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Head of State
Movie Stats & Links

Starring: Chris Rock, Bernie Mac, Robin Givens, Tamala Jones
MPAA Rated: PG-13
Released By: Dreamworks Pictures
Kiddie Movie: It's more adult material.
Date Movie: She might laugh a little.
Gratuitous Sex: Hinted at.
Gratuitous Violence: Brotherly fighting.
Action: Nah.
Laughs: Some good ones.
Memorable Scene: The reaction when Mays says "The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire!"
Memorable Quote: Mays to the Republican candidate, during the televised debate: "You are full of shit!"
Directed By: Chris Rock
Produced By: Michael Rotenberg, Ali LeRoi, Chris Rock

Head of State
A Movie Review

MPAA Rated - PG-13

It's 1:35 Long

A Review by
The Dude on the Right
Every time Chris Rock has a movie coming out I root for him and each time I see one of his movies I wonder why. As a stand-up comic he is brilliant, but as an actor there is something that just doesn’t click. In "Head of State" things just don’t click again. Don’t get me wrong, the movie isn’t horrible, but it just seems to fall due to the potential it had.

The Democrats have a problem – their candidates for President and V.P. both die in a plane crash. So the party heads decide it’s time to run a black person for President, knowing he’ll lose, so that when the next election comes around their white candidate will get the minority vote because they at least tried to get a minority to be the top dog. They pick Mays Gilliam (Chris Rock), an ex-alderman from D.C. whose life just went in the toilet.

So the party heads keep giving Mays boring speeches that don’t say anything, keep him dressed up, and it’s on to Chicago where Mitch (Bernie Mac) enters the picture. Mitch is Mays’ brother and he tells Mays that he needs to start giving speeches with meaning, telling people where he stands. And so Mays does, and of course the people love him. So now Mays changes his campaign strategy to be one with the people, and now Chris Rock gets to be Chris Rock, whooping and hollerin’ about the man keeping the people down, but no one still wants to be Mays’ running mate. Who else to call but your brother, so here comes Mitch telling an interviewer that he doesn’t know anything about NATO, but throwing it back in his face that the interviewer doesn’t know anything about Nato (trust me, it’s pretty funny). And, oh yea, there is of course a love interest, love psychotic, the typical old white people dancing to black music, and Chris Rock again trying desperately to be funny while Bernie Mac shows how it is done.

The problem I’m starting to have with Chris Rock in movies is that at one time he is this sensitive guy, reasonable guy, trying to act like the sensitive, reasonable guy, and then, all of a sudden, he is Chris Rock being the stand-up comedian. This movie does the same. At the beginning, when he is the alderman, he acts, and maybe normal isn’t the right word, but he isn’t Chris Rock the comedian, but when he gives the speech in Chicago, all of a sudden he is totally out of the character he led us to believe he was, and he’s over-the-top.

"Head of State" pokes a lot of fun at politics, how bland political races are, and is pretty funny at times, but at other times the movie just seems to crawl along with typical black/white humor. Bernie Mac should have been used a hell of a lot more in the movie because from the get-go we knew exactly what kind of person Mitch was, and Mitch always stayed the same, but at any given moment we really didn’t know which Mays character we were going to get. It’s 2 stars out of 5 for "Head of State." I recommend a rental, or wait for cable. There are a few good moments, but too few to recommend a trip to the theater.

That’s it for this review! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

 

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