
There's a new Chris Rock special out! And the big sell is the Oscar slap... it's kind of sad.
I appreciate him - don't get me wrong. I loved how he handled the situation at the Oscars. With unexpected finesse. I'm glad he didn't instigate further, and I'm glad he at least seems to be going strong since; putting out specials; moving onward but... I'm not really feeling the jokes here!
I wonder if he is. Is this the real him? I haven't seen a special with him before.
I wonder if my appreciation for Chris was somehow tainted by the incident too, since now that I'm seeing this it just feels like he's bitching about unnecessary things. That he's bitter with the world. That he doesn't have anything better to speak about. That he really has some deep-rooted scars he could use some therapy for - and that this special definitely won't help him with that - no matter that he claims it.
He takes the strong route, and that's cool... but he doesn't come across a victor here.
He was a fan of Will too apparantely. He truly does seem hurt. He fucked up his final joke. It's sad to see.
An IMDB review summed up a large part of this pretty well too, they found the word I was missing.
Crass.
It is a fun special, somewhat - at least the audience seems to be enjoying it, but... crass. Unnecessarily so.
It takes about forty minutes for him to finally start shitting on himself at least a little. Humor at the expense of oneself is my favorite type. I relax a bit then. I start feeling like maybe he's alright after all, but by then we're over halfway through...
He shouts all the time too initially, and it feels forced.
Maybe he's just attempting to do the 'outrage' justice. Maybe he feels like he has to. Eventually he calms down a bit and things get better but... he's just not all there. He repeats lines as well. He repeats jokes. He has a few good ones but I didn't actually laugh at all, not just not whole-heartedly, not at all...
It all entails more grimace than good fun, and it's a shame, cause I really was rooting for him. Will Smith left a bad imprint on everyone with that slap, but in the end I wonder if he won't make a comeback anyway. He still has the charisma. He's still Will. This guy on the other hand... I don't know.
Maybe he never was that good a comic - if he was this really isn't his best work.
Props on staying at it though! Keep being you. I'll catch the next one too; hope you're on your A game then.
Otherwise maybe best catch some movies instead of specials. Those were. Good.
rated 2.5/5: almost not bad