lrbast
This is a movie that hits on many truths. Its a funny movie that represents the ghetto. in the white eyes its a exaggerated truth of the hood. in the ghetto eyes its a joke of the code of the streets. The movie will bring up allot of controversy and plays fun of and spoofs of the real world. Almost every part of this movie will bring up personal or beliefs of what you see the perfect hood. Its worth seeing and paying attention to every word and scene in this movie over and over again. Even behind the main parts of the movie can be funny to you. The Waynes brothers are the most genius in this movie then every thing that they have done. I have never seen any movie that is so on and so wrong.
winner55
I was watching an old "Honeymooners" rerun with a friend and we came to Jackie Gleason's Ralph's inevitable "To the moon, Alice!" expression of frustration with his wife, and suddenly I realized that it WAS inevitable, so why were we laughing, having heard it a dozen times before? My friend pointed out that Gleason's timing - the manner in which he held his slow-burn, the widening of his eyes, the sudden "Bang! Zoom" take off into the line - was what always made it funny. We weren't laughing at the line so much at the performance of it."Don't Be A Menace" is the most obvious collection of predictable gags and bits I have seen in a long time, but it is by far the funniest. The Wayans are rather stuck - the genres they parody here have very rigid conventions, so much so that there is usually only one or two gags one can use to mock them - e.g., when a young gangsta warns us that many young men in the 'hood don't live to see their 21st birthday, we all know what's coming next. So the Wayans handle it in a manner that delays the punchline while emphasizing its obviousness. Thus we laugh with them, appreciating the way they pull it off, and recognizing the gangsta genre limit that's getting parodied, rather than at the bit itself.Just about the whole movie operates on this level, and for this reason has become one of my favorite comedies. The Wayans capture every moment with a dead-on rhythm that blends the gags into a kind of music. Shawn plays the steady bass while Marlon does some wild riffing. Other characters and bits drop in and out like improvisation and sound effects. Keenan Wayans drops in every now and then like the voice on a scratch dub. The tempo could have been a little swifter, but the rhythm itself is excellent.Comedy like this is very tricky, and I personally didn't think the Wayans' efforts in the "Scary Movie" films were quite as successful - but here they move it right along.It's rude, it's crude, it's in-yor-face - and it's just a delight to watch.
tedg
Nearly all movies are about other movies.Nearly all life acts are from movies; nearly all stereotypes are from acts.The Wayons merely close the loop: movies where the acts are stereotypes of stereotypes. They really know what they are doing, disguising it as social commentary. But that you get enough of in the first five minutes. Check out how many jokes are about acting, about every third one.And then check out what they did next, with "Scary Movies," which takes the circle one more loop.I admit that I'm a fan. They seem to be the only ones who can do what Zucker used to: serve up what are generally called spoofs.I think it is because they start knowing that the target isn't bits of movies, but the bits we use in inventing the stories of who we are.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
Benjamin Wolfe
The movie title alone, takes two hours to say. And talk about breaking all the stereotypical rules, if they weren't breaking all the rules I don't know what they would be doing. "Don't be a menace" I'm not surprised that there wasn't a sequel to this although it was ghetto -cutting humor that ate just about every other 'Hood' movie around then. If their comedy was a shotgun then there would be comedy-spatter all over the screen. Kim Wayans and the whole happy bunch bring their 'creative juices' to this hoodster-Rama, a ton of vulgarity, but a mountain of wit and eccentric brains, The Wayans make this a colorful and tasty treat for every fan. From the entry at Tray's room to the seven kids looking for their daddy and finding a step dad with a small car, this was a rap-hop malt-liquor adventure that really packs a staggering punch!See this if you liked "In Living Color" or if you just want to get comfortably into ghetto styled laugher-riotousness. (****).Thx --Imdb.com
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