Bobby Taylor is an aspiring black actor in Hollywood who catches a big break as the lead in a movie called Jivetime Jimmy's Revenge. However, as he considers the negative and stereotyped portrayal of black people in films, he starts to have serious doubts about his dreams of stardom.Produced and directed on a shoestring by thirty-year-old Townsend, Hollywood Shuffle is both a terrific and sobering drama about prejudice in Tinseltown and a hilariously funny series of vignettes from Bobby's point of view, almost like some weird love child of Imitation Of Life and Monty Python. Townsend wisely keeps switching between the two at opportune moments, which reinforces the message, keeps us smiling and makes the drama all the more potent. All Bobby wants to do is live his dream - he didn't bargain on having to cope with the weight of his community's moral and social responsibility, and this of course is the dilemma anybody with a conscience in the public eye has to face. It's important to remember that at the time this movie was made there were virtually no mainstream African-American stars in Hollywood (hence the many references to Eddie Murphy). There may still be a long way to go (particularly for women), but things are better - Morgan Freeman, Laurence Fishburne, Denzel Washington, Will Smith and Samuel L. Jackson are household names now, and if nothing else Hollywood Shuffle may have changed some hearts and minds. The talented cast are great fun to watch, especially Woodard (Tyrone) and Johnson (Lydia, Willie Mae in the Mandingo bit, and the hooker at the end of Attack Of The Street Pimps), and all of the comedy is laugh-out-loud funny, particularly the Sneakin' In The Movies Siskel & Ebert spoof and the black-and-white private-eye flick, Death Of A Breakdancer. A great independent comedy bursting with talent and insight, and a wicked expose of stereotyping. For an even funnier (but not so socially redeeming) companion piece to this, don't miss co-writer Keenen Ivory Wayans' hilarious I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, made a year later. Respectfully dedicated to Adolph Caesar, who co-starred with Townsend in the 1984 adaptation of A Soldier's Story.

Hollywood Shuffle is one of the best black comedies of all-time. It served as a big f--- you to Hollywood for its sickening portrayal of black people. Robert Townsend used comedy for a great purpose(to convey a truth) and it worked out splendidly.Premise: Bobby(played by Robert Townsend) has dreams of making it big in Hollywood. He works for a crummy hot dog stand called Rinky-Dinky Dog(no, really) with idiotic co-workers as well as an idiotic boss. The only problem Bobby faces is the negative roles that Follywood tends to offer black people. He soon has to make a decision if he wants to go with the BS roles of the movie industry or to go a different route.Opinion: This movie hits the nail on the head with the types of roles that Follywood has destined for us to play. Its funny as well as sharp in its delivery. The Black Acting School skit has to be the funniest sketch in the movie. The black detective is the second funniest thing. Sure most people might say that the acting is over-the-top but these actors who play in the types of movies that Hollywood Shuffle parodies are always over the top with their performance so what are you talking about? I respect Hollywood Shuffle for using humor to address a serious subject instead of stooping to the brainless comic dung that you get from these Chittlin Circuit movies that are produced nowadays. And the sad thing is that people are trouncing gems like Hollywood Shuffle while embracing minstrel rubbish like Soul Plane, Norbit, Code Name: The Cleaner, Juwanna Mann etc. A sad state of affairs. In closing I would say support comedies like Hollywood Shuffle any chance you get. They're the only bright light you get in the dark tunnel of comedy in Hollywood.

