The Cookout (2004)

Best movie of this year hands down!

People are voting emotionally.

best movie i've ever seen.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

I once read that if you want to watch a movie and just to be entertained, then take your brain out and relax. I thought this movie would fit into this category. When I first saw the trailers, and bits and pieces of the movie I thought it was worth watching. So I did. To be honest I was disappointed.With all of the big names like Danny Glover, Farrah Fawcett, Jenifer Lewis, Queen Latifah, and Frankie Faison to name a few, I had thought this would be great. At best I felt the movie was slow and the lines delivered as if they were being read.As for the morality of the movie, one could argue it set the tone for being responsible about money. But I also saw a contradiction in moral and racial issues. The first issue is the smoking of marijuana. To see a "judge", Danny Glover smoking it, what does this say about the real world? The movie played on the fears of predominately white segregated, walled communities. At least that part was true.The third item was in regards to the black male and white female role in an interracial marriage. Why in the end was everyone happy to see Danny Glover (Judge Crowley) dominate his white wife, Farrah Fawcett (Mrs. Crowley), yet Frankie Faison (JoJo Anderson) is submissive to his wife Jenifer Lewis (Lady Em)? Does this mean that all black men in an interracial marriage should be "Master and Commander?" Does this state that black men marry outside of their race because the black woman is too strong and dominant? Does this mean that all white females become submissive when dominated by a black man? I don't think so as I am in an interracial marriage and took offense to those messages.With the above aside, I took my brain out and tried to just be entertained. I laughed through a few parts, and the rest of the plot I could see through. Would I see it again? Maybe.I had expected more with all of the big names and maybe this is the problem.

This movie was recommended by a friend of the family, who happened to think this movie was outright hilarious, mainly because of Queen Latifah. I thought the same.I would recommend this movie to anyone who can handle African American jokes (surely that are not meant to be offensive) and loves comedy! I would NOT recommend this to anyone who takes life too seriously, or who has no sense of humor.My favorite part is when Todd's cousin is at the gate telling The Cop (Queen Latifah) off!! Haha, that was definitely a memorable moment.Some other slapstick moments are when the chefs are preparing the cookout meal and when Meagan Good is elated about getting this mansion.This will be worth the while, so please do watch it!

First, I'd like to start of by saying I'm black. So I took especial dislike to this film along with the regular dislike due to the absolute horridness of this movie. I can imagine the conversation at the studios regarding this mess of a movie...Exec 1: Hey, I've got a great idea for a movie. Exec 2: Shoot Exec 1: Well, it's going to aimed at the black community. So it'll make money without us having to spend money. Exec 2: Or use creativity! Exec 1: Exactly. We use the Black movie formula. Number one, find a topic that the black "community" can relate to. You, know, something that's solely afrocentric. Like "da hood", or rap, or dancing, or how "da sistas" play games with men, or basketballs, or like... a cookout! Number 2, stuff a bunch a race relation jokes in it and pass it off as comedy. Number 3, get one good actor, a rapper, and a white person (you know, so the race relation jokes seem at least semi-relevant), then get a bunch of no name actors. And number 4, put some type of easily grasp high concept, like family or community. And wa la! You've got a movie that'll make money without the makers putting anything (and I mean anything) into it! Exec 2: It's gold!Unfunny, uninspiring, unoriginal, and insulting to your intelligence whether you're black, white, Asian, native American, Arabic, south Asian, Hispanic or pacific islander, but especially if your black. This is what Hollywood thinks black people want. Mindless entertainment that panders to their race. And frankly, it makes me angry. The story was uneven, the jokes failed to illicit even a chuckle, the acting is bad, and the "high concept" was lost in the swirling mass of awful that was this movie.A complete and utter waste of time.

The Cookout is a pretty lame comedy that really delivers nothing new. #1 NBA draft pick Todd Anderson's star is on the ascendant after signing to his home team, the New Jersey Nets. Trying to stay grounded in reality, he throws a big barbecue for his family, not realizing that mixing them with his new agents and reps might lead to a crazy afternoon. The plot is fairly simple, something similar to the Barbershop films. The Cookout fails to be like Barbershop though. Everyone that's at the cookout is a stereotype. The filmmakers apparently were trying to include every stereotype about blacks possible. The script is very weak and needed a lot of work. The acting wasn't very good either with the best being Queen Latifah. She is pretty much the only saving grace in this film. However, her role in this film is small and its hard to believe she helped with the writing. Tim Meadows and Danny Glover are also pretty good but they can't save this film. Other people worth mentioning are Meagan Good and Jonathan Silverman. Ja Rule does a terrible job and he pretty much kills the film. Farrah Fawcett is in the film for some reason and she does a decent job. Everyone else is very annoying and do a bad job of acting. On a side note, Queen Latifah's mom has a role and Eves role is more or a cameo. Lance Rivera directs his first film and hopefully he can improve. Barbershop talked about important issues however, The Cookout didn't as it just had cheap laughs and it was a pretty boring film. The runtime is only 97 minutes long. Even with the short runtime it drags a lot and most of the film is pretty unrealistic. The Cookout is defiantly not worth watching unless your really, really big fans of anyone involved. Rating 3/10, a boring and forgettable film.