The Cookout

The Cookout (2004) is a movie that I recently watched on HBOMAX. The storyline follows a family whose son has been drafted into the NBA. Shortly after being drafted he meets a new girlfriend and they quickly move towards marriage. When they blow most of the son's money the family tries to step in and knock him to his senses at a family BBQ. What could go wrong?

This movie was directed by Lance Rivera (A Perfect Holiday) and stars Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon), Quran Pender (Brown Sugar), Jenifer Lewis (The Princess and the Frog), Tim Meadows (Mean Girls), Ja Rule (The Fast and the Furious), Farrah Fawcett (Logan's Run) and Meagan Good (Think Like a Man).

This movie has a tremendous cast that is criminally poorly utilized. The writing is disappointing - the storyline, dialogue and comedic content are all cheesy and cliche. Danny Glover had a few funny moments and Meagan Good was gorgeous, but there wasn't enough worthwhile moments to enjoy this film. The soundtrack was solid.

Overall, this was a tragically poorly put together picture. I would score this film a 3/10 and recommend skipping it.

First, I'd like to start of by saying I'm black. So I took especial dislike to this film along with the regular dislike due to the absolute horridness of this movie. I can imagine the conversation at the studios regarding this mess of a movie...

Exec 1: Hey, I've got a great idea for a movie. Exec 2: Shoot Exec 1: Well, it's going to aimed at the black community. So it'll make money without us having to spend money. Exec 2: Or use creativity! Exec 1: Exactly. We use the Black movie formula. Number one, find a topic that the black "community" can relate to. You, know, something that's solely afrocentric. Like "da hood", or rap, or dancing, or how "da sistas" play games with men, or basketballs, or like... a cookout! Number 2, stuff a bunch a race relation jokes in it and pass it off as comedy. Number 3, get one good actor, a rapper, and a white person (you know, so the race relation jokes seem at least semi-relevant), then get a bunch of no name actors. And number 4, put some type of easily grasp high concept, like family or community. And wa la! You've got a movie that'll make money without the makers putting anything (and I mean anything) into it! Exec 2: It's gold!

Unfunny, uninspiring, unoriginal, and insulting to your intelligence whether you're black, white, Asian, native American, Arabic, south Asian, Hispanic or pacific islander, but especially if your black. This is what Hollywood thinks black people want. Mindless entertainment that panders to their race. And frankly, it makes me angry. The story was uneven, the jokes failed to illicit even a chuckle, the acting is bad, and the "high concept" was lost in the swirling mass of awful that was this movie.

A complete and utter waste of time.

It's silly, it's obnoxious, it's predictable, it's mindless and I loved every frame! It's your basic young man who comes into money too soon and starts spending it (cause of an obnoxious climber of a girlfriend), much to the dismay of his mother. The fact that he has to seek an endorsement on the weekend of the family barbecue upsets the uptight girlfriend but that leaves the door open for the lovely Eve.

Queen Latifah is marvelous, as is Jennifer Lewis (fabulous!) and all the other cast. Danny Glover is stunningly campy and Farrah Fawcett is still very funny. Jonathan Silverman is good but my favorite is Marci Reid, who plays the repressed Miss Peters and gets all the laughs the fish out of water should get! She holds her own with the rest of the cast and gets the big laughs.

It's a funny movie. Check it out.

i saw it the first night, for queen's first movie (that she produced) it was OK but i know her talent from previous movies and it could have been better. but i think that the main focus she was going for that family should always stick together. no matter how rich or poor you are your family will always be there for you. don't every let anyone or anything make you change for the worse. money isn't everything, it can't play you happiness. that you find with those you love and those who love you back for you and nothing else. like the character's best friend who always watch his games. his girlfriend was only in it for the money like most females are but his best friend was there before it all started and she loved him for just him.

The Cookout is a pretty lame comedy that really delivers nothing new. #1 NBA draft pick Todd Anderson's star is on the ascendant after signing to his home team, the New Jersey Nets. Trying to stay grounded in reality, he throws a big barbecue for his family, not realizing that mixing them with his new agents and reps might lead to a crazy afternoon. The plot is fairly simple, something similar to the Barbershop films. The Cookout fails to be like Barbershop though. Everyone that's at the cookout is a stereotype. The filmmakers apparently were trying to include every stereotype about blacks possible. The script is very weak and needed a lot of work. The acting wasn't very good either with the best being Queen Latifah. She is pretty much the only saving grace in this film. However, her role in this film is small and its hard to believe she helped with the writing. Tim Meadows and Danny Glover are also pretty good but they can't save this film. Other people worth mentioning are Meagan Good and Jonathan Silverman. Ja Rule does a terrible job and he pretty much kills the film. Farrah Fawcett is in the film for some reason and she does a decent job. Everyone else is very annoying and do a bad job of acting. On a side note, Queen Latifah's mom has a role and Eves role is more or a cameo. Lance Rivera directs his first film and hopefully he can improve. Barbershop talked about important issues however, The Cookout didn't as it just had cheap laughs and it was a pretty boring film. The runtime is only 97 minutes long. Even with the short runtime it drags a lot and most of the film is pretty unrealistic. The Cookout is defiantly not worth watching unless your really, really big fans of anyone involved. Rating 3/10, a boring and forgettable film.