Top Five (2014)

(Originally reviewed: 03/02/2017) Surprisingly quite good, which is a huge surprise considering I had no intention of actually seeing it, Chris Rock is a good comedian, I find him refreshingly funny and a stand-up guy, comedies are hit and miss these days, so it was nice to see a recent-ish one with more good jokes than bad. The only thing I remember him having a big part in, prior to Adam Sandler films was Death at a Funeral, a panned but pretty good comedy and a lot funnier than the vile Kick-ass trash that came out around the same time. Top Five has a lot of rap references and music, I do not listen to this type of music but his did not affect my enjoyment of the picture which has some good supporting talent and some far from talented. I could not understand a word Cedric the Entertainer was saying but he did have one scene where I somehow laughed, and DMX is pretty funny, most notably when he tries to sing in jail and inmates shout insults telling him to rap instead. Rosario Dawson is good here and has impressive chemistry with Chris Rock and in some well written scenes with decent dialogue, I also thought J.B. smoove (Silk) was funny and there's some decent cameos from Adam Sandler and Jerry Seinfeld. There are a few things I also disliked such as some of the raunchy sexual stuff that was unfunny, some of the performances are lame including Gabrielle Union (Rock's on screen fiancée)who I did not care for and homosexual weirdo played by Anders Holm who was desperately trying to be funny but fell flat and especially cameos from people like Kevin Hart and Tracy Morgan who I find insufferable, all Morgan does is talk rubbish and hope someone laughs, well you weren't funny in Cop-Out and your still not funny. I also despised Leslie Jones who played this butch, angry character who had no comedic talent whatsoever in my opinion.There's some pretty funny stuff including white people jokes and jokes about Planet of the Apes which I think work and I did like the story despite when it took turns into nowhere, and though the plot is nothing solid, Chris Rock's screenplay has enough funny moments than unfunny to warrant a recommendation from me; Top Five is a good comedy and where else can you see Rock go crazy in a supermarket because he noticed a film series of his called Hammy The Bear making profit from alcoholic beverages despite his sobriety.

Before I begin my review, I'll start by saying, I will not be surprised if IMDb removed this, because 99% of their users are whites("caucasians" if you care about being P.C). Please actually take the time to see this movie before you decide to skip. "Top five" is critically acclaimed and has won a handful of awards; how come it has such a low rating?The reasons for the low rating is because IMDb has so many caucasians on its platform.If you think I'm being ignorant, look up great black films like "Malcom X", "Do the right thing", "Menace 2 society", "Catch a fire", "Jungle fever", "12 years a slave". I could go on.Then, compare these movies to mediocre caucasian films like "Fault in our stars", "The notebook", "Trainwreck" "Bridge of spies" e.t.c and you'll see what I'm talking about.Top five is a brilliant romantic comedy that tackles racial issues brilliantly ( that's what pisses off the racist on here). The directing and cinematography is exquisite.You can tell that Chris Rock is inspired by Woody Allen, as he uses the same camera techniques you see in "Manhattan", "Bananas", e.t.c.I was actually expecting the reviews to point out the obvious homages to Woody Allen throughout the film, but I guess these racists were to irritated by the pro black messages to actually see the brilliance of this film. The storyline is nothing original, but the characters and pacing are top notch. I enjoyed the chemistry between Dawson and Rock.I laughed all the way through. Again, you'll have no problem laughing if you are a normal person and have no hatred towards black people. Top five is the best rom com since "500 Days Of Summer."

This movie made absolutely no sense! First let me say that I'm not a big fan of comedies, but I have loved just about every Chris Rock movie until this one. For me Top Five was painful to watch. I was thirty minutes in and was begging for the movie to be over already. The only thing that worked for me was the chemistry between Chris Rock and the female co-star. I thought that their storyline was pretty good at times. But other than that this movie was dry. I feel that this was Rock's poor attempt to give us an inside look into his personal struggles, as if we care. And the title "Top Five" makes no sense. I still don't understand the point of him having a conversation with his friends in the middle of the movie about their Top Five rappers. That whole scene should have been a Youtube video instead of a scene in a senseless movie because it had absolutely nothing to do with the movie. There were many elements in this movie that had nothing to do with each other which is why I only gave it 2 stars.

"Top Five" is an OK film. Not including "New Jack City" it had about the same mediocre luster as any other Chris Rock film. To me it started off a little boring but got kind of interesting as the film led on to what it was really about. Because Chris Rock is the writer of this film and I find some of his stand-up comedy funny there were some parts that did have me laughing at times. For instance when Andre Allen (Chris Rock) and some of his family members were talking about what a very popular rapper would be doing now if he were alive today and Andre Allen (Chris Rock) mentioned that he would probably be playing in a Tyler Perry Movie knocking Jill Scott down a flight of stairs, I thought that was funny being that I'm not a fan of Tyler Perry movies and the scene with his fiancé Erica Long (Gabrielle Union) moved Adam Sandler's seating picture at their wedding to a back row was funny as well because I'm not a fan of his either. Some of the acting in this film was well played out by a wonderful cast which also made it worth watching so if you're looking for a decent film to laugh at a little you won't go wrong with one.