Hot Boyz (2000)

I love to take time and effort to praise movies, but sometimes I just can't help having to write a negative review about a bad film, just to get it out of my system. Even if I've seen it nearly 20 years ago. Hot Boyz was probably one of those films that came in the slipstream of a long string of successful ghetto movies, started by Boyz 'n the Hood and Menace II Society. And boy does it show that inspiration was getting thin by that time. This movie is a testament to the lack of talent of almost everyone who was involved (save for some exceptions).The 90s and 00s were also the age where so many movies were released that we got a direct-to-video/dvd segment as a result, and it's not hard to see that this movie ended up somewhere on the bottom shelf of the video store. Musicians who make the jump to movies are very often cast solely on their instant recognizability, and rappers are often bumped to actors to give the movie a bit of street cred and realism. Unfortunately, the biggest issue with that is that most of them can't act. If it's just one bad actor within an ensemble cast of fine thespians, you'll get away with it, but when an entire movie is written, directed and performed by rappers, it's not hard to see what can go wrong. Don't get me wrong, there are countless movies made on the streets by non-professional casts and crews that turned out raw, gritty and great, but Hot Boyz clearly wasn't one of them. In fact, the only reason why I remember this B-movie-in-the-worst-meaning-of-the-word at all is because of how horribly bad it was.The story itself is pretty basic: a young man from the ghetto wants to become a rapper, but the promise of easy money lures him into a life of crime, despite the best efforts of the people around him. The biggest basic problem is that the script is badly written, and is full of clichés and hammy dialogue. The drama is unintentionally funny, and some scenes are so cringe-worthy that it is hard to discern what is worse: the writing, acting or direction. Silkk Tha Shocker as the leading man is sadly the worst actor of the cast with his monotonous and non-charismatic performance, although the rest of the actors seem to do their best to keep up. Samuel L. Jackson once said that he doesn't want to appear in movies with rappers solely to lend them some credibility, but it seems like this is exactly the reason for Gary Busey and C. Thomas Howell to be in this movie. Jeff Speakman has a brief role as a wise master, probably because he enjoyed some B-movie success in those days, and it enabled the makers to feature some martial arts for no reason. Snoop Dogg is also in it, but I fortunately don't remember him as particularly bad (his laid-back attitude is one of the reasons why I can never get mad at him).If there is one positive thing to mention, it would be the crazy car chase that the movie opens with. It looks pretty spectacular, but it also makes it painfully clear that the most talented people working on this movie were part of the stunt team. The other thing that comes to mind is the comic relief from one of the supporting characters who has a stammer, which is of course a cheap trick to score some giggles, but at times, it worked. But not nearly enough.Normally I'd be closing by saying that this movie should be avoided at all costs, but it seems there is no need. Time hasn't been kind to this unmemorable piece of amateur filming, and it has probably never reached a large audience anyway. It now remains merely as a reminder for me that there are much better movies in this genre. Come to think of it, Boyz n The Hood is on Netflix. I've been avoiding that movie for far too long, and it's about time that I gave it a shot (edit: and it was great).

Let me just start off by saying that I had the misfortune of watching this movie a while back because this was included in a four DVD pack that I bought at Walmart for five dollars. I will say that even paying $1.25 in a four pack is considered a waste because this movie is so freaking bad that I will never get an hour and a half back because I watched it. I might even use it as a means of torture on someone to punish the person.Also, I must mention this: I first watched this at the age of 14 on UPN. I enjoyed the movie back then but now that I'm older, I am A LOT wiser and know A LOT better. I can't even begin to say how bad this movie is. The plot made no sense whatsoever. I refuse to believe that a girl would go to jail for being at a murder scene and not being questioned once about who murdered a cop. Second, how did the crooked cop know who she was? The guy didn't even beat her that badly enough to die. Also, how did the cop know it was that girl's funeral he decided to shoot up? Let's not forget the drastic change in plot midway. It goes from being a drama about a guy trying to get his girlfriend out of jail to a story about rising up the ranks in the crime world.I have watched movies in the past where a lot of the cast consisted of rappers or a portion of the cast were rappers. "Thicker Than Water" with Mack 10 and Fat Joe comes to mind. Granted the movie is low budget and the acting is bad, but it had a decent plot. It was enjoyable for what it is. I have seen bits and pieces of "State Property." The acting was bad, but I haven't seen the whole thing to give my take.This movie, on the other hand, suffered from bad writing, bad direction, many errors, horrible acting (Especially from Silkk The Shocker). The only thing I liked out of it was the music in the background and even I thought that the music was out of place during the final shootout.Unless you are masochist, never watch this movie. However, this could be a great form of torture or punishment to use on someone.

Master P is a 6-year-old boy. He really has a serious psychological problem. Obviously he is trying to emulate certain film generes, like John Woo, Steven Segal or Ice T. Unfortunately, his fantasy realm of reverse-racism mutates itself into this extended music video. This is beyond stupidity. There is so much racism in this piece, at some points, it doesn't even make sense and it becomes comedic. White cops conspiring to implicate a group of blacks in a ring of corruption and blackmail. Half an hour into it, after his sophisticated girlfriend is killed by cops in prison, all white people are "evil" and it's up to "Kool" to set up his gangsta organization: "Hot Boyz Inc." Snoop D-O-Double-G is a main character, if that's any indication of what you're watching. UUUUNNNGGGGHHH!!!! It's like they made a movie for the sole purpose of spending time partying, smoking weed and hanging out with hoes. I don't know how they got Gary Busey to participate in this monstrosity of wasted celluloid. No amount of baseball caps turned backwards can save this piece of stuff from stinking crap so much.

Bought this DVD sight unseen, and I wasn't disappointed. The action was good, the direction was straightforward, and the acting was good for the most part. AJ Johnson, C Thomas Howell, Snoop & Gary Busey were all fine, but Clifton Powell as Saint was definitely the highlight, a good actor who never seems to get the spotlight. The only downside was Silkk as Kool; his acting was wooden at best. All in all though, definitely a decent little flick.