Review: Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

Reviews

The Hip Hop Project

A project in opportunity

By TOM MEEK | May 8, 2007

3.0 Stars

hiphopproject_inside
THE HIP HOP PROJECT: Cannon overcomes his mother’s death to buckle down at school.

Like basketball, hip-hop offers a way out of the inner-city cycle of violence and poverty. As the director of the Brooklyn-based organization of the title, Chris Rolle, a former street orphan abandoned by his mother, gives teens the opportunity he never had. Although slick and embossed by rhyme and beat, this documentary from Matt Ruskin and Scott K. Rosenberg shows Rolle at work. Rap poet Princess gets beyond her father’s incarceration and an abortion to go to college; the cocky Cannon overcomes his mother’s death to buckle down at school. No less compelling is Rolle’s own story, as he returns to the Bahaman slums of his youth and later confronts his unapologetic mother. In a big world, these triumphs may not amount to much, but they prove that some can rise up from unfathomable depths. Rolle’s passion and perseverance power the film, and along the way he gets a boost from rap mogul Russell Simmons and Bruce Willis.

Related: The 37th chamber, When it pours it rains, Reyes Brothers, More

Topics: Reviews , Celebrity News, Entertainment, Music Stars, More

| More

ARTICLES BY TOM MEEK

REVIEW: GOD BLESS AMERICA | May 17, 2012
The latest dark comedy from Bobcat Goldthwait tackles both vapid celebrity culture ( i.e. , Paris Hilton, the Kardashians, and American Idol ) and the indignity of being an office drone.

REVIEW: THE PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS | April 24, 2012
Peter Lord, animator behind claymation staples Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run , directs this very British, very dry romp on the high seas during the time when Britannia did indeed rule the waves.

REVIEW: GOD BLESS AMERICA | April 18, 2012
The latest dark comedy from Bobcat Goldthwait tackles both vapid celebrity culture (i.e., Paris Hilton, the Kardashians and American Idol) and the indignity of being an office drone.

REVIEW: UNDEFEATED | March 15, 2012
Dan Lindsay and T. J. Martin's Oscar-winning documentary about an underequipped high-school football team competing against big-time programs across Tennessee offers a potent contemplation on race and opportunity.

REVIEW: DR. SEUSS' THE LORAX | March 01, 2012
Regrettably, this team loses a lot of Seuss's quirkiness, though not the message about corporate greed and slash-and-burn imperialism.