The Insane Clown Posse has pretty much always been a controversial band. Either you like them, or you hate everything that has to do with them. I belong to the former group.
If you belong to the latter, you probably haven't seen Big Money Hustlas. Chances are, you hadn't even heard of it before this review. And you probably won't like it, either.
That being said, Big Money Hustlas is the story of crime lord Big Baby Sweets (Violent J, Insane Clown Posse), who holds New York City firmly in his grasp, supported by his dimwitted henchmen Big Stank (Jamie Madrox, Twiztid) and Lil' Poot (Monoxide Child, Twiztid), and his bodyguard Hack Benjamin (Violent J's brother Jumpsteady).
Desperate to stop Sweet's crimewave, the Chief of Police (John G. Brennan, voice of Mort Goldman in Family Guy) calls to Sugar Bear (Shaggy 2 Dope, Insane Clown Posse), a jive detective from San Francisco with his own soundtrack. Together with the last uncorrupted cop left, Harry Cox (Harland Williams, Employee of the Month), Sugar Bear sets out to end Sweet's reign of terror.
Now, this is where the liking or hating of said Psychopathic Records artists comes in play. For the sake of the argument, I'm assuming that you do like them.
The acting in this film is horrible. After all, they're hip hop artists, not actors. Also, the fourth wall is broken down on several occasions. That doesn't mean it's not entertaining. Violent J's part as the money grubbing Big Baby Sweets is hilarious, and seeing Shaggy play the ultimate '70s detective type will have you groaning and laughing at the same time. Add to that the large selection of extras like Big Stank and Lil' Poot, and you have yourself a gangsterflick gone terribly wrong in the best way possible.
Putting aside the fact that this is ICP, there is a lot of subtle comedy, both in the script and visually, mixed in with the over-abundance of violence and slapstick humour. A large part of the credit goes to the SFX throughout the film. As mentioned, Sugar Bear has his own soundtrack, which in this case means that a little hornsection plays a couple of notes every time someone mentions his name. One of the best moments is when Sugar Bear pulls back the hammer on his revolver and you hear the sound of a shotgun being cocked.
Another thing is the soundtrack. Those who are familiar with the starring artists will probably recognize a lot of songs in the background, which will add a lot to the film itself. For instance, the scene where a young lady gets assaulted by ninjas (Oh yeah, there's ninjas as well) has the instrumental version of the song 'Bitches' playing in the background, known for the 'Girl you know I love you, but now you gotta die' chorus.
It's hard to be objective on this film, since either you love it or you don't, and I obviously love it. I'll say this much though: if you can stand to look at the painted faces of J and Shaggy and you like good, albeit over the top, comedy, then you'll probably like this movie.
If you hate everything Psychopathic, then I guess you shouldn't even be reading this.
