Tales From The HOOOOOOOOD!!!
To me, the '90s were the last decade of
experimental films. Indie films were all the craze and a lot of them
were good. Movies like S.F.W. and Bottle Rocket are great examples.
Today, there's no filter and you have mainstream movies like Abe
Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Zombieland. Now this film doesn't
seamlessly fit as an example of the '90s indie undertaking, but it
does echo a bit of it. OR, it could just be a '90s version of
Blaxploytation. Either way, it's on!
Naturally, these types of movies are
anthologies, but I'm thankful for that because none of the stories
could stand alone in a full length feature. In fact, they shoe-horned
5 stories into 95 minutes! So, none of them are really deep, as you
would expect. But maybe they're too quick? . The sad thing is, I
can't really give it a proper review because they just aren't that
good OR bad. At least if they were bad I could make fun of them, but
this is just bla. Much like Hood of Horror, this had its own set of
stereotypical stores like 'racist white cops beat up innocent black
man' and 'racist white former KKK senator tries to get the black vote
and is mulled to death by dolls (ug...just as bad as puppets)'. The
cast was pretty good, but seeing David Allen Grier as an abusive
father is a bit of stretch. It's just hard to take him serious after
Boomerang, Blankman, In Living Color, etc...
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| Why does Clarence always look like this? |
There's not much else to say. I can't recommend this
movie for any reason. Maybe this was cooler in 1995 like Clerks was. But I can't stand that movie now, so that may be a huge reason this fell flat with me. Oh, and one odd omission? Not one scene or utterance of a 40oz bottle of tasty malt liquor. I don't think I'm out of place by thinking that was strange, given the context of the movie.
Superstar Roundup:
Clarence Williams the 3rd!
Joe Torry!
David Allen Grier!
Rosalind Cash!
Corbin...Bernsen...?
...Oh holy shit, WINGS HOUSER!?!?!
Monday: Guess...go ahead and guess.....
I don't think 40 oz malt liquor was ever a staple of Blaxploitation films. Reefer, jive talkin' and snappy dressing (usually, all at the expense of your stables of who'es) while you kicked ass and never lost a fight to the man, where the mainstays of Blaxploitation. Later directors, especially John Singleton, made extreme gang warfare, "40ozs and blunts" a Black movie staple. Honestly, most "Black movies" don't contain 40s unless they are attached the the stereotypical character that everyone is trying to avoid.
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