May the People that Understand the Craft of story stand up!!!

Rating: 6/10 (27 August 2005)

Terrence Howard delivers a great performance as the pimp with the dream. However, I can't compare that performance to that of Jamie Foxx's in "Ray." In other words, it wasn't this mind bending, memorable performance people like to call it. But it was good. Maybe good enough to earn him an Oscar nomination depending on the competition this year in the "Best Actor in a Leading Role" category. He is torn between a charismatic man who wants to inspire the people in his life versus the man who has to be that mean boss that everyone can relate to. He just throws his employees out on the street instead of smiling in their faces, then slapping them with a pink slip a day later.
The directing was right on. I felt that the director was able to call great shots without taking away from the story. He was able to also provoke believable, great performances by his actors. I thought the lighting was appropriate for the telling and the editing was good also.
The script could've been better. I didn't need to know about his past or what made him turn out to be a pimp (don't confuse me with these nosy, non-imaginative, wannabe film goers that need to know every thing). However, the story starts off slow. It didn't capture me in the first fifteen minutes like a great film usually does. I also didn't see where the crisis decision happened. That's where we really get to know the true character. Also, the argument wasn't clear. I get the whole man and his dream aspect. But I didn't fully understand what the writer/director was trying to say about the dream. Is it like the message of dreams in great stories like "Raisin in the Sun." It would've been that much better if we knew and was able to see a fair and just argument on why dreams do or do not come true.
Now, I would like for people who don't understand life, who live in sheltered worlds where reality is on the opposite side of the bridge or those who know of that reality but want to act like it doesn't exist in order to avoid stereotype and to fit in with others, STOP MAKING RIDICULOUS COMMENTS ABOUT MOVIES PERIOD.
How can that uptown bill guy compare "Birth of a Nation" to "Hustle & Flow?" I bet all my money, with the lent in my pockets, that Uptownbill didn't even see "Birth of a Nation" in it's entirety. If he did, he would see that "Birth of a Nation" was awful not because it was about the KKK trying to make things look a certain way in their own minds, but it was awful because it wasn't honest. And I saw this film to further my knowledge on what not to do as a storyteller. "Hustle & Flow" on the other hand, well, I know a few pimps and despite popular belief, they do pump blood through their veins and they do have hearts. And yes, they can be manipulative and brutal to women as well. But that's just their harsh reality.
And Terrence Howard's character was able to capture all that reality. So, I'm sorry to wet on uptown bill's parade but the film doesn't even come close to "Birth of a Dishonest." Then the guy compares John Singleton to D.W. Griffith? Is he crazy? No comparison. "I understand Mr. Singleton. From Boyz N'the Hood to Baby Boy, you're looking for the truth that exists in the human community (not the black or white but human). You're not compromising that, pulling the wool over our eyes to the reality that exists in the world. Don't pay any mind to people comparing you to D.W. Griffith."
One Caucasian woman is afraid that the film is going to bring heat to her biracial son when he goes back to school, predicting that white kids will be ridiculing him about the whole "pimp" thing. My advise lady: send him to karate class. If someone is that ignorant to ask him questions about pimps after seeing Hustle & Flow, a biracial kid who clearly doesn't live anywhere near the ghetto (she's a doctor, black father is a college professor), then it's just a sad reality of where the next generation's minds are at. Wow, we have to look forward to a lot in the future. Can't wait (thumbs up with a cheesy smile).
Then one person said "One of the worst films of the year." Actually, in my humble opinion, "Crash" was worse than Hustle & Flow. The Wedding Crashers wasn't much better either. And if you really want to see a poorly executed film that serves no purpose other than to glamorize white men taking black woman, then just wait for "Constellation," starring Billy Dee Williams (at his worse) and Zoe whats-her-name. The same people that say Hustle is the worst of the year are the same people that have "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" and "Are We There Yet?" in their DVD collection, and they have "The Honeymooners" on hold for them when it comes out.
Bottom line, Hustle & Flow isn't that bad and it's not that good. And don't worry about stereotyping. Hollywood and these poor excuses for filmmakers of color, that in their zeal to convince us all that all people of color are successful people in medicine and other respected fields, executing these ideas with "on the nose" laments about finding or not finding love in their own communities, they can continue making these films and most white people will still come to their own conclusion about who people of color are.