Hollywood Product

Genre: Urban comedy

Opens: In theaters

The pitch: Cultures clash when the NBA’s No. 1 draft pick Todd Anderson (Quran Pender, aka Storm P) throws a big cookout for his colorful extended family, raising eyebrows in his new, wealthy white neighborhood. Doesn’t the same basic thing happen on Fox’s “Method and Red” every week?

Money shots: The arrival of Todd’s obese cousins in a tiny car overflowing with marijuana smoke. Todd’s scene-stealing country relatives show up dragging a dead deer in the kitchen. Queen Latifah (who has story and producer credits) plays the neighborhood’s zealous security guard and dons riot gear to the theme from “SWAT.”

Flesh factor: Todd’s gold-digging girlfriend Brittany (Meagan Good) shows off her cleavage and navel throughout the film. There’s also something sensual about that plate piled high with fulsome, dripping barbecued chicken.

Best line: Farrah Fawcett has a hissy fit when she lays eyes on her new neighbors: “I saw negroes!” “Negroes?” exclaims her equally shocked husband — revealed to be Danny Glover as a snobby, white-bread African-American judge.

Fashion statements: As a thug called “Bling,” Ja Rule appropriately wears garish gold necklaces and a gold thumb ring. Storm P slips into a tan suit camera-ready for a GQ cover. An assimilated African-American gets some authentic “flava” by donning a hip-hop tracksuit and a backward baseball cap.

Pop references: Cookout footnotes every conceivable TV show with a similar theme, like when Brittany wails, “Todd’s family is like the black ‘Beverly Hillbillies’!” B. Rich’s tune “Whoa Now” amusingly samples “The Jeffersons” theme.

Cameos: Marv Albert and several NBA stars provide the requisite stilted sports-figure walk-ons for the NBA draft sequence. Vincent Pastore (“Big Pussy” from “The Sopranos”) turns up as a New Jersey redneck in “the horseshit consignment business.”

Product placement: Brittany judges success by brand names like Mercedes. Ja Rule schemes to have Todd autograph sneakers that he can sell on eBay. When Todd’s father asks his new white butler Jeeves (yes, Jeeves) for hot sauce, the manservant replies, “Tabasco or Red Rooster?” without raising an eyebrow.

Politically correct? Sort of, since the film’s funniest moments tweak the extremes of racial hypersensitivity. Glover’s and Latifah’s characters defend the neighborhood’s white status quo, while Tim Meadows’ failed would-be lawyer attributes his every misfortune to Caucasian conspiracies.

The bottom line: First-time director Lance Rivera, best known for founding the Untertainment record label with Notorious B.I.G., never finds the laid-back tone of the hit “Friday” and “Barbershop” films. And too often The Cookout leaves comic opportunities half-baked while smothering the audience in flavorless homilies about family values. ??