Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 36

FRIDAY. JUNE 17. 1994DETROIT FREE PRESS 3D Gangsta rap parody lacks the cutting edge Fear Of A Black Hat The movie becomes one long "In Living Color" sketch. By Anderson Jones Free Press Staff Writer "Fear of a Black Hat" would like to be as pointedly funny, wickedly satirical and as insider-sawy as "This is Spinal Tap," a faux behind-the-scenes look at a heavy metal band on the road. But what Rusty Cundieff, who wrote, directs and stars in the film, doesn't realize is that satire isn't just parody; it also requires ra-zor-sharp insight.

It's not that his premise is bad. He wants to make fun of gangsta postur Rusty Cundieff ing, rump-shaking videos and the rap industry as a whole. Gangsta rap, known for its misogyny, caustic lyrics and violent themes, is certainly deserving of a rap on the knuckles. This isn't it. Cundieff chooses to assail the genre simply by remaking music videos, leaving out the subtext, forgetting the commentary.

What happens is that the movie becomes one long "In Living Color" sketch. song, is a metaphor for society. Blackburn tails the group as they perform in oversized Dr. Suess-like chapeaux and take meetings with their ill-fated and pointedly white managers as they try to get their career on a roll. Before it's over, NWH joins "The Monsters of Rap" tour and Ice tries to become a film star a la Ice-T by making "New Jack Village." Eventually, a woman and a few handguns come between the group members.

Somewhere in the last third, the documentary element breaks down and, without that artificial crutch to lean on, "Black Hat" dissolves into just another rap film not enough unlike the banal "CB4" with a handful of pretty funny video spoofs. The clips certainly show Cundieff strength, at least, as a Weird Al songster. He nails Freedom Williams, P.M. Dawn and LL Cool J. right on.

The clip for a song called "Booty Juice" looks almost identical to Hammer's first version of "Pumps and a Bump" which tells you just how easy it is to make a rap video. Music aficionados will also recognize that the film's title is a play on Public Enemy's breakthrough album, "Fear of a Black Planet," and the group's name NWH comes from rap group NWA. Unfortunately, much of Cundieff humor is so hteral-minded and transparent that it's too easy to see the joke and exactly who Vanilla Sherbert is supposed to be. But what drags the film down like too many solid gold chains around the neck is that it feels old. Many of the characters are dressed in the bright, primary-hued garments of Cross Colours or sport Malcolm hats both of which were popular at least two years ago.

These days, hardly anyone remembers NWA, and the rap artists Cundieff chooses to skewer have been replaced by folks like Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg (now there's a name ripe for parody) and Ice Cube. Worse, this movie is hard to appreciate as a revolutionary or particularly clever film precisely because "Spinal Tap" came first. NOW SHOWING 12 30 2 40 4 50 7 40 9 45 11 55 1 3 1 0 5 3 5 8. 1 0 05 1 2 10 12 30 2 40 5 10 7 50 10 05 12 05 m-' warn mm wvT'TxrjTwm mmim irm 1230 2:55 5 10 7 40 1010 12 10 12 45 2 55 5.7 40 1005 12 10 1 2 3 0 2 50 5 10 7 50 1 0 35 11 15 1 45 4, 6 15 8 15 10 45 11:20 1:30 'Wdf stalks unfamiliar territory 4:20 7:10 3.45 6:10 8 15 10:30 12:45 3 5:20 7:45 10.

12:15 "SISKEL 4 EBERT" Joel Siegel. GOOD MORNING AMERICA "Two very enthusiastic thumbs "Called 'SPEED9 because this one you'll want to see in a hurry." WOLF, from Page ID uncredited Elaine May lose their nerve, ingenuity or both. The fur starts flying. The blood begins gushing. And "Wolf' becomes mundane, even silly.

It starts out smashingly, though. Nicholson, a Manhattan book editor, is navigating a snowy road in Vermont when he hits a wolf. It appears to be dead, but when he pokes it with a stick, his curiosity earns him a nasty bite. At the end of this sequence, director Nichols shows off what will be the first of many bits of virtuoso filmmaking scary, funny and surprising all at once. He zooms in on the wolfs gleaming eyes, and you hear what seems to be growling, but then Nicholson's face replaces the wolfs, and you realize the sound is him gargling at the bathroom mirror.

This is deft foreshadowing, signaling that the beast and the man are not so different at all. Indeed, they're soon to become the same. Nicholson notices the change in subtle, funny ways as his senses and appetites heighten there's a brilliantly staged moment when he stands in the atrium of his office building and, with a tilt of his head this way or that, zeroes in on conversations from different suites and floors. He feels frightened, but also empowered and invigorated, and he ceases to be a pushover, wrestling control of his life. Cuckolded by his wife (Kate Nelli-gan), he goes out and finds a mistress (Michelle Pfeiffer).

Fired from his job and betrayed by his protege Games Spader), he hatches a scheme for revenge. "Maybe you should just accept it as a gift," Pfeiffer says when Nicholson tells her about his reversal of fortune. "I'm afraid it will have a price," he responds. "Wolf" ponders the sometimes precarious balance between reason and passion, tameness and wildness, gentleness and ruthlessness with which a life is lived. It furthermore suggests, in "A non-stop vehicle for 2 Rated profanity, scantily clad women and comic violence.

4: Outstanding 3: Worthy effort 2: So-so 1: A bomb Did the Fox network pass, and it became a feature film instead? The pseudo-documentary follows the fictional rap group NWH (Niggaz With Hats) as they tour in support of their "Kill Whitey" album. We meet Ice Cold (Cundieff), Tone-Def (Mark Lawrence) and Tasty-Taste (Larry Scott), the dim-witted trio that makes up NWH. Together they try to convince correspondent Nina Blackburn (Kasi Lem-mons) of their street credibility in "Tough Neighborhood USA" with Ice earnestly explaining that their music, even songs like "My Peanuts," has depth and importance for the black community. He'll even try explain that the butt, a centerpiece for another bitingly satirical fashion, that those who let the animal within them emerge are the ones who triumph in a cutthroat, savage civilization. But "Wolf' wisely doesn't belabor these themes, paying greater attention to developing well-written characters and establishing a touching rapport between Nicholson and Pfeiffer, whose dialogue is sophisticated, witty, adult.

The movie seizes and holds your attention because you care about what will happen to them and to their relationship. In other words, it features good storytelling, pure and simple, and terrific acting by two seasoned pros. Nichols, however, has a problem and challenge on his hands: The story's basic outline, derived from an oft-told legend, is mostly familiar and predictable. So he updates it and makes it his own with a different milieu the New York literary world and, more importantly, a new and varied tone. He taps a rich comic vein at first and treats his protagonist's transformation as a dream-like adventure, filming Nicholson's nocturnal hunt of a fawn in slow motion and an icy blue hue.

(It's a stunningly beautiful sequence.) The suspense builds slowly and isn't compromised at all by the way Nichols tweaks old horror movies with a saucy score and hyperbolic cut-away shots for example, of dark birds against an overripe moon. "Wolf' is a visual knockout, and an intelligent one at that, with images carefully composed to embellish the movie's themes. The entire production shows remarkable craftsmanship, at least up until the bitter and awful end, when the whole enterprise turns suddenly cheesy and absurd. At this point, all of those involved jettison judgment and restraint, un leashing their impulses for excess and pandering to baser instincts. "Wolf' runs wild, and winds up making a fine if accidental argument against such passionate abandon.

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