"The Hustle" is not as bad as the ratings would have you believe. Is it silly? Yes. Is the plot paper thin? Absolutely. But this movie is set up for the jokes and they delivered the jokes.

Junior (Charlie Murphy) and Freddy (Al Shearer) work for a bug extermination company called Roach Stompers. They have to wear humiliating outfits and worse yet, they have to deal with roaches. The two professed kleptomaniacs got in hot water when they stole ten thousand dollars from a Japanese gang. They couldn't even repay the money because Freddy lost it all while running from said gang. With no conceivable way to pay it back, Freddy decided that bilking honest churchgoers by pretending to be a pastor was the best way to earn the $10k in the week they were given.

There were plenty of laugh-out-loud moments in this comedy. I don't think Charlie Murphy has been given enough credit as a comedian and he certainly wasn't given enough roles. The biggest mistake of this movie was repeating the plot of the Ice Cube movie "First Sunday." It was only one year prior that "First Sunday" was released with the premise of robbing a church. If I had any other criticism it would be the dark-skinned jokes. I don't find them that funny because they perpetuate an ugly stereotype and promote self-hate.

This movie was helped by some familiar faces: John Witherspoon, David Alan Grier, Tiny Lister, and Kym Whitley to name the most well-known. It's sad that of the cast of this movie three have passed away: Charlie Murphy, Tiny Lister, and John Witherspoon.

"The Hustle" is no masterpiece, but it certainly had me laughing, and that's all that I ask for.

Man I'm glad I saw this for free on the internet! Because I would have been upset to pay to see it. IT wasn't that bad but it wasn't good either.

Charlie Murphy is top-billed but he sorely lacks the charisma his famous brother has in abundance. In one scene He even wore the "Pimp Outfit" he wore on the Dave Chappelle Show to get a laugh, all he got from me was a chuckle.His co-star, Al Shearer "shined" better and since Al is 6'4" in height he towered over Charlie. The two stars played well together as a goofy team of hustlers trying to get some money together.

David Alan Grier was well cast as a TV preacher named Rev. Paid. All his preaching was about the money. He wasn't really funny at all, but David did a good job portraying the Rev. His scenes were confided to just the TV as commercials per say.

The lovely Tamala Jones, was perfect as the lady Al falls for. She played her part as well as she could.

Tommy Lister was completely wasted in his small cameo. He plays a so-called dog thief that makes no sense whatsoever to the storyline. The boys Al & Charlie confront him in the barbershop but it's not at all funny. The only cool thing is seeing Lister & Murphy together in a scene. Lister does his best 'Deebo' imitation and even does his trademark slap on himself.

Another disappointing cameo was from the great John Witherspoon ! He is billed in the opening credits like he is co-starring, but he literally has a almost no line cameo that isn't even funny!And he doesn't even appear till the film is almost over!? At the end of the film they show outtakes of bloopers and deleted scenes and one of the deleted scenes is of Witherspoon talking with Al & Charlie about Lister in the barbershop. It was a little funny because at least Witherspoon gets a chance to talk and be his funny self for a bit and I can't believe they did not include it! Wow .

Another pointless & wasted cameo was from David 'Bud' Faustino. He really had nothing to do in this film but be a background prop. Not funny at all. And what a shame because we all know how funny he was in "Married With Children".

And another of the pointless and wasted cameos was from Brigitte Nielsen. She plays a 'Rich Lady' who supposedly hired Al & Charlie to exterminate her house of roaches. She wasn't funny at all. If Flavor Flav would have come out maybe that would have been funny. But her alone , no way.

And the last of the pointless cameos were from the great character actor Aki Aleong and Freez Luv. Their cameos were pointless and not funny at all. There were for the most part just very stereo typical & somewhat racist.

Now to some cool cameos: The 1st was the great Tony Cox. He was the only one who made me laugh with his 'confrontation' with Charlie. Their back and forth verbal insults was the highlight for me. To bad he wasn't included more in the film. The actress Luenell as the Metermaid also had a nice cameo also dealing with Charlie. To bad they did not use her more.

Kim Whitley was nice as a love interest of some sorts for Charlie. Ellia English was right on target as Al's Momma. Michael J. Pagan as Whitley's son did a OK job. I thought at 1st he was a young Donald Faison! Darrin Dewitt Henson did a good job being the 'bad-guy'to the boys. Bai Ling did a good job looking sexy & being menacing at the same time in her short role. Clent Bowers had a nice bit as the real preacher the boys replaced while he was in the hospital. and last but not least, Jeris Poindexter had a nice little role as the homeless Benny who the boys help in the church.

All in all, not a bad movie, but not that great either. And with such a tremendous and talented cast you would have expected better. But it has to be the writers and the director because these wonderful actors have been way funnier in other roles and films. But it's worth at least one look just because of the cast involved. I'm thinking the director just wanted the names of all these people in his film but just did not know how to use them to good use . What a shame and waste.