming to terms with the marriage.
Percy Jones (Bernie Mac) takes great pride in the knowledge that he is always right, especially when it comes to the welfare of his family. When his daughter Theresa (Zoe Salda-a) brings her new boyfriend, Simon Green (Ashton Kutcher), home to meet Percy and his wife Marilyn (Judith Scott), he is unaware that Simon has already proposed to Theresa and plans to announce the engagement at Percy and Marilyn’s 25th anniversary party.
As far as Percy’s concerned, no man will ever be good enough for his baby girl and the long line of struggling-artist types Theresa has dated so far has only served to bolster his conviction. So that there are no unpleasant surprises this time around, Percy, a bank loan officer, runs a credit check on Simon. The young man, a successful young stockbroker, certainly looks good on paper, and for the first time, Percy is actually looking forward to meeting one of his daughter’s boyfriends.
However, the young man he has envisioned — a dazzling combination of Denzel Washington, Colin Powell and Tiger Woods — is not who arrives at his doorstep. Percy is aghast and more than a little indignant when his daughter presents her decidedly Caucasian boyfriend.
Once he is over his initial shock, Percy begins interrogating Simon about his family history, education, career and favorite sports. Feeling pressured to impress his prospective father-in-law, Simon boasts of his (nonexistent) past as a NASCAR driver, which only serves to arouse Percy’s suspicions.
Regardless, Simon’s repeated attempts to make a good impression are futile. Percy rebuffs him at every turn — with hilarious results — and makes it his mission to expose Simon as a fraud and undermine his daughter’s new relationship.
These production notes provided by Columbia Pictures.
Guess Who
Starring: Bernie Mac, Ashton Kutcher, Zoe Saldana, Judith Scott, Sherri Shepherd, Hal Williams
Directed by: Kevin Rodney Sullivan
Screenplay by: David Ronn, Jay Scherick
Release Date: March 25th, 2005
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sex-related humor.
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Box Office Totals
Domestic: $68,915,888 (67.7%)
Foreign: $32,950,142 (32.3%)
Total: $101,866,030 (Worldwide)