Anne D.

My friend and I were at a Cactus Music store and we were in the "music videos" section. It was there that we stumbled across the gem that is the _Murder was the Case_ movie. It was $5.99. I mean, I had some ideas about what went on in this movie (from the shortened MTV music video), but there is nothing like seeing it. It is a pretty fun little twenty minutes.

Charles Murphy plays a character named "JC". For those of you who saw CB4, JC is pretty much a reprisal of his role as Gusto. Anyway, Snoop went and got JC's girlfriend pregnant and JC finds out about it. So he goes out with some of his friends to do a drive-by on Snoop. <start music>

Now I'll just say right now that I don't totally get what happens in Snoop's song. He gets shot and then talks to Satan and Satan brings him back to life. So he smokes a lot of pot, and pisses Satan off. Satan sees it fit to send him to jail for his crimes or something like that. Hey, I'd be lying if I said that I understood it, but that's what I can deduce from the lyrics.

Yes, this is in a lot of ways just a long music video, but there are a couple of parts that really make the experience worth it. For example, JC starts to shoot at the ambulence that is transporting Snoop's body and one of the stoned ambulence drivers pulls out a gun! Oh, and there are a few explosions and things like that. It is a lot like the N.W.A. videos from 1991 with the nudity, profanity, marijuana, and guns and things like that.

So now is the time to ask yourself: do you like gangsta rap? Would you like to see what a 20 minute music video glorifying all sorts of immorality and violence? Interested in Snoop's acting debut or Dr. Dre's directing debut? If the answer to any of these questions is "yes", then by all means see _Murder was the Case_.

I'll just point out that the tape comes with other funny stuff, like a brief video clip of the Dogg Pound getting high and listening to their own music and driving around Long Beach. Oh and there are these "serious" interview segments with Snoop where he tries to be really profound and pretentious. Its so funny. Plus, there's also "What's My Name?"(the video that single-handedly killed morphing technology as a trend), "Gin and Juice", and "Doggy Dogg World" music videos and the Ice Cube and Dr. Dre director's cut of "Natural Born Killaz" (Ice Cube and Dr. Dre reenact OJ!). That last video alone is worth the price of this tape!

This is a silly movie that involves a man who has recently been let out of prison. He meets a girl and gets mixed up in this silly underworld scenario, complete with renegade rastafarians and peel away facial disguises. But its not as good as it sounds... you have to put up with a lot of mediocre writing and overacting in order to get to any of the above-mentioned treats. The story has all of these tricky twists that aim to add depth but really only complicate the already-ailing story. To tell you the truth, the only reason I watched it was so that I could see the extremely short cameo by rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg, playing the character "Kool Kitty Kat".

One funny thing- you should watch for all of the funny faces that the actors make throughout the movie. Its really strange how often it happens, and I don't know if it is a biproduct of the overacting or an inside joke or what. In any case, if you for some reason DO decide to watch this movie, its something to do.