REEL CRITICS

“The Crew” can go straight to video

“The Crew” is a mish mash of parodies derived from movies, characters,

genres, themes and actors. Actually it’s quite a good mish mash and is

aimed at the over-the-hill groupies.

The cast are, themselves, a parody of times gone by -- Richard

Dreyfuss as Bobby Bartellemeo; Burt Reynolds as Joey Pistelli, Don Hedaya

as Mike Donatelli and Seymour Cassell as Tony Donato.

Each has his specialty and nickname, and since Bobby (Dreyfuss) is

narrating, the plot unfolds in a sort of stutter.

The characters have been buddies since their glory days and are now

reduced to sitting and grousing on the front porch of the Raj Mahal

Hotel, a rundown place in South Beach that caters to senior citizens.

Management plans to give the Raj an expensive upgrade to cater to the

lifestyle of incoming affluent yuppies. But this would evict the low-rent

paying foursome.

This means that “The Crew” must act to save their hotel. They did this

sort of thing in their glory days, why not now? What better ploy than a

gang war right in the lobby to drive away prospective clients?

The idea is to steal a body from the morgue and plant it in the lobby

with a note attached making it look like the first strike in a gang war.

Things go askew when the body they deface turns out to be the beloved

father of a local drug lord.

The support for the various subplots are from highly credentialed,

thoroughly professional actors who maximize their scenes -- especially

Miguel Sandoval as a paranoid drug lord who runs a gaggle of really dumb

gangsters. Those scenes are worth the price of admission.

As the age genre thing goes, this is right at the bottom. I can’t

help but think that there were a lot of “in” jokes that went right over

my head, and they had more fun making this picture than I had watching

it.

I call it a good video rental and predict that it will not be long

before it will be available.

* JOAN ANDRE, “over 65,” is Newport Beach resident who does a lot of

volunteer work.

‘Original Kings’ brings quartet of laughs

Could “Titanic” have been an African-American film? Not likely, says

comedian Steve Harvey in “The Original Kings of Comedy, a concert film by

Spike Lee.

If an African-American band -- say Kool & the Gang -- had been on deck

of the ill-fated ship, they would have unplugged in no time, upended a

wooden table and used a linen napkin as a makeshift sail.

Harvey is the emcee of this new film chronicling a recent concert tour

called the Kings of Comedy. The tour apparently has become one of the

top-grossing acts in the country.

Harvey and three other comics -- D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer,

and Bernie Mac -- with dissimilar styles comment on African-American life

in America.

Harvey is the more polished of the three while also being the most

aggressive towards his audience. Mac is the most hard-edged comic, who

frequently seems to be working directly from his yet unwritten

autobiography. Cedric the Entertainer is a perceptive comic who

highlights the subtle differences between black and white cultures.

For example, Cedric differentiates what it means for a white person to

“hope” versus what it means for a black person to “wish.” Hughley takes a

more mainstream approach in his humor.

Harvey acts as the emcee, coming out between each performer and

constantly hounding the audience members in close proximity to the stage.

Harvey’s highwire antics appear to come perilously close to alienating

and offending the audience. However, his impeccable comedic timing and

tone allow him to proceed without turning the audience against him.

However, all three, regardless of their style, owe a great debt of

gratitude to their obvious idols: Richard Pryor and Dick Gregory. Like

these two monoliths of comedy, you hear socio-political commentaries on

life in America.

Like all comics, satirists, etc. before them, we laugh at the pain,

frustration and anguish in their comedic voices so that we may not cry at

their collective experience.

“The Original Kings of Comedy” is presented in a revue format, which

allows each comic to be introduced to non-urban audiences.

However, the format also deprives each comic from reaching a thematic

crescendo to where their collective experiences as African-Americans

would leave a permanent mark on the audience’s psyche.

One can only wonder if Paramount Pictures may have thought non-urban

audiences would be turned off by each comic’s material had they been

allowed to proceed uninterrupted, like both Gregory and Pryor in their

prime.

* ROB OROZCO, 29, is an attorney who lives in Newport Beach with his

wife and two cats.