CB4

Plot synopsis:
Three young friends and aspiring rappers, Albert (Chris Rock), Euripides (Allen Payne), and Otis (Deezer D) want to make their big break. The trio have talent, but no marketable image. In order to get their name heard, they appeal to local crime kingpin and nightclub owner Gusto (Charlie Murphy) along with his sidekick and henchman 40 Dog (Ty Granderson Jones) to ask for a spot on the bill at his club, but during a failed meeting the police rush in and throw Gusto in jail.
Gusto believes that the trio set him up, swearing revenge when he is released from prison. While Gusto is locked up, Albert steals his criminal background and identity to become "MC Gusto", rechristening Euripides and Otis as "Dead Mike" and "Stab Master Arson" respectively. Together they form the hardcore gangsta rap group CB4 (Cell Block 4) and successfully sign with Trustus Jones, a local music mogul. CB4 becomes the hottest band on the charts with controversial hits like "Sweat from My Balls" and "Straight Outta Locash", and their rise to fame is documented by an aspiring director (Chris Elliott) and his cameraman. However, an ambitious politician (Phil Hartman) seeks to shut them down for obscenity charges, and tensions between the group arise over one member's gold-digging groupie girlfriend Sissy (Khandi Alexander) and the strain of the charade takes its toll on Albert's family life and relationship with his wholesome girlfriend Daliha (Rachel True). To compound this, the real Gusto escapes from prison and sets out to get revenge by making Albert take part in a record store robbery, exposing his face to the CCTV cameras and then taking the tape as a tool for blackmail. The group breaks up and reunites after Trustus Jones's death at the hands of Gusto. Eventually, the group set up their own sting operation with Sissy to capture Gusto and he is sent to prison for life. Albert gives up the pretense of being a gangsta, emceeing under his real name, and the group embarks on a reunion tour.

Tags: comedy, satire

Review:
This is by far one of Chris Rock's best works to date, and it's his first starring role!
This movie has tons of talent, a tight plot (okay - you need a good ability to suspend your disbelief), and a palpable message.It quickly became something of an underground classic as the early 90s launched the careers of many gangster rap artists.
This movie does a great job of parodying the rise and fall of a gangster rap group.It's got a unique urban flavor and is loaded with perhaps more race-driven humor than others may think necessary (many many MANY racial stereotypes are exploited in this movie, such as a local restaurant called "Big Ass Biscuit" where the young rappers frequented).
However, it's done in a very tongue-in-cheek manner and the overall effect is hilarious, not heinous.The addition to the cast of Chris Elliot playing the role of "A.
Elliot is great at playing a white fanboy who lands the job of working for his new favorite rap group, and he fumbles through the movie as only Chris Elliot can.Phil Hartman is equally funny as Virgil Robinson, a local politician who tries to use CB4's profanity as his new platform for re-election (meanwhile, his son is addicted to CB4's music and image).
The interaction between Virgil and his son in this manner represents how many parents viewed rap music as their children began to listen to it.This movie is laden with parodies too numerous to list.
The soundtrack is also quite good (if you like rap music at all) and includes the song "Sweat of my Balls" - a song featured in the movie (also hysterical, complete with a stage show of large testicles being dropped from the ceiling onto the crowd).If you aren't easily offended, this movie is VERY entertaining.
If you are able to look beyond the veneer of racial overtones and profanity, it also has a few points to make about the origins of "fake" gangster rap groups and their image.Look for underrated performances by Tyrone Granderson Jones as "40 Dog", Richard Gant as "Baa Baa Ack" and Charles Q.
I love the fact that they pretty much play on the myth that most rappers are essentially middle class kids who've never even smelled the ghetto but try to pass themselves off as true "gangstas".
Chris Rock and the rest of the cast make this one of the funniest movies of all time as well as a great commentary on the music business.
Also, Allen Payne shows that he has a great flair for comedy as he plays Rip and Candy Alexander shines as Cissy.
She pretty much has fun playing the stereotypical groupie that everyone has written about from rockers to rappers.
CB4 pokes fun at west coast gangsta rap that was popular in the early 90's- this had to be one of Chris Rock's funniest roles ever!!!
The songs are really funny and all the characters in this movie make it what it is- from Chris Elliot to Phil Hartman..
Fairly on-point parody of the rap industry......
When CB4 lampoons the rap industry (and its image in white society), this movie really rolls.
Thankfully, the first hour of the movie is content to be a satire, and takes many well-aimed shots at 'gangsta rap' and the stereotypes it perpetrates.
(Melodrama and cliched plot are murder for satires.)  Chris Rock is funny as always, and the rest of the cast is surprisingly solid..
CB4 covers all my funny prejudices about the gangsterrap culture, and starts out with a small crew who wants to end up like rap stars - it's all about the beat and the attitude!
Chris Rock just plays his role like a mad man, so good and so real!
