Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 13, 1993 TAG: 9303130165
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: C-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB STRAUSS LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
DESPITE ITS SLOPPINESS, `CB4' HAS FUNNY MOMENTS
As if too many rap acts don't really strike poses that scream "laugh at us," "Saturday Night Live's" Chris Rock has got to weigh in with his own movie satire of the hip-hop world, "CB4."The title is short for Cell Block 4, which is the name of a rap posse whose members are actually nice, middle-class kids. It's a funny premise that is not quite effectively exploited; Rock, who besides co-writing and co-producing plays the lead rapper MC Gusto (nee Albert Brown), mostly puts his character through dissings from his father and girlfriend and comical threats from some genuine gangsters.
But satire of the genre itself, or the false fronts put up by big money showbiz, is otherwise disappointingly mild. Rock clearly loves rap music, and is thus reluctant to skewer it too ruthlessly.
Still, there are good laughs to be gleaned from "CB4's" scattershot, loosely structured scenario, which was co-written by Robert LoCash and producer-culture critic Nelson George.
MC Gusto and his fellow performers - the proudly Afrocentric Dead Mike ("The Cosby Show's" Allen Payne) and the sex-obsessed DJ Stab Master Arson (Deezer D, who works turntables offscreen, too) - have distinct personalities and a sassy rapport that convinces you they've been longtime friends.
Khandi Alexander does a hilarious, table-turning tweak of rap's rampant sexism as a wised-up groupie more attracted to money than fame. Charlie Murphy, Eddie's brother, exudes a mean magnetism as CB4's relentless, real criminal adversary. Chris Elliott is at his nerdy best as a white documentary maker - his name is A. White - who breathlessly thrills to every adventure with the band ("It's my first drive-by," he enthusiastically reports). And "SNL's" Phil Hartman does a frighteningly accurate, Pat Buchanan impersonation as an easily outraged, anti-rap politician.
The upside of this sloppy storytelling is that it allows director Tamra Davis to insert some dead-on parodies of music videos (CB4's "Straight Outta LoCash" goof on N.W.A's "Straight Outta Compton"), entertainment reporting (an uncredited Tommy Davidson hosts an emphatically soft rap talk show) and, in perhaps the movie's funniest bits, pro-CB4 testimonials from the likes of Ice T, Halle Berry and Shaquille O'Neal.
The soundtrack's great too, with cuts from Public Enemy, P.M. Dawn and the like.
CB4:
A Universal Films release showing at Valley View Mall 6. Rated R for profanity, suggestiveness and sexual situations.