Back on the Strip

There are so many things that could have gone well with this movie, and I believe they had the cast to pull it off.

Young boy falls for girl, he loves magic. Moves to Las Vegas and starts stripping... Girl falls for jerk... Good foundation.

The bad.

Tiffany Haddish was a wreck, her humor is crass and ineffective, so she goes for shock with super inappropriate language that doesn't fit and is just uncomfortable.

Wesley Snipes character is effeminate. Not sure why, but it didn't bide well with me.

The rest of the show was OK, but those two pieces wrecked the movie and made it more so a "gotta get through this", rather than a "I don't want this to end" type movie.

Spence Moore did a great job and was entertaining. Bill Bellamy was awesome. J. B> Smoove was funny as ever. Faizon Love was as funny as he ever was.

Kevin Hart had a small part, super insignificant and not worth mentioning.

Why JB Smoove, Wesley Snipes & Kevin Hart (in cameo) agreed to be in dire so-called comedy "Back On The Strip" is baffling... but they must surely regret it. Smoove, Snipes, Faizon Love, Gary Owen & Bill Bellamy used to be a Vegas male stripper troupe, that reforms on discovering well-endowed young star Spence Moore II (the lead - sadly) who's wrapped in his own drama (the film's real story - narrated (sigh) by his mum Tiffany Haddish) over bff Raigan Harris & his dream to be a magician. The performances suck, Chris Spencer's dreadful direction (on his debut) is to terrible tv standard, and his co-writing (with Eric Daniel) is even worse. Beyond bad, it stinks - flush it.

This is not Magic Mike... that part of the story line is the pretext at this romantic Afroamerican comedy. The rhythm is good. No down time. Made my laugh out loud lots of times as much from the bad suggestive dance moves then from the flow of Afroamerican slang especially by women to describe sex, the male member or to insult one and other. Being a white single 60's French Canadian man... it seems to me that it was too much not to be stereotyping? But then again maybe not... As it was funny. And like it a good romantic comedy true love does blossom at the end... in a frenetic last scene. One scene toward the end seems to have needed more writing...

Back on the Strip features one of my favorite actors in Weslie Snipes but even his role in this is far from saving it. This latest comedy failed to come up with a compelling story or provide tons of laughs. Instead what we get is something that is flat, forced, and should have never been made. It's a shame as well because Weslie Snipes was in this along with Tiffany Haddish. I only rememberd laughing a couple of times and really wanted to turn it off early but I powered through. I really wish Studios would do more oversight on what movies they are green lighting before releasing. Back on the Strip gets a low 3 stars out of 10 from me.

When I ask any film I ask myself one simple question, was I entertained? Yes I was. This has me laughing all the way through. The negative reviews are just people who are too serious in their film watching. It's a ridiculous comedy that's just meant to be stupid funny and it is.

The ensemble cast is on point with their roles. Gary Owen is one of my favorite comedians and though he plays his typical role in a black film, he still kills it. Wesley Snipes does who in this like he did in Dolemite's My Name. Tiffany Haddish mainly plays narrator telling the story of her son Merlin and his dream of becoming a Las Vegas magician and like all dreams, he gets hilariously sidetracked. Just watch and enjoy it for what it is, a silly comedy.