You Got Served

Saturday, December 29, 2007

OK, I'm going to be honest here. This was probably the 4th or 5th time I've watched You Got Served, and my enjoyment of it isn't entirely ironic. Yes, a lot of this movie is laughably bad, especially the dialogue. Also, the movie dismisses a very large subplot that took up a large chunk of the movie, with just a very quick exchange of dialogue between minor characters. This is not a good film.

But god damn it, if I don't genuinely enjoy all this silliness, and god damn it if the dancing doesn't plaster a big fucking smile on my face.

This movie is what I categorize as a Demons Movie. The Demons Movie classification is named after Demons, which is one of the most wildly entertaining movies ever made. The thing that makes it special is that it is entertaining for reasons that are completely unintentional, yet also entertaining for the very reasons it tries to entertain. It is like a fascinating hybrid of a so-bad-it's-good movie, and a no shit, for real so-good-its-god movie. (You see this trend mostly with horror movies).

You Got Served isn't as incredible as Demons, no, but it provides that same combo of actual entertainment with unintentional hilarity.

Oh, and there's this one part where it's a rap/rock musical montage of the characters training and practicing their dance moves in a gym, when suddenly there is a thunder crash and the next shot is of them outside, dancing shirtless in the rain. No logic or rationalization for this, just the power of the image of shirtless black men in the rain. And I swear to fuck it's that kind of potent visual triumphing over logic or narrative that is the very essence of cinema itself. For real.