Chris Rock: Kill the Messenger - London, New York, Johannesburg

In 2008, Chris Rock went on a massive world tour, playing large venues around the world. This HBO special edits together three of these shows (in Johannesburg, New York and London) into one special. In it he covers subjects ranging from the 2008 Presidential race, the rise in the price of petrol, the Bush administration, what groups can say about other groups, the world of work and other subjects.

Chris Rock is a bit of a mixed bag. At times he is very smart and very funny but at other times he sinks into crudity that seems content to draw laughter from swearing and being rude. I accept a bit of the latter if he delivers strongly on the former and I have found that his better shows have done this while his lesser ones have not. However I approach each show with an open mind because no doubt he is a talented stand-up who has a good stage presence. At the very start of Kill the Messenger though, the issue over his material will be secondary because you will be concentrating on (or rather distracted by) the editing together of the shows. I understand they were doing it to show how global it all was but at the start it is done rapidly, halfway through sentences and often repeating the same line three times – it is distracting and a bit annoying. Fortunately one gets used to it and it calms down a little as the show goes on.

And good job too because what it lets you do is enjoy a show that is one of the better I have seen from Rock. To my tastes he gets the mix just right as he swears and is crude but does it all on a strong foundation of truth, challenge and observation. This is some great material here as he challenges his audiences one minute and then figuratively sits with them while railing against the man. It is a great structure that allows him to do both things without ever losing his audience – which is not as hard to do as it sounds when you consider some of his material here. He comes close with some of it (attacking black women is never a smart thing to do) but ultimately he keeps everyone on board by virtue of the smart material and just how funny the majority of it is. He himself has great stage presence but, as you can see here, it is hard to shoot. He is constantly on the move and the camera tries to keep up with him when he paces instead of settling for a wider shot, the effect is one of slight sickness and at times I preferred just to listen. This is not the whole show though as close ups, audience reactions and wide shots are also used but again it was another weakness built into the film in the editing room.

Overall then what we have here is a show that is damaged slightly in the editing room but is ultimately kept engaging and strong by Chris Rock. His material is crude of course but it is built on strong observation and intelligent discourse, making it funny and clever enough to prevent it just being rude.

For his fifth special (fourth feature-length), Chris Rock does things a little differently. Instead of featuring a single performance in its entirety, Rock has pieced together near-identical performances from Johannesburg, New York and London into one special. The shows are edited together seamlessly with only his wardrobe as the giveaway. While this adds some variety to the performance and speaks to how universal his material is, it does take away a little from the illusion of spontaneity, however negligible that effect may be. Being that this was recorded in 2008, it doesn't take long for Rock to launch into his political material, featuring his thoughts on the forthcoming election, a subject he would return to. John McCain and George W. Bush are easy targets, but still pretty satisfying, and he has some fun with Barack Obama too. After some audacious views about mixed-race relationships, he throws doubt about Isaiah Washington's dismissal from Grey's Anatomy for using a slur for gay people starting with an "F" by saying its use dependent on context, even going so far as to say that it would be fair game in an argument. Curiously, he goes right into a bit questioning white people's use of the "N" word and claiming there would only be one very specific situation in which that would be acceptable. He does this without the slightest hint of irony, sadly. Later, after some astute observations about class disparity, Rock returns to the subject of relationships, his usual closer, but focuses more on bedroom politics than the criticism of women that's become a staple for him. Apart from a couple ill-advised or ignorant remarks, Rock's writing is as strong as its been since his first feature special. He manages to work in some meaty and insightful bits in between some memorable zingers, only made better with his magnetic personality. One imagines the experience would be better if some of his views were as progressive as his approach.

Once again, Chris Rock doesn't disappoint. His hard-edged comedy hits the mark. This show has just enough truth, at least from a male point of view, to make it relevant and just enough raunch to make it fun.

As for the editing style of interweaving elements from various shows, it tends detracts from the comedy. It's a gimmick — a gimmick the show doesn't need. When the switch from one show to the other takes place, sometimes in mid sentence, I find myself wondering what just happened instead of listening to Chris. Plus, it tends to ruin one of the basic illusions of stand-up comedy. When I watch a stand-up comic, I know that the material is scripted, but I still like to get into the show and maintain the illusion that it is improv. The editing style shows that various different shows were basically the same word for word. It destroys that illusion.

I recommend the show for the material, but be forewarned about the editing style. It can be a bit unsettling.

I began to notice that there were longer and longer gaps between the laughs. I've been a Chris Rock fan since his SNL days ... and he's always made me laugh, easily. But this one ... I dunno. Nasty and crude works fine for me, but to really make it work, there (probably) has to be (at least) SOME insight and wit or a few clever observations along the way maybe, that pulls all that 'nasty' together. Maybe it's just me ... but I wasn't getting it, this time around. Topics beaten to death with the same 'jokes' repeated and revisited, with little reason that I could see, except to fill time. Oh, the audience in the respective theaters seemed to be having a good time, but I can't say I was. I finally had had enough. Don't know how much was left, but I turned it off after less than an hour. Much more style than substance ... and the style just left me cold.

I would like my personal time back. I have very much enjoyed his first specials but this is just... sigh.

The adventure begins somewhere in the world where he performed. In between 3 filming locations and constant editing and cutting in and out I feel dizzy. He wore 3 different costumes and by time his special was over I had bloodshot eyes not because I was tired but because there was 0 consideration for viewers when they filmed this thing.

Jokes themselves. Well of course he is commenting on race, that was his "thing" in all specials. Except that this time I feel he ran out of content. His jokes got racial"er" and dry"er" than ever before. His reputation of progressive black person/men will probably be stripped because of his foul language. To me it almost looked like he was dropping f bombs not because they were relevant but because he had nothing else to say.

I gave this a 4 out of 10 with reference of watching it today again just to make sure that this special was bad. This time I am going to watch this and try to understand any of his jokes for 2nd time. Last night while watching I do not recall myself even smirking once while I was dying laughing listening to his other comedy specials.