Copposites

What it's about:

Jan Venter, a disgruntled white cop (Rob van Vuuren) is suspended from the force after wrecking his ex-wife’s boyfriend’s car. On the other side of town, Sharky Majola, a black crook trying to go straight for the sake of his pregnant fiancée has to do one last job to get a mobster off his back. One night Jan and Sharky’s worlds collide when a breakthrough lab experiment gets into the wrong hands and they find that they’ve swapped bodies.

What we thought:

In my review of Oliver Rodger's 2010 feature debut I Now Pronounce You Black and White I closed off my 1-star review of the painfully unfunny, frankly offensive racial comedy hopeful that the British-born, SA-based director would learn some lessons from the experience.

The movie did rather well at the SA box office, as most homegrown comedies tend to do without fail, but the critical mauling it received must've stung. So while I approached his second effort, another racial farce that sees two men from the opposite ends of the SA social spectrum, I was more than a little nervous.

But this time around I'm more than happy to report that Copposites, a spirited slapstick laugh-a-minute, hits its target with more confidence. The premise is, of course, an inane contrivance to get the black and white worlds to collide – and when they do, Copposites does not disappoint.

Rob van Vuuren is a standout, a true comedic marvel as the endlessly frustrated Venter, who finds himself rejected by his wife, his co-workers and the world. Van Vuuren is of course no stranger to absurd, physical comedy and is at his best here, throwing himself entirely into both his roles.

He's been labelled "the next Leon Schuster", particularly after stealing the limelight from Schuster himself in Schuks Tshabalala's Survival Guide to South Africa, but that's only because there's really no one else locally to compare him to. He's closer in spirit to Jim Carrey or Ben Stiller at their best, and given the right material (preferably his own) he is unmissable.

Van Vuuren's infectious, unpredictable energy plays wonderfully off Siv Ngesi and the chemistry created between these two is what elevates Copposites above the clichés and the poop jokes. Yes, there are the inevitable poop jokes, but it's probably the first gross-out toilet scene that offers some side-splitting reward for the viewer soon after.

Copposites' greatest accomplishment is to treat the racial collisions with a deft, human touch that was so absent from I Now Pronounce You Black and White. Both Van Vuuren and Ngesi have admitted being wary of taking on a movie that pokes fun at something still so sensitive as race in South Africa, but by focusing on the characters and not the caricatures, their performances – and those of the rest of the top-notch supporting cast – is what makes Copposites such unbridled fun.

Also look out for a ridiculously off-kilter cameo from Nik Rabinowitz as a clueless security guard Venter has to work with. As with his previous supporting roles in Material and I Now Pronounce You Black and White, he is an effortless scene-stealer.

The set ups include some predictably awkward scenes between Venter, caught in a black man’s body, trying to having to impress Sharky's disapproving future in-laws ("Act black, not retarded" is the best advice Sharky can offer Venter), a deliciously devious Alfred 'Shorty' Ntombela as the diminutive bad guy out of his depth when faced with his elders, and an over-complicated B-plot involving the disabled scientist whose invention caused the whole mess in the first place.

Copposites is silly, messy and will not offer the magical solution to getting along across the racial lines in SA. Though none of that will matter as you're led along this madcap adventure with the irrepressible Rob van Vuuren as your demented guide.