Review of Top Five (2014) by Ian W — 14 Mar 2015

'Top Five' is Chris Rock's third directorial effort - and it is better than 'Head of State'! I love Rock as a stand-up comedian, but I feel like he still hasn't quite got it all together in terms of acting/directing. This is by no means a bad film - it's just not his, or anyone involved, best work. It's partially-autobiographical: comedian turns actor, cashes in on simple family-friendly films, gets pigeon-holed, tries to branch out into 'serious' films, flops. In reality, it's almost an Eddie Murphy biopic - hugely successful comedian, drug/alcohol issues, simple family-friendly films ('The Nutty Professor', 'Doctor Dolittle', 'Shrek'), then 'serious' films ('Dreamgirls', 'A Thousand Words').

Andre (Rock) starts off as an unlikeable, self-obsessed celebrity, engaged to an even more unlikable reality-TV "star" (Union), but is interviewed by Chelsea (Dawson) for an article and lets his guard down. The two of them conversing are some of the better scenes, as Dawson is such a great disarming actress - impossible to not love. You get some (hopefully not based too much on reality) anecdotes and a few funny moments. There's room for plenty of good actors/friends-of-Rock's - Smoove, Tracy Morgan, Cedric the Entertainer, Romany Malco, Kevin Hart, Adam Sandler & Jerry Seinfeld - but none of them get enough time to do anything too funny/great.

The eponymous "top five" is the question Rock asks others to see who their favourite rappers are - purportedly to 'test' their credibility. I wish Rock has focussed a little more on his top five attributes - being funny, multiplied by five! The film has a decent romantic angle and a good ending, but it not great, nor poor.