I like Ice Cube - hell, everyone likes Ice Cube. Crossing over from the rap / hip hop music genre, this likable hardcore rapper surprised everyone by stepping into a promising film career that begun in the 1990s with Boyz n the Hood. A bankable actor, writer, director, and producer, who's specialized in snappy hip movies and predictable family fare, Ice Cube continues to make us wonder just what he'll do next.
This is one film that probably read much better in the early stages of creation. The Janky Promoters is so bad that one feels sorry for the cast – themselves all pretty much MIScast, who had to suffer through Marcus Raboy's tame direction and Cube's weak screenplay. Janky might have done better with the star behind the camera and some solid actors sprinkled among the novice cast.
And someone should tell executive producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein to stop profiling when casting movies with an urban setting and an African-American story. The Janky Promoters is replete with one stereotype after another, from the big-booty slut to the one-dimensional rapper Bow Wow parody. Enough already! Thankfully, many of Ice Cube's better moments can be rented, especially my favorite, the Friday trilogy. And it's nice to know that we can still look forward to other Cube experiences, hopefully chosen more wisely.
