On This Day In Comedy on March 25, 2005, Bernie Mac’s Film ‘Guess Who’ Was Released!
This comedy remake of the classic Sidney Poitier film, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, stars Bernie Mac, Ashton Kutcher and Zoe Saldana. Directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan it tells the story of a Black father who discovers his daughter is in love with a white guy. Mac (the Black father) doesn’t like it. He tries to take Kutcher (the white guy) to a hotel, but they’re all full and so he allows Kutcher to sleep in his basement and to make sure he stays there Mac sleeps with him. Meanwhile Mac is having Kutcher investigated to dig up some dirt to discredit him in Zaldana’s (the daughter) eyes.
The occasion of Mac and Kutcher ever meeting is Mac’s 25th wedding anniversary. Zaldana wants to surprise the family with her engagement announcement. It was such a surprise that Mac ends up running Kutcher off by exposing him as a liar. Turns out Kutcher quit his job and didn’t tell Zaldana. Busted trust, but when Mac finds out that the reason Kutcher quit was because his boss didn’t approve of interracial relationships, he tracks him down and brings Kutcher back to Zaldana. And cut!
Written by Peter Tolan and Jay Sherick, Guess Who got mixed reviews. The cast, which also included Sherri Shepherd, Hal Williams, Judith Scott, Kellee Stewart, Ronreaco Lee, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Niecy Nash and Mike Epps, got positive notices, but by 2005 the topic of interracial love was hardly the searing hot button it was in 1967 when the original was made. Regardless, on a $35 million budget the film grossed $68,915,888 domestically and $32,950,142 internationally for a grand total of $101,866,030 worldwide.
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
Check out this clip:
