Top Five (2014)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Absolutely Fantastic

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

(Originally reviewed: 03/02/2017) Surprisingly quite good, which is a huge surprise considering I had no intention of actually seeing it, Chris Rock is a good comedian, I find him refreshingly funny and a stand-up guy, comedies are hit and miss these days, so it was nice to see a recent-ish one with more good jokes than bad. The only thing I remember him having a big part in, prior to Adam Sandler films was Death at a Funeral, a panned but pretty good comedy and a lot funnier than the vile Kick-ass trash that came out around the same time. Top Five has a lot of rap references and music, I do not listen to this type of music but his did not affect my enjoyment of the picture which has some good supporting talent and some far from talented. I could not understand a word Cedric the Entertainer was saying but he did have one scene where I somehow laughed, and DMX is pretty funny, most notably when he tries to sing in jail and inmates shout insults telling him to rap instead. Rosario Dawson is good here and has impressive chemistry with Chris Rock and in some well written scenes with decent dialogue, I also thought J.B. smoove (Silk) was funny and there's some decent cameos from Adam Sandler and Jerry Seinfeld. There are a few things I also disliked such as some of the raunchy sexual stuff that was unfunny, some of the performances are lame including Gabrielle Union (Rock's on screen fiancée)who I did not care for and homosexual weirdo played by Anders Holm who was desperately trying to be funny but fell flat and especially cameos from people like Kevin Hart and Tracy Morgan who I find insufferable, all Morgan does is talk rubbish and hope someone laughs, well you weren't funny in Cop-Out and your still not funny. I also despised Leslie Jones who played this butch, angry character who had no comedic talent whatsoever in my opinion.There's some pretty funny stuff including white people jokes and jokes about Planet of the Apes which I think work and I did like the story despite when it took turns into nowhere, and though the plot is nothing solid, Chris Rock's screenplay has enough funny moments than unfunny to warrant a recommendation from me; Top Five is a good comedy and where else can you see Rock go crazy in a supermarket because he noticed a film series of his called Hammy The Bear making profit from alcoholic beverages despite his sobriety.

I am sooooo not in the audience for a Chris Rock film--or so I would have thought. I'm white, in my 60's, liberal but not urban or indeed hip in any sense, and the only five rap artists I could name are those who went on to acting careers.And yet...this was a definitely movie for me. It's observational, mature, witty, good-hearted, mostly a rom-com but also about the battle between external expectations and inner desire, young adulthood and maturity.The plot of the movie, which has everyone but a few good friends wanting poor Andre to keep doing his funny stuff, the talking bear movies, while he wants to do more significant work? That ends up perfectly predicting the audience reaction you see here via the reviews. "Where's the hysterical Chris Rock **** jokes?" people stuck in 1992 want to know.There is some of that in here...and it's exactly the stuff I hated (Cedric and the whores; the tampon thing--ish, edit them both out) and that made me rate this a couple stars lower than I might have otherwise. So as I pity Andre in the film (omg, having "Hammy!" shouted at you 1000 times day!), I pity Rock even more for living out this life, even in the year since this movie's release, even right here on IMDb, with angry comments by old-school fans of his. Man, that's life imitating art imitating life.I hope I see more like this from him.I enjoy that I was able to like all these characters and sympathize with them. I liked the set up for the reveal about Chelsea. I liked how Silk was a stock character you thought you knew, until he wasn't in the final 1/4 of the film. I was tickled. I was moved. I was pressed to think.(and I did sort of like the rap song running over the end credits, so one never knows, eh?)

This movie was not very funny for me, most of the jokes are tired and the plot is barely existent.It does have it's moments where it's somewhat funny but that's like every 10 minutes or so leaving like 9 minutes of you wondering when you are going to laugh or let's be realistic; chuckle again.The script is also absolutely self-absorbed and self-indulgent, it's clear to see that Chris Rock is playing a version of himself, and in the movie we get to see him struggling being rich and famous and having to deal with bad critics and people asking him for photos and 'friends' asking him for money cause he got millions, boy what a tough life.I usually like Chris Rock's comedies CB4, POOTIE TANG and BEVERLY HILLS NINJA for instance are some of my favorite comedies PERIOD, but this is not the same kind of comedy I suppose.So yeah for me this is definitely Bottom Five Chris Rock movies, and I've seen most of them... If the Hammy movies were real I'm sure even they would be funnier...

This movie made absolutely no sense! First let me say that I'm not a big fan of comedies, but I have loved just about every Chris Rock movie until this one. For me Top Five was painful to watch. I was thirty minutes in and was begging for the movie to be over already. The only thing that worked for me was the chemistry between Chris Rock and the female co-star. I thought that their storyline was pretty good at times. But other than that this movie was dry. I feel that this was Rock's poor attempt to give us an inside look into his personal struggles, as if we care. And the title "Top Five" makes no sense. I still don't understand the point of him having a conversation with his friends in the middle of the movie about their Top Five rappers. That whole scene should have been a Youtube video instead of a scene in a senseless movie because it had absolutely nothing to do with the movie. There were many elements in this movie that had nothing to do with each other which is why I only gave it 2 stars.