Wesley Snipes makes a fantastic return to movies with his scene stealing role as D'Urville Martin, a pretentious, semi-successful actor Rudy hires to direct Dolemite. We haven't even talked about the shaking bed scene, the outrageous car chase, or the iconic moment the gang put on their finest to meet with the suits and strut towards camera in slow motion.
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His entrance into the film, wherein novice filmmakers meet even more novice filmmakers, makes for one of the many gems this movie has in store for viewers. Fun fact: Kodi Smit-McPhee plays real life UCLA Film Student and Dolemite cinematographer, Nick von Sternberg, son of the legendary director, Josef von Sternberg. It works and with Murphy's past issues with gay material, it's delightful to see him thriving opposite Tituss for such a large chunk of the film. Tituss Burgess (The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), Mike Epps, and Craig Robinson contribute fun performances as Rudy's support staff, with Tituss playing a more subtle type of gay man than his signature Titus Andromedon. Jerry wants to write important plays and haughtily resists the lowdown quality Rudy requires, and it's a joy to watch Jerry come around to embrace the bad acting, the karate chops, the terrible gun play and the insane slapstick. Keegan-Michael Key plays Jerry, a playwright Rudy ropes in to write Dolemite. While Murphy delivers a galvanizing performance and deserves every award, he heads an extremely strong cast. It may play to Murphy's comedic style, but his more serious moments never feel melodramatic. Murphy clearly knows Rudy's world and invests his character with unforgettable detail and power. Much like Ed Wood, the film serves as a beautifully specific look at fringe filmmakers struggling to get their movies made. Rudy's can do spirit may not have made him as big of a name as Ron O'Neal or Pam Grier, but many have mentioned his character as an inspiration in the rap and hip hop world.
The rest of the story gloriously shows us the process of making his first movie, Dolemite, and creating a sensation as a blaxploitation star. Although a regional success, Rudy has an epiphany in a movie theater one night and realizes he could reach a larger audience and not have to tour as much if he were to make a film. Soon thereafter, Rudy gets a comedy record deal and takes his act on the road. Rudy turns this into his alter ego, Dolemite, a cane wielding, suave pimp, who electrifies the usually docile crowd at the club. One man in particular, Ricco (Ron Cephas Jones) spins vulgar tales with such elegance, it sounds like early rap. Like any good writer, he looks around for inspiration and finds it with a group of homeless men in his neighborhood. Murphy finds the never-say-die energy of this man to make you believe he could do pretty well on the non-existent shake dancing circuit.Īt night, he tries to win over an audience with hack jokes, but he soon realizes he lacks a clear voice. "A man slams a door in my face," he says, "So I just find another door." How could you not want to follow a character like this wherever he goes? As his Aunt (a perfect Luenell) hears about his comedy aspirations, she lists out his other talents, which includes singing and…wait for it…shake dancing. He's confident and unflappable, which makes you instantly fall in love with him. We see in this scene how Rudy handles rejection. When we first meet him, he's trying to get some of his musical recordings past a DJ (a funny Snoop Dogg) at the record store where they work. Now, along comes Dolemite Is My Name, from director Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow) and writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (Ed Wood) and it makes me wanna drive around the country with a bullhorn shouting at everyone to drop everything and watch this hilarious, engaging heartwarming, fantastic, true story of a film.Įddie Murphy plays Rudy Ray Moore, a down on his luck 1970 Los Angeles entertainer. Aliens excited me so much, it remains the only film where I turned around and saw the very next showing. When I first saw Animal House, I immediately wanted to start a food fight in the cafeteria. RUDY CAN'T FAIL - My Review of DOLEMITE IS MY NAME (4 1/2 Stars)Įvery now and then, a movie energizes me in unexpected ways.