Chris Rock herewith puts himself in the category, if not the league, of Chaplin, Keaton, Jerry Lewis, Woody Allen: the comic-hyphen-director, if not the comic-hyphen-auteur. A Capra-esque Little Man comedy, a Rocky of the political arena, it casts Rock as a piddling D.C. alderman who, on the strength of a cat-saving act of bravery, is handpicked by a party pooh-bah to replace a deceased Presidential candidate mere weeks before the election -- and of course handpicked to lose, for strategic reasons, to the uncatchable front-runner ("God bless America and no place else"), invariably described as "a Vice President for eight years, a war hero, and Sharon Stone's cousin." Of course, too, once the underdog, or sacrificial lamb, stops reading his standard-issue speeches and starts ad-libbing stand-up routines, he puts on a better show than expected. This and subsequent developments will certainly, in the age of CNN, test the credulity and the fidelity of the comedian's following. But otherwise the movie is utterly untesting, totally untaxing, passably well polished, and occasionally, broadly, impertinently "pertinent." The darts at campaign ads are especially on target. When properly placed in a league of SNL alums, instead of the Chaplin-Keaton league, Rock could be seen near the top of the standings. A very minor league, let's be clear. With Bernie Mac, Tamala Jones, Lynn Whitfield, Dylan Baker, James Rebhorn. (2003) — Duncan Shepherd
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