They Cloned Tyrone is a return to form for Netflix. It’s a sci-fi comedy with an outrageously absurd plot that works so well. This is what The Blackening should have been. It’s a movie that gives us characters so colorful that the actors have so much fun playing them. And when you’re casting John Boyega, Jamie Foxx, Teyonah Parris) in the lead roles, they definitely add their own style to the roles.
Even though it was filmed in the metro-Atlanta area, it’s set mostly in a suburban area referred to as the Glen. Fontaine (Boyega) is a petty drug dealer who maintains a regular schedule of buying booze and a scratch off from the local liquor store where a bum hangs out nearby as he goes about his daily duties. His mother remains in her room all the time, never coming out as he talks to her through the door. One day, he sees someone trying to work in his turf and hits them with his car as a warning and takes the money.
Little does Fontaine know that he’s upset a rival drug dealer, Isaac (J. Alphonse Nichholson). Later, he goes to a motel get some money from a pimp, Slick Charles (Foxx whose hair style has to be seen), who is fighting with one of his prostitutes, Yo-Yo (Parris). As he’s leaving, he’s fatally shot by Isaac. However, the next morning he wakes up and continues the same routine as before. Yet when he shows up to see Slick Charles he’s told that he was shot to death. They track down Yo-Yo to confirm that she also saw Fontaine being killed.
Confused, they find themselves tailing a suspicious black SUV to a drug house where they discover an underground lab. And Fontaine discovers that Slick Charles and Yo-Yo were telling the truth that he was shot the night before – as he discovers a body resembling himself with gunshot wounds lying on a slab. They eventually discover more things going other than Fontaine being cloned.
To say anymore would give away. I mean the title implies someone being cloned, but there’s a lot going on in this movie. The script co-written by director Juel Taylor with Tony Rettenmaier seems to cobble together other movies like Undercover Brother, Groundhog Day, The 6th Day, The Truman Show, Black Dynamite and They Live. It’s funny seeing Boyega, Foxx and Parris running around like a blaxploitation version of Scooby-Doo‘s Mystery Incorporated. Foxx and Parris provide so much comic relief that it enables Boyega, normally an actor of serious work, to be the confused straight man as he tries to unravel what’s happening.
Keifer Sutherland pops up in a nice villain role as Nixon (appropriately named considering the plot) who has his own Fontaine clone servant, Chester, who functions as his henchman. Nixon has an ulterior motive that I won’t mention. But Sutherland manages to give off some creepy vibes. Following his role as Commander Queeg in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, he’s doing some good work playing antagonists lately. Also, you can tell Sutherland is having fun in the role just as well as he did in Caine Mutiny.
Like a lot of Netflix movies, it’s a little longer than it really should be. Pushing two hours with credits, it could have been trimmed by 10-15 minutes here and there. This is the first feature movie by Taylor following some work as a TV director and it shows he has a lot of talent and skill. It doesn’t take itself too seriously even though it has a message about racial relations. It’s nice to see Foxx, who’s had some health issues, having so much fun as Slick Charles. And Parris, who’s been in a lot of serious roles herself, is totally having a ball with her wild afro and shows she has a lot more common sense and brains than one might think of a hooker.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 