The Devil's Rejects is a movie that I had the highest of expectations for and I guess maybe they were too high. Don't get me wrong, I still love Rob Zombie's disgusting and exploitative style of horror, but the movie was very disjointed and a tad too long for my tastes. Sidenote: I'm totally in love with this wife Sheri Moon based completely on her portrayal of Baby in both this movie and the first saga House of 1,000 Corpses. The feel of the movie is all 70's right down to the sweet soundtrack, and I have to give it up to Rob for busting out so many old faces from yesteryear like Geoffrey Lewis (Juliet's Dad and Clint Eastwood's sidekick in the early 80's), Priscilla Barnes (Three's Company), Deborah Van Valkenburgh (Too Close For Comfort, the eldest daughter of Ted Knight), Ginger Lynn Allen (my favorite porn star from the 80's) and PJ Soles (Riff Randell in Rock n Roll High School). The clever casting, and the things he has these folks do, just add another demonic layer to the whole movie for a guy like me who recognized each and every one of these "cameos" if you will. Rob Zombie is a sick fuck and I love him, but maybe he should have focused more on the script and less on the cool factor? I'll give it a B-.
Hustle and Flow triumphs simply because Terrence Howard is amazing as a pimp/wannabe rapper. I'm putting this performance up there as a one of those that takes an actor from here to HERE. Like Ed Norton in Primal Fear or Kevin Spacey in Usual Suspects. People will be seeing a lot more from Terrence Howard thanks to this movie. Although I'm no fan of rap music, at least not the dirty, dirty kind illustrated throughout Hustle and Flow, I wasn't as turned off to it as I would have thought. The movie plays out like 8 Mile in that it's a rapper's struggle story. The authenticity of the pimp and ho scenes are kind of scary and the locale of North Memphis is captured in all it's gritty nastiness. The entire cast really delivers performances that feel completely real. Another concern I had going in was that I wasn't going to buy into Anthony Anderson and DJ Qualls in their rolls as producer and beat maker respectively, but I had no trouble once they committed to their characters. I'll even say that Taryn Manning put herself out there as DJay's number one whore Nola and convinced me that she was above Crossroads with Britney Spears. The film is a little predictable, but I still came away with a smile on my face and a need to listen to some Ying Yangs twins. Let's say B+.
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