Summer of Netflix Day 39 - Don't Be a Menace

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Joel: This movie was dumb. And not the good kind of dumb where it can still be enjoyable to turn off your brain for ninety minutes and just enjoy the movie for what it is. This is the cringeworthy, painful to watch kind of dumb where you check your watch and can’t believe it’s only been four minutes since the last time you checked and will this terrible, terrible movie ever end. And it’s not that I don’t get the jokes, or it’s just not a movie for me. Each joke of the movie gets the reaction of “I get it. It’s not at all funny, but I get what the joke is supposed to be.” Don’t be a Menace was one of the first parody movies where references to other movies started to replace actual jokes about other movies. It’s a symptom that has continued into the more recent Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans, The Starving Games, etc. This one is slightly better than the other ones because at least it keeps most of its references within the same genre of “Growing up in the hood” movies instead of just referencing whatever movie is most recent, but slightly better than terrible doesn’t come close to getting this movie out of the realm of terrible itself.

Chris: I take full responsibility for putting this movie on the Summer of Netflix schedule and it was done mostly out of curiosity. I saw this movie for the first time ever back when I was in high school, probably around my freshman year so that’s easily 13 years ago and I remembered how much my friends and I laughed at this movie, we thought it was the funniest thing ever. I say all of that yet I never felt the need to watch it again and keep in mind that those same couple of friends and I would get together almost every weekend and watch Team America over and over again. So what was keeping me from watching Don’t Be a Menace? Was it because that even though a young, teenage Chris laughed a lot at it, he subconsciously knew how much crap this movie was? Possibly but let it be known that now, 27 year old Chris did not laugh at this movie and did not enjoy this movie and, again, this is a guy that will watch Hot Rod on a moment’s notice and laugh hysterically so it’s not like I’m being all “high and mighty” about my movie tastes. But tastes change, just like life. I don’t really hang out or talk with those friends much these days and Don’t Be a Menace is a crappy movie. Metaphors, bro. Metaphors.

Your Viewing Homework for Tomorrow: Sabotage

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