Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Borgarkeri A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Mr-Fusion Robert Townsend comes off like a real troublemaker in 'Hollywood Shuffle", an incisive and often hysterical indictment of typecasting in Tinseltown. It's made on a shoestring budget, and that shows in the production values - but who gives a rip about that? There's always a cheesy gag waiting around the corner and that levity is what makes this so fun. It's the delivery that's a real stroke of genius; the message is couched in harmless (and hilarious) movie parodies . Townsend's spoof of Siskel and Ebert (Sneakin' in the Movies) alone is worth the price of admission.Yeah, I'd say this has held up nicely. It's great stuff. 7/10

siukong Non-white actors and actresses have faced an uphill battle since the earliest days of cinema. Even today, other than a privileged few superstars, many minority actors struggle to find roles. When they do get cast, it's often in a very limited breadth of stereotypical roles - whether it be the Asian nerd, the Middle Eastern terrorist, or the black gangster/thug. Actors often have to weigh their ethical qualms at playing a role they find tactless (or even out-and-out racist) against the practical demands of paying the bills.In Hollywood Shuffle, Robert Townsend shows the African-American side of these difficulties in the story of aspiring actor Bobby Taylor in late-80s LA. Bobby's story is interspersed with fantasy sequences that address and parody various popular films and genres.For an indie film, the visual look of Hollywood Shuffle is quite good. Apart from some actors playing multiple roles, you wouldn't think this had a budget barely over five figures. I certainly respect anyone who would self-fund a movie the way Townsend did, especially to draw attention to an important social issue such as this. However, the movie suffers from several problems. The balance of comedy and seriousness seems skewed, and the writing often seems very ham-handed and uneven. Many of the fantasy sequences are too long and drawn-out, and Bobby's story seems to suffer for it, feeling too simple and rushed. It feels like Townsend couldn't decide between two types of movie - one a silly comedic satire lampooning Hollywood from a black perspective, and the other a more serious story with a more wry sense of humour derived from his real experiences as a struggling actor - and so he just tried to make both (but succeeded at neither).Much of the movie seems like it would have been dated even at the time it was released. It feels like it would have been more at place if released five to ten years earlier, with references to Superman, Rambo, Dirty Harry, Roots and the jive-talking' blaxploitation genre that was so popular in the 70s (but, as far as I know, was long-dead by 1987). Perhaps this dated feeling is because of the big shift that was about to took place in the late 80s and early. Hip hop was growing and maturing into a real mainstream force, TV shows like In Living Color and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air were soon to become huge hits, and more nuanced portrayals of urban black life like Do the Right Thing and Boyz n the Hood were in the pipeline. Now that's not to say that these new portrayals and perceptions of black characters and life weren't without their own particular problems - just that much of what Hollywood Shuffle presented feels like it would have been irrelevant by then.Overall, I agree with some of the other reviewers in the use of the word "uneven". I'd like to give it more credit for its ambition and guts, but it seems like it didn't really have much effect on things.Final summary: 4/10 | C-

view_and_review It was '92 or '93, I was home channel surfing and I saw Robert Townsend. I thought, "I'll give this movie a shot, I like Robert Townsend". I caught the movie in the middle but I watched it to completion. This movie was such a riot that I went out and rented it so that I could see it from beginning to end. Robert Townsend had me in stitches.The movie is a comedy about the stereotyping that goes on in Hollywood. It follows a young aspiring actor named Bobby Taylor (Robert Townsend) and his arduous road to becoming a Hollywood star. It's done in almost skit style as Bobby Taylor lapses into a series of daydreams that puts him in different roles. Each daydream is just a ball of laughs. Townsend approaches a delicate subject in an hysterical manner but still drives home a good message.Absolutely my favorite Townsend performance.

primona I just had the pleasure of seeing this movie again but this time through the lens of an adult. I'm amazed at how smart and funny this movie is. The film is a humorous and yet sad satire on how blacks are betrayed in film and television. The film focuses on Bobby Taylor (Robert Townsend) as he attempts to become a successful actor. It features over the top white Hollywood casting agents, producers, and directors who provide feedback to black actors (in some cases classically trained) on how to act "more black" or be like Eddie Murphy. The film is set-up as a series of vignettes which are all good but I had two favorites. One is a vignette that involves a television show called "Sneakin' in the Movies" which is a parody of Siskel and Ebert reviews, involving two ghetto teenagers. They review four movies: Amadeus meets Salieri, Chicago Jones and the Temple of Doom, Dirty Larry, and Attack of the Street Pimps. They're assessments, especially on what would really happen to Dirty Larry (a parody on the movie Dirty Harry) involve so many funny quotable lines that I dare you to not find yourself repeating one of them. The other vignette features Keenen Ivory Wayans as Jheri Curl. Now this second vignette might be hard to get unless you grew up in the 80s.Despite the topic, the film is not mean spirited but uses humor to educate us on the stereotypes we frequently see (even today) when it comes to blacks in film and TV and it's not hard to see how this enlightenment we have obtained would expand to other minorities and diverse groups like Hispanics, Asians, or gays. It's good to learn and laugh at the same time – Enjoy!