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Everybody Loves Chris Rock
After what happened at this year's Oscar ceremony, I thought it might be interesting to take look at a 2021 documentary called Everybody Loves Chris Rock, a one-sided look at the comic icon that glosses over the hit and miss record that is his career and pretty much paints him as God's gift to comedy.
Presented in traditional documentary style, the film begins with a look at his Brooklyn upbringing, rife with excepted racism that forced him in to drop out of high school, which Chris never got around to in his allegedly fact-based sitcom Everybody Hates Chris. Once the film gets into his career, including early mistreatment by the the powers to be at In Living Color and Saturday Night Live, this documentary really starts to examine his career, but making the quality and success of a lot of what he did a lot more than it was.
His second HBO special, Bring the Pain, which I've seen at least half a dozen times, actually won the comic two Emmys, which was news to me. But I sat incredulous as this documentary began to wax rhapsodic about the success of films like Beverly Hills Cop 2, Head of State, Grown Ups, and CB4 and what works of art they were, when in reality, Rock's movie career has always been a mixed bag. No mention of classics like Osmosis Jones, Pauly Shore is Dead, and I Think I love my Wife. If the truth be told, Rock's best screen work has been in films where he had no creative control like New Jack City and Nurse Betty, but this movie tries to imply that just about every movie Rock has made was comedy gold and nothing could be further from the truth.
The most fascinating part of the documentary was the inclusion of a press conference that Rock conducted after hosting the 2016 Oscars, which he handled beautifully, but was a squirm worthy watch after what happened this year. It was also interesting watching Rock doing press appearances for the Madagasgar franchise, posing and smiling with Jada Pinkett Smith.
Don't get me wrong...I think Chris Rock is one of the funniest people on the planet. He is on my list of comics, along with George Carlin and Dave Chapelle, who i think everything he says is absolutely correct. But this movie tries to paint the guy like the Second Coming and I just can't get behind that.
After what happened at this year's Oscar ceremony, I thought it might be interesting to take look at a 2021 documentary called Everybody Loves Chris Rock, a one-sided look at the comic icon that glosses over the hit and miss record that is his career and pretty much paints him as God's gift to comedy.
Presented in traditional documentary style, the film begins with a look at his Brooklyn upbringing, rife with excepted racism that forced him in to drop out of high school, which Chris never got around to in his allegedly fact-based sitcom Everybody Hates Chris. Once the film gets into his career, including early mistreatment by the the powers to be at In Living Color and Saturday Night Live, this documentary really starts to examine his career, but making the quality and success of a lot of what he did a lot more than it was.
His second HBO special, Bring the Pain, which I've seen at least half a dozen times, actually won the comic two Emmys, which was news to me. But I sat incredulous as this documentary began to wax rhapsodic about the success of films like Beverly Hills Cop 2, Head of State, Grown Ups, and CB4 and what works of art they were, when in reality, Rock's movie career has always been a mixed bag. No mention of classics like Osmosis Jones, Pauly Shore is Dead, and I Think I love my Wife. If the truth be told, Rock's best screen work has been in films where he had no creative control like New Jack City and Nurse Betty, but this movie tries to imply that just about every movie Rock has made was comedy gold and nothing could be further from the truth.
The most fascinating part of the documentary was the inclusion of a press conference that Rock conducted after hosting the 2016 Oscars, which he handled beautifully, but was a squirm worthy watch after what happened this year. It was also interesting watching Rock doing press appearances for the Madagasgar franchise, posing and smiling with Jada Pinkett Smith.
Don't get me wrong...I think Chris Rock is one of the funniest people on the planet. He is on my list of comics, along with George Carlin and Dave Chapelle, who i think everything he says is absolutely correct. But this movie tries to paint the guy like the Second Coming and I just can't get behind that.