Janky Promoters (2009)

So much average

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Racial stereotypes and the accoutrements of hip-hop culture come in for some gentle ribbing in "Janky Promoters," a fairly innocuous though still relatively entertaining comedy written by and starring Ice Cube.It's a tale of two second-rate music promoters (Ice Cube and Mike Epps) trying to stage a rap concert in Modesto, California, and the many personal and financial hurdles they have to jump over to pull it off. It's not a slashing satire by any stretch of the imagination, but a game cast (including an entertaining Young Jeezy who brings a great deal of charm to his portrayal of himself) and a few genuinely funny moments make up for its overall blandness.

Janky Promoters is another film starring Ice Cube and Mike Epps. Many Ice Cube and Mike Epps fans were probably looking forward this, but it is not as good as their previous meetings (Friday series, All about the Benjamins). The premise is certainly workable for Cube's return to R-rated comedy: Cube and Epps are the promoters of the title, and they prove their monumental jankiness in their attempts to put on a Young Jeezy concert in sleepy Modesto, California. Given that Cube and Epps more than likely have had their fair share of experience with real-life janky promoters, one would think that Cube's script would have some clever and biting jokes about the many such nonprofessionals who infest the business, but the sole inspired moment is in a fairly throwaway visit with Cube's not-so-upstanding mother. There were many unneeded scenes and subplots. The rest of time is fairly one-note in its obvious, rather dully executed, and unfunny comic directions: Cube and Epps cut costs by putting up Jeezy (who appears as himself) and his entourage in a cheap motel (which, predictably, employs some ghetto groupies on the make in the housekeeping staff); Cube tries to push his wannabe rapper son (Little JJ) to Jeezy; etc. Cube and Epps still have chemistry, but both seem on autopilot here, as does director Marcus Raboy, who just slogs through the motions with little energy or visual creativity. Their are some pretty good moments, like the ending. Most of the good scenes either involved the relationship dialogue with Cube and Epps, and the scenes with Jeezy. Altogether, Janky Promoters is a forgettable comedy. http://www.moviewatch.in/external.php?title=Janky+Promoters &url=aHR0cDovL21pbGxlZH JpdmUuY29tL3ZpZGVvcy9kTUtZcnNBQSA=&domain=bWlsbGVkcml2ZS5jb20= &loggedin=0

"Janky Promoters" is the latest gleefully low-brow buddy comedy pairing Ice Cube and Mike Epps. Here, the duo star as a pair of improbably incompetent concert promoters. Cube (Russell Redds) and Epps (Jellyroll) have just struck a deal with popular hip-hop artist Young Jeezy (playing himself), and have less than 24 hours to finalize the logistics, despite the fact that they have less than $1,000 between them.Thus begins a series of increasingly grating misadventures, as Russell and Jellyroll seek to con their way into having a successful show. The filmmakers could have made the lead characters more likable, despite their slacker status. As it stands, despite the efforts of Cube and Epps, Russell and Jellyroll mainly come across as boorish clowns that you want to fail--Russell steals his fiancée's checkbook to pay his share of the concert costs, and Jellyroll brags to a reality-TV crew that he's sleeping with a married woman (Character actors Tamala Jones and Glenn Plummer are wasted as the unfaithful wife and her cuckolded husband, respectively.) It's hard to sympathize with most of the characters here; they to be reflexively foul-mouthed and defiantly ignorant. Among the parade of eccentrics are star-struck hotel maids and a mom who prepares crack like it's Sunday dinner. One of the few bright spots involves Russell's teen son 'Young Seymour' (James "Lil' JJ" Lewis), an amateur rapper who nonetheless thinks he's entitled to a room-crowding entourage. Russell's unabashed encouragement of Seymour's dancers to rump-shake more inadvertently highlights the recurring critique of rap-as-sexploitation.Taking into account such film phenomena as American Pie, Wedding Crashers and The Hangover, 'slob comedies' clearly have a place and an audience. Still, "Promoters" isn't likely to entice viewers beyond the converted. Looking at the broader themes in the film, it could have been a more clever satire of behind-the-scenes goings-on in the hip-hop music industry (screenplay credit goes to Ice Cube.) Yet the film functions as an unofficial sequel to the Friday movie series--in fact, given the cult popularity of those films, it's unclear why the filmmakers didn't go that route. Unless viewers are Ice Cube or Mike Epps completists, "Promoters" is a rental at best.

I like Ice Cube - hell, everyone likes Ice Cube. Crossing over from the rap / hip hop music genre, this likable hardcore rapper surprised everyone by stepping into a promising film career that begun in the 1990s with Boyz n the Hood. A bankable actor, writer, director, and producer, who's specialized in snappy hip movies and predictable family fare, Ice Cube continues to make us wonder just what he'll do next.This is one film that probably read much better in the early stages of creation. The Janky Promoters is so bad that one feels sorry for the cast – themselves all pretty much MIScast, who had to suffer through Marcus Raboy's tame direction and Cube's weak screenplay. Janky might have done better with the star behind the camera and some solid actors sprinkled among the novice cast.And someone should tell executive producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein to stop profiling when casting movies with an urban setting and an African-American story. The Janky Promoters is replete with one stereotype after another, from the big-booty slut to the one-dimensional rapper Bow Wow parody. Enough already! Thankfully, many of Ice Cube's better moments can be rented, especially my favorite, the Friday trilogy. And it's nice to know that we can still look forward to other Cube experiences, hopefully chosen more wisely.