Review(s): DVD Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in The Hood (Unrated Miramax Collector's Edition)
Hilarious
What could be funnier than attacking controversial issues, without taking them seriously? From a poor guy who goes around giving people cheeseburgers (and other things) to a game of po'nopoly to aiming a USSR missle at a gang of thugs, things couldn't get any more chaotic. Or hysterical.
Wayans' Parody Takes Big Risk with Controversial Issue...
The title itself of the Wayans Brother's 1996 parody, Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood, comically implies to several different films concerning African-American males coming of age in socially troubling environments. Some of the titles that come to mind are Boyz n the Hood (1991), Juice (1992), and Menace II Society (1993) among many others. Even though many of these films possess a high cinematic value, the Wayans recognize an excess of these types of films, as they provide a parody portrayal of the difficulties young African-American males face while growing up in rough neighborhoods throughout the United States. Guiltlessly the Wayans approach this theme with ruthless abandon while applying their traditional spoofing spin on it, which unquestionably will cause both irritation and amusement.
The story follows a similar path of Boyz n the Hood from which the audience will recognize the name Tré. Here the name has mutated into Ashtray, and is performed by Shawn Wayans. The film opens with a picturesque aerial shot of the neighborhood where a stop sign is one of the first things that attracts the audience's attention, which states, "I wouldn't stop if I was you." It is a brief display of impending parody and the comic tone that will heavily play with stereotypes and prejudices, but it also hints of the merciless assault of satire that the Wayans will deliver in this film.
Ashtray's mother drops him off at his father's place while she states, "You know there ain't no positive black females in these movies." Ashtray is supposed to learn how to become a man from his father. Hilariously the audience will discover that Ashtray's father is younger than him, and this immature character could not possibly teach Ashtray any character qualities such as responsibility and loyalty. Instead, the father informs him not to smoke or drink his stuff while also letting him spend bedtime with the women he brings home. Despite the crazy humor, the Wayans produce serious undercurrents that deal with racial issues, stereotypes across ethnic groups, and gender issues.
The social importance of friendships is seen through Ashtray's cousin Loc Dog (Marlon Wayans) whose identity is more or less ripped off from O-Dog in Menace II Society. The parody does not take any hostages in this film, as it fools around with the idea of being in bad company. Together Loc Dog and Ashtray continue to display the daily struggles of living in the `hood. There are moments when the film presents high quality parody to scenes where the comedy sinks to the level of a third grader's poop humor. Nevertheless, Don't Be a Menace touches a part of the American tapestry with brutal honesty, as this spoof could also serve as a social criticism. The scene where they play Po'Nopoly, a Monopoly spoof, highlights some of the dismal situations where society limits the African-Americans.
Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood might suggest to some that there have been too many films about struggling young African-American males. Maybe the parody is on society, as several films have to be made, yet no significant changes have been made to help promote a better situation for African-Americans. The Wayans recognize the problem and through this parody deliver a message that something has to be done so people do not need to say, "Man, I need to get out of this place."
FINALLY!!!!!!
After years of waiting they finally give this movie a well deserved dvd edition, I don't know what specific bonus features it will have yet but just seeing the word "uncesored" makes me a happy man. Thank god, its finally here.
Related DVD's Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in The Hood (Unrated Miramax Collector's Edition)
This freewheeling parody tosses horror movies, Eminem, The Matrix, and much more into a cinematic blender. Scary Movie 3 centers around Cindy (Anna Faris, Lost in Translation), a bubble-headed young newscaster who believes that a deadly videotape has some mysterious connection to the aliens who've been making crop circles in the cornfield of a local farmer (Charlie Sheen, Young Guns), whose brother (Simon Rex) hopes to win a local rap contest. Along for the ride are Queen Latifah, George Carlin, Anthony Anderson, Pamela Anderson, Jenny McCarthy, Jeremy Piven, Camryn Manheim, Ja Rule, dozens of rap stars, and Leslie Nielsen as the President of the U.S. No need to have seen the first two Scary Movie flicks--though a few of the characters recur, the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Charlie Sheen - Anna Faris - Regina Hall Director(s): David Zucker DVD Release Date: Released the 11 May 2004 This item is currently not available.
List Price: $19.99 Your Price: YOU SAVE $19.99!
Buy it
South Park cocreator Trey Parker goes straight for the gross-out humor in this live-action farce set in the adult-movie industry. Parker stars as an innocent Mormon kid who gets sucked into the world of pornographic filmmaking and becomes an international sensation as the porno superhero Orgazmo, all the while hiding his secret life from his milk-fed fiancée. It's practically a one-man show for Parker, who directs, writes, stars, and even performs the self-penned theme song as frontman for his rock band, and perhaps he should have spread the responsibilities a little. As an actor he's surprisingly appealing--his dazed grin and bleached white surfer-dude hair give him an engaging air of innocence (he can also be seen, just as innocently endearing, in the sports farce... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Trey Parker - Dian Bachar Director(s): Trey Parker DVD Release Date: Released the 29 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $19.98 Your Price: $14.99YOU SAVE $4.99!
Buy it
Adam Sandler is no Burt Reynolds, but his remake of The Longest Yard is amusing enough to stand on its own. Inheriting the role played by Reynolds played in the 1974 original, Sandler plays Paul Crewe, a scandalized former football star who violates his parole and winds up back in the slammer, where an ambitious, corrupt warden (James Cromwell) manipulates him into forming a convict football squad to compete with a team of bullying prison guards. But where the original (directed with characteristic ruggedness by Robert Aldrich) was a semi-comic study of inmate resistance against powerful oppressors, Sandler's version is a formulaic comedy about winning against the bad guys. That makes it a softer, less meaningful film, and Sandler (reuniting here with Peter Segal after Anger... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Adam Sandler - Chris Rock - Burt Reynolds Director(s): Peter Segal DVD Release Date: Released the 20 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $29.95 Your Price: $22.46YOU SAVE $7.49!
Buy it
Spike Lee's longtime cinematographer, Ernest R. Dickerson, made his directorial debut with this violent story about four Harlem teens whose lives are changed when a store robbery goes wrong. The film has been likened to an urban The Wild Bunch, but it is far too artificial for that. With Dickerson's eye, Juice understandably looks great, but at the end of the day it is only a slightly better version of the heavily clichéd crime movies that have artificially dominated perceptions of black cinema in the U.S. in the '90s. Rap fans might enjoy seeing some familiar stars on board, including Queen Latifah and Tupac Shakur. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Omar Epps - Tupac Shakur - Jermaine 'Huggy' Hopkins Director(s): Ernest R. Dickerson DVD Release Date: Released the 16 January 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $9.99 Your Price: $9.99YOU SAVE $0!
Buy it
Sophomore jinx hit hard in this second film by Kevin Smith, whose debut Clerks transcended the limits of its setting and budget to become something memorably funny. (Smith followed Mallrats with the wonderful Chasing Amy, so Mallrats definitely had the old curse.) A ramshackle comedy set in a mall, the film follows several story lines involving lovers, enemies, friends, goofballs, and Smith's own "silent" character, who also appeared in Clerks and Chasing Amy. A heavy self-consciousness weighs on everything, as if Smith forgot how to make obscenity funny instead of tedious. Still, it's nice to see some of the director's film family on screen, among them Jason Lee and Joey Lauren Adams. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Shannen Doherty - Jason Lee - Jeremy London DVD Release Date: Released the 20 July 1999 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $14.98 Your Price: $7.47YOU SAVE $7.51!
Buy it
