In “Our Family Wedding,” ethnic jokes are the guests of honor

If you like Carlos Mencia’s type of comedy, you’re going to love “Our Family Wedding,” a film based on stereotypical aspects of Mexican culture to try to be funny.
The film, which opens Friday, March 12, tells the story of Lucia Ramirez, played by “Ugly Betty” actress America Ferrera, and Marcus Boyd, portrayed by Lance Gross, a recently engaged young couple who keep their wedding plans a secret, then suddenly spring the news on their families.
Mencia plays Miguel Ramirez, the hard-working, macho Mexican immigrant father who opposes his daughter Lucia marrying without the traditional courtship –but a major factor in him opposing the wedding is the fact that Marcus is African-American.
Miguel, who owns a car restoration and towing business, has expected his whole life that his daughter would marry another Mexican man, one who shares the same family values and traditions.
Nothing could be farther from the truth: Marcus’s father is Brad Boyd (played by Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker), a radio personality who likes to fool around with young women and who raised Marcus as a single father.
“Miguel’s like ‘wait a minute, I don’t know who he is!”, said Mencia in the production notes.  “What do you mean you’re getting married?’ Whatever happened to ‘hey, I’m going to take your daughter to dinner.’ We skipped all that! And you’re not having sex, right?!!”
The two fathers’ personalities crash since the first moment they meet, often turning their scenes into a battle of the ethnicities –which culture is better, Mexican or African-American?
Although we’re used to seeing Mencia making ethnic jokes about his Latino background, it is not common for Whitaker to be funny on screen. In fact, he won his Oscar in 2006 for his portrayal of an Ugandan dictator in “The Last King of Scotland.”
“Our Family Wedding’s” topical spin on clashing family ideals and the challenges of doing a comedic role would generate the right amount of synergy for him to say “yes” to the film. 
Whitaker accepted the role, excited to try his hand at comedy. 
“I’ve played a lot of roles that are emotionally and psychologically challenging,” he explains in the production notes.  “So I decided it was the right time to explore a new side.” 
One of the film’s producers, Steven J. Wolfe, said that audiences will be surprised by Whitaker’s comical skills.
“We don’t think of Forest Whitaker as funny because we’ve seen him deliver so many indelible, dramatic, and serious performances that resonate in our heads like ‘The Last King of Scotland.’ But in fact, he’s really amazing with comedy and I think people are going to have fun seeing a side of him they don’t often get to see.”
Mencia and Whitaker are the protagonists of the film. Together, they create such opposite characters that just looking at them side by side makes you laugh.
But Mencia admits to initially having trepidations about starring opposite Whitaker.
“I was like ‘Oh my God! He has an Academy Award. I gotta come on strong, I can’t suck,’” Mencia jokes.
On set, the two found common ground from which to work organically. 
“Forest would look at me and say ‘did you feel that?’  And I’d be like ‘yeah, I felt that’ or ‘no, that was kind of weird.’  And we’d talk about the scenes.  It was so amazing to be able to speak to somebody like that,” Mencia said.
“Our Family Wedding” also stars veteran-actress Lupe Ontiveros as the typical Mexican grandmother who tells her funniest jokes in Spanish.
This is a film for people who just want to laugh while eating pop-corn. It is definitely not for those who get easily offended when you see all of your stereotypical family roles on screen, from the cholo cousin to the metiche tía from the rancho in Mexico.