The Gristle

As comedian Richard Jeni once said, I watched this movie because I "kept believing it had to get better." I have recently enjoyed the 5 sequel to a film called "my boring toaster' in my kitchen far more than this. Actors? I get it they sometimes need to go thru some awful garbage to reach...not so awful garbage. I don't really have issue with them per se, besides pretty much all of them sucking in this one. My bone to pick is first with the writer. I wanted to ask whether he had the regular or the crayon box with the built in sharpener. And when he got released from the head trauma unit. This borders on parody in the 'what NOT to do" territory. It's only further proof to me that technology is taking over and machines run everything because i cannot imagine a human being anywhere on earth, from Bob the mailman to Pol Pot himself, ever OKing this. It mortally suffers from a 90+ minutes case of 'aren't I so witty with my crazy banter syndrome'. Plop that on top of.."I thought you wrote the plot? Me? No no I thought YOU wrote the plot" and you have a 'MoreMax' premiere showing at 3:55am on channel 791. The only two posiives at all that i can comb from this nightmare was 1. It did end (which nearly is cancelled out by the fact that it exists), and 2. I have seen worse. Granted I was 7 and watching my dog eat his own poop.

Avoid at all costs. Unplug TV in case someone unknowingly flips it on. This is so bad it actually makes the programs on surrounding channels at the same time suffer.

I think that movies like this are rare and precious. The comedy in this movie is not for everyone, as some will find it offensive. I believe the best laughter comes from a writer that understands how to straddle the line. This film does that for me. Using race as the canvas, the creators of this film, manage to paint a comedic look at racial stereotypes and more importantly, how we view our fellow man. How often can you watch a film that will elicit any 'feelings' from you? There is no doubt that you will experience either laughter or angst. If you can get past some of the acting issues, as well as the fact that this is a low budget affair, I think that this movie is well worth the time investment in viewing.

Did you ever own one of those electric football games as a kid? Were you like me, and no matter how carefully you brushed those stupid combs on the bases and arranged the players, your carefully painted Vikings and Packers just wound up kind of milling around in the middle of the field with no purpose while the kids on the box were executing option Is and play-action passes?

This is independent filmmaking by someone who really wants to execute a trick play, be a kid on the box like Quentin Tarantino and/or Kevin Smith. A "wacky" caper about kidneys and drugs that "pushes the boundaries" by having characters say dialogue like "I think our Cuban friend with the butt fetish just bought a vowel!" and making people with Hispanic accents quote Speedy Gonzalez at gunpoint.

If you dig this kind of thing (or really want to see Michael Dorn without his makeup turning in a really relaxed and casual acting job - he has some real presence which is completely wasted here) then this is your movie. Otherwise, huge waste of time unless you worked on it or have a friend who did. Wants to be observational but just winds up being a bunch of caricatures standing around in a parking lot waving guns, quoting Marvel Comics and exchanging racial insults.

If you turn up the volume you can hear the field buzzing in the background. Sorry, dude. Sincere but too flawed for a recommendation.

Don't quote me on the HBO part, but it sure seemed that way. It's was a good movie that at times ran too long, but in general it was good. Not only did it have a good back and forth, "who screwed who" storyline, it addresses very important racial questions and tensions. Very few movies take such abstract looks and judgments at the current. Worth watching.

My brother and I watched this film together, on HBO 2. Actually, we had a bicoastal film viewing. It is the sort of thing that we have always reserved for the finest in quirky film making. How does a movie like this ever get made? The comedy of errors, and concurrently botched confidence schemes lead to hilarious results. We would have spent our hard earned, and stolen, last $110K, to make it as well.

We are certain of the reasons that this film is not popular. It is way too silly, but that gives it its quality, and makes room for it on our video shelves as a potential classic (see "Better Off Dead", "Hollywood Shuffle", "Soul Man" and "Fear of a Black Hat").