A young film student whose dreamed of making a movie his entire life sits in his writing chair and drops his head in disgust. A rejection letter falls to the floor. The seventh one this year and it's only April. He wheels over to the computer, logs into a chat room to discuss what's wrong with Hollywood. The rent is due.

A small waiting room packed with 20 or so. He stands in the corner and smiles. The others in the room don't faze him. He got a callback. All the sacrifices are finally paying off. This is his audition. He's ready. The intense method training, the workout, the teeth whitening...it's his day. It's only 3 lines, but it's the happiest day of his life.

A rap mogul sits by the pool. Bored with platinum records and clothing lines, he smokes a blunt and ponders his next project. "I know!" he exclaims, "We'll make a movie! All of us...well except Jigga. But all the rest of us!" A nameless groupie who normally doesn't speak interjects, "But Dame! Yaw can't act and outside of Scarface don't know much about good film-making." She stumbles on the last word realizing that it isn't her eloquence with words that keeps her around. "But if anybody can do it, you can!" She quickly recovers. He rebukes her insolence with a stare and continues," Once I get all the fellas together, N.O.R.E., Beans, Cam, Juelz, The Gunz, and my man Kanye it's ready! Lace everybody in RocaWear and State Property gear, (because the importance of saturated product placement is so much more important than a good story and can not be overstated) and just let them be themselves...well their rap images anyway! And one day, my grandkids' friends will sit and discuss with me the importance of my movie and how it impacted their lives, the same way Roots did for my Momma." The entourage sits quietly, reluctant to agree but eager to be on camera. Finally, they begin to stroke the ego of the man that picked up the tab for the last few years...and a piece of crap is made. It's an American Dream.

Fans of The Roc will support the movie and may even enjoy it. However, fans of movies and just plain logic may vomit. I'm hating again, aren't I? Too extreme? I'm sorry. I'll try again. The storyline was not that bad. A little comedy mixed with a little thuggin' almost made it decent. The complication came with the editing and the ridiculous amount of extra characters. I can think of epic battle scenes that didn't have as many people in it. And every time a new character was introduced there was a stop, flashback scene and voice-over before returning to the story. It happened too many times. If you don't already know who all the rappers are, you might find yourself confused as the story progresses.

And to add insult to the injuries of my feminist sympathies...The three main characters, Dame (Damon Dash),Beans (Beanie Sigel) and El Pollo Loco ( N.O.R.E.) are all three grossly overweight. But the women in the movie did not have a combined ounce of body fat between all of them. What are we saying here? The women have to be flawless, but the men get to look like big fat pigs? I've digressed. That's another discussion for another web page...

OK heres the deal. If you do not want to read a bashful review. Don't read this then. If so, read on. I will only make out a few points. If i were to write a full review you would be here all day reading.

The plot of this movie is so straight forward that it seems that it was derived from a rap song. Honestly it was rubbish and if you don't believe me watch it. (btw you know that movie they showed in the ring (the horror movie). Where you die if you watch it. Well this is what they were talking about)

As for the acting. Well think Drew Barrymore meets Paris HIlton. Extreme maybe, but nonetheless revleant. I cannot think of a movie which has had a gun battle where all the people involved stand around and shoot at point blank range mind you. AND MISS. They empty eniter clips and not one shot lands. Not one cop rocks up. And not one single person ducks in cover. See the reason why this bothers me is because they (the producers) were trying i assume to keep this movie real. And in doing so missed the point. This is meant to be movie on gangsters right? And from what it seems the directing missed that. This was more a movie on how not to shoot than to. Look if you have seen this movie you will get the idea.

Secondly the dumbest use of people in the movie. Each cut scene a new rapper or singer would be there. Making it seem more like a comerical than an acutaly cast of actors. Look in plain language stay away from this like the plague. All people involved should have had some acting lessons rather than making fake cut scenes. Saying lines is not acting. Acting is also an emotive thing.

PLEASE STOP THESE MOVIES. By the way: holding a gun sideways does not make you look cool. It makes you stupid.

I can't say there weren't a handful of somewhat enjoyable moments in this film, most of them simple, gratuitous comedic moments. But to be brutally honest, you would have to be very easily entertained to enjoy this flick. It's kind of like the producers just took small pieces of what worked in similar films and applied them with cut & paste. The plot line is extremely pedestrian and even less discernible. This worst thing about it though is that it's a blatant exploitation of the urban Black culture. Essentially every character is a drug-dealing, gun- toting, wanna-be mafioso. The characters and their lifestyles are of course part of American society, but is there anything positive or beneficial in exploiting this stereotype? I get that it's not supposed to be "Boyz n' the Hood", but there's simply nothing here of any redeeming quality. This has nothing to do with the color of the actors, simply the fact that the movie is a huge waste of time and completely intellectually devoid. It's a prime example of why most musicians should never think of crossing over into the realm of acting, unless of course they're simply making the movie for their own personal amusement. Otherwise, leave it to the professionals, please. 4/4