Un gentleman en cavale

I wasn't expecting a whole lot from this movie. The trailers that I'd remembered seeing were pretty funny, but I'd assumed that those were the best parts of Double Take. Anyway, I watched it nonetheless and didn't think it was half bad. There were several parts not included in the trailer that were laugh-out-loud funny. Some might be offended by the fact that Griffen's character is (in the filmic sense) a "coon." Although nowhere near as good a comedy as Blazing Saddles, it is comparable in certain aspects. Double Take could be considered racist, but like Blazing Saddles, it uses racial stereotypes to emphasize the stupidity of their existence. Here, instead of black vs. white, we see upper-class African-Americans ashamed of the Sambo stereotype, and thus not associating with other African-Americans with lower social status. I'm not sure if this message was intentional in Double Take, but it was there nonetheless. Orlando Jones had a pretty good performance and Griffen was a convincing character (some might say he was over-the-top, but again I'd say this was essential). One problem was that the movie quite suddenly switched gears from a comedy to a somewhat serious action/suspense flick. I felt the heavy emphasis upon the latter took away from its comic moral message and made the movie shallower. So, it had potential. They could have recruited a few more writers to add in funnier jokes. All in all, a 6 out of 10.

Me and my wife went to see this movie after seeing the hilarious previews for about a month before it came out... and we were not disappointed! It turned out to be a bit of 'Rush Hour', 'Bad Boys' and yeah maybe even 'Blue Streak' and any other buddy/buddy movie you may care to mention all rolled into one. True, it wasn't better than any of those three, but man Griffin and Orlando are certainly a double act to look out for in the future. Hilarious situations complemented by high profile action and a neat (if sometimes confusing) plot help to buoy the movie along at a frantic pace. But it's the performances which are the real jewel in the crown and Griffin (last seen, if I remember correctly, in 'Deuce Bigelow') and Jones (wasn't he in Armageddon?) are REAL good together, so much so that I kept telling my wife Misty that they MUST have acted together before on TV or something because they really act well off each other. The funny scenes are numerous, with the stand out ones being the malt liquor scene on the train and the running gag about that guy's cross eyes. Mark my words, though... Griffin and Jones are most certainly two names to look out for. Go see and judge for yourselves!

All right, I'll admit the movie itself lacked in certain places (such as extensive lag time in key areas), but I was on the floor crying with the great quips each lead character used. There is no doubt Griffin and Jones are wonderful comedic actors...Jones' performance in Replacements is proof positive of his talent. The problem most people have, though, is they can't see his ability clearly because of career moves he has taken. In Double Take, though, both Jones and Griffin shine in two different comedic styles, both jaw dropping funny and incredibly illustrated. I rented this movie solely to see Jones, and now I have a newfound respect for Griffin's ability, as well.

What it is jive turkey?!

I don't think I've ever seen a movie that could include so many different film genres in a little less than 1 hour and 30 minutes. It has humor, action, a little drama, and with all those emus.horror (not to mention the freaky guy with the marble for an eye). Personally, even though the movie got confusing at times, I liked this movie (with the exception of the fact I went with a friend who laughed through just about the whole thing and made me miss ¼ of the dialogue). I guess being a younger person I caught a lot of the stuff that some adults just didn't get. In the end the whole movie made sense to me, to a lot of other people it didn't, it was just funny. Any ways, since this is a review it looks like I better summarize what the whole thing is about for you:

The movie's main characters are two guys that are like night and day and pretty much seem to dislike each other through most of the movie. First there's Daryl Chase, played by Orlando Jones (yes, that's the guy in the 7-Up commercials, OMG, who will be playing a drag queen named Miss Coco in an upcoming movie!), the sophisticated `good-looking' (as you can see, that's not my personal opinion, I just picked it up from another review) Harvard graduate who is a New York investment banker. Second you have Freddy Tiffany, played by Eddie Griffin (he stars is Master P's `Foolish', yeah, you can call me a fool but you can't fool me. You know that song.maybe.), who is a fast-talking street hustler with a mess of hair and a gold chain and oh.how can we forget his dog Delores (played by Willow Stars). Like I said before, they have basically nothing in common. Well blah de blah (I can't tell you the whole thing) they meet each other under weird circumstances then Daryl finds himself is big trouble because he is framed for something and soon he and Freddy switch places and head off to the wonderful place called Mexico. Needless to say many weird and strange things happen on their way to Mexico and even when they get there. We even get to see a smelly emu ranch called `El Emu Ranch' which has a 20-foot emu structure. After all this happens you may be confused or this all might make total sense to you, it depends on you.

Out of a 10 I give this movie a 9. It was confusing and will be confusing to many people which is why I took a point off because I personally found it VERY amusing. It's not every day you see a sophisticated, well educated guy using some type of ghetto voice shouting about how there's `no Schiltz malt 'licka', right? Or we can't forget the adorable and funny dog Delores who's right up there with the adorable dog from `As Good As It Gets' but I forgot that dog's name. Then there's all those funny lines which I won't share, you can find out for yourself, because most of them aren't in any of the previews. ANY WAYS, this pretty much concludes my review of `Double Take', I will end it with a somewhat simple question to you.WTF is a jive turkey?!

Double Take is a great movie. I laughed a lot and had a great time in the theater. Eddie Griffen and Orlando Jones both gave excellent performances as did the rest of the cast. The storyline was cool and I liked the plot twists a lot. The trailer made the story seem way different, so you were surprised and I like that. All in all, the movie did it's job. It gets a 10 from me.