Spoofing practically every "growing up in the hood" movie, "Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood" is a laugh a minute. Following the adventures of Ashtray (Shawn Wayans) and Loc Dog (Marlon Wayans) in LA's black ghetto, it's one joke after another - the way that a Mel Brooks or Leslie Nielsen movie is. Probably the funniest scene is when they enter a convenience store. The owner, convinced that African-Americans would only enter his store to steal things, follows them around - while a rich white man comes in and proceeds to empty the place. Containing virtually every imaginable use of the N-word, "DBAMTSCWDYJITH" is pure hilarity. Those Wayans brothers have it down.
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lee_eisenberg19 September 2005
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joswalt31 March 2000Shawn and Marlon Wayans, along with director Paris Barclay, have created a very humorous satire of the flood of films recently dealing with African-American life in the ghettos of inner-cities of America. "Boyz in the Hood" and "Menace II Society" are among the films at which the Wayans brothers poke fun. "Don't be a Menace..." follows the story of Ashtray(Shawn Wayans) as he wades through a series of episodes in Barclay's "hood." He lives with his father, who is "only a couple of years older than him." Among the lessons his father teaches him are: "No smokin' my shit, no drinkin' my shit, and if you bring any of them hos up in here, make sure I fuck 'em first", and (drinking and driving)"That shit is fun, man!" No stereotype or politically-correct boundary is too sacred for the Wayans brothers to poke fun at. Some of the jokes hit, some miss, and the fun will definitely be increased by those who have seen the films that "Don't Be A Menace..." frequently jests. Not extremely culturally-important fare, but a good laugh, nonetheless.
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I've been wanting to see this movie for a while and I finally did. I thought it was hilarious!
The Wayans Brothers take off movies so well.
I thought this was a fabulous take off of all the hood movies.
All the jokes were very smart, original and funny.
The acting was good. They made a really good parody of all the hood characters.
I felt some characters were too over the top though, but nothing that bad.
I'm sure anyone will find this funny, but only if they've seen some of the hood movies. If they didn't then some of the jokes will stupid.
Overall I thought it was a marvelous take off of all the hood movies. An entertaining movie and must see for hood movie fans!
Keep up the good work Wayans! -
Blade-8314 October 1999This film is one of the best spoof films i have seen in a while. The Wanyes brothers bring their unique comedy style to a great comedy. i suppose you have to have seen all of the films which they are making fun of to fully appreciate the comedy but once you have seen Menace II Society, Boyz 'n' the Hood, Friday And Higher Learning you will want to watch this film over and over again
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frosty-4443110 February 2021Easier times, less people offended and then there's this film. LOVE IT!!!
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scottgrib22 December 2000Honestly, you will not like this movie at all if you haven't seen any ghetto movies or don't understand ghetto humor. Like most spoof movies, it won't be funny if you don't know what is being made fun of.
If either of these things are true, see this movie. If not, don't bother. I think that I have never laughed harder than during this movie. One of my personal favorite comedies. -
This movie is wonderful. It points out all of the absurdities of the earlier 'hood movies. You need to have seen most of the movies being parodied in order to see the true depth of the humor in this movie.
Absolutely one of my favorite light comedies with "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka" and "Half Baked". I can't put it in a category with "Airplane" because that is the standard by which all other parodies are measured. -
sgmi-535799 May 2022This type of film is extremely difficult to pull off, and am happy to report the Wayans clan do a fine job making light of the crop of "hood" movies from the 90s. The laughs come strong and sudden. Largely a collection of vignettes, but pulled off with panache and style. If you enjoy movies in the style of "Airplane!," you won't want to miss this gem. Recommended.
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fibreoptic8 November 2004You have to watch a few other movies first to really appreciate this. The main two movies you have to watch first is Menace II Society and Boyz N The Hood. 'Don't Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood' spoofs these two to the max but if you haven't seen these two movies most of this movie will be lost on you. It pretty much is good from beginning to end and i can't think of anything bad to say about it. I particularly like the scene with Officer Self Hatred. This movie isn't a total spoof of movies with a couple of original jokes here and there. The Wayans brothers are good in whatever movie they are in so go watch 'White Chicks' and the first two Scary Movie's. If you like this then i also recommend 'CB4' which is equally hilarious. 9/10
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arhat27 June 2001I typically don't like Wayans brothers movies, but found this one particularly entertaining. I was expecting it to be terrible when I sat down with a couple of friends to watch it, but found myself laughing pretty hard at various parts.
Certainly not a piece of comedic genius, but far from boring and worth your time if you want a good cheap laugh. -
Ok, I will make this review short and to the point for those people whose mental capacity is perfect for watching this movie. Everybody knows of Motion Picture Association of America's ratings: G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17. For the purposes of this movie, I think the MPA should create a new rating standard: IQ-20.
