The Cookout

All ethnic groups have to suffer under various stereotypes, especially in "entertainment". After all, lampooning is a long-lived trope. That doesn't mean you can't take that stereotype and do something good, meaningful, entertaining, funny or informed with it. This movie most emphatically does none of those things. And the sad part is that there are good actors working here,like one of Farrah Fawcett's last roles, or Danny Glover or. Tim Meadows. Or Jennifer Lewis. Instead, this is a bad mishmosh of racist stereotypes, overacted-by-underactor humorless "jokes" and negative sexist characterizations. Just so you know, this was to be a "star vehicle" for "Storm P". I know you've heard of him. Right? Right? Yeah, neither had I and just as well. Oh, to give the movie "street cred" it also has Ja Rule. Yay, right? All I can say is that as insulting as some (not all) '70s blaxploitation flicks were, this isn't even the underarm hair thereof.

This movie is very so-so.(i.e. the acting, directing, story)

This movie has a lot of dislikeable characters the first moment you see them which made this movie a little hard to watch. Also a lot of streotypes of whites. I was surprised I didn't see any watermelon eating in this movie. The plot is, a basketball player (Storm P) wants to have the annual family cookout in his new house surrounded by "WHITE PEOPLE" who believe he is a "GANG BANGER". His mother (Jennifer Lewis) was the first dislikeable character to me. Because she is always yapping her mouth like she does in every movie shes in. This movie also did not flow well. For example, something could be happening and then maybe one character has to leave and go do something. They never show what happens after that character does after. It was like this movie had a thousand deleted scenes.Just like Johnson Family Vacation, which was a bad movie cause it was trying to be a National Lampoon film.In summary, it was a lot worse than I expected. I think Storm P(Quran Pender), Ja Rule, Queen Latifah, & Tim Meadows kept this movie watchable.

6/10 **

The Cookout is a pretty lame comedy that really delivers nothing new. #1 NBA draft pick Todd Anderson's star is on the ascendant after signing to his home team, the New Jersey Nets. Trying to stay grounded in reality, he throws a big barbecue for his family, not realizing that mixing them with his new agents and reps might lead to a crazy afternoon. The plot is fairly simple, something similar to the Barbershop films. The Cookout fails to be like Barbershop though. Everyone that's at the cookout is a stereotype. The filmmakers apparently were trying to include every stereotype about blacks possible. The script is very weak and needed a lot of work. The acting wasn't very good either with the best being Queen Latifah. She is pretty much the only saving grace in this film. However, her role in this film is small and its hard to believe she helped with the writing. Tim Meadows and Danny Glover are also pretty good but they can't save this film. Other people worth mentioning are Meagan Good and Jonathan Silverman. Ja Rule does a terrible job and he pretty much kills the film. Farrah Fawcett is in the film for some reason and she does a decent job. Everyone else is very annoying and do a bad job of acting. On a side note, Queen Latifah's mom has a role and Eves role is more or a cameo. Lance Rivera directs his first film and hopefully he can improve. Barbershop talked about important issues however, The Cookout didn't as it just had cheap laughs and it was a pretty boring film. The runtime is only 97 minutes long. Even with the short runtime it drags a lot and most of the film is pretty unrealistic. The Cookout is defiantly not worth watching unless your really, really big fans of anyone involved. Rating 3/10, a boring and forgettable film.

The movie had a good message about being responsible and down to earth even after hitting pay dirt. But, the message was nearly drowned in the cheesy delivery. As a result, this ethnic comedy comes off somewhat spoofish because of the mugging and overacting (which obviously was on purpose).

I think of The Cookout (2004) as (one of the characters in the movie so aptly put it) a "Black Beverly Hillbillies," like the TV series The Beverly Hillbillies (1962) that was definitely satirical. Although it is true that the stereotypes were carried to the extreme, which explains why some viewers are offended by the material, the same could be said of other spoofs, which purposely border on the ridiculous.

The Cookout (2004) is okay to rent, if you take if for what it is.

You know, this would have been a good TV movie.

First, I'd like to start of by saying I'm black. So I took especial dislike to this film along with the regular dislike due to the absolute horridness of this movie. I can imagine the conversation at the studios regarding this mess of a movie...

Exec 1: Hey, I've got a great idea for a movie. Exec 2: Shoot Exec 1: Well, it's going to aimed at the black community. So it'll make money without us having to spend money. Exec 2: Or use creativity! Exec 1: Exactly. We use the Black movie formula. Number one, find a topic that the black "community" can relate to. You, know, something that's solely afrocentric. Like "da hood", or rap, or dancing, or how "da sistas" play games with men, or basketballs, or like... a cookout! Number 2, stuff a bunch a race relation jokes in it and pass it off as comedy. Number 3, get one good actor, a rapper, and a white person (you know, so the race relation jokes seem at least semi-relevant), then get a bunch of no name actors. And number 4, put some type of easily grasp high concept, like family or community. And wa la! You've got a movie that'll make money without the makers putting anything (and I mean anything) into it! Exec 2: It's gold!

Unfunny, uninspiring, unoriginal, and insulting to your intelligence whether you're black, white, Asian, native American, Arabic, south Asian, Hispanic or pacific islander, but especially if your black. This is what Hollywood thinks black people want. Mindless entertainment that panders to their race. And frankly, it makes me angry. The story was uneven, the jokes failed to illicit even a chuckle, the acting is bad, and the "high concept" was lost in the swirling mass of awful that was this movie.

A complete and utter waste of time.