With “The Homeboy,” the filmmakers parody the ridiculousness of the hip-hop music industry. The first problem here is that hip-hop is already doing a great job of parodying itself. The second is that this parody isn’t very funny at all. Waste of time? Yes.
“The Homeboy” centers on cheesy white boy rapper MC_ and his crumbling career. The collapse all begins with an interview gone awry conducted by MTV’s own Downtown Julie Brown (appearing as Tallulah Jones) at MC_’s superstar home. From here on in, the hip-hop star’s self doubt builds, but then a living legend…in his eyes at least…steps into his life.
Conversation with his plumber who has come to fix his sink reveals that the man is the one and only Hoolie Hooligan, an old school rapper from back in the day whose musical stylings were an acquired taste…probably because he’s a crazy white English guy. Forgetting his own career troubles, MC_ decides to help his hero ditch the plumbing biz and stage a major comeback.
And thus begins a rather uninteresting adventure. The ensuing shenanigans – including a 40 ounce swilling Hoolie Hooligan who takes to accosting everyone in his path, a splattery bathroom misadventure and a fleeting love affair between MC_ and a Chinese food restaurant waitress falls flat in the giggles department.
The film accomplishes in making its point about how disposable pop stars really are, it’s just too bad that the point wasn’t more entertainingly illustrated. The performances are dull and the humor is practically non-existent. Put those elements together and you have yourself a rather boring film. BUT…I’ll take boring over irritating any day. When I saw “The Homeboy” coming my way I foresaw a film about an over-the-top irritating knucklehead doing his best to act like a tough guy while showing us over and over again how rotten his musical “talents” really are. MTV is already chock full of that kind of horseshit.
Fortunately, however MC_’s music isn’t thrown in our face every other minute. In fact, we hardly get a sample at all and that’s just fine with me. We’re given a good idea about how much this guy sucks through his hellacious interview and that’s about all that’s revealed to us. And yeah, this guy’s a real goon, but he’s portrayed as more of a real person struggling with easy come, easy go success instead of an overdone caricature of the MTV stars of today. For this I am thankful.
