Hustle and Flow ending not so absurd **SPOILERS**

Rating: 8/10 (29 August 2005)

In response to other's posting I thought I would share my thoughts on the Hustle and Flow movie. I personally liked Anthony Anderson's performance, it was decent and compared to his stereotypical roles of the loud mouth funnyman, it was certainly different and a shock.
As for the gunplay in the movie I found that to be realistic and not fluff. It shows that even though DJay has tried to turn his life around legitimately, he cannot completely leave everything behind. He will always have a street mentality first and foremost which includes vengeance paid out in the form of retribution, the only way he knows how. Eleven month jail sentence for attempted murder? Thats not far from reality. Rappers being immortalized for violence and criminal endeavors? That is nothing new--just pick up any hip-hop magazine (XXL, Source) and you can read endless exploits. The scene which struck me as most odd was in the correction center where the two prison guards *happen* to have a mix tape on them right when DJay gets booked. That seemed a little far-fetched, along with his "Everyone needs a dream" cliché line. To me that was the flaw in an otherwise pretty good film.
**** While "Hustle" trucks along proficiently enough, even creating some future crunk hits through DJay's flow along the way (with song titles like "Whoop That Trick"), the film's goodwill is obliterated in the final 30 minutes. If the film wasn't teetering enough on the edge of formula for the first two acts, it sinks like a stone into absurdity when tempers flare and guns are drawn for the finale. Brewer had a curious way of mounting a big audience-pleasing urban film experience with "Hustle," but his instincts turn to dust with this closer, which props up DJay as some type of hero when the film wisely never bothered to take sides before. Brewer also sees fit to hand "Hustle" a happy ending, which is preposterous, and taints the entire experience. Even DJay wouldn't swallow that much good fortune coming to him. ---- 6/10