For everything Chris Rock has achieved on stage as a stand up, his film career has never really taken off. Collaborations with Louis CK on Pootie Tang (2001) and I Think I Love My Wife (2007) were sketchy at best. Aside from cameos in Adam Sandler films and his voice work in the Madagascar franchise, arguably his finest contribution to film came as Mingus in Julie Delpy’s 2 Days in New York (2012).
So it was hardly surprising when, during the promotion for Top Five, Rock stated that if this film was not a hit, he would consider his chance at achieving success in the film world as having passed him by.
That would ultimately be a shame, because Top Five, although flawed, manages to successfully explore the ideas of artistic integrity and disillusionment, doing so with enough humour expected of anyone watching a film with the likes of Rock, Tracy Morgan, Jerry Seinfeld and Cedric the Entertainer involved.
Chris Rock is Andre Allen, whose career saw him emerge as an exciting stand up presence, before descending into a string of films playing Hammy, a bear cop with the catchphrase: “It’s Hammy Time!” Now trying to make it as a serious actor, just weeks before his marriage to reality star Erica Long (Gabrielle Union), he is followed by reporter Chelsea Brown (Rosario Dawson) during the promotion of his new film about the Haitian Revolution.
Thematically it bears more than a passing resemblance to the god awful Funny People, in which Adam Sandler plays a once successful stand-up comedian who sold out to do goofy kids films, and is now dying of a terminal illness. As well as being a vastly superior film, as an audience member it is much easier to buy into Rock’s journey, as his real life persona remains one of the most important voices in stand-up comedy; compared to Sandler, who has the artistic integrity of Tokyo Rose. Obviously the film mirrors Rock’s life to an extent, but is probably more closely resembles that of Eddie Murphy, whose own stand up career was even more explosive than Rock’s, and whose downfall has been far more comprehensive.
Similar to this year’s Birdman, Top Five succeeds in examining the motives behind trying to regain artistic integrity, and whether a seemingly more worthwhile project (in this case, Allen’s crappy looking Haitian Revolutionary film) is in fact any more meaningful than the trashy films. It’s self-serving and more than a little indulgent from Rock, who also proves that his own acting range is limited, but ultimately Top Five is just about funny and interesting enough to make a thoroughly watchable and entertaining film. And if nothing else, the prospect of seeing Jerry Seinfeld in a strip club is well worth 100 minutes of anyone’s time.
Top Five is currently showing at Nottingham Cineworld.
Top Five Trailer
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