My thoughts on “Hollywood Shuffle”

I enjoyed this film, even though it had a relatively simple story. I thought that Robert Townsend was smart with the decisions he made in terms of how he wanted to project his message. It’s interesting because Hollywood really is like this. They actively look for people to play stereotypes, and the number of people who do just because they need money is astounding. I also enjoyed the skits during the film, especially Townsend’s take on Siskel and Ebert. It was a very funny skit and some of the ‘movies’ they showed were very clever. However, my problems with the film come to how over-the-top it is. The message that Townsend is trying to get across is gotten, but many of the fantasies in the film, as well as some of the performances, come across as silly. I understand that this is a comedy, but at certain points some of the parodies started to tread into ‘Scary Movie’ territory. Overall, I liked Hollywood Shuffle, even though it wasn’t very sophisticated.