The Insane Clown Posse gets a bad rap because their music appeals to people who are just beginning to discover the joys of saying the "F-Word", or are otherwise stuck in that phase for one reason or another. Most of their music is fairly uninspiring "extreme" rap with graphic lyrics about subjects such as fornicating with obese women and slaying humans with hatchets. Their fans, known as juggalos, wear the same black and white face makeup as the two wikkit clowns comprising ICP -- Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope. And so it was, 10 million juggalos made this miraculous film possible. Against all odds these two ultra-crazy clowns have produced a masterpiece of irreverence.

After emerging from the underground with a string of ever greater successes (including the Platinum selling The Great Milenko) , the time was ripe for ICP's silver screen debut at the dawn of the new millenium. Despite having funds perhaps equal to the catering budget of Spider-Man 3, the result is infinitely more entertaining (and inspiring) than that overproduced piece of Hollywood fluff.

Crime lord Big Baby Sweets (Violent J) controls every illicit activity in New York City, holding a sort of dark council in his spacious quarters, overseen by his wigger lieutenants, Big Stank and Lil' Poot (Twiztid). In the first five minutes following his intro, Sweets uses his personal ninja, Hack Benjamin (Jump Steady), to dispatch two of his closest associates with a 12-gauge, including a well-known celebrity who was on What's Happenin!!

Having established Sweets' ruthlessness, it's now clear there's only one cop wikkit enough to take him down: super-hip soul clown Sugarbear (Shaggy 2 Dope). Assigned by police chief Johnny Brennan to hit the streets with rookie Officer Harry Cox (Harland Williams), the two hit the local Donut Hut and soon run into a Glock-toting robber dressed as a gorilla. Sugar disposes of the threat in such a classically awesome fashion, I had to pause the DVD for a good while to catch my breath afterwards. Because I laughed. A lot.

Sugarbear also speaks in rhyming couplets, too. Sampling a jelly donut after foiling the robbery, he spits to the cashier, "Y'know, this'd taste a whole lot better/ if you wadn't gettin' robbed for ya cheddar."

Cheddar, of course, being cash money, and that's a big problem for Big Baby Sweets, who can tolerate anything except having his cheddar fucked with. Thus, he swears a solemn vow of vengeance which begins a terrible cycle of violence and retribution ... unbeknownst to Sugar.

The pleasures of seducing fat strippers with cheese pizza and Faygo prove to be hilarious, and the unending thrill of intercourse is artfully represented by novice director John Cafiero. A fat loving girlfriend, a frosty bottle of Faygo in hand; what more could an insane clown need? Nothing. Unfortunately, ninjas are summoned through the black magicks to violently shatter this idyll.

After seeing his girl hacked to pieces before his eyes, Sugar quits the force in disgust and turns to the bottle and the glass dick. Meanwhile, Sweets is rollicking in his newfound influx of cash, so on top of the world that he even freely breaks through the fourth wall of his own film. (In a neat bit of meta-commentary, Violent J even wrote the screenplay under his human psuedonym Joseph Bruce. He's the only character who "knows" how to break the fourth wall, incidentally)

The situation is resolved through deliberate usage of the deus ex machina device in certain cases, obvious to the point of parody, if that was not the intent all along. Officer Harry Cox appears to have been kidnapped, but it might possibly be part of a more elaborate plan. The villain in BMH is truly always ahead of the competition, always a viable threat. There is also palpable suspense throughout the film, as to when the two leads will finally encounter each other, much like the duelling acting giants in Heat. Hu$tla$ might actually be better than Heat in a number of ways: it tells a similar story in half the time, plus it's a hell of a lot funnier. Sorry, Michael Mann. (as if Michael Mann might be reading this)

Sugar trains himself back to perfection in a day, arrests Sweets' whole gang, doesn't even break a sweat. Big Stank and Lil'Poot get thrown in the interrogation room with the chief (they bitch out), and Sweets and Sugar are in the other room. Finally! The two clowns have so much fucking energy when they're together onscreen it's intense. The camera can't even stay still! The intensity is undermined a little by the crosscutting between the two groups. Perhaps it was to prevent the viewer from being overwhelmed.



Anyway, the finale is a true mind-bender. I guarantee none of you will see the twist coming. It has nothing to do with Violent J and Shaggy being twins seperated at birth (although that would have been cool). Had they had the budget, the final gunfight would have put the one in The Killer to shame, but that might have to wait for the sequel.

I can't wait for it.

BIG MONEY RU$TLA$ COMING IN 2008!

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	Genj - June 18, 2007 (02:17 PM) This sounds like a fucking kitschy movie. Also Insane Clown Posse is a CHRISTIAN RAP BAND btw.
	johnny_cairo - June 18, 2007 (06:04 PM) Uhm, the extreme kitsch is what makes it funny. I like to pretend The Wraith was an elaborate prank. Nothing from their new album would seem to indicate the new "Rap 4 Jesus" perspective; the best track is a first-person account of indiscriminately sniping people from a tower. (the album still blows)
	Genj - June 19, 2007 (06:05 PM) Yeah, I figured that. The first thing.