Remember when Ice Cube used to be dope? Back in the early 90s, fresh out of NWA and riding high on a streak of fresh hits like \It Was A Good Day,"" Cube rolled the dice and decided to branch out into movies. Initially it seemed like a good decision, with the movie he wrote, produced and co-starred in, ""Friday,"" becoming a huge underground hit, rumored to be the most frequently stolen movie ever from Blockbuster. Recent years, however, have seen his mic skills drastically decline while he focuses on releasing a number of lackluster, but sometimes unintentionally amusing movies, including ""Player's Club"" and ""Next Friday."" Now the action-comedy ""All About the Benjamins"" can be added to that list.
The movie opens in Miami with an establishing scene that shows Cube's character, Bucum Jackson, at work as a bounty hunter. Just in case the viewer missed the point, his bulletproof vest says ""Bounty"" on it in all capital letters, and that level of subtlety prevails throughout the rest of the movie. Soon, he is assigned to the task of capturing Reggie Wright (Mike Epps), a small-time con man with ""an allergy to the judicial system"" that Bucum has already turned in three times. Reggie, while fleeing from Bucum, gets shot at by diamond thieves and loses a winning $60,000,000 lottery ticket. After a series of chases, Bucum gets his man, but not before running up against the very same diamond thieves.
Of course, Reggie cannot go to jail without finding his winning lotto ticket, and Bucum wants to solve the jewel theft before the police do to gain publicity for the private investigation agency he wants to open, so the two reluctantly band together to find the diamond thieves. Highly dubious close escapes, dead people in bathtubs, Scottish diamond fencers and a fight in a boat with millions of dollars in cash flying around all take place during this quest, along with a little bit of learning.
Despite how entertaining this sounds, it is all extremely formulaic and Cube deserves most of the blame. As producer and writer, he shapes the movie into a bunch of scenes that he seems to think will be cool, not giving much thought toward originality, continuity or character consistency. As an actor, he has proven effective in playing a supporting role'see ""Friday"" and ""Three Kings""'but anything that calls him to show range greater than a menacing scowl is problematic. Epps does a reasonably endearing job in the wisecracking buddy role that Tucker inhabited in ""Friday,"" but can not carry the movie by himself. A good portion of the time, he appears to be channeling the spirit of Jimmie Walker, back-talking and face-wrinkling at every given opportunity. For the most part it works, but referring to Cube's character as ""pimpin'"" is only funny so many times.
Bucum and Reggie's female counterparts (Valerie Rae Miller and Eva Mendes respectively) are both charmingly insouciant as sassy better halves, and pubescent rapper Li'l Bow Wow makes an impressive screen debut as one of Reggie's neighbors. The rest of the supporting cast, though, is horrible, with Tommy Flanagan playing the Scottish criminal mastermind with about as much emotion as a Bentley hood ornament, and his underlings aren't portrayed any better.
Mainly, though, it just comes down to the fact that Ice Cube is not very good at making movies. The script is sophomoric and predictable and his acting hits the same note over and over. Despite all this, though, anyone who tends to laugh, either seriously or ironically, at the phrase ""bling bling"" will probably find ""Benjamins"" at least moderately amusing. No longer adept at rapping or making movies, at least Cube is still good for an unintentional laugh.
