Who's the Man?

What a fantastic movie! Wow! I loved, loved, loved this movie!

If there was ever a movie that was built for the dollar theater back in the day, this was it!

What an incredible concept and amazing, pretty much flawless execution on film.

The late director Ted Demme. His touch on this is masterful.

It's dang near an action film. Very similar, a close relative to New Jack City, which is from this same glorious era in movies and I also adore much the same.

I remember seeing the videocassette box of this in the video store and just thinking it was some silly urban comedy, because that is how they literally packaged it, but it is so much more than that.

Yes, it is funny, but make no mistake, this sucker is gritty too.

I love it.

Funny and gritty.

Old school New York.

Rappers playing normal roles of normal people. Unannounced cameos.

It's so great.

Most of today's youth wouldn't even realize these dudes are rappers.

And Denis Leary and Colin Quinn.

Bernie Mac too?

This movie rules!

And all from the director of Beautiful Girls?

Who knew?

Not me!

But I definitely know now.

Who the Man is!

This movie was basically a poor excuse to put a lot of rap stars on screen. It was the biggest compilation of hip hop artists in a movie since Krush Groove or House Party. I guess they figured if they had enough big, well known names they wouldn't need to have a good story nor would they have to worry about anyone's acting ability.

There were legitimate actors thrown in there as well: Dennis Leary was one but he was horrible as the exaggerated police sergeant. Bernie Mac and Bill Belamy were also in it but they were there strictly for one-liners and coordinated zingers that I'm sure they hoped would catch on to become pop buzz-phrases like, "You got knocked out!" and other such phrases.

It was cool to see all of the various artists I know and loved when I was a teenager. A few of the iconic artists are now dead (Heavy D, Guru, Jam Master Jay, one of the Chrises from Kriss Kross, Bernie Mac, and maybe others). But gone are the days when I could be simply awed by my favorite artists and consider their movie good. I need substance, content, or at least quality laughs. This had none of that.

African-American comedies have always appealed to me. Movies like HOUSE PARTY, CLASS ACT, and DON'T BE A MENACE TO...... After seeing movies like I GOT THE HOOK UP and FRIDAY, I started to lose my feel for them. But I was going through my video library and came upon WHO'S THE MAN?. The movie had some down right funny jokes, fast paced, and good music. It was also interesting to see an all-star hip-hop cast. Give this one a try.

"Who's the Man?" is a very easy watch. It's a funny movie. It has a good story and it's filled with a lot of funny characters. It has a great running time (85 min) and a lot of good music. Ed Lover and Dr Dre are really funny together. If they were allowed to make a few more movies, they may have joined the ranks of the great comedy teams. Unfortunately, we'll never know. Everyone else in the cast is good/very good. Jim Moody and Denis Leary are two of the stand-outs. I should watch "Who's the Man?" more often. Honorable mention: the final shot.

Nobody makes me laugh like Denis Leary so when I first heard about this movie, I was dying to see it. I kept trying to rent it at the video store, but every time I went, it was checked out so I gave up trying to get it for a while. A few months later, I caught it on TV and I laughed my butt off. Although Denis Leary wasn't in it as much as I would have liked, I loved it. It instantly became one of my favorites despite all of its flaws. The cast is great, especially Doctor Dre and Ed Lover in what are sadly their only starring roles to date. The supporting cast, which consists of some of the coolest people ever, is great as well. I thought there was a good chance that this movie would really suck, but I was wrong. This is a classic 90s film. Movies like this just aren't made anymore. ***