The L.A. Riot Spectacular

As an avid movie fanatic I'd have to say that I have not laughed so hard in a long time. I saw this film with three friends at the Tribeca Film Festival and we all agreed that it was one of the funniest movies we've seen in years. Immediately after walking out of the theater and the entire evening afterward we could not stop thinking about the countless hilarious parts of this film. But at the same time the film does portray the seriousness of the riots that occurred in LA in the early 90s. The all-star cast, some of whom took on quite controversial roles, was fantastic. And along with the excellent editing between the actual video clips from the riots and the shots filmed for the movie, it made one great film. I can't wait for Rockhard Films to find a distributor for this film, because I have to see this movies again. The second I left the theater I wanted to watch it all over again. So if you are listening distribution companies...Pick Up This Film...Please!

The true story of the L.A. Riots has been a tale nobody had the right to tell, until now. The producers take a hard and truthful look at the human dynamics and social turmoil that is Los Angeles, then throw in a dark humor that ends up speaking the truth for all of us. No matter what social or ethnic group you are from, you'll feel a twinge of pain, a bit of righteousness, and a healthy amount of sadness at the condition we all share: Apathy mixed with fear. I watched this film with an active duty veteran policeman from LAPD, and he reminded me of one of those "bobble head dolls" you see in people's back windshields: He had a perpetual smile on his face but his head was either swinging side to side or bobbling up and down. Even when Snoop Dog starts chanting "F*** the Police, F*** the Police" it's easy to understand his (and many Angeleno's) frustration at the huge barrier in communication that divides L.A. government and it's people. This film speaks to that frustration, and keeps the question's alive.

Attention celluloid connoisseurs, here's a movie that has that rare blend of outrageous comedy, biting satire, art with substance and spot-on social criticism. This film will have you chuckling and howling, then…thinking…a tad disturbed, but will inevitably leave you with more insight behind what fuels urban decadence. Spoofing the beating of Rodney King by the LAPD, this wickedly witty work exposes many of the root causes and perpetuation of these unfortunate, yet all-too-common incidents in society. Treating people like impersonal objects, distrust, misunderstanding, turf protection and crass commercialism all contribute to the frayed edges, short fuses and lethal disrespect of social intolerance. This movie doesn't just poke fun at racism, the media, political correctness and stereotyping, it throws stiff jabs and roundhouse kicks at the whole shithouse…and damn, it's funny! It also has the courage to face head on, deep human issues with a twinkle in the eye and tongue-in-cheek…everybody's guilty, yet everybody's cool.

It's a short film, less than an hour-and-a-half, but generates more substance per minute than bloated mainstream blockbusters. It warrants repeated viewing. The production values are not lacking despite a modest film budget and the dialogue is rich in subtlety, revealing the writer's depth of understanding of what makes society tick and what makes society sick. I found this refreshing while viewing it and even more so afterwards. Most films that deal with race related issues tend to be unconvincing due to shallowness in either the writing, directing or acting, or all the above.

Though I've enjoyed the serious intent of films like "Dangerous Minds," "Boyz In the Hood," and "Blackboard Jungle," they never quite convinced me that they had a finger on the pulse of what goes down in the 'hood.' "The L.A. Riot Spectacular," from its comedic perspective, hits much closer to home. It's a hip flick that switches gears seamlessly between highbrow and homeboy in the proper vernacular and with real authority.

The actors do a fine job bringing their obnoxious, yet endearing characters to life. As the story progresses, they undergo transformations and one can't help but laugh at and empathize with their follies. I particularly enjoyed Charles Dutton, as Mayor Bradley and it was fun seeing Ronnie Cox as Police Chief Gates. But I found the whole cast amusing with memorable performances by: TK Carter, who plays victim-turned-opportunist, Rodney King; Snoop Dogg lends a likable narration and entertainment presence; Emilio Estevez, still has the best snicker in Hollywood as Officer Powell along with Christopher McDonald as Officer Kuhn. George Hamilton achieves comedic transcendence when he morphs from flaky underdog to ominous overcat. Other notable caricatures were achieved by the actors who portrayed; the lucky slime who filmed the infamous beating on video, the dejected-but-lovable Mexican, the hard-luck-but-good-attitude Korean couple, the impossibly narrow Aryan father and son, the naive-but-mindlessly-dangerous gangstas, the sensational TV news couple with their shameless gall and of course, a blood-sucking lawyer.

Good art asks questions but some art reveals answers and tells you where your feet are. So to writer/director Marc Klasfeld, thanks for the hard work and awesome job! Keep jabbing away. This film will find its audience and make people guffaw for years to come and maybe someday we will, "all get along."

It always seemed like a weird thing to me; a comedy about the 1992 L.A. riots. But that was exactly the reason why I also really wanted to see this movie. It sounded crazy! Also due to the involvement of Snoop Dogg. And it was crazy alright, just not in a very funny or good way.

I really don't understand what the movie is trying to achieve with its comedy. You would think that it's perhaps a sort of social satire and commentary on the whole situation but the movie however is making fun of everyone and everything. It's making fun of and it's criticizing the role of the media. It's making fun of the police, making fun of the protesters, victims, lawyers and the whole court-system and whatever more. Even the beating up of Rodney King is portrayed as something funny.

But thing with its comedy as well is that it isn't anything funny or greatly written. It's being quite childish and simplistic with all of its humor, maybe even borderline offensive. It's making fun, in quite a harsh way, of a ton of religions and ethnicities.

But just like its script and comedy, the whole movie is a real cheap one. It has an horrible, shot on video, type of look and the movie just looks as if they didn't even had a budget to work with.

It almost seems that this was a fun, vanity, project for Snoop Dogg and he blackmailed or forced some of his Hollywood friends to help him out with this project. It would explain why some well known and respected actors appear in this movie, that normally would stay miles away from a project such as this one.

Seriously, why are people such as Charles S. Dutton, Emilio Estevez, George Hamilton, Charles Durning, Ted Levine and Ronny Cox in this movie? And it's not like they are only doing cameos but they actually play the most 'important' roles of the movie. It's such an odd sight to witness them in such a cheap and just plain amateur like production, such as this one.

I really thought this movie would be fun but it turned out to be a bitter disappointment.

4/10

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It's weak and obvious, with only modest production values, a ham-handed script, and labored humor. If the director and writer were sophomores in high school, I'd give them very high marks, but they're not. There are some good actors here, although it's a challenge to see that.

So what's wrong with it? Satire is supposed to give the viewer a dose of reality and then, with subtlety and taste, twist it. This movie takes the most obvious idea and walks with it... oh... so... slowly. You get it. You GET IT. But it just keeps going. It's like any of a thousand of bad Saturday Night Live skits, where in the first twenty seconds all comedic juice has been squeezed out of that lemon... but no: you've got another ten minutes. And then a commercial.

I'd suggest that if you get it for free (for god's sake, don't spend any money on it), you watch it long enough to figure out that it's not worth the time you spent; after, you'll wonder why you wasted that half-hour of your life.