On the positive side, the film does seem to say that whatever happens to Rob, it is through is own choices. The worst part is that the subject of the unfairness of mandatory sentencing laws, racial profiling, police arrogance, and the lack of hope in the inner city deserves better in either a drama or a comedy. Were this film made by Whites, showing African-Americans as criminal, sex-crazed idiots, reinforcing all the negative stereotypes, it would be considered racist to the extreme. The film offers no solutions to these and many other problems. The world portrayed, in this case the African-American community of Los Angeles, is one filled with hate, distrust, crime, drugs and backbiting. Marihuana smoking is justified because “it is not a felony.”ĬOMMENTS: This is supposed to be a comedy and since little of the comedy works what is left is a pretty ugly film. Thirty seconds out of jail, Rob lights up a joint while saying he’s going to make every effort to stay out of jail. SUBSTANCES: Everyone drinks and uses marijuana (including a working cab driver and an on-duty police officer). We see several skimpily dressed women in a strip club. The camera ogles one woman’s very short pants and later her hip-shaking seduction of Tone. A pornographic video game is seen for a long period. She appears in sexy, red underwear to have sex with Rob. Rob’s girlfriend, Juanita, claims to be his wife. In a hospital, JJ is threatened with homosexual rape by an orderly. Dahlia displays a large assortment of sexual equipment. Implied sex, heterosexual and homosexual, implied oral sex – all followed by a leering fade-to-black. Women are strictly sex objects, to be conquered sexually or ogled at. Rob and his father masturbate while watching a TV exercise program. SEXUALITY & GENDER ISSUES: Nuclear family. Extreme and continuously profanity (mostly racial and sexual) (by everyone) throughout. With hundreds of dollars in his pocket, Rob refuses to tip a parking attendant. ![]() When one of Rob’s friends hands him a thick wad of hundred-dollar-bills, he rents an expensive hotel room to spend the night with his girlfriend. Dahlia withholds evidence to clear Rob’s name in exchange for sexual favors. Rob’s father throws him out of the family house. The police are ineffectual idiots the Black police are trigger-happy idiots. Juanita, Rob’s girlfriend, steals money from him. The film treats crime (trying to be humorous) as if it were normal, with little or few consequences. Everyone blames the other for what goes wrong everyone victimized everyone else. MORALS, ISSUES & VALUES: Almost everyone in this film, adult and teen, Black and White, acts stupidly. A man kicks a dog (off-screen).ĬRIMES: Drug Use (U), Homosexual Rape (U), Parole Violations (P), Car Theft (P). One man hits another over the head with a bottle. JJ is wounded in the buttocks, but with little blood. Several shoot-outs between Rob and his friends and the police. VIOLENCE/SCARINESS: The violence in intended to be taken humorously, but for the most part, it isn’t funny. ![]() With the police in pursuit, he finally makes it to a church and the media to deliver the tape. Finally, Dahlia says she will trade him sexual favors for a telephone tape that proves he’s innocent and JJ is guilty. He tries to clear his name, going from friend to friend, all of whom either reject him or victimize him. When pulled over, JJ opens fire on the police and Rob runs for his life. Tone asks delinquent JJ to pick up Rob, which he does in a stolen car. His friend, Tone, who was to pick him up at the jail gates, picks ups a girl to have sex with her. Comedy (2000, R.) Released from prison after two convictions, Rob swears to go straight to avoid a mandatory 25-year sentence under California’s “Three Strikes” law for a third conviction.
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