B.A.P.S

Here’s final proof that director Robert Townsend — a demonstrably talented and funny guy — must have been replaced by a pod person sometime after his Hollywood Shuffle debut. What could have been classic farce — two dim-bulb friends manipulated into a plot to fleece a dying billionaire — is as ill-timed and unfunny as anything Jerry Lewis made in the ’70s. The acting in B.A.P.S is no help either: Halle Berry overplays a cartoon ditz, Martin Landau recalls his Bela Lugosi impression in Ed Wood (only without the humor), and the great Ian Richardson is painful as a buffoonish butler. D