
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 27, 1993                   TAG: 9304270247
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JANET MASLIN THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PLOT GETS IN THE WAY OF `WHO'S THE MAN?'

"Who's the Man?" is a genial but slow-moving vehicle for Ed Lover and Doctor Dre, hosts of the daily version of "Yo! MTV Raps." Using their familiar names, they appear as two hapless Harlem barbers who are talked into a career change and become rookies on the police force.

Thanks to a collective brainstorm, they pass the entrance exam by answering A-B-R-A-C-A-D-A-B-R-A to a series of multiple-choice questions. Once in uniform, they amaze their old friends, whose disbelieving cries of "You the man?" help to set up the film's title.

These new recruits don't take their work very seriously. The stars have a strong, relaxed presence and remain a sullenly funny couple of losers, with each actor the butt of a running joke (about Ed Lover's failures with women and Doctor Dre's prodigious weight).

Unfortunately, the film insists on a coherent story, losing its rambling, jokey tone to a predictable detective plot that centers on the murder of a beloved neighborhood barber (Jim Moody), whose fate is linked to the attendant issue of gentrification.

The facts surrounding the killing would be obvious to anyone, but the film itself is an inside job. "Who's the Man?" is loaded with rap-related cameos that work only if you recognize the players (Fab 5 Freddy, Kid Capri, Naughty by Nature and the Bob Hope of rap cinema, Ice-T), and have little intrinsic humor of their own.

Much of the time, the film simply produces these and other performers in walk-on roles and trades heavily on their relative familiarity. Only occasionally will the jokes work for a wider audience, as when the juvenile duo Kriss Kross turn up as aspiring stars. "You two can't even dress yourselves!" someone says to the little rappers who popularized clothing worn backward.

"Who's the Man?" also features Denis Leary as an unfunny white cop who taunts the film's heroes; Cheryl (Salt) James as the occasion for an otherwise pointless fashion show sequence, and other performers with names like Beast, B-Real, Humpty Hump, No Face and Apache.

It is energetically directed by Ted Demme, the creator and producer of "Yo! MTV Raps," as if the screenplay, by Seth Greenland, were much better than it is. Despite their obvious comic potential, Doctor Dre and Lover have a lot more droopy, colorful stocking caps than funny lines.

Who's the Man?:

Showing at Valley View Mall 6 and Salem Valley 8. Rated R for considerable profanity and slight violence.

by CNB