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All About the Benjamins is a 2002 American buddyaction 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.
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
Ice Cube as Tyson Bucum, a bounty hunter who has a hatred for his job due to low-budget payment and teams up with Reggie, eventually befriending him.
Mike Epps as Reggie Wright, a con artist who teams with Bucum.
Anthony Michael Hall as "Lil J", a con artist and drug dealer who is arrested by Bucum earlier in the film.
Anthony Giaimo as Martinez, Bucum's boss.
Robert MacBeth as Mr. Dwight Sheldon, a local store owner who shows great annoyance of Reggie.
Bob Carter as Mr. Barkley, a wealthy man who has a batch of diamonds, wanted by Williamson.
Bow Wow (credited as Lil' Bow Wow) as Kelly, a neighbor of Reggie.
Barbara Barron as Mrs. Barkley, the wife of Mr. Barkley.
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]
