Blu-Ray Review – I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (1988)
The Wayan brothers god what happened? Back in the late ’80s they were some of leading lights of African-American comedy with In Living Color and the film I’m Gonna Git You Sucka. They would sadly end up making offensive lowest common dominator comedy with White Chicks and Little Man (see Mark Kermode’s epic rant). They were all directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans who would also direct the first two films in the Scary Movie franchise. Damon Wayans also recently made himself even more unlikable if that was possible after the recent films he has done when he became a rape apologist for Bill Cosby.
I’m Gonna Git You Sucka however is an inspired send up of blaxploitation cinema. The ghetto is facing the problem of young black men having a OG aka. overdosing on gold chains. Jack Spade (Keenen Ivory Wayans) has returned from the Army and his brother Junebug died from a OG. Jack vows to get revenge on his brother’s death and declares war on the crime boss Mr. Big (John Vernon) and gets ’70s crime fighting hero John Slade (Bernie Casey) to help him build an army so they can get the sucka.
The film’s supporting cast is expertly filled with legends of blaxploitation cinema such as Jim Brown, Isaac Hayes, Antonio Fargas and of course Bernie Casey. They all send-up the roles that made them famous and in the case of Jim Brown and Bernie Casey the fact they were football players turned actors. The film came out in 1988 when the genre only died relatively recently there were still blaxploitation being made till the very late ’70s albeit at a greatly reduced rate then it’s hey day of the early to mid ’70s. It also features a very young Chris Rock in a amusing role where he tries to buy a rib at Isaac Hayes’ rib joint.
The jokes were the most part are spot on, the gold chain overdosing gets me every time. It might not be a total laugh-riot and some of the jokes don’t quite work but like a lot of good comedies its only 80 something minutes so it never over stays it’s welcome. It would be a key step in the reappraisal of blaxploitation genre which didn’t really get into full string until Quentin Tarantino would constantly reference films such as Foxy Brown and Coffy in the ’90s. I’m Gonna Git You Sucka might not as genius a rip of the genre as Black Dynamite was in more recent years but it’s a testament to the talent the Wayans at one point had at making people laugh, shame that was a long time ago.
★★★ 1/2
Ian Schultz
Comedy |USA, 1988 | 15 | Fabulous Films | 7th December 2015 (UK) | Dir.Keenen Ivory Wayans | Bernie Casey, Antonio Fargas, Isaac Hayes, Jim Brown, Keenen Ivory Wayans , Damon Wayans | Buy:[Blu-ray]
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