Spend the Night With This "Booty Call," or Lists of Lists, Volume 4: Film Edition (Part 2)

"They TOOK the BAR!"

I haven't done one of these list-lists in a while. Last time I discussed films I liked and despised, so I'll just build upon that theme.

I could probably do a list of "my favorite films" several times a year, and each time, I'd have a different list, depending on how I'm feeling, how much I've been influenced by the films I've seen most recently, and how long I spend thinking about it.

So, let me have my first list be

THE BEST FILMS I CAN THINK OF, TYPING THE FIRST TEN THAT COME TO MIND

1. Animal House (1978)
2. The Godfather, Part II (1974)
3. The Godfather (1972)
4. Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 (2008)
5. Groundhog Day (1993)
6. The Boys in the Band (1970)
7. The Hangover (2009)
8. Trailer Park Boys: The Movie (2006)
9. The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)
10. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Yes, it's an eclectic list, but if I were to compile it again15 minutes later, it would probably be different. The point is...



DO YOU HAVE PLANS FOR THIS EVENING?
...if you were holding a movie night at your place and said that any of those movies were on the menu, I'd be there, even if I had to sit through The Notebook first. They're all movies that I could recommend to almost anyone — just because I like a movie doesn't mean I'd recommend it or find it appropriate for all tastes.

One of the movies on that list is what I'd call a good-bad movie, the kind of movie that, when you think about it, isn't necessarily "good" by normal standards, but for whatever reason is extremely watchable. For people my age, that probably includes all John Hughes movies.

TWO EXAMPLES OF GOOD-BAD MOVIES

1. The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)
2. Booty Call (1997)

In addition to that expression on
Jamie Foxx's face, you'll get to see
a pre-plastic surgery Vivica Fox.

Booty Call is a very, very funny movie. It might even transcend the good-bad designation. Here's my Booty Call story: 

Back before I had children — this is 1997, so I wasn't even married — Not-Yet-Mrs. The Anthony Show and I used to go at least one movie a week. (Just typing that sentence makes me feel like it was so long ago that it's like typing about when I used to type on a typewriter.)

I remember leaving whatever movie we'd seen at the multiplex and spotting the poster for Booty Call. Look at that poster and consider your reaction if you'd never heard of Jamie Foxx and only knew of Tommy Davidson as one of the less memorable original cast members of In Living Color.

"Another 'hip-hop' comedy," I said to Not-Yet-Mrs. The Anthony Show. Throughout the 1990s, the studios suddenly realized that black people go to the movies and might be interested in seeing movies with black people in those movies, so they cranked out a lot of junk comedies that tended to have the issue of the kid from the streets suddenly finding success but then losing his identity because he's selling out to Whitey or something. I remember seeing a trailer for one of them and it was narrated by Tommy Davidson, who was one of its stars, and he called it a "hip-hop comedy." So, whenever I saw an ad for one of these arguably modern blaxploitation films, I'd conclude: "hip-hop comedy."

Thank goodness that Tyler Perry put an end to all that!

A DONNIE BRASCO / BOOTY CALL DOUBLE FEATURE
So we eventually saw Donnie Brasco, which was released around the same time, and we actually saw it on a weeknight, and typing that is like typing about when my carrier pigeons caught the bird flu, and we were walking down the long multiplex corridor when we noticed that Booty Call was about to begin in another theater.

What the hell, we thought, we'll sneak in for a few minutes and see how bad it is.

It turned out to be one of the funniest movies I'd ever seen in a theater, and I ended up dragging a couple of friends to see it (we paid for our tickets this time), and they agreed with my Booty Call assessment.

(In perhaps the most bizarre thing involving my immediate family, my father — probably the last person to whom I've ever recommend this film, for a number of reasons — somehow watched this and thought it was one of the funniest things he's ever seen.) 

HOW ABOUT SOME EXAMPLES OF WHY YOU LIKED THIS FILM
Well, I found a couple of clips, though out of context, they might not be as funny, but one of the best-known scenes is one that set most of the plot in motion, where a bit of, er, mistaken identity causes Jamie Foxx and Vivica A. Fox to want to execute the booty call for which this film is named:

There's also a brief cameo by a very slim and at that point barely-known-by-most-of-the-Caucasian-community Bernie Mac, playing a preacher who at tries a little too hard to dissuade Jamie and Tommy from fornicatin' (they're at the convenience store, buying condoms).

There are also some scenes that come off a little, well, politically incorrect and dated, even though the movie is only 14 years old, but it's definitely worth a look. You'll also see Jamie Foxx perform a number of impressions, including a spot-on Martin Luther King Jr. reciting part of the "I Have a Dream" speech while banging Vivica A. as they're enrobed in bubble wrap.

What say you, Siskel & Ebert show?

Two bootylicious thumbs up! In the Sun-Times, Ebert gave the film three stars, which is one fewer than he gave Citizen Kane, and sums up the experience better than I could:

Booty Call is being advertised as a raucous exercise in vulgarity. It is. I laughed. So I must, to be honest and consistent, rate i t accordingly — three stars. In an era when so many movies have no taste at all, a movie in bad taste is at least sailing under its true colors.

The only time I'd heard about Booty Call since I'd seen it was shortly after Jamie Foxx won the Oscar for his performance in Ray. He made a statement about how he was now on a new level of respect in terms of his future film projects, saying something like, "Now I won't have to be in Booty Call 2."

Considering his acting choices since he took home the Oscar, maybe Booty Call 2 would be a good career move!