SPRUNG
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1997 Scott Renshaw
(Trimark) Starring: Tisha Campbell, Rusty Cundieff, Paula Jai Parker, Joe Torry. Screenplay: Rusty Cundieff and Darin Scott. Producer: Darin Scott. Director: Rusty Cundieff. MPAA Rating: R (profanity, sexual situations, adult themes, drug use) Running Time: 107 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Rusty Cundieff is on his way to establishing a new film-making record: Most Genres Covered by a Director in a Career. In 1993, Cundieff made his debut with a clever mock-documentary satire of the rap music scene called FEAR OF A BLACK HAT. Then, in 1995, he turned his attention to anthology horror for the darkly comic TALES FROM THE HOOD. The two films established Cundieff as a distinctive voice among young African-American film-makers, a writer/director unwilling to settle into limited notions of what "black films" could be about. With SPRUNG, it appears that Cundieff has decided that he's not willing to wait until the next film to change genres -- he'll change genres right in the middle of a film. Unfortunately, it's more of a collision than a fusion, with both halves getting dented in the process.
Cundieff, who also co-wrote SPRUNG, stars as Montel, a single man preparing for a night of girl-hunting with his buddy Clyde (Toe Torry). They end up at a party, where Clyde puts the moves on Adina (Paula Jai Parker), a gold-digger whom Clyde convinces that he has cash money to spare. The con gets Adina into Clyde's bed, but she is not happy when she discovers that she has been played. Montel, meanwhile, has spent the night talking with Adina's friend Brandy (Tisha Campbell). That conversation eventually grows into a relationship, which does not sit well with Clyde and Adina. Disgusted by the idea that they may have to spend time around each other just because their friends are a couple, Clyde and Adina decide they have only one choice: to join forces for the mutually beneficial purpose of breaking up Montel and Brandy.
For over half an hour, SPRUNG bears a startling resemblance to another 1997 film about middle-class African-Americans lookin' for a little somethin': BOOTY CALL. Both films begin with the main characters preparing for their night out, both films make couples out of the respective pairs' "good" and "bad" boys and girls, and both include plenty of wild happenings inappropriate for younger viewers. SPRUNG may be a bit more focused thanks to a more condensed time frame, but the familiarity is inescapable. In some cases, like a hilarious moment based on facial expressions of pleasure, that familiarity is welcome. In others, like the depressingly predictable appearance of a mincing gay stereotype for a cheap laugh, it is entirely unwelcome.
Of course, BOOTY CALL was out too recently for Cundieff to be guilty of intentionally stealing BOOTY. The same situation applies when SPRUNG suddenly takes a radical shift in tone to resemble a different 1997 film about middle-class African-Americans lookin' for a different kind of somethin': LOVE JONES. As the relationship between Montel and Brandy turns into a combination of soft-focus montage and tasteful black-and-white photography, SPRUNG becomes an attempt at a straight-up love story which generally falls flat. Montel and Brandy aren't exactly characters -- they're just nice people who exist primarily to give the colorful Clyde an Adina targets for their mischief. Though Cundieff doesn't abandon the broad comedy entirely, he cuts back radically enough that you realize the broad comedy was the best thing SPRUNG had going for it. As a love story, it's pretty limp stuff.
SPRUNG also shows that Cundieff still prefers not to stray far from the satirical ground of FEAR OF A BLACK HAT and TALES FROM THE HOOD. Cundieff employs his pop culture sensibility for pokes at a variety of targets, including THE TERMINATOR and WHEN HARRY MET SALLY. When working with the boundaries of a specific genre's conventions, Cundieff knows just where to step to get a laugh. SPRUNG just isn't tightly structured enough to allow him to show his stuff. It also requires him to create three-dimensional characters for the first time, a task at which he doesn't seem particularly adept; he's more comfortable with the ridiculous than with the sublime. There will be other opportunities for the young and talented Cundieff to master the more subtle skills of film-making, however. After all, he still has to do a historical epic, a violent caper film and an intimate family drama.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 booty-ful things: 5.
Visit Scott Renshaw's MoviePage http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~srenshaw Subscribe to receive reviews directly via email See details on the MoviePage
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews