The Right Connections (1997)

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Great Film overall

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

A single mother with four children is fired from her job. As she was struggling to make ends meet, she decides that the best thing to do would be to return to school and finish her degree. Financially, she thinks they can swing it. However, the kids get the mail one day and realize they have a $5,000 bill from the IRS, a gift from their runaway father. Keeping this news quiet from their mother, the foursome try to raise money for the payment. They babysit, walk dogs, mow lawns, and run a lemonade stand but only gain about $100. Then, on the radio, they hear that a hip-hop contest will be held soon and the winner will net, you guessed it, $5,000. Can these kids, with the help of a faded star (MC Hammer), win the darn thing? This is a sweet family movie. The kids are very cute, especially the littlest one, and their aspirations to help their mother are very commendable. That said, it really is a stretch to believe these children could actually win a hip-hop musical event against a bevy of skilled and practiced musicians. But, hey, its only a movie. Hammer is quite nice as the faded star who opens his heart to the kids and Melissa Joan Hart stops by now and then to lend her support as a caring cabbie. No, this is not Oscar-caliber cinema. However, if your kids love music, this film will entertain them for a couple of hours. Connecting kids to a movie with good messages about trying hard and caring for others will never grow old.

I just finished watching The Right Connections, and I somewhat enjoyed it.First of all, I approach movies on an individual basis. I do not care about who is in it or not in it. When it is over, I just ask myself one simple question: did it entertain me?I think the biggest problems this movie had was both finding the right audience, and in Hammer himself.The movie is almost a plot lifted from The Brady Bunch (which ironically the kids try to sing the theme song). 4 kids discover that their divorced mom has been laid off, so decides to go back to school. But they discover that their absentee father owes the IRS $5,000. Desperate to prevent their mom from leaving college, they try to find a way to earn the money themselves. When they hear of a "Hip-Hop Contest" with a prize of $5,000, they think they got it made.They then con an ex-rap artist (Hammer) to train them. In an almost biographical role, Hammer is down on his luck, ignored by his former fans, and is on the verge of losing everything he owns.Can he take this group of middle-class white kids and make them a Hip-Hop group? No, not really. But he does do his best, and teaches both himself and the kids something in the process.One of the things I enjoyed most in this movie is both the almost biographical nature of Hammer's career. Him and his producer try to convince a record executive that he still has fans, and the executive is white. But to him, the only thing that matters is money. And while the kids do have little talent, they do try.Also I enjoyed the clean nature of the story. One of the reasons that Hammer's career failed so fast is that his "fans" suddenly realized that all of his songs were about God. And while the message in this movie is not so heavy-handed, it is centered around family.Overall, I left this movie with a fairly good feeling, and with several laughs. The sequence where the mother walks in seeing this strange black man in a leather jacket "attacking" her youngest daughter (he was tickeling her) was fairly strong, and handled in a fairly mature manner. Both the mother tries to apologize for her wrong asumption, and Hammer tries to make her feel comfortable, understanding her fear, and why she might have had it.I rated this movie a 7. Not for the acting, nor the worn story, but simply because I enjoyed it, and it made me feel good at the end. After all, that is why we watch movies, right?At the end, there was an obvious opening for a sequal, which was obviously never made. I have to admit I am glad for that. If they ever made a sequal of this movie, it would probably be so contrived and silly, I could not enjoy it.

why o why did I waste a Sunday afternoon watching this...to see the further demise of Hammer's career of course. What happened to my once heroic figure in his baggy parachute pants, dancing his life away. Its a sad day indeed when one who was as great as the Hammer man is filling roles such as this, showing off his receeding hairline. Sadly the unintentional comedy of his head is probably the best part of this flick. Please Hammer, Don't hurt me no more...Fade into the sunset as you should have done ten years ago instead of dumping all your money into your "posse." Hopefully this will be the last of Hammer's acting career, not to mention the Hart family. Oh the horror...

Those who say that this movie is bad obviously prefer such movies as Fightclub or I don't know....Rollerball. This movie I agree is not a blockbuster big screen smash but it IS a good movie. It has a good storyline of a mothers children trying to help their mother out by winning a hip-hop contest to get 5,000 dollars so she can stay in school. The acting WAS good much to others critique, and all I can say to them is.....let's see you do better! All in all I say if you see it showing on Showtime or any of the such...give it a try...you'll be surprised