Starring: Terrence Howard, Anthony Anderson, Taryn Manning, Taraji P. Henson, DJ Qualls, LudacrisSynopsis
Written by: Craig Brewer
Directed by: Craig Brewer
Produced by: Stephanie Allain, John Singleton
Always hustling for any kind of cash, Djay begins to have a mid-life crisis wondering if his life should have turned out better. With a hot tip that the famous rap artist "Skinny Black" will be at a friends bar on the Fourth of July, Djay sets out to try and get demo put together in an attempt to realize his dream of becoming a famous emcee.
Using his prostitutes for funding and cleverly working around the difficulties and roadblocks of his poverty, Djay is able to find a group of friends that are willing to help him lay out a few tracks in order to impress Skinny Black and eventually getting a record deal.
Thoughts
For some reason I thought there was more to this story than there actually was. I realized that there was going to be some pimp-slappin' and some trickin' and definitely some hustlin', but all that seemed to be quite mild in comparison to what I had expected. I guess I'm just twisted like that (which I really hope I'm not).
Overall I got a great vibe from the film. Kind-of a "chase your dreams" sort of story -- which anyone will tell you I'm a sucker for those types of films. I especially liked the building of a ghetto recording studio in his room. Using an extending lamp arm was genius.
Terrence Howard is the man, and he owns this film. Surprisingly good were Taraji P. Henson and Anthony Anderson. I was touched deeply by their performances. I didn't like Taryn Manning in Crazy/Beautiful and I didn't like her in this. Something about her just gets on my nerves.
Overall it was engaging and worth the watch. The music is pretty good if you're into hip-hop (which I am), the song "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp" which won the Oscar in 2006 was really good. Not sure why it won, but still.
Summation of Experience
Place: Home - DVR recording (watching movies on tv for me is like pulling teeth. The editing, cursing dubbs and cropping drives me nuts.)
Price: Free (well...cable subscription cost)
Atmosphere: Laid Back
Verdict: Good, not as good as I had hoped
2 comments:
I really loved this movie actually, and I think it relates a lot to indie film making as well. The music is great, and I would go as far to argue that it is more the star of the film than Terrence.
Black Snake Moan, the director's second film, proves that he isn't a one hit wonder. That film does for Blues what this film did for Hip Hop. Definitely check that one out.
Eric I felt the same about the lacking of story. I thought there would have been more story that we were shown. Although, we did watch it on TV so maybe some stuff was edited out. It was a good movie though. Enjoyable to watch.
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