Foolish (1999)

Director:

Dave Meyers

Writer:

Master P (writer)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Independent Film | Character Name In Title

Cast

Eddie Griffin	...	Miles 'Foolish' Waise
Master P	...	Quentin 'Fifty Dollah' Waise
Amie Petersen	...	Desiree (as Amy Petersen)
Frank Sivero	...	Giovanni
Daphne Duplaix	...	Clarisse (as Daphne Lynn Duplaix)
Jonathan Banks	...	Numbers
Andrew Dice Clay	...	El Dorado Ron
Sven-Ole Thorsen	...	Paris
Marla Gibbs	...	Odetta
Traci Bingham	...	Simone
Bill Nunn	...	Jimmy Beck
John Marlo	...	Alabama Brown
Clifton Powell	...	Everette Washington
Anthony Johnson	...	Himself (as AJ Johnson)
Anthony Boswell	...	Walter

Also Known As:

Tears of a Clown (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong language, including sex-related dialogue, sexuality and some drug content.

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #36648)

Company:

No Limit Films

Trivia:

[Director Cameo] Dave Meyers is an audience member in the final stand-up scene.

Foolish indeed

"Foolish" is another addition to that subgenre of film that is tangible proof that if you're famous enough in any other area besides films, you can still make your own film. Master P and Eddie Griffin combine their celebrity sway into writing, acting, producing, and improvising an entire feature-length picture. The result is a poorly-written, poorly-acted, and tragically unfunny comedy about two brothers who are trying to make it to "the big time" in a supposedly oppressive and controlling world.

Among the favors called in by these two stars for this movie are a supporting cast of actors who could otherwise have been brought together to make a perfectly acceptable, direct to video, fluffy action/comedy: Andrew Dice Clay, Jonathan Banks, Sven Ole Thorsen, Traci Bingham, and even the late great Brion James. However, even their presences are wasted in favor of random footage of standup acts from Griffin as well as several of his fellow comedians. Music video director David Meyers makes his motion picture debut stitching together this unorganized sequence of scenes into a cohesive storyline. And the closing credits serve the dual purpose of showcasing songs from not one, not two, not three, but four separate artists from P's record label.

Master P read a book on screen writing and used everything he learned to put his script together. He even remembered to actually introduce the grandmother character a full 10 minutes before inexplicably having her die, and thus leading to Griffin's character's dramatic spiral into a drunken depression. And P made sure the script left plenty of scenes open for Griffin's standup routines, attractive women to appear in the nude, the characters to discuss their lives while driving in a car, and Griffin's standup routines. The end of the movie has something to do with "blue light".