Comedian Chris Rock stars in this scattershot satire of rap music in the vein of This Is Spinal Tap. This film within a film begins with A. White (Chris Elliot) screening a rough cut of a documentary he has made of the notorious CB4 rap group -- consisting of group leader Albert, also know as MC Gusto (Chris Rock); Otis, also known as Stab Master Arson (Deezer D); and Euripides, also know as Dead Mike (Allen Payne). White charts the course of CB4's success, their superstar status a result of the
fact that they are the only gangsta rap group who are, in fact, actual gangsters, coming direct from rap sheets to rap music. They are considered so bad that they even give rapper Ice-T pause: "I thought I was hardcore. But these guys are serious! What am I supposed to do now?" Unfortunately, at the height of their fame, their gangster pose is revealed to be a sham. Albert, Otis, and Euripides turn out to be a bunch of middle-class blacks striking a gangsta facade to look cool. But now they are in trouble. The real Gusto (Charlie Murphy), a neighborhood thug who went to prison on a drug bust, has broken out of jail and is coming for CB4. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
Tamra Davis, a musicvideo director with the well-received feature debut Guncrazy on her resume, might have really had something here had she settled on any one of the many paths the movie starts down.
If your mood is loose and profane, if you speak hip-hop (or you just like hearing it) and if you think Rock is funny (he is), you'll be glad you checked this out.
As a series of ocasionally-amusing vignettes, CB4 is is fitfully entertaining. However, when everything is tied together into a cohesive whole, this movie is a colossal mess.
Partly scripted by Nelson George, the premier authority on hip hop, the film is not without moments of insight, and there are certainly enough gross-out gags to keep you watching.
CB4 just isn't too funny, and one gets the feeling that the filmmakers themselves lacked the resolve or coherence of vision to mock rap in any effective fashion.
Watch Fear of a Black Hat instead. Because it's actually funny. And relevant. Even if you don't like rap. Especially if you like rap.Leave it to Chris Rock to take a great concept and ensure there's not a single laugh-out-loud moment in the whole film, even with Phil Hartman on board. Surely, I thought, as much as I
love rap music and as many times as I've heard references to CB4 in rap songs, that this film would be better, funnier, something. But it wasn't.
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