I'm Gonna Get You, Sucka

(The hero's brother OG'd. Killed by wearing too many gold chains. The hero must find the fiend who is pushing the gold to the streets.)

The old codgers he hires are Bernie Casey, Jim Brown, Antonio Fargas, and Isaac Hayes. Casey is definitely the highlight of the movie, as the Shaft-like hero who walks through the streets with his musicians in tow (you can't be a black superhero without theme music). Casey is an excellent legitimate actor who manages to find the perfect serious tone to perform this kind of material properly, but the rest of the cast kind of stumbles through, not really knowing how realistic to make their characters.

John Vernon, aka Dean Wormer, is pretty funny as the crime boss, Mr Big, who explains to the other characters that it's OK for him to appear in exploitation movies because Shelley Winters and Angie Dickinson did it.

Fargas plays huggy bear, as usual, complete with platform shoes so high that he has an aquarium with live fish in his shoes.

Look for young Chris Rock in a cameo as "rib joint customer".

My favorite line comes from the polite doorman of an exclusive high-profile nightclub, "I'm sorry sir, we can't let you in the club unless you're wearing a really big hat". The name of the club is the Big Brim.

DVD info from Amazon.

Widescreen letterbox, 1.85:1
Good enough print, but no extras.

Aw, shucks, guys, cut them some slack. I really love the Wayans' humor, but they were just learning how to make a movie then. In creating a satire, it's not easy to find the right balance of sincerity and exaggeration, and it's even more difficult to know the right frequency for gags, and how long to let them run.

Some of the characters are unfunny and dumb, like the one played by Keenan's brother Damon. That's understandable, nobody bats 1.000 in comedy, but they let the dumb stuff go on too long, and kept repeating it, and that's not OK.

Anyway, I thought the few moments of brilliance made the film worth watching. It's one of those flicks you can play in the background while you're doing something else, and look up to see the best parts.

The Critics Vote

General consensus: no consensus. Maltin likes, Ebert hates. Maltin 3/4, Ebert 1/4,

The People Vote ...

With their votes ... IMDB summary: IMDb voters score it 6.3
with their dollars ... it did damned good. $13 million domestic gross, about the same as a typical Woody Allen movie, and made with a very small budget.

IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C. Not quite good enough or consistent enough to break away from the core audience of satire fanatics.