Chris Rock: Bigger & Blacker (1999)

Undescribable Perfection

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Chris Rock returns to the stage a legitimate superstar, and for his venue he's chosen none other than Harlem's Apollo Theater. Everything is bigger and more elaborate this time around: the building, the set, the outfit, and the outrage. But it rarely translates to more laughs. It also doesn't help, looking back a few years later, how archaic a lot of the attitudes expressed by Rock are. His views on parenting and relationships are so outdated (and, it should be noted, were outdated at the time) that it sounds like you're listening to your dad cracking wise. This is only furthered when he begins to weigh in on the Bill Clinton impeachment, which he lays right on Hilary Clinton's doorstep. Rock has always had a way of keeping the ladies onside while making some really questionable observations about them, but I wonder if this particular set tested that infatuation. It sure doesn't help that he again spends the last act of this special criticizing women and being generally negative towards them. Sadly, when he does say something positive, like showing his opposition to homophobia, he uses it more as a transition and never takes the time to sell the idea to the audience, which would have been a brave thing to do in that time and place. It certainly would have set this apart from the other comics who predominantly use their charisma to sell a joke. Still, he does have a unique take on gun control that comes at the issue from a different direction and his prediction of how the A.I.D.S epidemic would develop is almost prophetic. It speaks to what the potential was for this set, and is every time out for Rock. A step down from a legendary feature debut.

After seeing Rock's latest comedy show, I simply had to check out his previous work. "Bigger and Blacker" is the first thing I saw, simply because it fell most conveniently into my hands and, based on my previous Rock experience, I have to say there's quite a difference.Obviously, I'd seen a bit of this in Bowling for Columbine, not knowing what really was behind it all at that time. In it's wholeness, "Bigger and Blacker" is a harsher, more unpolished, but in the same time more direct experience than "Never Scared". The jokes seem aggressive, the thematic of which feeling even more familiar than I'd have expected.But, strangely enough, I didn't laugh as much as during "Never Scared". In a way I felt some of the jokes had an awkward kind of touch, maybe even insulting at some points, and they simply didn't criticize with the same style, with the same subtlety. Theory of evolution proves itself right, in the end, or at least so I presume.

I'm a big fan of stand-up comedy, and this has to be one of the funniest I've ever seen. I must have seen this 50 times. And that is no exaggeration. Every time, I still laugh my ass. It's a toss-up, but I'd say that this is funnier than his first stand-up special, Bring the Pain. Please, Chris, do more stand-up.

If you can tolerate the language this is so funny. The material is insightful but Rock does it in a comedic way. The material is aimed for blacks but white people can enjoy it to. It takes a while for him to get into it but once he starts cursing he is on.