Malibu's Most Wanted

Brad Gluckman is a wealthy young man from Malibu who styles himself as a rapper, calling himself B-Rad and treating his comfortable coastal home as though it were a tough neighborhood. His father, Bill Gluckman, is running for governor of California, and Brad's behavior threatens to derail the campaign. To shock his son out of his aspirations and make him see the reality of the world he wants to enter, Bill arranges for two actors to stage a kidnapping, posing as gangsters and taking Brad into the harder parts of Los Angeles. The scheme is meant to frighten him straight, though Brad's commitment to his persona complicates the plan.

The film was directed by John Whitesell, its first feature in a run that continued with Big Momma's House 2, Deck the Halls, Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son, Thunderstruck and Holidate. Jamie Kennedy stars as Brad and co-wrote the screenplay with Nick Swardson and Fax Bahr. Taye Diggs, Anthony Anderson, Regina Hall, Blair Underwood and Damien Dante Wayans appear alongside him, among a credited cast of 63 and crew of 66. Made for about 15 million dollars, it took roughly 34 million worldwide, a modest return.

Audience response was middling: on IMDb it holds 5.3 out of 10 from around 22,000 votes, and on TMDB 5.4 out of 10 from about 310 votes. A critics' rating of 4.8 out of 10 from 91 reviews places it slightly below those audience scores.