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Don't Be A Menace is a good "stupid comedy" the only reason it's funny is because almost everything the characters do is hilarious and pretty stupid. The catch of the movie is it's a Waynes Brother's Comedy - meaning it's generally going to be hilarious and funny.
Although "Don't Be A Menace" is parodied from many other movies, that I have never even heard of, I still got the whole idea. If you've seen it many times you'll get it after awhile, although you've got to really pay attention to the movie to get it.
One of the best scenes is when Bernie Mac, Officer Self Hatred, arrests Ashtray (Shawn) and Loc Dog (Marlon) for being black, even though Bernie Mac, like Marlon and Shawn, is black himself.
Another scene you don't want to miss is definitely is in the beginning of the movie when Ashtray's mom drops him off at his dad's house, who happens to be younger than Ashtray, Ashtray opens the car door only to cause a bike rider to hit it and flip his bike over it.
I would definitely encourage anyone to buy/rent this movie because it's a "classic" Waynes Brother's Movie. Hopefully we'll see more the of the Waynes brother's movies coming out in the future: Little Man being one of them. -
It probably would have helped if I'd seen all (or at least some) of the movies that this parodies, but as it stands, DON'T BE A MENACE is consistently funny enough on its own. From the Wayans' Brothers, DON'T BE A MENACE parodies/spoofs just about every "hood" movie from the 90's, like BOYZ N THE HOOD, MENACE 2 SOCIETY, etc. Shawn Wayans stars as Ashtray, a 19-year-old who moves in with his younger (than him) father, and Marlon Wayans as Loc Dog, one of his friends. If there's one big weakness, it's that there's not really a plot to speak of, meaning that the film plays like a series of skits rather than a cohesive story. That being said, there were a lot of laugh-out-loud moments and funny running gags. The best ones, to me, were Keenen Ivory Wayans as the mailman who pops up from time to time and says "Message!" whenever the "preachy" moments come. Also, everyone (and I mean everyone) drinks only malt liquor. Generally, the humor that works the best has to do with pointing out stereotypes in these types of movies (and life in general), rather than the scatological stuff which was often a little too gross for me. Thankfully, it wasn't relied upon as much as it is now in movies of this ilk, but fart jokes and foul-mouthed grannies will only get you so far. For those types of jokes, they were funny the first few times, but became a little tiresome later. This is also an extremely quotable movie, with such memorable lines as, "Break yo self, fool!" So, while I haven't seen really any of the movies this parodied, I have seen other Wayans' Brothers movies and this compares favorably to those. I'd consider this the last genuinely good spoof from them, even if the story structure is all but nonexistent. It doesn't really live up to Mel Brooks (but honestly, what can?), but as a distillation of 90's urban movie clichés, DON'T BE A MENACE is on fairly solid ground.
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rbverhoef26 February 2004Before 'Scary Movie' the Wayans Brothers made this movie, 'Don't Be a Menace'. It is a spoof on movies like 'Boyz N the Hood' and 'Menace II Society', two great movies about the hoods in Los Angeles.
'Don't Be a Menace' starts pretty nice, although stupid, with some very funny moments. It is the same kind of humor you see in 'Scary Movie', not the most intelligent kind. As long as it works that is fine, but after thirty minutes I wanted this movie to end. After this every single joke was the same. When a movie like this becomes boring it is not very good. Not that it is good with any other kind of movie, but here it seems actually pretty hard to make it boring.
Although 'Scary Movie' doesn't belong to my favorite movies either at least I had fun while watching it. For the first thirty minutes it was the same with this movie. Watch those minutes and then turn to something else. -
becca33229 December 2001This movie is similar to the Wayans brothers' Scary movie . . . makes fun of a lot of movies and pop culture trends, and you don't have to have seen all the movies referred to (including poetic justice, higher learning, Menace II society, boyz 'n the hood, juice, jungle fever). The other comment under this movie said that it was not funny because he/she was not black and did not come from the hood. Well, I am not black and I do not come from the hood, and I have not even seen all the movies they are targeting here, but I thought it was hilarious. If you know nothing about the movies I listed above, you probably would not get this movie. but if you have seen any of them, and are at least somewhat culturally aware, you will appreciate this movie.
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buzznzipp199523 February 2007The movie title alone, takes two hours to say. And talk about breaking all the stereotypical rules, if they weren't breaking all the rules I don't know what they would be doing. "Don't be a menace" I'm not surprised that there wasn't a sequel to this although it was ghetto -cutting humor that ate just about every other 'Hood' movie around then. If their comedy was a shotgun then there would be comedy-spatter all over the screen. Kim Wayans and the whole happy bunch bring their 'creative juices' to this hoodster-Rama, a ton of vulgarity, but a mountain of wit and eccentric brains, The Wayans make this a colorful and tasty treat for every fan.
From the entry at Tray's room to the seven kids looking for their daddy and finding a step dad with a small car, this was a rap-hop malt-liquor adventure that really packs a staggering punch!
See this if you liked "In Living Color" or if you just want to get comfortably into ghetto styled laugher-riotousness. (****).
Thx --Imdb.com -
Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood is hilarious. The first time I saw this, I caught a few minutes of it on HBO. I had to do something, so I only got to see a few minutes, but in those few minutes I was laughing more times per second than I had ever laughed before. Through that one time when I only saw a few minutes, I knew I had to see this from the beginning.
This is a spoof of films that take place in the ghetto. The films it spoofs include Boyz N the Hood, Menace II Society, Juice, South Central, Higher Learning, Poetic Justice, and other films. Part of the reason I laughed so hard is because I had seen most of those movies, and I knew them well enough. If you haven't seen any of those movies, you probably won't find this to be funny. If you want to see any of those movies in order to understand this, the main ones you will have to see are Boyz N the Hood and Menace II Society.
I laughed so hard when I saw this. It seems as though every second something funny happens. The movie follows Ashtray, a young man who is sent to live with his father in order to learn better and have more of a chance to succeed in life(think of Boyz N the Hood). Strangely, his Father is younger than he is. Little things like that make this movie very funny. Some other funny characters are Ashtray's cousin Loc Dog, Loc Dog's trigger happy Grandmother, their crippled friend Crazy Legs, and a desperate drug addict with some of the funniest lines in the movie.
Funny things happen with these characters, such as when we first see Loc Dog's Grandma, she is swearing just about every word. A couple of minutes later, she smokes a huge joint, which is also hilarious. The look on her face, and her mannerisms in that scene are priceless. Another funny scene with Grandma is when she and another elderly woman are having a break dance competition in church.
The character Crazy Legs was formerly the best dancer in the hood, until he was paralyzed from the waste down in a drive by. He has these little stubby legs that are about half the size of normal legs. In one scene he has a dream that he is a dancer in the video for MC Hammer's "Can't Touch This." That scene is so funny, it had me laughing for quite a while.
This movie is not for everyone. Anyone who is offended by racial stereotypes will probably not enjoy this movie, as there are a lot of racial stereotypes in many scenes. Another reason this isn't for everyone is because not everyone is into this type of humor, and not everyone has watched the movies that this is a spoof of.
If you are into this type of humor, and you have seen the movies that this is based on, then I'm sure you'll love it. If you like movies like this, then it is a must see. If you aren't into this type of movie, then you will probably spend better time watching another movie. -
winner5515 April 2007I was watching an old "Honeymooners" rerun with a friend and we came to Jackie Gleason's Ralph's inevitable "To the moon, Alice!" expression of frustration with his wife, and suddenly I realized that it WAS inevitable, so why were we laughing, having heard it a dozen times before? My friend pointed out that Gleason's timing - the manner in which he held his slow-burn, the widening of his eyes, the sudden "Bang! Zoom" take off into the line - was what always made it funny. We weren't laughing at the line so much at the performance of it.
"Don't Be A Menace" is the most obvious collection of predictable gags and bits I have seen in a long time, but it is by far the funniest. The Wayans are rather stuck - the genres they parody here have very rigid conventions, so much so that there is usually only one or two gags one can use to mock them - e.g., when a young gangsta warns us that many young men in the 'hood don't live to see their 21st birthday, we all know what's coming next. So the Wayans handle it in a manner that delays the punchline while emphasizing its obviousness. Thus we laugh with them, appreciating the way they pull it off, and recognizing the gangsta genre limit that's getting parodied, rather than at the bit itself.
Just about the whole movie operates on this level, and for this reason has become one of my favorite comedies. The Wayans capture every moment with a dead-on rhythm that blends the gags into a kind of music. Shawn plays the steady bass while Marlon does some wild riffing. Other characters and bits drop in and out like improvisation and sound effects. Keenan Wayans drops in every now and then like the voice on a scratch dub. The tempo could have been a little swifter, but the rhythm itself is excellent.
Comedy like this is very tricky, and I personally didn't think the Wayans' efforts in the "Scary Movie" films were quite as successful - but here they move it right along.
It's rude, it's crude, it's in-yor-face - and it's just a delight to watch. -
KellenKing16 May 2018You must see this film at least once. This really is a farce-style comedy classic. Some real wild parts, but I couldn't help but laugh.
