Well folks, Harry here with a film that just doesn't sound like I'll be seeing anytime soon. The following has a few spoilers in it, and the film is a million miles from being released... I can't even find a release date yet! So they have plenty of time to just nail it, but do we really care? I don't. But hey, perhaps you do... Jungle Fever meets Clueless.... dear god... here ya go...
Hey Harry,
I just returned from a test screening for the upcoming Lisa Kudrow, Damon Wayons movie "Marci X" here in New York. As usual, I had to sign a waiver that I would not discuss the movie with anyone (especially internet websites!) so for purposes of this review you can call me Dr. Solar.
The film concerns a wealthy Jewish American Princess named Marci Feld (Kudrow) who, after her father suffers a heart attack resulting from stress caused by protests over a rap record label his company owns, takes it upon herself to rehabilitate her father's image by attempting to convince the rapper in question, Dr $ (Wayans), to apologize for his album's explicit lyrics at the MTV Music Awards. Aided by her three friends, she goes "way uptown" to talk directly with Dr $ during a live performance at his club, Bad Medicine. Jane Kracowski plays one of her friends, and it is funny how thin she looks when not surrounded by anorexic waifs.
While at Bad Medicine, Dr $ rebuffs Marci's overture by taunting her in front of the audience, and saying she's not "real." He then agrees to participate in a public relations event if Marci will rap. After a couple of rather silly failed attempts, she puts together a rap about the "power of the purse" as opposed to $'s power of his pants that brings the crowd and $'s dancers to her side. By the way, she is rapping about the power of her actual purse, as in designer, not the power of money (I don't understand it either).
The next day Dr $ shows up late for the public relations scheme to rehabilitate his image in the media which, as it turns out, involves doing a public service announcement with the boys' band, Boys R Us, on abstinence. They're asking him to do this while he's sporting a tattoo of a naked woman with her legs spread on his open chest. Instead, he rewrites the lyrics, and convinces Boys R Us to sing about coming out of the closet instead. This scene is actually the funniest scene in the movie. They nail the mannerisms and music of bands like Nsync on the head. It seems the producers also realized this because they revisit this joke ad nauseum for the rest of the film.
Next Marci takes Dr $ to a fundraiser for children with no feeling in their arms. They exchange insults regarding their fur coats and jewlry in the limo with Marci saying $ looks like Aunt Esther. The dinner is also one of the better moments in the film as a nurse stabs each of two children in the arm with a fork with the crowd sighing in sympathy as the kids don't react. Marci unsuccessfully attempts to auction off a date with Donald Trump ("You don't have to touch him"). Dr $ comes to the rescue by dissing the old ladies husbands and putting himself up for auction. Marci makes the winning bid of $100,000. Hey it's for a good cause, keeping the so called plot plodding along.
Dr $ then takes Marci & Co. to his club. They smoke marijuana, swear, and dance together with Marci's three friends hooking up with $'s three friends. Dr $, predictably, ends up dancing and kissing Marci. As soon as their lips touch, $'s Latino actress/ model/ singer girlfriend Yolanda shows up and starts a catfight with Marci. She pulls a gun, and, after grabbing it from Yolanda's hands, the police arrive and arrest Marci.
After a night in jail, Dr $ bails out Marci, takes her to his "crib," and makes love to her off camera after disclosing that his real name is Kelvin. Marci and $ fall in love, and he even takes to watching Meg Ryan movies much to the chagrin of his fans and the jailhouse resident president of the record label. In response, instead of apologizing at the MTV Awards, he unveils his new song "Up the Butt." Marci's father ends up back in the hospital and America is outraged.
Senator Spinkle (Christine Baranski), the leader of the boycot against Marci's father's company, who has dogged our heroes throughout the movie with her religious right antics, holds Congressional hearings. Like Congress has nothing better to do.
In the end, Marci and Dr $ tell Senator Spinkle that "up the butt" really means "with respect" and love. The Committee buys it, as does the whole nation, and the two are given network air time on the spot by President George W. Bush. We all know that Bush runs the networks, right?
Marci Feld changes her name to Marci X, marries Dr $, and gets a "job" all during an over-extended rap by the cast that seems to have been put in to remind us that the title of the movie is Marci X.
Aside from the two funny parts mentioned above, the film is pretty poor. It is completely a color by numbers picture. Richard Benjamin of Love At First Bite directs and stars as Marci's father. The whole notion of Richard Benjamin attached reminds me of the scene in Mulholland Drive where Naomi Watts is told that the film she is auditioning for is being made as a favor to a has-been director. The feel of the film is in Benjamin's 1970s style of humor with overlays of attempted jokes that he thinks will contemporize it.
The film meanders through its scenes without much thought toward developing the characters or the relationship between Marci and Dr $. The entire subplot with Senator Spinkle and the entire confrontation with the Senate Committee is contrived and been done ad nauseum in countless other films. Wayans is funny as usual, but the script limits him in his role as a gangsta rapper. Lisa Kudrow looks old in the film.
Marci X cannot decide if it's a film about racism, about censorship, a romantic comedy, or just Jungle Fever meets Clueless. It basically takes all of these concepts, and more, and puts them all through a puree to get this mixture which resembles oil mixed with water.
While not a complete watse of time, I would encourage people to steer clear until the VHS comes out. Not worth the $ in Dr $.
Take care Harry
glad to have a contribution
