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The concert comedy film is dead -- killed by HBO, Russell Simmons, and anyone else responsible for turning the art into ubiquitous cable fodder. So Spike Lee's luminescent The Original Kings of Comedy is not so much a resurrection as a ghostly visitation. Resoundingly funny, richly insightful, and wonderfully framed (on digital video by cinematographer Malik Hassan Sayeed), the film was shot over two nights on The Original Kings of Comedy tour in Charlotte, North Carolina. The four comedians -- Steve Harvey (The Steve Harvey Show), D. L. Hughley (The Hughleys), Cedric the Entertainer (BET Comic View), and Bernie Mac (Life) -- are all quite funny, but their humor prompts far more than belly-laughs. In his hilarious monologue about Titanic, the highest-grossing film ever, Steve Harvey posits a version of the film with a black cast. As the star of TV's highest-rated show among black viewers, though one that hardly causes a blip in the overall Nielsens, Harvey knows plenty about aesthetic discrepancies between the races. The star of the show, however, is the finisher, Bernie Mac, whose ramblings cover sex, beatings, and a linguistic discourse on a certain profanity containing the letters "m" and "f." Fiercely wide-eyed and speaking in a South Side Chicago drawl, Mac provides the perfect climax to an incredibly funny evening -- but be sure to stick around through the credits for Cedric the Entertainer's brilliant imitation of San Antonio Spurs point guard Avery Johnson. Pete Segall

All Movie Guide

In 1997, four of America's leading African-American stand-up comedians -- Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Bernie Mac, and Cedric The Entertainer -- joined forces for a concert tour that became one of the top money-earning attractions of recent years, consistently selling out 10,000 to 15,000 seat arenas from coast to coast. The Original Kings of Comedy captures the tour's rough and raunchy humor on film. The concert documentary was shot in February of 2000 during a two-night stand in Charlotte, North Carolina (which was the site of the tour's first date three years earlier). Spike Lee served as director. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 097363392446
• Source: PARAMOUNT
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Theatre Wide-Screen (1.85.1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Time: 1:55:00
• Sales Rank: 17,432

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Latham Comedy Collection

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