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mattymatt4ever13 September 2001I saw this movie when it first was released in theaters. I was about 12 years old. The theater was packed, and the audience had a ball. One of those films where a funny scene would come up and EVERYONE in the theater would start cracking up. Well, I guess as you get older this humor doesn't appeal as effectively.
Sure, I now know the outcome of the gags. I've watched the film about 10 or 15 times. But even if I were to first view it today (I am now 19 years old) I don't think I would've laughed as much as I did when I was in grammar school. There's tons of crude humor, tons of profanity, tons of explicit sexual references and even some mock drug use. Everything you would expect to come out the pen of a Wayans brother. Don't get me wrong, they are talented guys and I enjoy watching their (Shawn and Marlon) show from time to time, but they're not exactly the African-American Woody Allens. However, I do have to give it up for their (sometimes witty) jabs at those "Growin' Up in Da Hood" dramas. I didn't see many of the films--from which the spoofs are based on--before seeing "Don't Be A Menace." After I saw "Menace 2 Society" I noticed that 50-percent of the gags were taken off that critically acclaimed urban youth drama. There are also some jabs at "Boyz N the Hood."
There are some genuinely funny moments that I will always cherish: Bernie Mac's cameo as the black cop who hates anything and anybody black, Suli McCullough as the wheelchair bound Crazy Legs doing his MC Hammer "U Can't Touch This" number, the "Hurry Up and Buy!" scene at the convenience store, Loc Dog (Marlon Wayans) applying for a job at the DMV. There are more very funny gags worth a barrel of laughs, but there are also moments where they simply push the crudeness envelope and deliver a lot more groans than laughs. There's one scene where Ashtray (Shawn Wayans) and Dashiki (Tracey Cherelle Jones) are having foreplay. She pours Kool-Aid on his stomach and sucks it off, sprinkles hot government cheese on his chest and it concludes with him sucking hot sauce off her crusty toes. All this stuff may be funny to a five-year-old. Not me.
Marlon's character is obnoxious at times. He's another comic actor who sometimes tries too hard to be funny and simply hams it up. Helen Martin ("227") steals the show as the pot-smoking grandmother.
You can, maybe, consider this a hit-or-miss comedy. But there are a good enough amount of hits to overshadow the misses. If you're not in grammar school, you might find some of this stuff utterly juvenile and distasteful; but it's still worth watching. It definitely has its memorable moments.
My score: 7 (out of 10) -
"Menace" is not funny. It tries hard - too hard. but rarely brings a smile. There is no acting, just mugging. One of the main characters wears a stupid grimace on his face the entire movie. No doubt as the less talented Wayans brothers starred, wrote and produced the film they were entirely blind to their lack of talent.
Menace consists of a series of unfunny, one joke skits. The punchline can be seen a mile off, but you have to wait until it all unfolds. No zippy one-liners or snappy dialogue here. Just one scene after another building up to the joke. The jokes themselves are juvenile. Loc Dog (the one with the perma-grimace) talks to a beautiful woman - but then she has ... bad breath and then she picks her nose and then, wait for it (remember you must always w-a-i-t) she farts! How funny is that? Ten-year old boys may find it funny as they won't have heard the jokes as many times before. Alternatively, if you like watching movies completely drunk or stoned then you will be able to follow along and may even find it amusing. The challenge will be getting drunk enough to reduce your mental state to the level of the movie without passing out. -
BEATtakeshi17 February 2003This film is funny, just sit back, get backed and let the jokes cover you like a warm blanket. It feels good you know hmmmmmmmmmm....Well seriously, this film for some reason other than being a spoof and having the same actors as Scary Movie, gets compared to the aforementioned film. Although in comparison Don't be amenace is a far superior film. Just remember: cross at the green, never in between
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alfonsothepirate17 February 2010This movie was genuinely pretty funny. It's a pretty good parody of hood movies, a genre that has some good flicks and some real steamers. It's accurate and clever and I laughed out loud. I recommend to anyone who just wants to laugh and people who are interested in the subject of race and it's effect on culture and media. I usually turn on bad movies on weekends just to pass time and have a laugh, or to get some sleep. I found this on demand and thought it would be pretty bad considering it was Wayans Bros. They've only done a few movies worth watching. But I liked the title and I liked the idea, and it made me laugh for the right reasons. A solid 7.
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gridoon202423 July 2017This spoof of early-1990s "hood" movies is like an R-rated "Naked Gun" - on crack. It's sometimes funny and clever (I liked the gag of father and son being the same age (!), or the raining autumn leaves), other times vulgar and witless. And it's too long (a full 90 minutes) for this kind of plot-less parody. The title may be the best joke of them all! ** out of 4.