Review of Top Five (2014) by Stephen P — 31 Jan 2015

Top Five is a fairly original film written and directed by Chris Rock who is also the main star of this film. Now Chris Rock at times can be one of the funniest people in movies so I had fairly high hopes for this film and I admit I was a little let down. A lot of the jokes from Chris and the supporting cast didn't hit and when they did they still weren't really laugh out loud moments, I found myself being quite bored for a lot of this movie as it continued to deal with the romance in the film that I wasn't as interested in. Chris Rock who although wasn't all that great in the film was still the best part of the movie and having the film focus on only him made for some pretty funny moments.

But whenever it continued to go back to the relationship between himself and his female co-star it really hit its low-points. There were some interesting sections that I enjoyed and some jokes that occasionally made me laugh but the film felt like it got progressively worse as the film went on as if Chris had begun giving up on the film. Although the last 15 minutes of the film began to pick up again and kind of redeemed itself for some of the not so funny moments that happened prior. One thing I also noticed were the celebrity cameos that show up at one point and are mentioned throughout the movie weren't at all funny, seeing them show up on screen was interesting but the scene(s) they were in were some of the least funny parts and I just wish they hadn't spent any time on these characters and moved on with the plot.

The plot itself I thought was a mess for the majority of the film, I was completely uninterested most of the time and I couldn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. In the end Chris Rock's debut as a director falls short of any expectations with few laughs that were too far apart being separated by boring backstories and romantic conversation. It can only be up from here for Chris Rock and his directing career. - 4.2.