Director: Chris Rock

Starring: Chris Rock, Rosario Dawson, Gabrielle Union, J.B. Smoove, Cedric the Entertainer

Chris Rock is a great stand-up comedian. While many comics see stand-up as a stepping stone to television and movies – and Rock has definitely taken his fair share of average movie roles – he clearly has aspirations to be a filmmaker not just a performer. With Top Five writer-director-star Rock has his go at being Woody Allen.

Playing what he knows, Rock stars as Andre Allen, a famous stand-up comedian who became a movie star thanks to the stupid but hugely successful ‘Hammy the Bear’ trilogy in which he plays a wise-cracking, gun-toting police bear. However, in a predicament similar to Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories, Andre Allen has lost the desire to be funny. Seeking to make serious, uplifting entertainment he has invested everything in a new film overflowing with hubris, ‘Uprize,’ about the 1791 Haitian slave rebellion. It is a couple of days out from the release of the film, which everyone except Allen knows is going to be a flop, and he is doing non-stop publicity. Also on the horizon is his high profile wedding to reality TV star Erica Long (Gabriella Union), a runaway train of an event which his heart does not seem to be in. Continue reading →