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I'M GONNA GIT YOU SUCKA
Review by Gordon Justesen
Stars: Keenan Ivory
Wayans, Bernie Casey, Antonio Fargas, Isaac Hayes, Jim Brown, John Vernon
Director: Keenan Ivory Wayans
Audio: English Dolby Digital Surround
Video: Widescreen 1.85:1
Studio: MGM/UA
Features: Theatrical Trailer
Length: 89 Minutes
Release Date: January 9, 2001
Film
***
As last year’s Scary
Movie proved, the multi-talented Keenan Ivory Wayans is nothing short of
genius when it comes to spoofing movies. Keenan, along with younger brothers
Shawn and Marlon, created one of the outrageous movie spoofs ever, in a laugh
riot that mocked everything from Scream to The Matrix to even The
Usual Suspects. Scary Movie was also one of the most daring spoofs
ever, nearly pushing the envelope with its every sight gag. The Wayans comedy
clan also wrote the extremely clever, and appropriately titled Don’t Be a
Menace to South Central While Drinking You’re Juice in the Hood in 1996,
which dared to make fun of such serious fare as Menace II Society and Boyz
N’ the Hood. Having just bought that movie on DVD, I was remembered of
another movie from Wayans called I’m Gonna Git You Sucka. It’s a
movie that I had yet to see in its entirety. I had seen bits of it on TV, and
remembering laughing out as loud as I could, though I never got around to
watching the whole movie. Now that movie has now made it to DVD, I got the
opportunity to see the entire movie, and while this is 180 from the vulgarity
level in Scary Movie, Sucka is still a gold mine in the comedy
spoof genre, filled with Wayans’ genius talent for incredibly outrageous
comedy.
As where Scary
Movie spoofed the teen-horror genre, and Don’t Be a Menace tackled
the “growing up in the hood” dramas, Sucka takes aim at the 70s
blaxploitation films, a genre that was fueled by such films as Shaft and Foxy
Brown. These movies did give African-Americans a glowing chance to be
recognized in cinema, even if the films themselves were nothing short of a
little cheesy in plots and characterizations. The movie doesn’t slow down in
making jokes, as a subtitle reading ANY GHETTO, U.S.A. while observing a police
crime scene. A young black male named June Bug is found dead. His cause of death
was that he OG’d; that’s right, the young man had overdosed on wearing too
much gold. Following June Bug’s funeral, his brother, Jack Spade (Keenan Ivory
Wayans), comes to town, though unaware of his brother demise. In a scene of
hilarious overacting, Spade’s former flame, Cheryl (Dawnn Lewis) informs him
on what happened.
Cheryl: Well, after
you had left, he had started getting into drugs and stuff. Then things got
really bad when he….
Jack: Well, what,
Cheryl??
Cheryl: He started
wearing gold chains, Jack.
Jack: OH GOD, NO!!!!
As it turns out, gold
chains have played a big part in destroying the community where Spade’s family
lives, and Jack determines to avenge his brother’s death. He meets legendary
and retired crime fighter John Slade (Bernie Casey), who then recruits two
former comrades, played by 70s vets Jim Brown and Isaac Hayes. Then the four go
to work, and go after June Bug’s killer, local crime boss Mr. Big (John
Vernon). Another funny sight gag has Slade walking down the street, backed up by
his “theme music”, which are actually the musicians themselves. The most
riotous moment has to be where Isaac Hayes arms himself with one to many
handguns, machine guns, and shot guns, then slips on a bullet when preparing to
do battle. If that doesn’t make you die laughing, nothing will.
It’s wonderful to
see that this such a hilarious movie made and crafted by such hilarious and
winning talent got processed. Thanks to this release, we got to see the Wayans
move on to such funny fare as In Living Color, as well as the gag fests Scary
Movie and Don’t Be a Menace. I’m Gonna Git You Sucka hits
is mark in spoofing movies that were sometimes a little too corny for their own
good, and it also succeeds in spoofing itself in the process.
Video ***1/2
This was a pleasant
surprise of a digital transfer from MGM, given that the video is not enhanced
for widescreen TVs. Watching it, I noticed a simply clear and crisp picture,
with no instances of grain, or any bleeding whatsoever. And being that MGM is a
DVD studio that has most of the time not been so successful with transfers, I’m
Gonna Git You Sucka is definitely one of the studio’s most terrific jobs
in transferring a relatively older movie.
Audio ***
While all that is offered here is a Dolby Surround 2.0 track, MGM did their very best in making this audio track come alive and very much kicking. The music comes through in total and absolute clearness. Other than that, the film is mostly funny dialogue, so there’s nothing much to rate on there, but for what it was, MGM really did an impressive job on this release.
Features *
Only a trailer, such as is the nature of MGM. They should once in a while try to elaborate on their extras, instead of reserving it for just the James Bond movies.
Summary:
I’m
Gonna Git You Sucka
is a comedy spoofing triumph. A movie that will have you to the floor with
constant, howling laughter. If you admire the comedy talents of Keenan and the
rest of the Wayans, take immediate advantage.