Films To Watch Before You Die #15

D.J. Haza presents the next entry in his series of films to watch before you die…

Almost Famous, 2000.

Directed by Steve Carr.
Starring Ice Cube, Mike Epps, Justin Pierce, John Witherspoon, Don ‘D.C.’ Curry and Tommy ‘Tiny’ Lister.

If you watched Friday on last week’s recommendation then you are in for a treat this week as the follow up to the original is even better. This time out Craig (Cube) has gotten wind that Deebo (Tony Lister Jnr) has broken out of prison and is coming to get him so his father sends him to the suburbs to stay with his sex crazed lottery wining uncle Elroy (Don Curry) and his cousin Day-Day (Epps). At first life in the burbs seems all good, but things soon turn just as crazy as the hood.

It turns out that Craig’s uncle doesn’t have as much cash as he makes out and they are in risk of losing their house due to not making the payments. Living next door is a family of Mexican criminal brothers, which includes Joker (Jacob Vargas) and their sister, Karla (Lisa Rodriguez). Craig takes a shining to Karla despite Day-Days warning about her brothers and is also curious as to what they hide in a large hydraulic pump they carry from their car into the house. Craig and Day-Day break into their house in order to find out what exactly they are up to and find their money stash in the hydraulic pump. Craig takes some cash, but on the way out ends up in Karla’s room and impresses her immensely that he has defied her brothers.

When Craig doesn’t come out Day-Day goes looking for him, but ends up getting caught, tied and bound by the brothers. Craig goes back in for Day-Day and ends up fighting Joker, until he grabs an assault rifle and all looks lost. Deebo emerges coincidentally behind Joker and knocks him out, then attempts to take his chance at getting Craig back before another bunch of coincidences lead to Deebo being arrested and Craig sneaking out with all the money to help Elroy keep his house.

Next Friday seems to have built on the success and better parts of Friday and added to them. This outing is slicker, better written and with higher production values despite the ending being subject so many coincidences that it is almost ridiculous. The film has a whole load of comedy gold from the off that means when the ending does come it doesn’t matter it is rubbish as the journey getting there has been such a laugh. The comedy is similar to that of Friday with ghetto jokes and bad boy attitude as well as the soundtrack being just as good. Smokey missing from the sequel seems to be its only flaw.

Next Friday is a film you must watch before you die because it’s a cult classic in hip-hop culture and even better than Friday. If you’ve watched the first one you should see this outing, and if you haven’t it isn’t difficult to get up to speed and enjoy the ride.