Crimes
- Expanding an Eddie Griffin concert film into a garbled narrative about Griffin's gangster brother, played by Foolish screenwriter and producer Master P
- Featuring atrocious acting and gaudy stereotypes
- Assuming that all women want from men is money and "dick"
Defender
Director Dave Meyers
Tone Of Commentary
Explanatory and contradictory. Meyers practically begs listeners to read between the lines when he talks about P having a good soul "when he focuses." His attempt to put the best spin on his boss' petulance and adolescent whims leads him to make statements like "We didn't want to do anything derogatory," as the screen shows a topless woman falling onto a bed in six repeated exposures.
What Went Wrong
"The movie started out as an autobiography of Eddie and became more about P and Eddie," Meyers says, adding that P was only available for about an hour a day, forgot his lines, and "wanted to be involved with most of the women in the film," which led to Foolish losing its lead actress the day before the shoot began when "something went down" and she quit. At the end of the commentary, Meyers says with a sigh, "The fact that the movie makes sense is an accomplishment."
Comments On The Cast
Meyers says his strategy was to surround P with real actors, to make his stilted line delivery less noticeable. For example, "We got Frank [Sivero] here, who I loved from GoodFellas and… other Italian films." When that didn't work, "We put a naked lady in here so that P'd feel comfortable… Once she left the room, we got a pretty good scene out of him." On the other hand, Meyers gushes so much about Griffin that he lapses into malapropisms, calling Griffin "an incredibly diversified comic" who he hopes will "embellish us with movie after movie."
Inevitable Dash Of Pretension
Meyers describes his attempts to make the caustic Griffin warmer by showing him conversing with the spirits of Redd Foxx and Robin Harris ("Having dead comics visit him was just a beautiful symbol of what goes through his head") and giving money to the son of a lover he resents.
Commentary In A Nutshell
"The day we shot this, P just got back from basketball rehearsal—I mean practice—and he was in a really bad mood. He doesn't like to shoot stuff outside. For Eddie's close-up, he got out of the car and left. P's not really into a lot of coverage."