Shawn's Soul Men Review

2008 Movie #141 - Soul Men

This movie is only known at all because it stars both Bernie Mac and Issac Hayes, who of course died within days of each other this past summer. I wasn’t a huge fan of either one, but I definitely respected them and enjoyed elements of both of their work. It’s really too bad this movie is going to go down as their last big on screen performances. Nothing against them and their performances, they just got stuck in a pretty bad movie.

The first thing that surprised me about Soul Men is that I had no idea it was a rated R movie. The fucks just going flying left and right in this one. The problem is that it never really works. It feels like they are just swearing because they can. It’s way too casual and never really funny. I admit I laughed a little at first but I think that was just because I was so surprised how many fucks there were in this thing. By the end of this movie I was completely ‘fuck’ed out. It’s gratuitous and unnecessary.

The cast is fine. Samuel L. Jackson plays the same role he plays in most movies, so you can’t say he was bad. He’s just really good at doing the same thing. He and Bernie Mac do share some pretty good chemistry together though and some of the scenes where they verbally attack each other are actually a little amusing at times. Of course the movie also decides to bury this into the ground as well. Isaac Hayes is in the movie for about 2 minutes total playing himself, so not too much to say about his performance.

The second thing that surprised me about this movie was the music. It was actually pretty decent. It doesn’t come close to some of Sam J’s stuff in Black Snake Moan, but it’s actually pretty enjoyable. It was probably the best part of the whole movie I would say.

It wasn’t a terrible movie, but its’ a very weak comedy and not a good sendoff for Bernie Mac, who I know is capable of a lot better than this. I have to give it a decent score for the somewhat amusing moments it had scattered throughout, the surprisingly good music, and almost as a sympathy gesture for poor Bernie and Isaac. What a way to be remembered.

**/5