Marlon Wayans stars in a comedy about a NYC substitute teacher, Rob Anderson, who's about to marry the love of his life and doctor, Megan Swope (Regina Hall), but the night before the wedding Rob goes out for a few drinks with his best man/best friend Benny (J. T. Jackson). Rob then wakes up stuck in a hotel elevator naked the next morning. On top of that, Rob finds himself in a 1-hour time loop that prevents him from getting to the wedding--no matter how hard he tries. Late to his own wedding, Rob changes his strategy every time he loops back to the elevator in order to get to the wedding on time before it's too late.
Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that Groundhog Day started the whole time loop genre back in 1993 that many other films have recently started copying to varying degrees of success. Naked is one of those films that tries to put a different spin on Groundhog's ingenious plot. But instead of the day repeating, Naked writers condensed the loop to just one hour, and instead of Rob trying to get the girl, he already has her--he just has to get to the wedding. However, apparently Rob isn't just mysteriously late, he's also a major screw-up and afraid to commit to anything, even a long-term teaching position offered to him. This begs the question though, how did Rob end up engaged to a successful physician in the first place?
Anyway, Naked has a few good laughs, but as a comedy, there aren't enough laughs to overcome the stale feeling one gets from watching a movie based on a recently overused plot. Naked's many inconsistencies and bad acting (in particular by Wayans) don't help either. For instance, "one hour" is not nearly as effective (or interesting) as "one day" when it comes to building up a legitimate story within the time loop phenomena. The writers also never give us any explanation for how Rob got stuck in a time loop and how he managed to get out of it. Maybe it was all a dream? Could be, but I guess that part is left up to viewer interpretation. Only, you really don't care because the movie is so unbearable and overly long.
Loretta Devine, Dennis Haysbert, Scott Foley, Cory Hardrict, and Eliza Coupe all have small roles here with a cameo by Brian McKnight. Devine is always a delight to watch while I kept thinking Dennis Haysbert, with that cool baritone voice, would break out any minute with an Allstate slogan. It's just too hard to picture him in anything other than an insurance company commercial nowadays. Side note--both Marlon Wayans and Regina Hall look eternally youthful even though they are in their mid-40s. WOW! What are they doing?
Anyway, Naked simply cannot match the freshness, comedic delivery, acting, or screenplay of the film it copies. There is one thing though that Naked does do very effectively--viewers will get the feeling they are trapped in that one-hour time loop with Rob, and in this movie's case, that's not a good thing.