CB4: The Movie [Blu-ray]

Director: Tamra Davis Tamra Davis

Overview

Comedian Chris Rock stars in this scattershot satire of rap music in the vein of This Is Spinal Tap. This film within a film begins with A. White (Chris Elliot) screening a rough cut of a documentary he has made of the notorious CB4 rap group -- consisting of group leader Albert, also know as MC Gusto (Chris Rock); Otis, also known as Stab Master Arson (Deezer D); and Euripides, also know as Dead Mike (Allen Payne). White charts the course of CB4's success, their superstar status a result of the fact that they are the only gangsta rap group who are, in fact, actual gangsters, coming direct from rap sheets to rap music. They are considered so bad that they even give rapper Ice-T pause: "I thought I was hardcore. But these guys are serious! What am I supposed to do now?" Unfortunately, at the height of their fame, their gangster pose is revealed to be a sham. Albert, Otis, and Euripides turn out to be a bunch of middle-class blacks striking a gangsta facade to look cool. But now they are in trouble. The real Gusto (Charlie Murphy), a neighborhood thug who went to prison on a drug bust, has broken out of jail and is coming for CB4.

Product Details

Release Date:	06/22/2021
UPC:	0738329251239
Original Release:	1993
Rating:	R
Source:	Kl Studio Classics
Language:	English
Time:	1:29:00
Sales rank:	5,389

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Chris Rock	Albert
Allen Payne	Euripides
Deezer D	Otis
Chris Elliott	White
Phil Hartman	Robinson
Charlie Murphy	Gusto
Khandi Alexander	Sissy
Arthur Evans	Albert Sr.,Alber Sr.
Theresa Randle	Eve
Willard E. Pugh	Trustus,Actor
Tyrone Granderson Jones	40 Dog,Tashana,40 Dog,Inmate,Waitress
Rachel True	Daliha
Victor Wilson	Lieutenant Davenport
Richard Gant	Baa Baa Ack
J.D. Daniels	Ben
Stoney Jackson	Wacky Dee,Tamika,Wacky Dee
La Wanda Page	Grandma
Louisa Abernathy	Mrs. Otis
Saba Shawel	Tawana
Vanessa Lee Chester	Talona
Chasiti Hampton	Tee Tee
Wayne "Crescendo" Ward	Biscuit Diner
John Walcutt	Director
Jeremiah Birkett	Malik
Christopher Keene	Accountant
Lance Crouther	Well Dressed Man
Shirley Hemphill	976-Sexy
Mari J. Sahley	976-Piss
Al Clegg	976-Diss
Ice-T	Himself
Ice Cube	Himself
Eazy-E	Himself
Flavor Flav	Himself
Shaquille O'Neal	Himself
Isaac Hayes	Owner
Gerard Williams	Inmate
Reneé Tenison	Twin
Niketa Calame	Albertina
Halle Berry	Herself
Tommy Davidson	Weird Warren (uncredited)
John Barnes	Composer

Technical Credits

Chris Rock

Nelson George

Robert LoCash

Tamra Davis	Director
Chris Rock	Screenwriter
Nelson George	Screenwriter,Producer
Robert LoCash	Screenwriter
Sean Daniel	Executive Producer
Brian Grazer	Executive Producer
Kimberly Hardin	Casting
John Hartigan	Special Effects
Bob Minor	Stunts
Ultimate Effects	Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

It's pretty easy to tell that CB4 is Chris Rock the fledgling Saturday Night Live cast member, rather than Chris Rock the Oscars host. Not that Rock has ever mastered the screen the way he's mastered standup, but he's definitely still finding his footing here. His parody of gangsta rap is surprisingly toothless, which is counterintuitive, given all the gold dental work on display. Rock's co-writer, Robert LoCash, doesn't bring enough blatant silliness from his work on the final two Naked Gun movies, and Rock should have learned a thing or two by appearing in Keenen Ivory Wayans' I'm Gonna Git You Sucka! Maybe director Tamra Davis wanted CB4 to be more This Is Spinal Tap than Airplane!, but it's not nearly subtle enough to pull that off. The result is a boring middle ground between the outrageous and the sublime. Spoofs like the N.W.A rip-off "Straight Outta Locash" feel more like the work of Weird Al Yankovic than a sharp satirist, since the song uses N.W.A's same beat and lyric structure, and the original lyrics are so vulgar, they can't even be exaggerated for parody. Still, some details are pretty observant and funny. Character names like Stab Master Arson get the criminal posturing of early gangsta rap down perfectly, and for a film that came out in 1993, CB4 feels prophetic about real-world rap-related drive-bys like the deaths of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. It also recognizes the ongoing reality that some of rap's biggest purported criminals grew up in some of suburbia's richest neighborhoods. Fans of Comedy Central will be interested to see the film's villain played by Eddie's brother Charlie Murphy, over ten years before he surfaced as a popular member of the Chappelle's Show ensemble.

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