Starring: Eddie Griffin, Anna Friel, Kevin McNally, Dudley Sutton, Tom Georgeson, Mo'Nique, Marion O'Dwyer Comedy/Drama. Directted by John Eyres. Synopsis: A small Irish town that is under the control of an English mogul hold a poetry contest with the winner getting ownerrship of the town pub in order to raise money to hold off losing total control of the town. The contest is won by an L.A. rapper who is trying to escape his psychotic ex-fiancee and is also a bit of a con man.
You can pretty much guess where this one is going after you see the title and if you know anything about Eddie Griffin (Undercover Brother).
Yep, you've got to figure that somehow, some way, Eddie Griffin's character is going to find himself in a situation in which he is surrounded by Irish people, and just let the laughs cascade from there.
And, you'd be right. Jimmy McDevitt (Grffin) is an aspiring L.A. rap artist who is down on his luck, behind on his rent, and trying to stay away from his unbalanced ex-fiancee (Mo'Nique), who he is starting to see him his nightmares.
Fortunately, he sees this poetry contest offering up ownership of a pug in a small Irish town. After plagarizing the peom he enters from the CD of another rapper, Jimmy wins the contest and, presto, he's off to Ireland.
The first thing you will need to do, obviously, is to put aside the completely unrealistic and far fetched plot aside to be able to enjoy this enjoyable flick. And it is enjoyable. That's pretty much it. Not great, not memorable, not moving, but enjoyable.
When Jimmy gets to Ireland the cultural differences between the townfolk and the new owner of the only pub in town couldn't be, as you might guess, more stark. Jimmy immediately meets up with town sage Pat Duffy (Dudley Sutton The Football Factory) and his daughter, Maureen (Anna Friel Limitless). As you might guess, the town folk don't know how to take Jimmy at first, because he is basically just doing his stand up routine throughout most of the story, with some slight variations to work it into the plot.
As far as the plot is concerned, we get a little far fetched, which fits in nicely with our far fetched premise. Wealthy and evil land mogul Lord Hailstock (Kevin McNally Valkyrie) seeks to gain control of the pub so that he owns the entire town and can turn into a leprechaun theme park.
Look, this flick is good for some laughs, which is likely all it was intended to do. Griffin himself is funny enough to get giggles from a brick and the rest of the cast works pretty well. Of course, the "could see it coming from a mile away" romance between Jimmy and Maureen is there, not sure I bought it completely, but it wasn't overdone nor done too badly.
If you like Eddie Griffin, this is definitely a flick you will want to see. Otherwise, if you do watch, you just might get some laughs and enjoy yourself for an hour and a half.
Nothing more.
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