All About the Benjamins

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All About the Benjamins
All About the Benjamins film poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Kevin Bray
Written by Ice Cube
Ronald Lang
Produced byMatt Alvarez
Ice Cube
StarringIce Cube
Mike Epps
Eva Mendes
Tommy Flanagan
Cinematography Glen MacPherson
Edited bySuzanne Hines
Music by John Murphy
Production
company
Distributed by New Line Cinema
Release date
  • March 8, 2002 (March 8, 2002)
Running time
98 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$15 million
Box office$26 million [1]

All About the Benjamins is a 2002 American buddy action comedy film directed by Kevin Bray, starring Ice Cube and Mike Epps as a bounty hunter and a con artist who join forces to find a group of diamond thieves: the former for glory, and the latter to retrieve a lost winning lottery ticket. The film was released in theaters in March 2002 to negative reviews. Despite this, the film was a moderate box office hit. The film's title was taken from the popular 1997 hip-hop song performed by Puff Daddy "It's All About the Benjamins". Ice Cube and Mike Epps also starred together in the Friday series and the (2009) film Janky Promoters .

Contents

Plot

Tyson Bucum is a bounty hunter trying to acquire the funds to start a private investigation firm, and Reggie is a small-time hustler and bail skipper previously apprehended by Bucum three times. Reggie lives with Gina, his trusting girlfriend. One day, Reggie buys a lottery ticket and wins $60 million. However, he spots diamond thieves running away, and he hides in their van. Reggie escapes the thieves but runs into Bucum. The two of them cannot stand each other, but they team up to retrieve Reggie's wallet with the lottery ticket, and to catch the diamond thieves and recover the diamonds.

Cast

Reception

All About the Benjamins received generally mixed reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 31% of 74 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.4/10.The website's consensus reads: "A sloppy, poorly directed action-comedy, All About the Benjamins is too derivative and gratuitously violent." [2] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 34 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. [3]

Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine wrote that: "[T]he film simultaneously embraces and rejects the dog-whistle vaudeville of Rush Hour and the testosterone overload of Bad Boys , and the result is an absurd, sometimes elegant look at cultural emancipation via the buck." [4] Entertainment Weekly 's Lisa Schwarzbaum gave the movie an overall C− grade, writing that: "I don't know if Cube is melting as he warms up his persona to be all things to all audiences — tough but tender, rap-real but corporate-ready — or if Epps' off-spin, discount-Tucker prattle is slowing Cube's game. But something puddles to nothing in this relentless Miami sun." [5] Russell Smith of The Austin Chronicle criticized the film for being "another slice off the increasingly stale buddy-pic loaf" that came after 48 Hrs. , highlighting the "random disconnectedness" of the action scenes as "downright insulting" and the nasty violence for coming across as "benignly cartoonish silliness". [6]

Soundtrack

A soundtrack containing hip hop and rhythm and blues music was released on February 19, 2002 by New Line Records. It peaked at #65 on the Billboard 200 and #12 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.[ citation needed ]

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References

  1. "All About the Benjamins (2002)". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved March 6, 2013.
  2. "All About the Benjamins". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved February 25, 2024. OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  3. "All About the Benjamins". Metacritic . Fandom, Inc. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
  4. Gonzalez, Ed (February 27, 2002). "Review: All About the Benjamins". Slant Magazine . Archived from the original on November 18, 2021. Retrieved November 18, 2021.Star full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg
  5. Schwarzbaum, Lisa (March 6, 2002). "All About the Benjamins". Entertainment Weekly . Archived from the original on October 4, 2020. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
  6. Smith, Russell (March 15, 2002). "All About the Benjamins - Movie Review". The Austin Chronicle . Archived from the original on November 18, 2021. Retrieved November 18, 2021.Star full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg