![]() ![]() A returning military vet ready to settle down, Jack is instead inspired to exact revenge on Mr. Mourned by his mother, Belle (Ja'Net Dubois), and widow, Cheryl (Dawnn Lewis), Junebug's death hits his brother, Jack (Keenan Ivory Wayans), especially hard. In the city, black men are dying due to excessive gold chain wear, with Junebug Spade the latest victim. Taking on a deadly serious set of films with an enormous reservoir of silliness, "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka" is a gem in the vein of "Airplane" and "The Naked Gun," using satire and slapstick to generate huge laughs from unlikely sources. In the 1980s, the Wayans Family was just beginning their reign in Hollywood, with Damon Wayans finding his way to "Saturday Night Live," while Keenan Ivory Wayans established his sense of humor co-writing "Hollywood Shuffle" and the opening of "Eddie Murphy: Raw." 1988's "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka" was the debutant ball for the clan of comedians, with Keenan making his directorial debut guiding a good chunk of his family through a send-up/celebration of the blacksploitation genre, ordering some of the men who were there originally to return to duty. Lapses like that give "Sucka" the Shaft.Reviewed by Brian Orndorf, January 26, 2016 And he seems too easily satisfied with predictable and sophomoric punchlines. Wayans' choosing to play romantic lead seems more narcissistic than smartly comic (watch him unleash those built biceps once too often) he lacks an unidentifiable shtick. Otherwise, you're asked to find it funny that a young man ("Junebug") is found dead from an overdose of gold chains, and to sit through a lot of exploi-sition, as Wayans (playing Junebug's brother, Jack Spade) ploddingly investigates the death, reunites with his family (cliche'-fiery mother Ja'net DuBois and sister-in-law Dawnn Lewis) and summons the Gang of Yore. Later, over-the-hill hustler Fargas remembers sentimentally the year he made "Pimp of the Year" with his show-stopping performance poem, "My Bitch Better Have My Money." Those sporadic hits - at the risk of spoiling "Sucka" - include a street gang competition (organized by Bernie Casey's community-thinking "John Slade"), where one of the foot races involves youths being chased by Dobermans while carrying stolen televisions and, in a team event, stripping down cars to nothing within seconds. ![]() But unlike satirical siblings "Blazing Saddles," "Young Frankenstein," "Airplane!" and the current "Naked Gun," "Sucka" fires blanks all too often. ![]() Certainly this satirical street war, against a gang led by professional screen villain John Vernon, has its funny gunfire - helped largely by the presence of the senior performers. Recruiting some familiar macho-movie vets - Jim Brown, Isaac Hayes (composer of the wow-chicka-wow-chicka-wickawow "Shaft" theme), Bernie Casey, Antonio Fargas and Steve James but not Richard ("Shaft") Roundtree - Wayans dresses them up (in camouflage-meets-American-Ninja chic) but gives them nowhere to go. The cowriter and costar of Robert Townsend's "Hollywood Shuffle" (and "cowriter" of the concert movie "Eddie Murphy Raw") may be quick on the raw but he's slow on structure, pace and those other intangibles that make a good comedy. ![]() Stuck with self-imposed triple duty (writing, directing, starring), Wayans lands on flypaper instead. In "I'm Gonna Git Ya Sucka," Keenen Ivory Wayans tries to be a comic Superfly on the wall of the black-exploitation-movie era. ![]()
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