The Worst Film Ever

Good concept, poorly executed.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Bobby Taylor is an aspiring black actor in Hollywood who catches a big break as the lead in a movie called Jivetime Jimmy's Revenge. However, as he considers the negative and stereotyped portrayal of black people in films, he starts to have serious doubts about his dreams of stardom.Produced and directed on a shoestring by thirty-year-old Townsend, Hollywood Shuffle is both a terrific and sobering drama about prejudice in Tinseltown and a hilariously funny series of vignettes from Bobby's point of view, almost like some weird love child of Imitation Of Life and Monty Python. Townsend wisely keeps switching between the two at opportune moments, which reinforces the message, keeps us smiling and makes the drama all the more potent. All Bobby wants to do is live his dream - he didn't bargain on having to cope with the weight of his community's moral and social responsibility, and this of course is the dilemma anybody with a conscience in the public eye has to face. It's important to remember that at the time this movie was made there were virtually no mainstream African-American stars in Hollywood (hence the many references to Eddie Murphy). There may still be a long way to go (particularly for women), but things are better - Morgan Freeman, Laurence Fishburne, Denzel Washington, Will Smith and Samuel L. Jackson are household names now, and if nothing else Hollywood Shuffle may have changed some hearts and minds. The talented cast are great fun to watch, especially Woodard (Tyrone) and Johnson (Lydia, Willie Mae in the Mandingo bit, and the hooker at the end of Attack Of The Street Pimps), and all of the comedy is laugh-out-loud funny, particularly the Sneakin' In The Movies Siskel & Ebert spoof and the black-and-white private-eye flick, Death Of A Breakdancer. A great independent comedy bursting with talent and insight, and a wicked expose of stereotyping. For an even funnier (but not so socially redeeming) companion piece to this, don't miss co-writer Keenen Ivory Wayans' hilarious I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, made a year later. Respectfully dedicated to Adolph Caesar, who co-starred with Townsend in the 1984 adaptation of A Soldier's Story.

When this film first came out, I saw it and loved it. For years, I've quoted (and, as it turns out, misquoted) a few of its lines--some of the funniest I've ever heard. I recently watched the DVD version with my wife, who'd never seen it. She wasn't impressed, and I can't say that I blame her. I was surprised how tedious and un-funny some stretches of the film are, and how disconnected the various skits were. The funny parts are still riotously funny (Nearly every second of "Sneakin' In The Movies with Tyrone and Speed" is laugh-out-loud funny), but other parts are boring and flat. The film-noir parody is especially poor, with unfocused, stale gags delivered slowly and without zest. A final note: those easily offended by four-letter words should skip this film. In keeping with its urban "street" vibe, rough language is pervasive--especially in the funniest scenes.

Don't get me wrong- I wanted to like this movie. Robert Townsend is thoroughly believable and sympathetic in the role, and I liked him quite a bit. He plays a hopeful, charismatic, good-natured man who's trying to land a role in a film and earn some self-respect.The problem is, he has a very active fantasy life. What this means is that often, mid-scene, Townsend's character will think about something like a movie being discussed, or something he sees on TV. The movie then goes into his fantasy and enacts it for us, usually with him playing one of the characters in it. This wouldn't be so bad except for three main issues: The fantasies occur pretty often, usually about every ten or 15 minutes. They are usually silly and cliched, taking away from the more interesting and serious main storyline. The third and worst aspect of the fantasy gimmick is that they are just plain long. When Townsend overhears a conversation about black movie critics, for example, he thinks about it and we see a visualization of his thoughts, two black critics in a theater. You'd expect this to have a joke or two, then get back to Townsend. Instead, we watch a pretty unfunny scene that lasts more than five minutes as the two guys review fictitious movies such as an Amadeus ripoff and a pimp zombie film. It's pretty unfunny, lasts way too long and milks the scenes for cheap laughs that fall flat.This happens way too much, and makes the movie seem awkward, as if there wasn't enough confidence in the basic premise and instead tried to pad the film with waste. It could just be my personal opinion, but I really didn't like any of the fantasies (especially a private detective one, which drags on for something like ten or 15 minutes). There was one exception, the first fantasy of the movie, where a fake school for black film stereotypes is advertised. This was the only dream sequence that was any good, because it takes very harsh jabs at black stereotypes. "I got to play 5 muggers, and a rapist!" Says one black hopeful. Another one is being taught how to walk "black" by a white instructor. "Call 1-800-555-Coon!" the ad flashes. It's good satire, and being a white man, I wasn't offended but instead laughed at how accurate this parody was of some people's attitudes towards black characters. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie falls pretty flat, due to the fact that none of the other fantasies had the wit of the first, or told it in such a sharp way. As a result we're left with a storyline that isn't focused on when it should be at least 90% of the film.I liked Robert Townsend, and I felt for his plight. He wants badly to be an actor, make it in the business, and fulfill his dream. The problem is that the role he's hoping for is unfortunately quite racist in its portrayal of blacks as sniveling, cowardly, primitively speaking brutes who are engaged in a weapon fight. He must decide whether his dreams are worth sacrificing his dignity, whether this chance at stardom is worth the hard first stepping stone.And had the movie spent more time on this, and much less on the wandering fantasies, it would have been much better. Townsend's character was charming and I would have preferred to see him just be himself instead of the fantasy characters, but since that's the case only about half the time, I rate this movie a 5- promising but disappointing.

This is a great film. It just has an energy and a voice that is real and unqiue and powerful. You follow Bobby's ups and downs and root for him, and the comedic vignettes give it the relief from the very funny story. Townsend is great, along with Keenen Wayans, and many great little performances, by the likes of Lisa Mende, Craigus JOhnson, Dom Irerra, and others. It doesn't have all the classic comedy elements, but it has a strong voice, and that's what counts.