..

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.