It's that time in the summer I always feel like I need to WHOOP THAT TRICK.

Have you seen the trailers for the latest John Singleton movie? That silly thing with Mark Wahlberg and his black brothers revenging the murder of their adoption agency working mother? Anyone see 2 Fast 2 Furious? How about that awful remake of Shaft? In the first half of the ninties, Singleton made 2 of my favorite films of all time, Boyz in the Hood and Higher Learning - if you missed either of them you are doing yourself a disservice. I remember being entranced the morning after Prom, watching HBO with my very whiote girlfirend in her very suburban home, in awe of the talent in Singleton's first flick. What the hell happened to this guy?

Singleton however shows up as producer of the movie he certainly wishes he had made, the near-perfect HUSTLE AND FLOW, a gritty rags to (about to be) riches story of a pimp who goes legit to be a rapper. I cannot say enough about the cast, all of whom turn out breathtaking and full performances. Every character in the film has an arc and each actor fills their screen time with deft control and luminescent brillance. The cinematagrophy captures the life, lots of nice long establishing shots of the dirty south. Of course, with a movie about a rapper you gotta have the music to back it and HUSTLE really comes through here, both with the music selection and the original music 'composed' by D-JAY for the movie, which is really fricking good (and it takes a lot for me to like hip-hop/rap) .

This is a solid movie with mass market appeal - I am not surprised that MTV jumped on board to help with distribution. I hope that we will see much more from first time writer/director craig brewer and he does not follow too closely the path of Singleton and start making studio trash. I recommend HUSTLE AND FLOW for anyone who likes good movies, fans of hip-hop, fans of Boyz in the Hood, and anyone with a need to Whoop that Trick! Rick's Rating - A

p.s. Mom ... you will like the ending - go see this movie.