Metal Lungies

Pras lives as a homeless person and turns the experience into a documentary film. Are you trying to tell me there are no homeless Fugees fans that blew his cover?

Official Movie Site.

Yet another Hip Hop movie so gully it doesn’t have an IMDB entry. If you’ve been fiending for more Omillio Sparks acting since the (unfairly) non-award winning State Property films, fiend no more friends. Ex$pendable is here.

For you eagle eye movie watchers, Gillie Da Kid makes a cameo as a Security Guard in the film (Oscars can’t be far behind), but it still has far to go to reach ML’s favorite movie starring a rapper(s)-status.

If you have been reading ML for long enough you know we have been intrigued about the Homeless World Cup going a few years back. When you combine that with our appreciation for documentaries, Kicking It, a documentary about the Homeless World Cup is something we are naturally all over. Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis (his blog is where we found out about the project) produced the film. The movie is in limited release in DC at the moment and will air on ESPN in September.

Kicking It trailer after the jump.

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(image via Cinematical)

The Wackness is about a kid who has just finished high school and faces a compendium of problems: he has no friends, his family has financial problems, his parents are at each other’s throats and he’s a virgin. The unfortunate young man is played by Josh Peck who you might remember as the poster boy for everything Nickelodeon not so long ago (Metal Lungies and Nick are tight, we run ads on Nick Jr.). In a slight departure from his previous roles, Peck plays a weed dealer living in New York in the Summer of ’94.

The Wackness is a coming of age story steeped in the sociopolitical issues surrounding New York at the time and the legendary hip hop acts that were coming out. So, Giuliani was putting cats behind bars and tracks off Ready to Die were circulating on mixtapes. That’s right, it’s a hip hop movie. Admittedly, I have little interest in a coming of age story, but a hip hop movie that isn’t Step Up 2 the Streets piqued my interest.

The movie’s greatest strength is its characters, who are mostly very charming. The name that immediately jumped out at me was Method Man, who plays Luke’s Jamaican weed connect. Meth only plays a minor role, but his overblown accent is really funny. Mary-Kate Olsen plays a shrooms-taking bohemian. But Luke’s therapist, portrayed extra dopely by Ben Kingsley, really steals the show. A mix of wisdom and desperate vulnerability, his character is the anti-Giuliani and the source of the movie’s funniest moments, like hearing him quote Biggie, “Bitches I like ’em brianless…”. And yes, Meth and Ben share a scene, which I hope has at least an hour of bloopers and alternate takes.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t as fond of the main characters. Peck overdoes the awkward teen thing and at times is more annoying than endearing. Luke’s love interest, played by Olivia Thirlby, jumps between coldhearted bitch and sympathetic friend too quickly and as a result, I feel like her character isn’t very solid.

My biggest problem with The Wackness is that it lacks subtlety. Rather than being a coming of age story with ’94 NY as a backdrop, it’s as if the movie stops every so often to show you Luke’s cassette player and remind you that it’s a hip hop movie. The soundtrack (Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., Wu-Tang Clan) is featured a little too prominently. The constant mention of mixtapes seems like an overemphasis to me, but that might just be because I came up on mp3s.

Despite my complaints, The Wackness is still an enjoyable movie that paints a vivid picture of an important time in New York. The story has a good mix of drama and humor, with characters that I found myself really wanting to hang out with. But, my favorite hip hop movie is still Juice; Bishop’s monologue is some hood Shakespeare shit. “You right, I am crazy. But you know what else?…”

Watch the trailer

It must be interesting documentary season. It’s kind of messed up that Cam’ron isn’t in this position instead. Tip of the hat to Eskay.

If you need more new Iron Mike content, director James Toback recently premiered Tyson, a documentary where Iron Mikes talks about Iron Mike. When it premiered at the Cannes festival last week it garnered a huge response. Popwatch caught up with both Tyson & Toback to talk about the documentary, read the insightful (some might say too insightful, but if you read the whole thing, guess what part I’m talking about in the comments.) at EW. Also, if any of you see the trailer for this floating around, hit us up!

Bonus: NY Times writeup on the documentary.

Entitled ODB Ason Unique, this movie looks like it could be good. These rap documentaries often slip due to lousy production values or an excess of bullshit, but hopefully this one will have an appropriate mix of Wu mysticism and discussion of the man’s music. Either way, I’m more interested in this than I am in that other dead rapper movie.

Official Site

via GRANDGOOD

I don’t know how many of ya’ll are comic heads (I am), but this movie is shaping up to be a classic. Hopefully it’ll be better than the Punisher movie. It’s Tony Starks, ya’ll!!! Show some respect. Word up!

Casting has started for a biographical movie of Biggie called NOTORIOUS. Both Voletta Wallace & Diddy are involved with the project, as well as Biggies former managers. It will be interesting to see how the movie portrays Biggie’s adversaries ie, 2pac. You can submit your own entry to try to become the next Biggie at the official site, hopefully Guerilla Black doesn’t apply. There aren’t many contestants up but we have our early favorite, and he is reppin DC! According to IMDB the film is scheduled to start production in the Fall.

After seeing the 1st part, you know you wanted to see more…