The closest I've ever come to "cruising" was circling the mall for 2 hours looking for a parking space on Black Friday. "Cruising", or the art of driving up & down the strip in a pimped-out car with your homeys, is the focus of this movie, but even if that's not your style this can be a fun flick. Yes, there is a heavy emphasis on the gangsta subculture, and that along with the prominent hip hop soundtrack might narrow the audience down, but at the heart of it are some universally human themes we can all appreciate. And there are a few lines of absolutely priceless funny dialogue.
The story takes place over the course of a night as we follow 5 different cars and their occupants. Car #1 are two ladies out to blow off some steam ("Carmen" is a normal girl who just had a bad breakup, "Alyssa" is her best friend, a snobby diva who is obsessed with her own face almost as much as her rack). Cars #2 and #3 are four friends ("Tomas" is the jerk who cheated on Carmen, "Pep" is a rapper wannabe, and the other 2 whose names I didn't catch are basically normal guys). Car #4 is driven by a guy who spends more time looking at his car than at his girlfriend, who is also riding along (much to her displeasure). And car #5, my favorite of the bunch, is a van full of gangstas looking to initiate their newest (and dumbest) member, "Greg".
All of this is tied together with the common thread that they're all out cruisin and listening to the radio with DJ "Molly" and his on-air guests, Da Stooie Brothers.
This is a low budget production, but that doesn't mean it's bad. On the contrary, the acting is so believable I often forgot these people were actors, and I felt like I was watching a reality show. I only have 2 gripes with the "low budget"ness: (1) the audio is sometimes difficult to understand (but subtitles are included for those who are hard of hearing, or who just can't understand the lingo), and (2) the hand-held camera can be a little tough to follow sometimes. These are just technical nitpicks, and if you can overlook that, the story is surprisingly interesting even though it's just about a bunch of people basically sitting in traffic.
The car #5 shenanigans had me laughing pretty hard. This subplot revolves around a loser "Greg" who's trying to act tough so he can join a gang. Priceless bits of dialogue include things like:
GREG: I'm cuckin DOWN, holmes!
GANGSTA#1: What the f-- is "cuckin"?
GREG: I mean f--kin. I was going to say "cool" but then it changed.
"Greg" I should add is played by Devin Begley who doesn't have any other acting credits, but he stole the show. Here's another taste of a great comedic moment from car #5...
LEADER: Are you ready?
GREG: Does a fat kid like to eat bananas?! (silence)
LEADER: What? It's either a 'yes' or 'no' b!tch. No monologues.
GANGSTA#1: Yeah, no monerlogga...
GANGSTA#2: Motherf--, it's "no monologues", loco.
LEADER: If you're going to pronounce it, pronounce it right.
GANGSTA#1: Relax I got tongue twisted.
LEADER: Whatever ace.
If the director John F Uranday does a sequel, I'd love to see more of the car #5 gang because they made the movie for me. They provide most of the suspense and action, which gets pretty tense at the end. But everyone did a great job, each actor depicting a very memorable character. There were some wonderfully human moments centered around the 2 ladies. And it's great to see is how all 5 cars come together in the storyline. I guarantee you'll die laughing when the ladies of car #1 meet up with Greg.
