The Monkey Hu$tle

If a white producer and a white screenwriter got together to produce a film for a black audience anytime before the bicentennial, then this would be the product. The language and expressions are so exaggerated as to be excessively comic, then again perhaps this was the intended effect (though I doubt it).

I'm reminded of the final scenes of Robert Townsend's "Hollywood Shuffle," where he plays a struggling actor who just got the lead in a low budget blaxpoitation production "Jive Time Jimmy's Revenge." Townsend is supposed to have an uncredited bit part in "The Monkey Shuffle," and one is almost certain that he was referencing the ridiculous direction given the actors in "The Monkey Shuffle." A true homage to demonstrate how shallow cross cultural understanding was at the time. An understanding made clear in this film.

With lines like "You sho-is bad!" and "Yo my main man!" one can't help but wonder how the guys at MST3K missed "The Monkey Shuffle" (probably because of the race angle; it being bad form and all to make fun of a black, or blaxpoitation, film). The story revolves around a band of two-bit hustlers, shuckin' and jivin' their way to the big time. Only they're supposedly stymied by a municipal urban renewal plan, that bulldozes their base of operations. A plan that's supposed to put a highway through the neighborhood. Too bad this wasn't played up in the film, because if you miss the few minutes of dialogue and other exposition given to the plot you'll miss it entirely. Not that you really need to know it, because it's hardly significant in the story.

There's lots of character development, but it's all one dimensional. The haircuts and costumes are laughable, and the plot doesn't come into play until the end of the film. Much of the movie is spent exploring the petty exploits of the "players," and "players" in training, and does nothing to develop either plot or story.

Well, it's been a while since I've heard expressions like "sho 'nuff" or "turkey" or even "sucka," so from a linguistics point of view it was kind of fun seeing paleolithic jive talk in action, but beyond that there's not much to offer here.

The film itself is supposed to be some kind of comedy, but I found myself hard pressed to laugh at anything other than the dated speech, costumes, and extreme mannerisms given by the characters.

If you want to see Blaxpoitation, then rent one of the better known Pam Grier, Jim Kelley, or Shaft films. Your brain'll thank you for it.

The main thing one needs to know about "The Monkey Hu$tle" is that it makes absolutely no sense at all.None. Zero. It doesn't even have anything remotely resembling a plot until the last fifteen minutes, and even then, the "plot" is so thin as to almost be nonexistent. So yes, this is a bad film.

However, the cast is fantastic, in that you have a lot of familiar 70s faces doing their thing with the bad material they are given. The great Yaphet Kotto leads the way, and behind him are Rudy Ray Moore, Rosalind Cash, Thomas Carter, the gorgeous Debbi Morgan, and others you will recognize from 70s blaxploitation films and TV shows.

As entertaining as the cast is, it's hard to imagine any of them knew what the heck they were actually acting in, and probably just took it scene-by-scene according to the script, never really knowing all the context. I can't imagine any of them reading the script and saying "What a plot, this looks good I'll do it." Instead, it was probably more like "What a mess, but I have a lot of scenes, I'm in." Or simply just doing it for the paycheck.

The film was shot in Chicago so there are a lot of interesting location scenes, and the film is shot halfway decently. Those things, and the cast, do make the film fun to look at. However this is a real mess due to the missing "plot" but it is worth a viewing for the pluses. You'll never watch it again, tho'.

This movie is worth renting just to see Goldie and his Goldie Mobile! Not a bad plot, and the song "Monkey Hustle' is a riot!

When I give a movie a 4, I mean it is really bad. This is the kitchen sink mentality of these movies with the violence, glamour and pimps all taken out. Instead we have a now very dated formula of a small time hustler hanging around a group of kids with oversized afros and egos. The best part of it, is Rudy Ray Moore(Dolemite) appearing as Goldie featuring a shirt made out of gold chains, whether hes a hustler, gangster, pimp or leader we will never know. But he steals the show withs his larger than life, style (You're my main man!!). The children do little more than try to make money and use outdated jive lines such as "Slick the slick" and there are the antics of a 12 or 13 year old boy called the kid who has a gang of synchopant kiddies who hang around trying out all sorts of nickel and dime shit. It is funny at least in its use of the cheesiest disco soundtrack possible. The roller skating scene is very funny with the disco music heavy on wah wah guitar and kids with oversized afros and flares dancing around in a bright red rink. The kids fight and steal but there is no real violence or sex involved. Overall the acting is cardboard, storyline tapering and a piece of claptrack that is an embarassment from start to finish. Its only saving graces may be the Keystone cop and Goldie, otherwise its schtick. I think too it portrays African Americans as greedy and over sexed simpletons who just want to make money and have a good time.

One has to remember, that with the introduction of Shaft and Superfly, Hollywood churned out one blaxploitation film after the other, whether the script and acting succeeded or not. During the 70's, at the height of the blaxploitation film era, the genre was completely plot-driven rather than character-driven. Ask yourself how many times a neighborhood could be saved from some type of demolition? How many times could someone come up with just the right lottery numbers? Take this film for what it is, something lighthearted that introduced actor/director Thomas Carter, II, Debbi Morgan of All My Children, Charmed, The Hurricane, Rosalind Cash of The Omega Man, General Hospital, and Tales from the Hood, Randy Brooks of Another World and Generations. And, of course, Rudy Ray Moore. These actors had to eat, support families, and it was training ground for some later great work.