Susan Granger’s review of “3 STRIKES” (MGM release)
Referring to California’s controversial ordinance that requires a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life for anyone convicted of a third felony, the title tells it all – and this inept movie is definitely out. Written and directed by D.J. Pooh, the rap-record producer who co-wrote Friday (1995) with Ice Cube, it adds little to the urban comedy genre. Brian Hooks plays a hapless twice-jailed loser who has every intention of going straight when he’s released from the Los Angeles County Jail. “I’m going to do whatever it takes not to go back,” he vows. But when his pal, De’Aundre Bonds, picks him up in a stolen car, they smoke a little weed and get involved in freeway gunplay with the LAPD. He’s innocent but his image is caught on videotape. Immediately, he finds he’s once again on the lam – with no one willing to help him. So where does he hide? The Ritz Carlton Hotel, where else? Who would think to look for him there in the midst of a citywide manhunt? On the screen, just about everything goes wrong. The crude script is inane, the characters little more than racial stereotypes, the rude dialogue filled with clichŽs, and flatulence propels the toxic humor. Even the car chases are boring. N’Bushe Wright doesn’t stand a chance as Hooks’ remarkably tolerant girl-friend, and David Alan Grier is wasted as a trigger-happy detective on his trail. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, 3 Strikes barely musters a 2. This is a truly dismal cinematic experience!
