Reviews

This episode is pretty creative with some great jokes and moments sprinkled throughout. The Q reboot was definitely the best. Plus the second half was strong, and the digs at the streaming/TV audiences were pretty clever.

They gotta stop over explaining some of the jokes though. It kills a lot of the jokes on arrival. It happened mostly during the Lois sketch, but the rest of the episode was pretty good.

I will say that I enjoyed this film when it first came out back in 2016, but in 2019, this film just doesn't do it anymore.

This is intended to be an R-Rated parody of Pixar and Disney films, but is kinda empty and doesn't do enough with the premise.

The first and last 20 minutes of this film are entertaining, but the rest leaves a lot to be desired. After the food gets split up from the market, they pretty much give up on jokes and just rely on swearing and sexual comments. There's nothing wrong with being vulgar, but if you don't have good jokes to back it up, it lacks a punch. This film isn't completely witless, and there are some clever moments, but there was a lot of missed chances.

And the religious satire is pretty much the same thing we've seen on other adult comedies like Family Guy and South Park. The theme is pretty much that religion causes unnecessary division and doesn't allow us to explore ourselves. However, the delivery was not particularly original.

I would be lying if I said this film didn't deliver any laughs. However, an R-Rated reimagining of Disney films should be more exciting, funny, and creative. It feels like the creators had a few good ideas, but didn't add on to them and ran out of steam.

I loved this movie when I was younger, but today I could careless for it. It covers no new ground, and tries to uphold the cast as heroes without a strong case. I still enjoy some of their music, but other than the infamous police song and some of Cube's solo work, their music did not uplift the black community or make the world more aware of sociopolitical issues. The movie alludes to that and tries to tell us this, but we see more of the cast trying to act cool than them fighting for a cause, making it unconvincing in my eyes (Although my younger self was fooled). Let's all be honest, no one listens to N.W.A to "be informed". Their anger, aggression, and bluntnesss sells the music, and the consciousness is an afterthought (this doesn't mean it's wrong to enjoy them though). This isn't a morality crusade, but simply acknowledging a problem doesn't make you heroic, you have to take initiative to fix it.

A lot of people say this movie is raw and gritty because of the swearing, violent imagery, and groupie sex scenes. However, that is more glamor than grit, and despite all the parental advisories about this film (Police at theaters making sure no one under 17 gets in, and FX plays about four different warnings before this film airs), it's very sugar coated and PG compared to the real story of N.W.A. Entire beefs were skipped, and details that made Cube and Dre look like jerks were skipped over too. I'd like to compare this to The New Edition Story. Although that was a PG-13 film, the cast put pretty much every thing on the table, even the details that made them look selfish or foolish, and showed that they did their fair share of dirt, even during their bubblegum pop days, making it feel more raw than this film. Here, we only see these sides of the characters if it makes them look more badass, making the whole experience feel contrived.

And we all know that Eazy-E did not cry during the release of The Chronic. His popularity waned a bit from N.W.A's heyday, but he was still releasing music and signing new groups and artists. In fact, he received a portion of The Chronic's income. I did not appreciate the fact that they made him look weak and cowardly in the second half of the film. They made it look like he was nothing without N.W.A, but he fared well as a solo artist and would've further expanded his brand if it wasn't for his unfortunate death.

N.W.A's story is vast and includes many characters and artists who followed their influence, so I could see why certain details and people were not included. But when the final product ends up as a sanitized story that boosts up two people and downplays everything else, it makes a very one-sided and dissatisfying film. And although the finale scene was meant to be a declaration of Dre's independence, it came off as very cheesy and overly "Hollywood". The way Suge and Dre talked in that scene sounded like something out of a Marvel movie, and was wholly unbelievable. There is some good acting, a few powerful scenes, and little doses of humor throughout the film, but these cannot make up for the story

Edit: The most helpful review on the site claims that the only reason someone could dislike this movie is because it dared to show "angry black men". Considering how watered down this film was, they weren't angry enough.

The show is humorous at times and the kids are funny, but the story is a little flimsy. If this is a family band, how come they didn't catch heat over the radio interview? And they rely on cussing/sex jokes a little too much. Never thought I'd see the day where George Constanta curses more than Eric Cartman. Hopefully they fix it over time.

Family Guy is a long running animated program that has had an huge impact on pop culture. The show brought a nice mix of sitcom tropes, black comedy, "low-brow" humor, intelligent jokes, and gags. I've been watching since 2007, "Stewie Kills Lois" was my first episode, and I've been hooked ever since. However, the show has been running out of steam.

I wasn't even around for the original run, but I think pre-cancellation episodes are superior to what we have now. They milked every opportunity for a joke they could. Nowadays, they just make lame observations or overdone celebrity comparisons, even when the plot screams absurdity. "Saturated Fat Guy" for example, had so many chances to play off of Peter's unhealthy habits, but it just fell flat. The scene where Peter thought about how successful his junk food business could be could've been home to some funny visuals, like him living in a mansion made of junk food, and diving in a pool of soda or beer. Instead, we got some line about a celebrity being sad on a ride. The jokes used to be clever, but recently, they over-explain them or give away the punchline in the delivery, which kills the momentum.

Also, since Season 4, they've had scenes where the characters just stand around and talk about nothing for minutes on end. I think they're going for a "Seinfeld Conversation" kind of thing but it doesn't mesh well with the show's fast paced style.

The show's use of black comedy has also downgraded. They're no punchline or point to the dark events on the show, they just happen and we're supposed to laugh. Just like a joke about a lamp can be lame, a joke about a dead baby can too. The pilot episode, for example, had a great joke about Hitler being jealous of a Jew at the gym. And for 1/3 of the show's run, Stewie would stop at nothing to kill his mother Lois, which was a goldmine of dark comedy. Nowadays, they do things like having Peter brutally slaying a whale for no good reason and blowing up children's hospitals just because. I will say the violence in the recent Quentin Tatrintino episode was great because it was a nice parody of his style. Also, they just list racial stereotypes now instead of playing with them like they use to.

The show is still pretty good, but ironically, they lost their edge while trying to be edgier. The recent season seems to be getting back on the right track, especially with the story arcs and "experiment" episodes. Here's to many great FG episodes to come.