CB4 (1993)

CB4: Directed by Tamra Davis. With Chris Rock, Allen Payne, Deezer D, Chris Elliott. A guy makes a documentary of the rap band CB4 by following them. CB4 got popular by stealing Gusto’s name, background and image. He wants them dead.

“Cell Block 4 (or CB4 as they are known) are the hottest new gangsta rap crew and have had a documentary commissioned on their violent past. However the camera crew are with MC Gusto (aka Albert Brown) when he is shot at by someone whom Albert confesses is the real Gusto. Stuck in traffic, Albert tells the camera the truth behind CB4u0026#39;s middle-class background and how he and his friends formed the marketing image of gangstau0026#39;s hou0026#39;s and guns. However with so much faking behind them, how will the group react when Gusto gets out of jail and threatens to make their play become reality.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eEven though rap music has moved into the mainstream to a great extent than it had in 1993, and many of the clichés lampooned in this film have changed slightly (from grimy to bling to the style of Fonzworth Bentley etc) this film still manages to be funny and on the nose enough times to be worth seeing. The plot doesnu0026#39;t really matter because the aim is to spoof the rap scene and it does this pretty well; of course the threads around Gusto and Virgil are pretty loose as a result and this took away from the film but it does other things better. The humour is pretty broad – so donu0026#39;t expect anything as clever as Spinal Tap here, but it produced enough laughs in me from the basic rather crude stuff while also hitting hip hop quite a few times nice and hard!u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHip hop was an easy target then and it is an easier target now since it is influencing western culture more than ever – to its own detriment it must be said. The gags are funny but could have been a lot sharper since it only apes the industry but never really seems comfortable to rip it down or make it look as totally silly as it sometimes can in reality. Fans of the genre will like the film because it does this – it spoofs but never in a malicious or harmful way, if anything it is more affectionate. The cast are pretty good even if the lack of any real names (at the time) meant that it had a rather low rent feel to it. Rock is pretty funny but never allowed to be as funny as he could have been due to the very general and basic material – likewise Payne and D are both OK but only as good as the material allows. Elliott is weedy and rather annoying, while the always welcome presence of Hartman is wasted as the film sort of just doesnu0026#39;t know what to do with his side of the film. Murphy is OK although I found the resemblance to his brother to be a bit distracting. The support cast throws up a few well-known faces from stardom as well as people like Randle etc but really the material is too basic for any of them to shine.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFans of the music scene will enjoy it because it pokes good natured fun at the clichés within the genre but the casual viewer will find these to be easy targets without the sharpness they deserve and without a good narrative to really make it that engaging. An enjoyable film but hardly an insightful one although it has enough basic laughs to it to make it worth watching.”