I just laughed the whole time this piece rolled in the VCR, and these scenes who are shooting parody of the gangsterculture just takes home the first prize award - it's too much of the good stuff!
It has a good point after all, and when the ending credits roll I felt that this was a true piece of acting - funny and creative as it does not follow any other film formula I've yet seen so far.
This is one of Chris Rock's best performances, he nails the role of a rapper perfectly (not to mention his costume...).
The movie was one of the first to feature parody raps and they are great, considering this film was Pre-Insane Clown Posse and the like.
"Sweat from my balls" still makes me laugh every time I hear it.Some might say this does not transfer to the new rap school, but It definitely does.
Classic Chris Rock at his best.
Even after watching this film twice, I still managed to laugh my way through 99% of the jokes.
This movie showcases Chris Rock's unique and funny blend of black comedy which was still relatively unknown in his immediate post-SNL period of his career.
CB4 follows such films as Spinal Tap, in using the mockumentary style.
CB4 provides a documentary for a rap group headed by Albert, Chris Rock.
Rock's already established views on black culture fit in very well in his role as a middle class black man pretending to be a gangsta rapper.
The supporting cast of Allen Payne and Deezer D as Euripides and Otis respectively, provide great personas for Rock to joke off of.
The movie climaxes in a typical Chris Rock humorous way and leaves the audience feeling satisfied and happy.
The movie is also enhanced by some killer cameos in the beginning by such rapping stars as, Shaq(during his ill-fated rapping days), Ice-T, Ice-Cube, and some other famous rappers.
In a nutshell: I am only waiting for this film to be released on DVD so I can watch it over and over again..
"CB4" is worth seeing if you are a fan of rap music, Chris Rock, or lowball cultural humor.
It has some extremely funny scenes, some great satirical rap songs, and a really stupid plot line.Unfortunately, "CB4" could have been a lot more than it is.
The idea of making a spoof "rapumentary" is a good one, with a lot of humor potential, and the central casting of "CB4" (particularly Chris Rock and Allen Payne) is adequate.
However, the movie is ruined by a particularly lame (and completely unnecessary) plot-line involving a real gangster trying to kill the self-styled "gangster rap" band members who have stolen his name and history.Had "CB4" contained itself to a satirical "rapumentary" about a band of middle-class black guys posing as "gangster rappers", it might have been a truly excellent film on par with "This is Spinal Tap".
Its lame plot reduces it to a sub-par comedy which is much less than the sum of its parts, some of which are truly inspired (The scene with Euripides working as a gay phone sex operator, "Straight Outta Locash" and "Sweat of my Balls" are particulary funny)..
This is really funny movie.
It's made with love.This movie makes you want to forget all the BIG, Tupac and Suge Knight sh*t.
But anyway, after the rap world has experienced very seriously what playing with guns does in real life, it's a little confusing feeling to notice that you're laughing to these guys who are popping' their machine guns.
But if you can take it as humor and all that, it's good movie.
Chris Rock's funniest film.
CB4 is clearly Chris Rock's funniest film.
The film is a right on target of hip hop culture.
Look for Eddie Murphy's brother Charlie in a funny role as Gusto..
The only funny thing Chris Rock has done..
I'm no fan of Chris Rock.
Chris Rock is hilarious in this as a black middle-class wannabe rapper pretending to be a gangster rapper in order to make it big in the rap scene.
CB4 tries to be a rap version of 'This Is Spinal Tap' and succeeds.
Another great scene is this one after the Run DMC jam where we see the guys doing several rap acts on open mic night.
Rap's Spinal Tap....
This film is an amusing highly quotable, high energy attack on the hypocrisy of rap music.
It is a mock documentary in the style of Spinal Tap and uses the format extremely well.Although the characters often descend into caricatures, the energetic performances from Chris Rock, Allen Payne and a great spot from Willard E Pugh as Don King baiting record label boss, Trustuss Jones, see this film through.Great Soundtrack and comic songs such as Sweat On My Balls and Straight Outta Locash are excellent.
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.Even 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 doesn'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 don'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!Hip 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.
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.
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.Fans 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..
What Spinal Tap did to heavy rock, CB4 does to rap in the 1990s and it was about time.Chris Rock is Albert, a decent guy who along with his friends want to hit the big time as rappers.
They eventually raise the ire of conservative politicians but the record buying public love them but Gusto breaks out of prison and wants to get even.The film succeeds because it makes pointed and prescient digs at gangsta rap and some of the songs they parody are actually very good and reflective of the music of the early 1990s.The story is not the strongest, the satire always not sharp or even hits the target but the Rock and the rest of the cast seem to be enjoying the ride and real rappers turn up as to be in on the joke..
Good parody of gangsta rap.
If you hate a topic, your distaste for the topic will come out in cruel jokes and that is not good for the target audience for parodies which is often fans of the material which was parodied.
