Big Money Rustlas is the follow up to the Insane Clown Posse’s first foray into movie making, the similarly-named Big Money Hustlas. Hustlas was about a gangster named Big Baby Sweets and his crew running Detroit crime and “getting money”. The only clean cop on the beat, Sugar Bear is called upon to take down Big Baby and his gang of thugs, and make the streets of Detroit safe again. It starred ICP, their fellow record label friends Twiztid, Myzery, and Mike E. Clarke, as well as a few celebrity cameos. It was completely stupid, horribly acted, written, produced, and admittedly… pretty funny.
So full disclosure here: I used to be a big Insane Clown Posse fan. Seriously. Concerts, T-Shirts, CDs, Faygo… the whole deal. I had a crappy AOL website that I made dedicated to ICP. I had all their albums, some even on tape. I saw them in concert on vacation with a friend. Luckily my addiction stopped short of painting my face or getting some lame tattoo. Needless to say, I was in deep. I don’t remember the exact turning point in my life, but at some point, I grew up. I left all the Faygo, ridiculous slang, and the wicked carnival behind. However, I had a soft spot for their first movie Big Money Hustlas, and still do, for what ever reason. Now you know. So when I rip on ICP, I do it from the perspective of a one time fan, not just some guy that doesn’t understand.
Big Money Rustlas ( Observations on Twitter during the movie )
The town of Mud Bug has issues, the least of which is the fact that it is being run by a gambling thug by the name of Big Baby Chips and his cronies Raw Stank and Dusty Poot. Chips and his men do what they want, when they want, all in the pursuit of money. One day the prodigal son of former sheriff Gizzly Wolf, named Sugar Wolf, strolls back into town looking to clean things up and make a name for himself. Chips throws everything at Sugar to assure that he can still get his money, but soon realizes he has to challenge Sugar to a duel. Chips and Sugar are known to be the fastest hands in the West, and thus this duel draws the attention of the entire town. In the end Chips’ true self is revealed, and Sugar leaves town.
As I said earlier, I actually enjoyed watching Big Money Hustlas. Having said that, and given my penchant for watching horrific movies anyway, it should come as no big surprise that I actually liked Rustlas. It is not as good as Hustlas was, but it still made me laugh at the absurdity of it all. As I said above while watching the film, I still think that Stank and Poot should get their own movies. They are by far the best two characters of both films.
I think Big Money Rustlas suffers under the weight of itself. Hustlas was done on a shoe-string budget, was surprisingly well produced, and had only a few celebrity cameos to sucker in eyeballs. Rustlas had a larger budget that undoubtedly went to the plethora of cameos from “celebrities” like Jimmy “JJ” Walker, Ron Jeremy, Jay Mewes, Vanilla Ice, Bridget the Midget and many more. Literally every couple minutes/scenes someone else “famous” would pop up. Scenery was dilapidated and looked cheap. The one exception being the house that Wolf’s mother lives in was like a TARDIS and his reaction to it is great.
The goofs that are in Big Money Rustlas are admittedly childish, and most people will not think they are funny. Given my history with the group and the (albeit tainted) memories wrapped around their albums I may be in a more forgiving position to actually say that I laughed several times out loud. I don’t expect anyone out there to actually enjoy this movie, and I suspect that most people won’t even make it past the credits. There was only one real reference to the “Wicked Clowns” during the whole movie, which is funny since three characters are in full face paint the entire time. Big Money Rustlas will probably not sway me back into the herd of sheep that call themselves “Juggalos” but it’s nice to see that these guys are still out there making movies. That’s one thing that no one will be able to take from them: They have somehow made at least three movies.
Next week, I’ll be reviewing of Death Racers. MCL
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