If you’ve never seen it, we highly recommend it. If you have seen it, we recommend you watch it again.
For the longest time, Chris Rock’s movie career was in a bit of a freefall.
Following on from the scene-stealing turn in the otherwise not-very-good Lethal Weapon 4 way back in 1998, the highlights of his movie career were… less than great:
Madagascar 1, 2, and 3, Grown Ups 1 and 2, The Longest Yard, Bad Company, You Don’t Mess With The Zohan.
Then, in 2014, he finally took things into his own hands, by writing and directing Top Five, and getting one of the best comedy casts around to help him.
Alongside Rock we have Romany Falco (The 40 Year Old Virgin), Tracy Morgan (30 Rock), Cedric The Entertainer (Barbershop), Kevin Hart (Ride Along) and a lot more, and they all bring their A-game here.
Rock plays a famous comedian (so no stretch there), who is about to get married to a reality TV star (played by Bad Boys 2’s Gabrielle Union), who wants their marriage broadcast live in order to make some more money out of it. In the lead-up, he has an intensive interview with a journalist (Daredevil’s Rosario Dawson), who spends “A Day In The Life” with him, and Rock discovers not only is his fiance not the one for him, but this journalist might just be the girl of his dreams…
Oh, and all the way through, the discussion of who everyone’s Top Five rappers are keeps it all tying along nicely, and will be sure to kick off a few debates by those watching at home, too.
With a score of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, an all-star cast delivering some amazing one-liners (“Anybody you can eat with, you might have a chance of fucking…”), and Chris Rock presenting the highlight of his career so far, it was a real shame that the movie made barely any money at the box office.
Since there’s a good chance you never caught it at the cinema, here is your chance to catch up on it.
Top Five is on Film4 tonight at 11.15pm.
Clip via Movieclips Trailers
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