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| ‘Class Act’ By Desson Howe Washington Post Staff Writer June 05, 1992 | ||
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For one thing, they don't play their hip-hopping, soda-promoting, cartoon-spinoffing selves. Kid (whose real-real self is Christopher Reid) plays bookworm Duncan Pinderhughes. Play (Christopher Martin) is streetwise punk Blade Brown. When their school records are accidentally switched, academic whiz Kid finds himself stuck with a mean rap, while delinquent Play stumbles his way through advanced Latin. But they come to realize they can gain from the confusion.
Shy Kid could stand a little sexy notoriety, and, with Blade doubling for him, he can pass the physical education requirement for his hoped-for scholarship. Play, who falls for bright girl Karyn Parsons (from "Fresh Prince of Bel Air"), suddenly likes the sound of A grades. And you know something? They both learn a little from each other.
The movie has its funny moments -- precious few of them. Dour Play adjusts to his egghead existence with an amusing array of piquant expressions. "Let's jingle baby" will always be a personal favorite. Asked to explain his familiar "high-top fade" haircut, Kid says, "I'm just expressing myself aero-dynamically." Incidentally, this movie marks the permanent shearing of that beehive 'fro, when Kid opts for dreads. As his addled friend Popsickle, Doug E. Doug shows future potential.
But "Class Act" is little more than pop-culture filler, a series of innocuous rap-lite episodes with the requisite vivid color, the pounding music and the cartoonish shots (such as the reflection of a clock in Kid's eye). There is no soul or momentum to this second-rate "Trading Places." There seem to be about two finales too many, and there's an insensitively homophobic running gag, in which Kid's father worries that his son is gay.
Kid 'N Play, who have made three albums and three films, and have launched a Saturday-morning TV cartoon series and comic strip, face the danger of mediocre cruise control. "House Party," one of the funniest youth comedies ever, remains their best movie. It hangs dauntingly over their career. They're going to need far better than "Class Act" to clipse it. Actually, just plain funny would be enough.
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