Michael's Movie Grade: B
A darn funny movie.
This movie is a pure comedy with no pretentions of doing anything more than providing you with a good time at the movies and it does just that. The idea of an intense domino tournament as the basis for a whole movie is already funny and this film finds plenty of good humor to wring out of this premise. The tone of the film is already set from the very opening, where we get a lecture on the history and the importance of dominos by the "pimp-fessor" of Dominology aka Snoop Dog (who also produced this movie). His lecture is over the top, silly and quite foul mouthed as well as very funny. As the movie goes on it is able to keep this tone throughout and provide plenty of laughs along the way. This film is full of incredibly over the top silliness that only multiplies as it goes along. Though much of this movie is based on cultural differences between a black grandfather and his white step-grandson, it is not a message movie by any means, but instead a very impolitically correct, foul mouthed, nothing is off limits comedy. Yet there is something sweet and good-hearted about the relationship between the two main characters that keeps the movie from feeling mean spirited. Much of this is due to the excellent chemistry between Lou Beatty Jr. and Nathan Dana. This also allows some of the supporting characters to be as over the top, crazy and not exactly likable but just plain funny. These characters include the extremely down on his luck and desperate man running the tournament (David Arquette), a "man of God" who acts like anything but (director Baron Davis) and a scene stealing cocaine-loving and out of his mind villain (Tom Lister Jr.). All these characters bring plenty of laugh out loud moments.
Unfortunately this movie also has a B-plot involving a woman (Valeria Vallejos) who wants to prove herself to her family (who doesn't believe women have any place in dominos) that simply is neither as funny or emotionally involving as it should be. The basic story is also very predictable and familiar, but in a comedy like this that is a fairly small fault.
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