Fear of a Black Hat (1994)

Purely Joyful Movie!

Admirable film.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It had been so long since I first (and last) saw this film that I honestly could have told you nothing about it in detail. Recently in a discussion with other fans of hip-hop music, this film came up and was roundly lauded by those that had seen it as being hilarious, smart, cutting and a "classic" (albeit that that final word tends to get thrown around by fans of this genre so much that it really means nothing). As a result I eventually got around to watching it again. The structure of the film is very much Spinal Tap and it owes a huge debt to that film – right down to the short clips playing out under the closing credits and of course the running joke of one specific role always ending badly (in Tap it was the drummer, here it is the manager). The plot therefore follows the group coming up, falling apart and then being put back together again, but it isn't really the plot that matters here.What matters is that the film is a comedy set in the rap world of the early 90's and as such it has plenty of artists and aspects of the culture to make fun of. This it does but unfortunately it doesn't do it particularly well. The reference points and the artists "targeted" will be clear to anyone with a reasonable knowledge of the period, but it doesn't really do anything with it other than present slightly exaggerated and slightly renamed versions of these people, situations and events. I was surprised by just how little of anything was behind these because they don't seem affectionate, they don't seem to be satirical, they don't seem to be cutting and they rarely seem to be particularly funny. Mostly they just "are"; so references to various artists and types of artist are mostly just done and we are expected to laugh because "oh look they going Ice-T/De La Soul/MC Hammer etc". This wasn't enough for me and I was surprised by how little I was even amused by the film, much less laughed.The exaggerated humor gets broader and broader as it goes on; with lots of excess. The cast are part of this and of course the main place for blame is Cundieff himself. As the lead actor I liked him and his Ice-T impression throughout was pretty good, but his script is not up to scratch. In terms of his direction I had no issues but to be honest it did feel like he must have watched Spinal Tap every single day before shooting, so similar was the style. Scott and Lawrence are funny while Lemmons plays her part well. Johnson's turn as a groupie is a surprising find once you recognize her as being Sherry Palmer from 24! Overall Fear of a Black Hat is a broad spoof of hip-hop culture but one that doesn't seem to know what it wants to do. It owes so much to Spinal Tap but yet is not as funny; it apes hip-hop culture but yet cannot work out if it is doing it affectionately or with an edge, so ends up doing neither. What is left is occasionally amusing but is mostly just a load of reference points without context and expansion to an end. This is remembered as a classic and I would suggest that in many cases it is being "remembered" by those people, not watched recently.

Okay, my title is kinda lame, and almost sells this flick short. I remember watching Siskel & Ebert in '94 talking about this movie, and then playing a clip or two. Not being a rap-conscious guy (although I could identify Snoop Dogg, Vanilla Ice, and MC Hammer music), I wasn't much interested when they started talking about the film. But then, S&E showed the scene where the band explains how they picked their name (using some "shady" logic and a bunch of "made up" facts), and then another scene where the band, and their rival band, both visit a school to promote getting involved (and, of course, NWH comes up with some "info" about how the rival band leader is a loser because he got good grades in school and was on the yearbook committee). So I filed it away that I should see this movie.A couple of years later, this thing shows up on HBO and I recorded it, only to laugh my butt off for hours. Yes, it has a "Spinal Tap" kind of rhythm to it...even the documentarist takes essentially the same "tone" in setting up the clips, and the band follows a similar path (what I now call the "Behind the Music" phenomenon - smalltime band has good chemistry, gets famous, too much money too fast, squabbling, drugs, some type of death, band breaks up, then reconciles, finishing with a hope for more albums in the future, and fade to black). The one thing that is true is that in Spinal Tap, you catch the band perhaps with a little more success in their past. But Tap drags at some points, and in my mind is reduced to laughs that are set up by specific scenes. Oh, this is his rant about the backstage food, this is spot where he wants the amp to go to "ELEVEN", this is the spot where the guy makes the pint-sized stonehenge, etc...Contrasting to FoaBH, which seems to have more "unexpected" humor. You can see some of it coming, but there isn't a big setup for every joke. Sometimes, the jokes just kinda flow. Cundieff and the other actors in the band had a real chemistry that worked. Also, the direct references to Vanilla Ice, Hammer, and a bunch of other caricature-type rappers really worked well. This strikes me as a film you watch once to get the main story and laughs, and then go back and watch to catch the subtle jokes. And the songs. Is "My Peanuts" better than "Big Bottom" (from Spinal Tap)? I don't know - but they're both damn funny. Tone Def's awful video during his "awakening" phase is so bizarre, yet so funny.I could go on awhile, but save your time and don't waste it on CB4. I watched the first half hour, and got bored. You don't get bored on FoaBH. There are slightly less funny moments, but you can never tell when something good is about to happen. Perhaps my favorite scene is when Ice Cold and Tastey Taste (name ripoffs if I've ever heard any) discover they've been sharing the same girl....at one point, you've got those two pointing guns at each other, and the next thing you know, the manager, the photographer, the girl, and I think even Tone Def are in the room pointing guns at each other, switching targets back and forth. And, of course, someone does get shot.I did find it odd that NWH's managers suffered similar fates to Spinal Tap's drummers (although none spontaneously combusted, I don't think). There were enough similarities that I cannot ignore the likelihood that Cundieff saw "Spinal Tap" prior to writing this film, although this is clearly much more the Spinal Tap of hip-hop. While some similarities exist, the humor is different, and the movie seems more like a real documentary (maybe because we don't recognize a single actor in this thing, even the guy who played "Lamar" from "Revenge of the Nerds"). All in all, this movie has, in my opinion, "street cred". Kinda like NWH.

My, Kasi Lemmings certainly is a fair looking woman. This film is a lost gem, a dead-on satire "mockumentary" of the early 90's Hip Hop scene, when MC Hammer had just began to fade away into that good night. We follow the three members of the NWH as they embark upon their picaresque journey of would-be riches and fame. And like Nickolas Nickleby, at the end, they finish their journey not far from where they started, but at least a little wiser and lot less naive. This is one of the best films that no one has ever heard of, but it's the kind of film you either love or hate, a lot like "Company Man" in this regard. I regard this movie like the 1000 islands of upstate New York: it's a wonderful little secret you want to keep to yourself.

"This is Spinal Tap" unleashed a whole slew of "mockumentaries", lo unto this very day - many of them ("A Mighty Wind", "Best In Show", "Waiting for Guffman") done by Christopher Guest himself. "Fear of a Black Hat" was unjustly ignored on its release, and, surprisingly, is just as funny and clever today as it was then. In fact, I find it even funnier now than I did when I saw it originally. It takes a few plot points from the immortal "Spinal Tap" - girlfriend troubles, problems with the album cover, an acrimonious break up and subsequent reunion - but this doesn't stop the acting from being great, the song parodies from being spot-on, and the dialogue from being incredibly funny. Highly recommended.