Chris Rock: Kill the Messenger - London, New York, Johannesburg

I would like my personal time back. I have very much enjoyed his first specials but this is just... sigh.

The adventure begins somewhere in the world where he performed. In between 3 filming locations and constant editing and cutting in and out I feel dizzy. He wore 3 different costumes and by time his special was over I had bloodshot eyes not because I was tired but because there was 0 consideration for viewers when they filmed this thing.

Jokes themselves. Well of course he is commenting on race, that was his "thing" in all specials. Except that this time I feel he ran out of content. His jokes got racial"er" and dry"er" than ever before. His reputation of progressive black person/men will probably be stripped because of his foul language. To me it almost looked like he was dropping f bombs not because they were relevant but because he had nothing else to say.

I gave this a 4 out of 10 with reference of watching it today again just to make sure that this special was bad. This time I am going to watch this and try to understand any of his jokes for 2nd time. Last night while watching I do not recall myself even smirking once while I was dying laughing listening to his other comedy specials.

In 2008, Chris Rock went on a massive world tour, playing large venues around the world. This HBO special edits together three of these shows (in Johannesburg, New York and London) into one special. In it he covers subjects ranging from the 2008 Presidential race, the rise in the price of petrol, the Bush administration, what groups can say about other groups, the world of work and other subjects.

Chris Rock is a bit of a mixed bag. At times he is very smart and very funny but at other times he sinks into crudity that seems content to draw laughter from swearing and being rude. I accept a bit of the latter if he delivers strongly on the former and I have found that his better shows have done this while his lesser ones have not. However I approach each show with an open mind because no doubt he is a talented stand-up who has a good stage presence. At the very start of Kill the Messenger though, the issue over his material will be secondary because you will be concentrating on (or rather distracted by) the editing together of the shows. I understand they were doing it to show how global it all was but at the start it is done rapidly, halfway through sentences and often repeating the same line three times – it is distracting and a bit annoying. Fortunately one gets used to it and it calms down a little as the show goes on.

And good job too because what it lets you do is enjoy a show that is one of the better I have seen from Rock. To my tastes he gets the mix just right as he swears and is crude but does it all on a strong foundation of truth, challenge and observation. This is some great material here as he challenges his audiences one minute and then figuratively sits with them while railing against the man. It is a great structure that allows him to do both things without ever losing his audience – which is not as hard to do as it sounds when you consider some of his material here. He comes close with some of it (attacking black women is never a smart thing to do) but ultimately he keeps everyone on board by virtue of the smart material and just how funny the majority of it is. He himself has great stage presence but, as you can see here, it is hard to shoot. He is constantly on the move and the camera tries to keep up with him when he paces instead of settling for a wider shot, the effect is one of slight sickness and at times I preferred just to listen. This is not the whole show though as close ups, audience reactions and wide shots are also used but again it was another weakness built into the film in the editing room.

Overall then what we have here is a show that is damaged slightly in the editing room but is ultimately kept engaging and strong by Chris Rock. His material is crude of course but it is built on strong observation and intelligent discourse, making it funny and clever enough to prevent it just being rude.

The editor of this special was so consumed with splicing footage and seamlessly meshing shows that he or she, in my opinion, got in the way of the act.

Chris Rock deserves a special focused on Chris Rock the way George Carlin's specials focused only on George Carlin.

This special had too much going on. The editing tangled feet with the punchlines. The outfit changes were jarring, as I found myself missing the jokes because I was too busy saying, "Now he's wearing a shiny jacket," or, "Now he's in Brooklyn." Not to mention the sound quality was noticeably different, especially when jokes were spliced together.

It was all just so unnecessary.

I would like to see Kill The Message from one stage, with one audience. But don't take my word for it. Watch it yourself.

At first I thought the poster was like a chart of where Chris Rock had been performing, two of the three places for the first time (London, New York, South Africa... HBO). As it turns out, this is actually the method to the shoot of the show: edited together from three concerts in each of the areas listed, Rock goes through his material and sometimes a bit is inter-cut within an actual sentence (for example, Rock says the point of view from London, then New York, and maybe South Africa here and there). This technique is a little jarring, but only for a short while. Once it becomes part of the actual gig filmed, it's a successfully unique presentation by way of a special that tries something different.

But the real reason to check out Kill the Messenger is because after four HBO specials (there may have been one half hour one I can't recall from the early 90s), Rock hasn't lost it in his timing or killer deconstructive language or point of view that remains barbed and ready to attack just about anyone: white or black, republican or democrat, male and female, job or career, everything is up for grabs and everything he presents is sharp and hysterically funny. And unlike Never Scared, his previous special, his bits on racism here aren't possibly watered down or not quite as sharp; if anything there is a particular bit on the "N" word that is an excellent dozen-years-later companion piece to "Black People Vs N*****", with a once-in-a-lifetime chance to hear when a white person can actually say it! It's loaded with insight and wit, from John McCain to Flava Flav to when to use properly contexted words, to just what goes on in a relationship and how difficult it pretty much always is. Bottom line, don't miss it, if you're a fan you're in for a welcome treat, and newbies will get knocked out.

Once again, Chris Rock doesn't disappoint. His hard-edged comedy hits the mark. This show has just enough truth, at least from a male point of view, to make it relevant and just enough raunch to make it fun.

As for the editing style of interweaving elements from various shows, it tends detracts from the comedy. It's a gimmick — a gimmick the show doesn't need. When the switch from one show to the other takes place, sometimes in mid sentence, I find myself wondering what just happened instead of listening to Chris. Plus, it tends to ruin one of the basic illusions of stand-up comedy. When I watch a stand-up comic, I know that the material is scripted, but I still like to get into the show and maintain the illusion that it is improv. The editing style shows that various different shows were basically the same word for word. It destroys that illusion.

I recommend the show for the material, but be forewarned about the editing style. It can be a bit unsettling.