Search - All About the Benjamins (New Line Platinum Series) on DVD

Okay ride.

Queen Cleobethra | 04/21/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Tell them about the Benjamins Baby" What's it about? Trying to stop some criminals responsible for a Diamond heist. There's a bounty hunter, Bookman (Ice Cube) who wants to open his own PI firm so he can make more money. However, he needs cash for start up. So he works hard and always brings in his man. One day in the pursuit of a wanted small time con-man, Reggie (Mike Epps), he stumbles across a diamond heist forcing himself and the "criminal" to become allies. Along the way Reggie's girlfriend, Gina, and Pam, Bookman's co-worker, get involved in the pursuit of "The Benjamins". "All about the Benjamins" just wasn't my kind of movie, without Valarie Rae Miller's presence, I wouldn't have even seen it. So perhaps my review is a little bias. "All about the Benjamins" is a comedy with elements of a caper. The movie is basically cookie cutter bad guys, bag 'em shoot em up, money (Benjamins), ice (diamonds), and Cube getting to play tough guy with a silly comedian side kick that seems to be akin to Chris Tucker (who of course made his mark with Ice Cube in Friday). Oh yeah, and a couple of girls for the guys. It's an Ice Cube movie, I didn't
really expect Oscar winning performances. It's a nice movie to rent and sit around and watch with your friends for a couple laughs. Being a Dark Angel fan, I had to support Valarie Rae's movie. I probably would have ignored the film without her. Anyway, Pam (Valarie's character) is only one of three designated girls. The other two being the villain'slove toy and Reggie's (Mike Epps) long term girlfriend Gina (Menedes). The women are downplayed, even villain's girlfriend who gets to be the only tough girl in the movie. Gina is a gutsy girl next door and Pam is ready for adventure and offering to be Bookman's partner. Villain's girlfriend (who's name is so unimportant I forgot it), despite being 'girl with attitude', went down pretty
easy and was pretty stupid in my opinion. Gina (Menedes) was amusing, mostly because the girl probably was tougher than her boyfriend Reggie the sidekick. She says several times in the movie, to her boyfriend Reggie, "baby you can't fight". But still, Gina was just there to get kidnapped. So it seemed like she was just there to keep the movie from ending early and to be the pretty thing on the bumbling sidekicks arm. However, she and Pam (Valarie) don't just sit around doing there nails, they do get to drop a couple of bad guys. However, Pam's primary importance in the film seemed to be passing on information to Bookman (Ice Cube). Since Pam actually got to be in a car chase, help rescue the kidnapped Gina, and drop some bad guys (with the help of Gina and a boat), you could say Pam saw more action than Original Cindy's seen in Dark Angel's second season. Yet I can't say the movie was great. In general though, it was a fine movie to go see for fun with a couple of laughs here and there."