Review of Top Five (2014) by Meredith R — 03 Jan 2015

I went to see this because it was the highest tomato rated movie at my local theatre that I hadn't seen yet - yes, it received higher tomato ratings than Unbroken - and I'm not sitting through agonizing torture scenes for a mediocre film.

I was pleasantly surprised by this relatively simple little film. Chris Rock is the main character who is engaged to a reality star and the film follows Rock's character as he spends the day being interviewed by a reporter, played by the fabulous Rosario Dawson.

Rock's performance is great, of course, but even more impressive is that he not only directed this himself, but he WROTE it. The man is a triple threat and I love that for him. There's a twist about 3/4 into the film that I was not expecting, but made the movie that much more interesting.

The scenes with Gabrielle Union as Rock's reality star fiancee are brilliantly done by indicating when she's being filmed or not by using the Bravo TV's logo at the bottom of the screen as if the viewer was actually watching it on TV.

The ending is a bit vague and sudden, but it doesn't take away from the film overall. There is language and graphic sex scenes, so it may not be one to bring home to watch with any of your uptight kind of friends, which I find unfortunate, because the film overall is strong and has so many good points about the industry, race, romance, struggles with addiction, but some potential audience members may be turned off because of this.

Overall, it was enjoyable, Dawson and Rock have great chemistry, Rock can definitely carry a movie and I look forward to what he does next.