Many romantic comedies are weighed down by one single thing, a lack of chemistry between the lovers; love isn't about a couple of pretty people saying they are, it's much deeper than that.Top Five manage to surprise in regards to how real the love feels in the film, yes it's pretty obvious early on that Chris Rock and Rosario Dawson will be together, but it thankfully feels deserved.
Throughout my viewing I felt as if I was watching someone's interpretation of what Birdman could've been if it decided to get it's head out of its ass. Andre feels he can be more serious than his well-known costumed action hero (a bear cop named Hammy) despite everyone demanding he's better off doing another Hammy film. Whereas Birdman focused on the production of the serious project, this film focuses on the press release, a decision that helps make this stand out from its former while giving it a strong edge. In this film we can focus on how people view Chris Rock,we're constantly reminded that everyone would rather he be funny, we don't even really know if his serious work was any good or bad beyond an untrustworthy review of his movie, as well as a small audience witnessing the film late in the movie; two factors we can't make much judgement from. Background characters are constantly yelling Hammy to drill the point of Andre's problems in our heads, a factor that works better then featuring an otherwise useless critic who ultimately gets an epiphany of sorts about talent, the frustration is enough to let us know why the past haunts our lead.
Chris Rock and Rosario Dawson share great chemistry on screen, while Rock is essentially playing himself and Dawson's twist towards the end is obvious the film works largely because of how believable their choices are.Gabrielle Union shows up as the reality star fiancee, she surprisingly doesn't turn into a simple antagonist, being given depth to her role, Union manages to make it a sweet one despite how easy she could've been made nasty. J.B. Smoove rounds out the main cast as Silk, Andre's bodyguard who despite coming up short in the film still manages to deliver some good moments.
Despite issues early on, this film is mostly sweet and hilarious, the main cast as well as the cameos really sell this, though the savior of the film is probably Cedric the Entertainer in a small role. About 20 minutes into the film I felt like I was ready to give up, not because it was bad, but because there wasn't much laughs and it seemed that I had figured out how the film would play out,once Cedric came on everything seemed to finally pick up, the laughs were coming. I'm not sure why it was so sluggish early on, but if you can bear that just know that the rest of the cast and story improve after those early scenes, making this worth your time.
Plenty of Rom-Coms are available for you to watch whenever you want, if you need one that's actually good then I suggest this, Top Five is a fun movie even if it's not for date-night. It's a funny film with heart and diversity, watch it and enjoy.
Written By Octaviano Macias
No comments:
Post a Comment