Sextuplets: Satire & Stereotypes (Netflix)

[This review was contributed by (AF).]

From the director of The Haunted House franchise, Fifty Shades of Black and most recently Naked, Michael Tiddes teams up with Marlon Waynes again for the Netflix comedy, Sextuplets.

Marlon Waynes acts as all six brothers and sisters, plus the mother of the group. In a similar way to Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor. Much credit is given to Marlon for the arduous task. Though he is no stranger to putting on hair, make-up, prosthesis, wardrobe, and performing. Playing an entire cast must take enormous energy.

Alan Daniels and his wife Marie are expecting their first child. This prompts questions about his medical history by Marie’s father. Alan sets out to find out about his family since he was shuffled through the foster care system. With hopes of meeting successful biological relatives and having harmonious chemistry, Alan soon discovers that his family is far from the Huxtables he imagined.

Story:

Alan Daniels is quirky and humble even though he has achieved a successful career. Compared to his siblings he would be deemed normal. His brother Russell is an unfiltered intellectual who was socially sheltered and is obsessed with throwback cereal.

Alan and Russell meet Dawn, a very opinionated, selfish jailbird that is
immensely loyal to her family after gaining parol. We then meet Ethan, a gold tooth greasy hustler that’s prone to stealing items and whipping out switchblades. We have brief moments with Baby Pete who is born with an illness but is mysteriously popular online. Jasper, a red hair “light-skinned” government agent, rounds out the sextuplets.

Outside of Alan, Russell, and possibly Jasper, Dawn, Ethan, and Baby Pete were afterthoughts in terms of character personalities. Marlon put all of his efforts into Alan and Russell who arguably had the most screen time.

The story itself was flat and purely character-driven which served to the actor’s advantage. So Molly Shannon, Glynn Turmann and Michael Ian Black probably had some liberties with line delivery. Brenda Webb (most recently in Night School) plays Alan’s wife Marie Daniels and had decent comedic timing.

Thoughts:

Marlon Waynes stuck to his most notable formula. We’re familiar with the success of Scary Movie and White Chicks, now Sextuplets brings more of the same. Sextuplets is stocked with minor hyper-sexuality, slapstick comedy, morbidly obese characters, and retro television culture.

There are stereotypes within the African American community that, for the most part, can be taken with a grain of salt. Millennial’s and Generation Z are more sophisticated and could demand more character diversity. They are tired of African Americans being portrayed either loud, angry, twerking or thuggish. However, one could argue that this movie is meant to make fun of those personalities that do exist. Holding a mirror up in a sense. Or this movie could just be meant for mindless consumption.

Beyond the cringe-worthy moments and eye rolls, Sextuplets is about how imperfect, flawed and metaphorically colorful family can be. You might laugh out loud if you watch this movie, but be glad its included at no additional cost in your Netflix streaming library.