MOVIE NIGHT TRAFFIC LIGHT

Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)

Michel Gondry (no credits as a producer), Dave Chappelle (Chappelle’s Show), Bob Yari (Crash, Hostage

Dave Chappelle (Chappelle’s  Show, Half Baked)

Dave Chappelle  - Himself (Chappelle’s  Show, Half Baked, The NuttyProfessor, You’ve Got Mail)

Block Party is, one would guess, Dave Chappelle’s sequel to Half Baked – because you’d pretty much have to be fully “baked” to make this movie.

 Block Party is Dave Chappelle’s documentary about the three days leading up to and including a surprise hip hop concert he hosted in Brooklyn in Sept 2004.  In his true comedic genius form, he takes the audience on a hilarious journey (well, not so much hilarious as…brutally boring) from Ohio to Brooklyn.  He visits his hometown and randomly invites guests (who are about as exciting to watch as paint drying) to hop on a bus and go to Brooklyn to see the concert.  The three day preparation for the concert is exhilarating (that is if exhilarating is a code word for coma inducing).  So much so, that when the much anticipated (I really mean…dreaded) concert starts, the movie audience is moved beyond words (or at least they wish they were moved beyond and out of the theater they are sitting in).  Some artists like The Roots (who?) fill the air with rhythm and tone (more commonly recognized as fingernails being drug down a chalkboard).  When the concert is over, the movie audience is left wanting (that is…wanting to get back the two hours of their lives that they were involuntarily subjected to extreme torture and cruel and unusual punishment).

Dave Chappelle’s Block Party really is, without a doubt, the absolute worse movie ever.  It's very boring behind-the-scene footage of an event about which no one could possibly care.  Dave - who is typically hilarious - has no prepared material, essentially nothing worthwhile to say, and virtually no energy - we spent most of the movie wondering who would fall asleep first – the audience or him.  I'm sure it was an important event for the Brooklyn people that attended, but other than those people watching in hopes of seeing themselves on screen, it’s unimaginable that anyone would want to see this film.  It’s doubtful that Dave Chappelle has even seen it.  Unfortunately, a lot of people will see this film expecting Dave to be funny, and they'll be so disappointed and irritated that it may ruin him.  He'd be better off stopping its release. 

On the Movie Night Traffic Light on a scale of GREEN meaning “Go – it’s a must see”, YELLOW meaning “Caution – it’s okay” and RED meaning “No - stop don’t do it."

We rate Block Party RED.  Stop – DON’T DO IT!