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Under the Radar

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Again, we've got a bit of a short one on our hands here. This was a mainstream release, but didn't have a whole lot of strength. This is one of those movies you'll watch and review it with a simple "meh". Nothing necessarily bad about it, but it's kinda formulaic, taking quite a lot right out of 'Friday'... QUITE a lot! When you have Ice Cube as an Executive Producer, I dunno that it quite counts as a "rip off", but damn. In the first twenty minutes or so, we see pretty much all the similarities. But thankfully, the difference is in the story.

Kevin Carson (Shad Moss -or as most know him, Bow Wow) lives in the projects, living a below average life, making ends meet. He's responsible, and is very much the straight man here, or the "Craig" (the comparisons to 'Friday' are just gonna be a thing here, sorry). Word is going around about the weekend's lottery winnings being a whopping $370 million, and he's talked into buying a ticket, which happens to be the winner.

Now, he and his best friend Benny (Brandon T. Jackson), the comedy relief, or "Smokey" have to survive a three-day weekend when word gets out that he has the winner, and everyone in town wants a piece of the pie. That's pretty much the gist of it. It mostly ends up being Kevin faced with the moral dilemma on what to do with so much money, especially when Benny points out to him how hard it is where they live.

Without much more to say about it plot-wise, here's some more 'Friday' comparisons. We also have our responsible love interest, or "Debbie" named Stacie (Naturi Naughton), our bully, or "Deebo" named Lorenzo (Gbenga Akinnagbe), and other colourful, comedic characters within the neighbourhood that are mostly bigger names, like Ice Cube as the local recluse, and a sort of "Yoda" character, Mike Epps, Terry Crews, Charlie Murphy, Kieth David and Leslie Jones just to name a few.

At the end of the day, it's kinda just a fun little jaunt of a Sunday afternoon movie. Nothing entirely special, and nothing that must be seen, but not really bad enough to give it a bad review. There's nothing really to dislike here, other than maybe the 'Friday' comparison. But these are really more of a comparison than a complaint on my part. I love 'Friday', but kinda just enjoy this for what it is - simplicity.

So, if you're looking for a little giggle, and just something mellow, this isn't really a bad movie to take a look at. You might not get much out of it, but keep in mind that this could almost be seen as a "throwaway" all the same. All I'm saying is, it's not as bad as some might suggest. It gets a 3 from me, but a lukewarm 3.

3/5

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