Pleasantly Surprised

Rating: 8/10 (26 June 2005)

I recently had the pleasure of viewing a local Hustle & Flow screening. I referred to this site beforehand to look at the technical details of the movie and to gain a general understanding of the buzz from the message boards. All I seem to recall reading were negative comments about the movie saying that it was such a cliché. Well, maybe I haven't seen as many movies in the hip hop coming of age genre, but the only movie I recall being remotely close to this one was 8 Mile (which I liked btw). Anyways, I saw the movie and I really don't think it was that cliché. The dialog is definitely original, the characters are original, the location is original, and there is a lot of depth within the character of DJay, the pimp trying to become a rapper. I thought the acting in the movie was excellent and I am glad that there is a wide release movie out this summer that isn't a sequel and didn't cost $200 million to make. This movie is bound to do very well, it only cost $3 million to make and it is a pretty good movie. The only problems I had with this movie were with some of the logic and character motivation. I don't think the movie explained very well WHY DJay (the pimp) wanted to become a rapper all of a sudden. They make the entire music making process seem like a piece of cake, but hey it is a movie and there are ultimately time constraints. I thought DJ Qualls was gonna be just a really lame piece of comic relief, but he actually adds depth to the film. I found Hustle & Flow to be very enjoyable and much more memorable than Batman Begins (which I saw last night!). This movie is definitely worth seeing this summer.