Keenan Ivory Wayans (In Living Color; Scary Movie) pays homage through parody to blaxploitation, giving Bernie Casey (in particular) and other charismatic and cool black actors from the 70s generation of African-American stars plum parts as a joint effort (which includes Isaac Hayes and Jim Brown as diner owner and cook!) to take down a criminal kingpin named Mr. Big (John Vernon) is underway as a means to save their neighborhood (and make Keenan's wimpy returning soldier into a black hero as he wants so badly). Keenan, despite an impressive physique, is amiable, sweet, and rather innocuous but he so wants to be a tough guy. Problem is his mom (Ja'net DuBois) keeps coming to his rescue! Even the likes of Antonio Fargas (his "pimp show" and "pimp walk" are prime funny bits) and Steve James (his martial arts expertise gets a send up by Wayans; I was disappointed he didn't get the chance to show you how much of a badass he is instead of his high energy Bruce Lee imitation played to the level of Kung Pow; he does kick some ass but it is in a lampooning fashion) show up in supporting bits. I wish Wayans had given Clu Gulagher more to do, and Vernon as Mr. Big is mentioned a lot more than seen. It is hard for me not to feel like they were a missed opportunity. Kadeem Haridison and Damon Wayans as two thugs working for Mr. Big are two of the worst street criminals imaginable. One of my favorite scenes has Anne-Marie Johnson appearing in a bar as a sexpot only to reveal (as "pieces" of her sexy are "pulled off") that she's not exactly the babe she first led Keenan to believe. Brown and Hayes are so much fun together (Brown has foot trouble, with his bunion towards the end quite a hideous sight, while Hayes loads up with so much ammunition at one point that when he falls all the weapons go off incapacitating him!), while Casey's lectures and mentoring on Keenan's "manning up" only add value to Bernie's being involved in the movie. This isn't always laugh-out loud funny as it wants to be, and the mark is missed on occasion, but the movie's heart is in the right place. Clarence Williams III makes an appearance as a Black Panther whose clout as a political leader has diminished (his talk of his protesters hired by the government, and how his very white kids speak of Abe Lincoln while his white wife in beaded cornrows holds her fist out, shouting, "Fight the Power!" admittedly had me in stitches) with Wayans so disappointed. Dawnn Lewis is Wayan's love interest, and when she gets "cramps" it as if she were Linda Blair from The Exorcist! The film ultimately is about Keenan's rite of passage and how his brothers-in-arms help to get him there. The in-jokes and "breaking of the fourth wall" moments are right out of the Abrahams/Zucker school of comedy. Like the horrible lounge singer who gets to be on stage because "she's the director's sister."
Review of I'm Gonna Git You Sucka
