I went into this really wanting to love it. My favorite part of the entire film was Martin Lawrence. I’m so happy he got the chance to shine here, especially since his role in DO THE RIGHT THING is so minimal. You can see he got MARTIN off the ground based off his performance here. I also loved Lucien "Bowlegged Lou" George, Jr. as the high pitched member of FULL FORCE. He was so funny. There is a BIG energy here that reaches into the huge performances from everyone. This can also be due to the energy of the late ‘80s/early ‘90s style in both film and TV. The police dealing with the black community is so on point, it is scary, since it is played over the top at points. I didn’t know who Kid ‘n Play were before this and I think I would have enjoyed it more with the original pair of Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff (although I don’t see Smith doing something with this much R rated stuff). The members of Full Force are so OLD in this (due in part to them playing high school kids in 30s) that it is clear they grown ass men. I’m not sure if this was to show Kid’s POV to see them more as behemoths or if they just really wanted Full Force in the film. Play is such a dick to Kid too. I would have enjoyed it more if they were playing more off of one another. To be fair EVERYONE is a dick to everyone else for most of the film. I’m really interested in seeing Reggie Hudlin’s student film from Harvard this was based on. There were real funny moments here, but for me it took at lot to get going and I didn’t end up enjoying it as much as I thought I would. I did also love the dance scenes. They were really fun while not being overly choreographed or fake.
