Rap Movie Review – The Players Club

Year of Release: 1998

Production Companies: New Line Cinema/Cubevision Productions

It’s been kind of a long time coming, but I decided that it was time for me to finally see this. Not that I didn’t have chances before, nor did I not see any bits and pieces of this movie before watching it in full finally. But the time had come, as it was definitely a movie that suited my category of “rap movies.” Why? Because it wasn’t just a movie that had some rappers in it, but it was also produced, written and directed by one. The one and only Ice Cube was the person who wrote and directed it, and was also executive producer. If anything, before The Man with the Iron Fists, this was probably the first mainstream film that had a rapper direct it. It felt like it was Ice Cube’s pet project or something.

Anyway, onto the review. Before I give my take, I will say it’s hard to really say where stripping stands in actual work for people. It’s not respected enough that people still consider it to be a degrading line of work, whether it’s women or men being looked at as sex objects or the sleazy dealings that come with it. While Hustlers had shown that the dancers can be just as shady as any patrons or even owners (it was also based on a true story involving strippers scamming rich patrons), it definitely had deserved its praise. But then you had a movie called Showgirls before it, which has a bad reputation (though there is this weird curiosity about it, even though I had read and watched videos that displayed the badness of it all). The Players Club showed that some people can get involved in the business for their own reasons but then get in the midst of some shady people, among other problems.

The story goes like this: Diana, played by Lisa Raye, is a single mother and a college student who needs money to pay for tuition because she is studying to be a journalist. It delves into her personal life a bit, like her cousin coming to town and is also a wild girl. Then of course you have another story going on involving the shady owner of the Players Club, Dollar Bill (played by the late Bernie Mac) who got into some stuff with loan sharks and gangsters.

One could presume that’s a simple premise, except for the fact that it feels all over the place in some areas. In fact, it actually was. Let me start off by saying that I could give Ice Cube some credit because it seemed like a passion project and it seemed like he really wanted to write and direct a movie about the stripping business. In a way, it seemed like he copied Showgirls. But really, this movie was more of a comedy-drama, and even it’s hard to see what it really wants to be. One moment you would have something humorous going on, then the next it’s completely serious (not to mention a really dark moment that ruined what flow this film had). It doesn’t help that certain plot elements just pop out of nowhere. For example, Jamie Foxx’s character and Diana hook up more than halfway through the film and start dating?

Something told me that there may have been some scenes of the two characters interacting before this but were left out. Hell, there was a scene involving a patron that followed Diana home. The man was only seen in a couple of other scenes with little dialogue. There had to be other sequences where it showed that this guy gained a crush on Diana that would lead to him stalking her and it wasn’t mentioned again after that.

I am not going to pretend that I didn’t find some scenes funny, though. Bernie Mac really stole every scene he was in. Some scenes with these two crooked cops were funny. Another positive that I could say is the soundtrack, which I should cover as well. But in some ways, I wonder if there was heavy focus on the soundtrack because really, the movie could have been better than it was. Though I can’t say it wasn’t watchable.

Overall, I didn’t hate this movie, but I can’t call this movie great, either. Aside from some fanservice-y bits, especially with the movie’s theme, some moments of humor, and of course the soundtrack, this film was all over the place and could have been a lot better. Like I said before, I can’t completely fault Ice Cube because I can see that it was something he wanted to do, but directing is not for everybody. When it comes to movies, he should probably stick to producing.

I think I will cover the soundtrack, which I remember being a good compilations.

Rating: 2/5

Movie Review – All About the Benjamins

Year of Release: 2002

Production Companies: New Line Cinema/Cube Vision Productions

Here I am trying to update this a little more often and because I had just watched this, I thought why not? I am also considering doing separate blogs related to other things, one being movie-related, but this review still pertains to hip-hop, as Ice Cube not only starred in the movie, but also produced it.

And yes, I have also been including films that were given theatrical releases, but it mainly pertains to how big a rapper’s role in the movie is. A little fun fact, I even considered doing a review of the 2009 film, Whip It, because Eve was in it, but her role was not big, so that will go in another one that I will do in the near future. It probably would be more appropriate if I cover the Barbershop films, which not only Eve was in and had a bigger role, but also Ice Cube produced and starred in them.

Anyway, onto the main subject at hand. It had been quite a while since I’ve watched this film. I remember seeing a trailer for this film in front of Rat Race back in 2001. Something tells me that this film was delayed. Now I can’t confirm anything, but Rat Race was released in August of that year, but All About the Benjamins was released in March of 2002, which is a 7-month gap. Usually those gaps with trailers pertain to big releases with hype, but this film was just an action-comedy that didn’t have a high budget and had a limited audience, particularly any fans of the Friday series. Not to mention that this film came out the same year as Friday After Next, as it was released in November of that year.

The first time I saw this, I remember renting it at Hollywood Video. I liked it a lot back then but it took me years to revisit it, sometime after I bought a 4-pack of films, which included the Friday films. Funny thing is that I can kind of compare this to Class Act, the 1992 Kid N Play film, as it was not a part of the House Party series, all of which I will cover one day.

Why do I compare it? Because Ice Cube and Mike Epps had done Next Friday and Friday After Next, but this film came in between those two films, just like Class Act came out between House Party 2 and 3. So this is kind of like that, as this film is unrelated to the Friday series, but has the same two leads.

With this film not being connected to the Friday series, it goes like this: Ice Cube plays a bounty hunter named Bucum, who wants to start his own private investigation firm, but is stuck doing jobs catching bail-jumpers. Mike Epps plays Reggie, who is a fugitive and has had run-ins with Bucum, as he missed court dates and such. When Bucum was trying to catch Reggie, he stumbles upon a deal with some shady figures and a rich man involving expensive diamonds. He stows away in a van with the gangsters and gains knowledge about this. So the bad guys go after him, but Bucum finds out about this, and tries to protect Reggie and his girlfriend Gina (Eva Mendes). Of course, Bucum and Reggie have the standard bickering but they end up growing on each other as they work together. You’ve seen this plenty of times.

Cube and Epps have shown that they have great chemistry and it showed here. With Cube playing the tough guy who is no-nonsense, while Epps was the goofy sidekick. There were plenty of funny moments when these two were on screen together. If anything, these two make the movie. As well as Tommy Flanagan’s role as the villain, who totally played it straight. It’s not the first time you’ve seen an action comedy where the villain was playing it straight, though had moments of mild levity, so he didn’t have a dark vibe like, say, the main villain from Bad Boys or even the biker gang leader from 21 Jump Street.

Another standout was the visuals. It had some pretty good shots of Miami, especially the overhead shoots of the boatyards and also shots of the city. This film also had moments of freeze-framing before cutting into another scene, which worked in some ways, as well as closeups and a few slow-motion sequences. It was sort of flashy and cool without trying to be.

This film was definitely an underrated action-comedy. Great visuals, funny scenes with the usual banter between the two leads, as well as an intimidating villain. Plus the action scenes were interesting, as well as a good soundtrack. It’s such a shame that this film flopped at the box office. You would think that with the first two Friday films being hits that this would have done better. I wonder if it was because it was released in March or maybe it wasn’t promoted much. I mean I sense that this film was delayed a few times. I swear that this was originally supposed to be released in late 2001, or even in January of 2002. I swear that I remember seeing a release date for January on IMDB back then, but I can’t confirm it.

Either way, this is definitely recommended. I might cover the soundtrack one day, but I just need to get my hands on it.

4/5