Plot: What’s it about?
Chris Rock gets triple duty here as Writer, Director and Star of Top Five. Rock plays Andre Allen, a comedian who’s had plenty of big hits catering to the masses with popular action and comedy films. Now, he’s hoping to shed that image and take on roles that are of more interest to him, and challenge him. Allen is on the verge of getting married to Erica Long (Gabrielle Union). He also agrees to do an interview with a New York Times reporter Chelsea Brown (Rosario Dawson). He has his reservations, but the two eventually grow to like each other. This pretty much sets the stage for the rest of the film. We see the two of them walking the busy streets and talking about various aspects of Allen’s life. To say that the film is a bit autobiographical would be an understatement. It’s clear that Rock brought a lot of truth to the film. I can appreciate that aspect, but that doesn’t further my enjoyment of the film one bit. I don’t even mind that there isn’t much actual story here. Seinfeld is my favorite sitcom and that lasted 9 long seasons being about nothing. Jerry Seinfeld even makes a cameo here (as well as a few others, including Adam Sandler and Whoopi Goldberg) in one of the film’s few highlights. It’s the content here that is so lackluster.
I found myself strangely uninvolved throughout much of this film. We do eventually get a bit more character development, but it’s so late in the game that it’s hard to garner any sort of enthusiasm. Instead, I sat watching this film waiting for something interesting to happen. I also didn’t like the way the story (what little there is) keeps getting sidetracked with randomness. Just as it feels like the film is building toward something, it cuts away to side stories that really don’t add much. I can’t say that I was expecting much here, but after reading some generally favorable reviews, I figured I’d give it a shot. I couldn’t wait for the film to end. There’s a fine line between self-awareness and smug and unfortunately this falls into the latter category. I enjoy Chris Rock and think he’s a fine comedic actor, but he’s out of his league here. I wanted to enjoy this, but there’s just little here that did it for me. Skip it.
Video: How’s it look?
I didn’t think much of the film, but the transfer does just fine. The AVC encoded image is given a 2.35:1 ratio and displays a consistently strong image throughout. The print is clean and free of noticeable flaws and colors remained strong as well. Fans of the film will be pleased with the results here.
Audio: How’s it sound?
The DTS HD track also delivers the goods. It’s not an especially loud film, but a number of sequences show strong range. There’s plenty of loud music on occasion as well as background noise during many of the scenes. Since the majority of the film is outdoors, expect a lot of background chatter, cars and people on the street. Vocals remained strong as well.
Supplements: What are the extras?
- Audio Commentary – Rock and JB Smooth provide a running commentary for the film. I only sampled this track, but it seemed to provide decent info for those more interested than myself.
- Deleted Scenes
- It’s Never Just a Movie – We get a 20 minute feature with the typical “talking heads”, expect a lot of praising going on here. Fans might still want to give it a look, though.
- The Making of Top Five – A 10 minute feature with more interviews, mainly Rock discussing his goals for this film.
- Top Five Andre Allen Stand-up Outtakes – We see some unused footage of Rock doing comedy on stage.
- Top Five Moments You Didn’t See in the Film – We get a small collection of outtakes and alternate lines. It’s reasonably interesting.
- DVD/Digital Copy
- Previews
The Bottom Line
Despite mostly positive reviews, I fail to see what all the fuss is. Top Five mostly bored me. I kept waiting for something to happen, for it to get better in some way. That never happened. It’s clearly a passion project for Chris Rock, but it did little for me. Fans of the film should feel pleased with this package, though. For all others, skip it.