Your affection for your topic will be clear in the movie you make.This film is very funny in portraying the hypocrisy of family values politicians such as senate candidate Robinson(Phil Hartman) condemning gangsta rap for political gain while his kid Ben (J.D. Daniels) idolizes the group and has plastered his wall's room with posters of the group.
None of the characters (portrayed by Chris Rock, Deezer D, and Allen Payne) have fought their way into this business opportunity from poverty.
White (Chris Elliott) is also funny - the earnest desire to depict of a white man to treat rap and rappers with respect is also mocked hilariously by Elliott's nebbishness.
The depiction of rap groupie Sissy is hilariously parodied by Khandi Alexander in over-the-top excess.
The willingess of MC Gusto and his crew to appropriate Gusto's name to promote an image of toughness is also a good method to allow the mens' true toughness to be revealed.I think if anything, this film's middle section could have been developed more into a harsher, more acerbic treatment of the hypocrisy of politicians, the disingenuousness of the would-be gangsta-rappers, and of the over-the-top obscenity which often seems so gratuitous that it loses its ability to shock.
Screenwriters Nelson George and Chris Rock, if anything, understated the acidity of their idea.
One of the funniest films ever, esp if you love hip hop!.
Ice T, Ice Cube, Chuck D, and Isaac Hayes in a truly surreal cameo (you'll have to wait till the end of the credit...), some top quality music from classic rap jams to hilarious spoofs of NWA's 'Straight Outta Compton', and the awesome 'Sweat on My Balls.' the film deals with all sorts of stereotypes from the rap game, sending them all up, but never totally criticising one particular method of getting over.
I've seen this film hundreds of times and it never bores me.
Even for a SNL-actor related movie, this is pretty bad...
I found myself only laughing out loud a few times (and not even hard laughter; more like chuckling).
This movie fails at comedy AND general entertainment.
I guess if you saw the group N.W.A. as a bunch of poseur rappers this could be hilarious (but then why did Ice Cube and Eazy-E have cameos in this???) because that is how this movie plays out most of the time.
Second to that would be Chris Elliot, who had a very small yet somewhat amusing role.
Chris Rock was not nearly as funny as he is as a stand-up comic.
If you want to see a much better parody of rap see Fear of a Black Hat, which was much more amusing.
i have only seen this movie once, back in 1993 in NYC when it first come out.
it's not on amazon or any other on-line video shop (if you know otherwise, please post the address and let me know!), and i can still remember it so clearly.as so many others here have already mentioned, the "sweat of my balls" and "straight outta lokash" are the high points, along with a funny sex scene i remember when our hero says something like "i ain't goin' down there!!"if anyone knows where i can lay my hands on a copy, PLEASE let me know!.
This movie is one of my favorite satirical comedies right up there with Airplane...that's right, up there with the big 'A'.
The satirical rap songs in the movie are so well-written (parodies of old-school hits) that it's easy to finish watching this movie and find yourself humming the songs.
Of course, this movie has its share of sex jokes (Rip as a phone sex operator and Chris Rock sleeping with the big-haired groupie are a hoot) and lewd language (warning: f-word some 78 times).Go into the movie with a eye towards lambasting the rap industry and you should get some good laughs.
Remember this was made still EARLY in Chris Rock's career, the humor in this is not as fine-tuned as some of his newer stuff.
I've heard Chris Rock thinks of this movie as his "one bad movie", but if you know even a little about the rap industry, you'll love it.
A fictional documentary about three middle class kids turned gangster rappers as told by A.
White (played by Chris Elliot) in the spirit of Spinal Tap.A very entertaining and funny, yet very offensive movie.
Spinal Rap.....
Albert Brown and his buddies Rip and Otis are aspiring rappers who have tried every gimmick to break into the music business.
Eventually, Albert and the boys decide to go into gangster rap, with Albert assuming the identity of M.C. Gusto, who is really a local crime lord who is serving time in prison.
Eventually, Gusto finds out about the boys scheme and seeks revenge as well as a share of the profits......When this film was released back in the day, I was just turning sixteen, and music and movies were a huge part of my life.
Hip Hop and Gangster Rap were just really becoming big in the UK, thanks to NWA, Cypress Hill, and Ice Cube, saw I saw this movie a lot differently than I did over twenty years ago.Seeing it now, there are flashes of genius, and Rock has never been better, but some of the sight gags really, really detract you away from the story and the narrative.The music is still wonderful, and although the makers are poking fun at some of the artists who claim to be from South Central or wherever is cool at the time, but really middle class citizens with comfortable upbringings, it never forgets the fundamental reason that Gangster Rap is so successful.Its funny, Murphy proves that only one sibling should work, but it's not as genius as I remember..
Chris Rock: Say No More..
This Movie Is The Most.....Craziest and Stupidest films I have seen.
But there's more...The Movie is funny and entertaining and a good rap genre musical.The movie has: Sex Scene.