by Dane Youssef Movies in general are so formulaic that even most independent films are pretty routine and by-the-numbers.Maybe that's why "Hollywood Shuffle" feels so refreshing, like a much-needed change of pace. Most indies are made almost entirely by hand---one man writing, directing, producing (hey, they need every single spare cent they can get their grubby hands on) and this one is no exception.Townsend wears all the indie hats here… and he wears them proudly.This is the film that introduced the world to Robert Townsend. Well, that was it's whole purpose. Like "The Brother McMullen," this star-vehicle was written and directed by Townsend about his dream to make it as a professional actor, trying to break into Hollywood, while at the same time, trying to over-come the cruel limitations mainstream Hollywood has set up for black people who want to act... and actors, in general.Whereas the '70's was the birth decade of the blaxploitation, so many of them were just cheap, cheesy, corny knock-offs of popular white films. Blaxploitation got more blacks into films, but the films themselves weren't really about anything. "Hollywood Shuffle" is a Blaxploitation film that really has something to say... that has an agenda.There is so much burning talent, so many struggling entertainers wanting to make something of themselves, that Hollywood can afford to treat the auditioning talent the same way a really strong cleanser treats germs.Townsend's efforts to make this movie are inspiring--he borrowed every dollar he could, asked for movie footage that was left on the cutting-room floor, called in every favor he could, threw everything he had and more to get this one made.To tell his story, get his foot in the door... and at the same time, tell a story about what this kind of life is like. For those with talent who dare to dream big.Greats Keenan Ivory Wayans and John Witherspoon have bit players as people who work at a hog stand in the neighborhood who don't ask for much out of life... and don't get it. They're the kind of cynics who believe, "You're a fool for following your dreams." When you near the end of your journey in this world, you really fully understand the meaning of the old phrase, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." Townsend interlocks a variety of skits with this all-too autobiographical tale, all of which are pretty funny and inspiring. You have to admire the way that Townsend wants to put out some legitimate roles for black actors to play and black actors to idolize. But most of his skits go on too long after the point has been made and there are quite a few moments that feel like someone (Townsend obviously) should have punched up. Townsend is a far better actor than he is a writer/director.Perhaps because he is only a filmmaker by necessity for this one. He's more interested in using this to make up of all those dream roles he never got to play and showing his chops as an actor than really making a great movie.There's a scene where he takes-off "Siskel & Ebert"--before everyone started doing it. Almost all the skits (where Townsend is fantasizing his dream roles as an actor) go on way too long, probably because Townsend is far less concerned with how funny the skits/movie is and more interested in using this movie to play all the dream roles he never got to before.Every actor is perfectly cast, especially Townsend himself. It's great to see him playing all these roles you know he's always dreamed of doing (he plays them while his character actually IS day-dreaming).The movie captures the struggle of the out-of-work actor just right. We see lines and lines of actors warming-up, rehearsing their roles, going into the audition... all to hear, "Thank you, next!" But some blessed, precious few are picked.But those that are black are given racially-biased drivel to perform. Ethnic caricatures that shame and set back their race. Brothers and sisters who talk like stock characters from the slave era, wearing redneck farm clothes, picking cotton, eating chicken and getting stinking drunk. Townsend tirades many black archetypes, most of which went out of style around the same time as black-face. Lil' Bobby obviously wants to say something about the way the brothers and sisters are treated in the biz. There are some moments here you'll roar with laughter at, as well as put a lump in your throat and a strange feeling of hope and pride. Like many other breakthrough films, especially independents, "Hollywood Shuffle" was another arrival of a fresh new talent. It happens as often as the rise and setting of the suns, but here is a film where it feels a little more special… because Townsend was really about something. You can see it here, not only in some of his satirist scenes, but some of the quieter moments where real drama in brewing and dreams are at stake.We see where Townsend is asking himself if he's good enough, if he face the whole world (which is how it is when you're struggling to make it as an entertainer… or in life) and when life-long happiness is at stake. It almost hurts. And at the end of it all, when we wonder for Townsend's character, Bobby's sake… what will become of him? And then we realize we already know. We just found out.It's like looking in the sky at the stars like you always do… and then there's a brand-new star shining in the night sky, standing out just a little bit bigger than the others. Haven't seen that one before. Hey, is that a new one? Couldn't be, could it? I don't remember… there are so many. Another star is born.Or made.--Love (or Like), Dane Youssef

Don't get me wrong- I wanted to like this movie. Robert Townsend is thoroughly believable and sympathetic in the role, and I liked him quite a bit. He plays a hopeful, charismatic, good-natured man who's trying to land a role in a film and earn some self-respect.The problem is, he has a very active fantasy life. What this means is that often, mid-scene, Townsend's character will think about something like a movie being discussed, or something he sees on TV. The movie then goes into his fantasy and enacts it for us, usually with him playing one of the characters in it. This wouldn't be so bad except for three main issues: The fantasies occur pretty often, usually about every ten or 15 minutes. They are usually silly and cliched, taking away from the more interesting and serious main storyline. The third and worst aspect of the fantasy gimmick is that they are just plain long. When Townsend overhears a conversation about black movie critics, for example, he thinks about it and we see a visualization of his thoughts, two black critics in a theater. You'd expect this to have a joke or two, then get back to Townsend. Instead, we watch a pretty unfunny scene that lasts more than five minutes as the two guys review fictitious movies such as an Amadeus ripoff and a pimp zombie film. It's pretty unfunny, lasts way too long and milks the scenes for cheap laughs that fall flat.This happens way too much, and makes the movie seem awkward, as if there wasn't enough confidence in the basic premise and instead tried to pad the film with waste. It could just be my personal opinion, but I really didn't like any of the fantasies (especially a private detective one, which drags on for something like ten or 15 minutes). There was one exception, the first fantasy of the movie, where a fake school for black film stereotypes is advertised. This was the only dream sequence that was any good, because it takes very harsh jabs at black stereotypes. "I got to play 5 muggers, and a rapist!" Says one black hopeful. Another one is being taught how to walk "black" by a white instructor. "Call 1-800-555-Coon!" the ad flashes. It's good satire, and being a white man, I wasn't offended but instead laughed at how accurate this parody was of some people's attitudes towards black characters. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie falls pretty flat, due to the fact that none of the other fantasies had the wit of the first, or told it in such a sharp way. As a result we're left with a storyline that isn't focused on when it should be at least 90% of the film.I liked Robert Townsend, and I felt for his plight. He wants badly to be an actor, make it in the business, and fulfill his dream. The problem is that the role he's hoping for is unfortunately quite racist in its portrayal of blacks as sniveling, cowardly, primitively speaking brutes who are engaged in a weapon fight. He must decide whether his dreams are worth sacrificing his dignity, whether this chance at stardom is worth the hard first stepping stone.And had the movie spent more time on this, and much less on the wandering fantasies, it would have been much better. Townsend's character was charming and I would have preferred to see him just be himself instead of the fantasy characters, but since that's the case only about half the time, I rate this movie a 5- promising but disappointing.