MOVIE REVIEW

New money and snooty neighbors.

By Kevin Thomas, Times Staff Writer

"The Cookout" is half-baked. It starts out on a promising satirical note as likable Todd Anderson (portrayed by Storm P) becomes the New Jersey Nets' No. 1 NBA draft pick and signs a $30-million contract. He assures his no-nonsense mother, Lady Em (Jenifer Lewis), that he's not going to change, but prompted by his gold-digging girlfriend, Brittany (Meagan Good), he goes on an epic spending spree that includes a mansion with seven bedrooms and 10 baths in a gated community.

Unfortunately, some sharp jabs at nouveau-riche vulgarity and excess swiftly dissolve into a shamble of strained comic contrivances. Based on a story by Queen Latifah (who does herself no favors casting herself as the gated community's officious security guard), "The Cookout" had several writers — and would seem yet another case of too many cooks spoiling the broth — in this case barbecue.

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Lady Em is appalled by Todd's spendthrift ways but realizes that the new place is the perfect setting for her cherished annual cookout, a celebration of what she calls the "Three Fs: Fun, Food and Family." Lady Em is a good, down-to-earth woman, and when it comes to family she welcomes the down-country cousins — the flashy cousin with a passel of kids but no husband, a pair of obese brothers, the sharp-dressing would-be attorney uncle (Tim Meadows) with some cockamamie racist theories, Lady Em's foolishly competitive sister (Rita Owens, who is Latifah's mother) and many others. Showing up uninvited is jealous, zany Bling Bling (Ja Rule), a basketball-court acquaintance of Todd's from back in New Jersey, and his goofy pal Wheezer (Ruperto Vanderpool).

The lively backyard cookout is cause for consternation to next-door neighbors, the pompous Judge Halsted Crowley (Danny Glover) and his wife (Farrah Fawcett), who are appalled at the prospect of people they consider low-class blacks moving into the fancy neighborhood.

Only Lewis gets to play a three-dimensional character, and her warmth and authority are all that hold the film together. First-time director Lance Rivera is in over his head in trying to keep a handle on rambling and diffuse material. "The Cookout" is good-natured but it's a dud.

*

'The Cookout'

MPAA rating: PG-13 for drug content, sexual references and language

Times guidelines: Suitable for all ages

Storm P...Todd Anderson

Queen Latifah...Security guard

Ja Rule...Bling Bling

Tim Meadows...Leroy

Jenifer Lewis...Lady Em

A Lions Gate Films presentation of a Flavor Unit Films production. Director Lance Rivera. Producers Queen Latifah, Shakim Compere, Darryl (Latee) French. Executive producers Michael Paseornek, John Sacchi, Mike Elliott. Screenplay by Laurie B. Turner & Ramsey Gbelawoe and Ramsey Gbelawoe & Jeffrey Brian Holmes; based on a story by Queen Latifah. Cinematographer Tom Houghton. Editors Jeff McEvoy, Patricia Bowers. Music Camara Kambon. Costumes Misa Hylton-Brim. Production designer Anne Stuhler. Art director Roswell Hamrick. Set decorator Amanda Carroll. Running time: 1 hour, 28 minutes.

In general release.