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Undercover
Brother |
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Rating
- 5 out of 5 |
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Ozzymadic for the People: Movie Review
6-6-02
I suppose comedy is a hard thing to do. It takes
timing and talent. And its such a subjective form
of entertainment that not everybody will look to
the same thing for enjoyment. Reviewing a comedy
isn't quite as hard but its at least tricky. What
you may find funny, ten others might not. And what
those ten DO find funny, you might not.
So here we are, doing a review for "Undercover
Brother", a comedy.
To be subjective about it, I laughed my ass off.
To be objective about it, I laughed my ass off.
"Undercover Brother" is a movie with humor
based on the differences between white and black
cultures. In most cases this is a touchy subject.
But watch this movie and you'll see people from
both groups laughing at each other, and more importanly,
themselves. Thats what a good comedy does, it lets
you laugh at yourself.
I've always had a thing where any comedy based on
racial overtones shouldn't try and be like "Blazing
Saddles". While "Blazing Saddles"
is one of the best comedys of all time, its a hard
formula to duplicate. "Wild Wild West"
wasn't a comedy but some jackass thought it should
be like "Blazing Saddles" and in doing
so, "Wild Wild West" was a horrible movie.
Racial overtones can kill a movie fifteen ways before
it hits the ground. In the case of "Wild Wild
West", it dies thrity times.
So does "Undercover Brother" try and be
"Blazing Saddles"? Thankfuly no. Its humor
is its own and it takes a lot from black exploitation
movies more than anything else. The movie starts
off strong and jumps right into the plot rather
than muddeling through a lot of opening crap.
Laughing about Billy Dee Williams being brainwashed
into selling fried chicken seems so wrong but I
suppose thats why its funny.I really don't get the
mayonaise thing. I thought everybody hated it but
thats just me.
Eddie Griffin is great in the lead role and thankfuly
he's not the type to completely consume the entire
movie. The supporting cast is allowed to do their
thing and they do it extremely well. Dave Chappelle
as "Conspiracy Brother" has some of the
best lines in the entire movie but I've got to give
it up for Neal Patrick Harris, who was by far the
biggest surprise in the movie. He's come a long
way from Doogie Howser and anybody should appreciate
him in this film.
Its hard to tell you anything other than "I
laughed my ass off" but too put it in different
terms, this is the best comedy I've seen this year
and I thought that would be hard after seeing "Death
to Smoochie". In fact, its been a long time
since I've seen a movie thats made me laugh this
much.
If you were on the fence about this one, trust me,
its worth the price of admission. If life was fair,
this would be a blockbuster at the box office. But
after seeing the first week results, that might
not happen, so see it now. I'm hopeful that this
will reach cult like status and since it runs in
the same pack as "Austin Powers", "Undercover
Brother" could very well become a new franchise. |
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| See this flick and remember
one thing. No one can call you a sissie. |
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