The Diva's "Double Take" Review

(click here to skip to this movie's rating) Double Take(2000) Viewed at Loews' City Centre Rated PG-13; approximate running time of 106 minutes Directed by: George Gallo Written by: George Gallo Starring: Orlando Jones, Eddie Griffin, Gary Grubbs, Benny Nieves, Garcelle Beauvais, Andrea Navedo, Vivica A. Fox Genre: Comedy/Action WARNING - SPOILERS BELOW. The Digest Daryl Chase (Orlando Jones) is a decent and hard-working brotha. He is the top investment banker in his firm and he knows it, but he still manages to stay grounded. All is right with his world until he notices that a company he handles has made a suspicious deposit of 106 million dollars. He begins an investigation and only scratches the surface when he is framed for murder and must leave the country. The only person that seems capable of helping him is a bumbling street hustler named Freddy Tiffany( Eddie Griffin). Freddy somehow manages to always be where Daryl is even when Daryl doesn't want him there, but Daryl has nowhere else to turn. Daryl switches identities with Freddy only to find out once he gets to Mexico, that Freddy is wanted for the murder of the Governor of Mexico (which seemed odd to me because I don't think the country has one governor. They have one President, but not one governor.) The only way they can get out of this mess is to trust each other, but how can you do that when everything is not always as it's seen? The Dish Sigh. Well it's not the worse film I've ever seen. The plot had entirely too many holes. It was painful to watch. This movie had so much potential, but it seemed to constantly unravel. Some gaping plot hole would be filled only to have another one show up. It wasn't even that funny, in fact, most of the amusing scenes where in the trailer. Sadly, most of the jokes centered around the "n-word". And why did all of them decide that, in order to "act black" they had to let their pants hang off of their asses and say nigga every 3 minutes? Boggles the mind. I did like the fact that you were never quite sure who was a good guy and who was a bad guy. That's probably the reason for all the holes. Orlando Jones really tried his best and I've come to appreciate him more. It was almost as if it pained him to act the way he was acting. Eddie Griffin, I can take in small doses, I've come to realize. The Rant Maybe it's just me, but when did the "N-word" become PG-13? What are parents supposed to do? They take their children to a movie that is supposed to be okay for them and they are hit with a barrage of nigga this - nigga that. It's disgusting that even a PG rated movie has to be filled with garbage. I'm pretty disappointed with this movie and The Motion Picture Association of America. They should have given this an R for language. I had the same problem with 'US Magazine" 3 years ago. I think it was a George Clooney cover. Anyway in his interview he called someone a dick. US bleeped it out and wrote it like "d--k" in that same magazine, Mary J. Blige was interviewed and she said "nigga" about a dozen times. Not one instance was bleeped out. I found nigga to be more offensive than calling someone a dick. This is one of the many reasons that we need to stop saying this word. When someone white would point out that we use it, so why not everyone else, I used to say, "It's like you and your sibling. You can fight them and call them names, but don't let someone else do it." Even this is a complete and total cop out and I should be ashamed for justifying the use of the word. Anyway my point is how can we expect "US Magazine" and The MPAA to realize how offensive this word is when we continue to use it? Let's be honest for a second. I'm sure half the kids in that theater took the language with a grain of salt because they hear it at home. Maybe that was part of the decision making when rating this movie. I'm completely and totally at a loss as to what to do. I've given up fighting it with "gansta" films. Can't we have something clean? The Directive Matinee only I had to do a double take on some of the plot holes back to top Copyright Kamal "The Diva" Larsuel-Ulbricht, 2001 EMAIL: thediva@3blackchicks.com ICQ: 8690410 http://www.3blackchicks.com/ Use the feedback form below to send your comments to The Diva