Top Five

2/4

Starring: Chris Rock, Rosario Dawson, Gabrielle Union, JB Smoove

Rated R for Strong Sexual Content, Nudity, Crude Humor, Language Throughout and Some Drug Use

"Top Five" wants to make us laugh and touch the heart.  It's a difficult line to balance, and while there are some moments of each to be found in this film, it's really not that funny, insightful or touching.

"Top Five" takes us into a day in the life of megastar Andre Allen (Rock).  Andre is a former stand-up comic turned actor, famous for playing a crime-fighter dressed in a bear costume.  He's getting married to Erica Long (Union), a reality TV star, in two days.  And he's trying to get people interested in a new dramatic film about a slave uprising that he made, but it's a tough sell: people only want to see him be the funny bear.  He's being interviewed by Chelsea Brown (Dawson), who is trying to wear down his defenses and get a real story.  Guess what happens?

Chris Rock can be hilarious.  When he's given the opportunity to crack jokes or give monologues, the results can be very funny.  But here's the thing: he can only play Chris Rock.  And that's a problem when you stick him in a movie.  He has no range, and just because someone is funny on stage doesn't mean that they can be funny in a movie.  Stand-up and playing funny characters are two different breeds of theater, and Rock only excels at the former.  Andre is someone I found difficult to care about one-way or another.

Fortunately, he's surrounded by co-stars who know what they're doing.  Rosario Dawson's talents as an actress are totally underrated.  Everyone knows that she's great, but for some reason she doesn't get the buzz or the drawing power that she deserves so much.  She acts circles around Rock, and is responsible for much of the film's appeal.

This is Chris Rock's third film which he directed (not including an episode of a TV show he produced, "Everybody Hates Chris"), and to be quite frank, it's not very good.  He thinks that his script and direction are stronger than they really are, and as a result, things can get pretty dry and pretentious (the double-dutch sequence is a case in point...it's a cutaway over dialogue that has nothing to do with it).

There is some good stuff here, but not much.  Better wait til you can find them on YouTube.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Desert Flower

2/4 Starring: Liya Kebede, Sally Hawkins, Timothy Spall, Juliet Stevenson Rated R for Some Violent Content, A Scene of Sexuality and Language The problem with "Desert Flower" is not that Waris Dirie's story isn't suited for the cinematic treatment or that the actress playing her isn't acceptable.  The problem is that director Sherry Hormann doesn't do a good job of telling it.  This is a poorly focused film that can't decide what it wants to be about or what it wants to say. As is the case with many a true story, the life of Waris Dirie is too amazing to be made up by a Hollywood screenwriter.  This woman fled an arranged marriage as a child, spent years as a servant to a Somali diplomat in England, survived on the streets, and was discovered by a fashion photographer while working as a janitor.  Then she became a supermodel and UN Ambassador in the fight against female genital mutilation. Waris experienced a lot in her life.  Telling it all in a...
Read more

The Road

3.5/4 Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron Rated R for Some Violence, Disturbing Images and Language "The Road" has to be the most downbeat, depressing and cynical movie I've ever seen.  That's not meant as a criticism, but a fact.  This is a tough movie to get through, but not a chore.  Those who venture in will find their time well spent, albeit not in a necessarily pleasant way.  Then again, if a movie is based off a novel by Cormac McCarthy, "pleasant" isn't a word one would hope to be used to describe it. The film takes place after the world has ended.  How it happened is not explained because it doesn't matter.  But any hope of the Earth recovering from what happened has long since gone.  A man (Mortensen) and his son (Smit-McPhee) are travelling together, trying to "get to the coast."  There are few people left, although considering what many are doing with the goal of survival, that's a good thing...
Read more

My Left Foot

 2/4 Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Brenda Fricker, Ray McAnally, Fiona Shaw, Alison Whelan Rated R (probably for Language and Brief Violence) "My Left Foot" feels like one of those movies designed to win Oscars and nothing else.  In fact, it did win two Oscars for the immortal Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Fricker, but apart from their strong work, there's not much else to remember about this movie.  It's well-acted, but all in all it's pretty dull. Christy Brown (Day-Lewis) is getting recognized for his work in order to raise money for the disabled.  Despite being a talented artist and writer, Christy is not the ideal candidate for the job.  He's an alcoholic jerk who makes no secret of his lust for women nor is he above using his disability to manipulate people into doing what he wants.  Interspersed with his attempts to seduce a woman tasked with looking after him while he awaits his entrance are vignettes from his childhood.  Most notably how his mothe...
Read more