The Benjamins:
Cube Has Fun in the Sun

By Esther Iverem
SeeingBlack.com Editor and Film Critic

Ice Cube should kiss the ground in Miami, kiss co-writer Ronald Lang, kiss Mike Epps and maybe jump back and kiss himself too. "All About the Benjamins" is no stellar feat but it is fresh and funny enough to save Cube from his camp of diminishing returns with DJ Pooh, who, with Cube, co-wrote the 1995 hip hop cinema classic "Friday."

None of Cube and Pooh's comedies have been quite as good since then. Chris Tucker, who provided the comedic spark for "Friday," has moved onto making Jackie Chan movies. The same South-Central Los Angeles backdrop and characters have become cliché and Cube is too old to keep playing a juvenile delinquent.

In this film, instead of playing a brother heading to, just out of, or in imminent danger of jail, Cube plays Bucum Jackson, a bounty hunter increasingly frustrated by his piddling salary and the high-risk nature of his work. A maturing Cube looks the same as he always has—thick, short, a little dumpy but athletic enough here in a Miami Heat jersey to chase bad guys and punch their lights out. He is a good shot and, in what could be a cynical reference to Los Angeles, knows how to handle a stun gun.

One of his targets is Reggie Wright, a petty criminal played by Mike Epps. And there couldn't be a better target. Guess what? Mike Epps is hilarious. Chalk it up to better writing, better jokes, more on-camera experience or something. But Epps, just like Tucker once was, is the spark that drives much of the comedic insanity here.

Bucum and Reggie wind up as partners as they try to track down $20 million in diamonds and a misplaced lottery ticket. Along the way, they run, get shot at and trade insults with White people. The plot gets predictable here and there but it also has enough unexpected bright spots to keep you interested. One of the bright spots is the bit performance by Roger Guenveur Smith, in the role of a crook masquerading as a fashion photographer. With the sunny, Art Deco backdrop, Smith's performance is signature Miami, something that would not be possible in the usual humdrum, hood flicks.

The budget for this film, at $18 million, is small by Hollywood standards but large compared to miniscule budgets of Cube's other around-the-way comedies ("Friday" was made for $3.5 million). And you can see the additional money on screen. Novice feature director Kevin Bray and editor Suzanne Hines take an imaginative approach to many scenes that allow the action to proceed with whimsy and a degree of sophistication usually missing from hip hop comedies. We all probably would like to study, second by second, the faces of two broke-ass folks who've just won the lottery. We probably want to see how crazed someone looks when locked in a car trunk.

There are enough funny moments here to keep Ice Cube and Mike Epps in the comedy business, and rolling in the Benjamins.

Esther Iverem's film reviews also appear on the entertainment pages of BET.com

-- March 14, 2002

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