While its fair to say that the Wayans brothers have made a lot of bad films over the years, they have managed to make us laugh a fair amount too. While a lot of their best material was on tv’s “In Living Colour”, here is my personal ranking of the best films to feature members of the family in major roles.
- I’m Gonna Git You Sucka
A spoof of the blaxploitation genre. It stars Keenen Ivory Wayans but features appearances from Damon, Shawn and Marlon. If you’ve seen films such as “Shaft” and other 70s action films with black stars, you’ll get a lot of the gags.
- The Great White Hype
A great satire of the corruption and the corporatisation of boxing. Damon Wayans plays a black boxing champ but viewing figures are down so his manager (Samuel L. Jackson “Pulp Fiction”) is out to find a white man for him to fight.
- Major Payne
A great vehicle for Damon Wayans as he chews the scenery. We see him as Maj. Payne, a man that only knows war and the military. He’s forced to train a bunch of cadets at a private school and it’s going to be his toughest assignment yet. There is a lot of laughs throughout.
- Requiem For A Dream
Marlon Wayans is here in a rather serious role as a drug user. It’s a very different movie from the others on this list but Wayans does a really good job here. Just a warning though that this is a very disturbing film about drug addiction so don’t expect to be laughing at any part of it.
- The Last Boy Scout
Damon Wayans stars alongside Bruce Willis (“Die Hard”) in this fantastic action movie from director Tony Scott (“Top Gun”). Wayans plays an American football player that joins forces with Willis’ unruly cop to bring down a bunch of bad guys.
Honourable mentions:
Senseless