Top Five

Top Five is more liked by the audience reviewers than the critics. Chris Rock is really an enigma. He is from the school of comedians who can't decide who they  are.  They want to confront race, but they make an awful lot of money from white people to be complaining. They hang on to their integrity and try to be honest about it, but usually they just turn bitter and angry with age. Not poor, just angry.  Chris Rock was the guy everyone liked when he was a young comedian. But now, what shines through for me is a deep sense of loss from him. I don't think he knows what kind of comedian he is, or even IF he is a comedian anymore. If you get past the raunchy, improbable stuff in the movie, you see a very complex and deeply sad man. He's at an age where raunchy seems uncomfortable to the audience. It's like an American Pie reunion- now they just look creepy. Rock claims to have been beaten and bullied while attending a white high school- I don't deny it but he should confront those people so he can get over some of it. His parents removed him and let him get a GED. That is too bad that they didn't find a way for him to at least try college, because he doesn't seem to have a lot of tools to cope with life and maybe going to a non-white college would have given him that sense of camaraderie that he seems to need.  It is impossible to review this film without going into Chris Rock because he is the center of it all. The story is about a stand-up comedian who has lost his drive to perform. He goes through the mire of his life and meets up with a reporter who is struggling to stay away from the booze. (Keep in mind that Rock lost an older brother to alcoholism). He is engaged to a reality star thus keeping the fake real all around him. It was okay- but I think if Rock is going to make a movie about honest things, then he has to get honest himself. This is not a comedy to me. Not at all. The serious parts are serious indeed. But if you like Chris Rock, and you miss him in general, this might be your movie.