Foolish Reviews

This uneasy hybrid of comedy-concert film and half-hearted family drama (with a dash of crime thriller), won't win any new followers for comedian Eddie Griffin and rap impresario Master P. But their devoted fans will probably go home happy. Brothers Miles "Foolish" Waise (Griffin) and Quentin "Fifty Dollah" (Master P) Waise have taken different paths in life. Fifty Dollah collects gambling debts for vulgar local crime lord El Dorado Ron (Andrew Dice Clay), while Foolish is trying to pursue a viable career in show business without compromising his artistic integrity. That's what makes him turn down the chance to star in a TO WONG FOO-style drag comedy for Paramount Pictures: Foolish isn't going to make any big studio movies until he can make one about the suffering of African American soldiers in Vietnam, and that's that. His manager is understandably frustrated and his girlfriend wonders when he's going to start pulling his financial weight. After accidentally incurring the wrath of El Dorado Ron, Fifty decides to get out of the strong-arm business, and comes up with the idea of putting together a comedy showcase with his brother as headliner. But the brothers have some family business to work out first, and for a while it looks as though even if the show goes on, it's going on without Foolish. Eddie Griffin buffs have the best reason to check out this amateurish effort: Griffin's profane, sometimes sharply observed stand-up routines take up a big chunk of the movie's total running time. The family sturm und drang is formulaic and badly written, the "let's put on a show" plot line is so ancient it creaks, and there's a weird new-agey riff about the "blue light" (all great performers have it) that seems to have drifted in from another kind of movie entirely.