Movie Review

Editor

Tiffany Haddish narrates this film. It's the first clue that it's going to be a raunchy comedy. Of course, Haddish's voice-over has its really blue humor or ribaldry. The comedy is a lot of easy and quite frankly lazy, double entendres. Genitalia references hint and wink at the level of intelligence here, references that don't have much impact and thud every time a penis or a vagina joke is made. Haddish's narration in general is grating and unnecessary. Haddish is a producer, so having some involvement on screen or on the soundtrack in a story that didn't need her was probably conditional of this project's green-light.

Wesley Snipes (Blade and White Men Can't Jump) co-stars as Luther Ellison aka "Mr. Big," a stripper who used to perform 20 or 30 years ago. He got out after injuring his leg. It's not sure what he's been doing since then, but he seems to be still working at the Cookie Club, the joint where he was an exotic dancer. It doesn't seem to be a strip club any more, but simply a regular bar where women can do karaoke. He appears to miss his stripper days, but there's no hint as to what he's been doing to address it. He simply pops up when a new, potential stripper arrives. The problem is that this new guy wasn't trying to be a stripper.

Spence Moore II (Superman & Lois and All American) plays Jason Owens aka "Merlin," a young Black man who moves to Las Vegas from Los Angeles after his ex-girlfriend and childhood sweetheart announces she's getting married to a comedian and social media star. Merlin hopes to pursue a career in magic. A lot of people make fun of him as being a clown. Unfortunately, the film never really distinguishes Merlin as some great magician. We see him do some card tricks and acts that a kid might do at a birthday party, but it's nothing that makes the case that he's some dedicated magician. This is a comedy, so putting Merlin in a literal clown costume at a kid's party is supposed to be him at his lowest. Yet, the film never does anything to elevate him from the clown costume.

Luther offers Merlin a job as a stripper because Merlin is very well endowed, but the stripping scenes never have full-frontal nudity, so his actual penis size doesn't matter. Later, we see some men stuffing their underwear with socks. Therefore, Merlin's private part and its length don't appear to be a factor because it wouldn't matter if it were real, a prosthetic or just a sock stuffed in his boxer shorts. Merlin takes the job because he's desperate financially and isn't getting magician work, but, again, the film doesn't do enough to establish Merlin's desperation. Aside from one audition, we never see Merlin truly pursuing magic as a profession.

Merlin's ex-girlfriend, Robin, played by Raigan Harris (Grown-ish and All American), has a new boyfriend and fiancé named Blaze, played by Ryan Alexander Holmes (The Morning Show and Dear White People). Blaze appears to be a comedian and entertainer who built his following and success from social media or the Internet in general. Ironically, Merlin doesn't seem to have tried to use the Internet at all. If magic truly is Merlin's passion, one would think he would be trying to promote himself on social media. It's clear that being a magician is merely a ridiculous gimmick, a gimmick to get us to this film's premise.

Luther wants to use Merlin to reunite and revive the group of strippers, known as the Chocolate Chips, which consisted of four other guys. It's not clear why Luther wants to reunite those original four guys, especially since all of them are middle-age and out-of-shape, incapable of performing the dance moves required for most exotic dancers. Luther could easily assemble a group of young guys like Merlin, but he pushes to assemble the old guys. Why? He must be banking on nostalgia, but the film never establishes what was so great about these specific old guys that require they come out of retirement. For example, the current Chippendales don't consist of the original members from the 1970's, especially if they're not offering what women expect, that of hard, muscular bodies.

It's not to say that older guys and even guys who are overweight can't be attractive. In fact, most of them, if not all of them, are. Arguably, the older members of the Chocolate Chips are all still attractive Black men. Other than Luther whose leg injury prevents him from performing, there's Tyriq Cox aka "Da Face," played by Bill Bellamy. Bellamy was a comedian who very popular in the 90's. He was also known for his very sexy roles in Love Jones (1997) and How To Be a Player (1997). Bellamy is nearly 60, but he's still in great shape and still has a youthful look, so selling him as a stripper who could still be attractive wouldn't be too difficult. Because the film is a comedy, it has to give him a quirk and that quirk is him being a father to quadruplets and then acting like a father-figure to women who throw dollar bills at him.

Faizon Love (Couples Retreat and Elf) plays Desmond aka "Da Body," an auto mechanic who used to be the biggest stripper in terms of being the most muscular member of the Chocolate Chips. Now, he's the biggest in terms of sheer fat. He's almost obese, but the film doesn't really present him being overweight as a problem when it comes to his performance on stage or women's responses to him. Luther isn't even really pushing him to lose weight or do much more on stage, which again begs the question. If Luther thinks that putting an older, overweight guy on stage will get money from women, what did he need Merlin for?

Unfortunately, this film isn't even about the male strippers. The stripping is just a Trojan horse to a rather lame, romantic comedy between Merlin and Robin. It's lame because it becomes a love triangle that doesn't even try to make the choice a real or difficult one. Blaze is obviously not a match for Robin. Yet, the film drags out the love triangle for a painfully long amount of time. If there were complications due to Merlin's stripping, that would've possibly justified the running time here, but the stripping isn't a factor. That might be forgivable, if the stripping scenes were themselves more fun to watch. In terms of the choreography or visuals, the stripper scenes are all dull and can't compare to Magic Mike (2012) or Chocolate City (2015).

Rated R for sexual material, language and some drug use.

Running Time: 1 hr. and 57 mins.

In theaters.

Editor