Set in Detroit, Gridlock’d shows America in decay. The late, hugely lamented Tupac Shakur teams up with Tim Roth to deliver a sizzlingly paced and frequently funny black (and white) comedy, one that pokes a big finger of blame into the eye of an uncaring American healthcare system. The film’s mockery of how American healthcare mistreats its weakest, most vulnerable citizens feels more relevant today than ever before. It's a tragedy that Tupac will never see what he and his friends have achieved. This is a brave, unself-consciously stylish film that deals with contemporary American issues in unusual, often wickedly amusing ways. Hall's dialogue is tight, witty and closely observed, and carries the film through its quieter moments without ever letting the viewers' interest wane. The largest dollop of credit, however, must go to writer/director/actor Vondie Curtis Hall, who drew on his own grimly colourful growing-up-in-Motortown experiences to pen the script, and who makes an impressive directorial debut. (Roth plays this sort of part a bit too often these days, perhaps because he's bloody good at it.)
The actors are all top-notch too: Shakur's death is a loss to the thespian profession Thandie Newton (who is fit - in both senses - and healthy in a series of plot-enhancing, eye-pleasing flashbacks) has delicious screen presence and busy-bee Tim Roth turns in yet another of his convincing unhinged-but-likeable-lowlife performances. Damian Jones (Producer) Initially everybody was nervous about Tupac, given his reputation. I was blown away by Tupac´s ability to bring his natural rhythm thats so prevalent in his music to the screen. But it works: - the powerful, well-rounded characters, hilarious dialogue and assorted foot-and-car chases make palatable what could otherwise have been a relentlessly grim undertaking. Gridlockd Interviews Taken from various interviews with people invovled with Gridlockd. Roth's frantic energy and Shakur's disturbed cool complement each other, even when Hall's arty use of fragmentary flashbacks weighs down the film with too many trendy trappings.Gridlock'd is a strange film, pitched halfway between crime comedy and grit-strewn real life.
The pair's chemistry is so much stronger than the script, which doesn't deliver the necessary punch-lines to counter what is essentially a buddy movie about being stuck in a deadly rut. It's not exactly a laugh riot to watch them lose control in an understaffed, unsympathetic emergency room while their friend slips deeper into a coma, and the joke gets thinner as they dodge bullets to wait in line at one government agency after the other.
So they shoot more drugs to deal with the wait, but the carrot dangling in front of them keeps getting further and further away and they find themselves in more and more trouble the harder they try to change their lives.Īlthough Roth and Tupac inject (oops!) a whole lot of life into their roles, they can't carry this one-gag movie about the frustrations of social service bureaucracy. They're terrified, "scared straight," or at least they want to go straight.īut they can't do it without some detox assistance, which, they soon realize, never comes when you need it. When she finally gets to the hospital, she can't wake up. Released January 29th, 1997, Gridlockd stars Tupac Shakur, Tim Roth, Thandiwe Newton, Charles Fleischer The R movie has a runtime of about 1 hr 31 min, and received a user score of 67 (out of. They try to get her immediately to a hospital, but no taxi will pick them up and no ambulance arrives. Stretch (Roth) and Spoon (Shakur) discover that Cookie ( Thandie Newton) has overdosed just before what may be their big break - a meeting with a record company executive who, we soon find out, had earlier given her drugs. His screen presence is so strong here and he cuts such a dashing, volatile figure that his death last year in what is widely believed to be an under-investigated gang shooting is now all the more tragic. Shakur has sold millions as 2Pac, the gangsta rapper who believed his own boasts and lost his way in the process, but the man was clearly meant to be a movie star. "Chicago Hope," this comedy is about two jazz musicians who try to kick the habit after their friend and singer goes into a coma on New Year's Eve.īut it is well-acted, and will be primarily remembered as a posthumous showcase for a natural actor whose notorious life and flashy other career upstaged what was all along his major talent.