Christmas In Compton (2012)

Directed by David Raynr

When aspiring music producer Derrick finds himself hoodwinked by a big time record company executive, he’s desperate to get even and remain manager of up and coming singing group Suga Stuff. At the same time Derrick’s father learns about how to move on from the past, find new love, and accept his son for who he is. This may be shocking, but the dad’s storyline is significantly better, not only because it doesn’t include drugging, theft, and attempted sexual assault, but also because the dad is played by Keith David, and he rules.

Christmas In Compton plays like a better version of a Madea movie, there’s tons of racial humor, almost all of it directed as the lone Korean lead, a story about the importance of family/community, and a cast of colorful characters who don’t do a whole lot. There’s kind of a lot of plot that gets established, which I like that they tried to include, but the story isn’t exactly thrilling and I didn’t really “get” the movie so to speak. Is it obvious yet that this movie really wasn’t made for me? I can’t say I enjoyed it very much but I understand that the Madea movies are very popular and I can see the similarities between this and those, Though I do think this movie has better acting and less annoying characters than the Madea movies generally have. So if you enjoy that type of movie you might get more than I do out of this, but if not, then steer clear.