All About the Benjamins
All About the Benjamins
R | 08 March 2002 (USA)
All About the Benjamins Trailers

Bucum Jackson (Cube) is a bounty hunter with a lot of attitude and no interest in taking on a partner. Working at Martinez Bail Bonds, Jackson has unorthodox methods of tracking down low-life criminals, but they work, and one day he hopes to become his own boss and open up his own private investigation firm. Reggie Wright (Epps) is a slippery con artist who is avoiding the law, and Jackson. During a cat and mouse chase, the two stumble on a multi-million dollar diamond heist. Hiding from Jackson, Wright finds himself in the thieves' getaway van and ends up having to escape from them after they discover their booty is fake, much to the displeasure of their ruthless boss (Flanagan). When Wright meets up with his girlfriend (Mendes), he discovers that his recently purchased lottery ticket is the sole winner of $60 million. Unfortunately, his wallet, which held the ticket, was left in the thieves' van, so he persuades Jackson to help him get it back.

Reviews
CrawlerChunky

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

... View More
Arianna Moses

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

... View More
Tayyab Torres

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

... View More
Frances Chung

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

... View More
Michael Ledo

First off, there is no one in the movie named Benjamin. Benjamin comes from Benjamin Franklin, whose face is on a $100 bill. The opening scene is Ice Cube, as a bounty hunter (Bukum, pronounced Book-em), going into a red neck trailer park to capture his bounty. The yahoo has the proverbial Confederate flag hanging from his wall and is watching old slightly racist Loony Tunes. As it turns out this is an NRA trailer park and Ice Cube is shot at by the yahoo's girlfriend (foot is in a cast) as well as some old lady next door. As he collects his bounty we discover he is not in full employment, but semi-freelances. The secretary at the bail bond's place wants to be Ice Cube's partner, although he would rather go alone. His next gig is to bring in Mike Epps, a petty con man. During the chase Epps and Bukum end up at a murder scene over some diamonds. Now to make this more interesting it seems Epps has a winning lottery ticket worth $60 million, but through a series of events it ends up in the hands of the murderers. Ice Cube is leery about Epps' story and uses him to go after the murderers.The movie is funny and keeps moving. The character of Epps as a talkative, cowardly, pretending to be brave con artist compliments the series role of Ice Cube. The movie drops the MF bomb and frequent use of the "N" word. Gansta rap as a background is used 3 times as far as I could tell: opening credits, ending credits, and the climax scene.

... View More
Lucien Lessard

A professional bounty hunter (Ice Cube) is in the search of a two-bit hustler (Mike Epps). When this hustler gets mixed-up accidentally with a botched diamond heist. Since this hustler lost his wallet to a racist psycho villain (Tommy Flanagan). The hustler actually has an winning lottery ticket of $60 Million Dollars. The bounty hunter teams with the hustler, since the bounty hunter almost gets shot by the villain's employees (Carmen Chaplin & Roger Guenveur Smith). The bounty hunter and the hustler are mixed up with a diamond heist, a lost winning lottery ticket and one thing become clear... that it's all about the benjamins.Directed by the first-time filmmaker:Kevin Bray, who directed plenty of music videos for talented music artists. The film's has an familiar storytelling but if it wasn't for Cube's and Epps' likable performances, the film would have been a real mess.DVD has an sharp anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) transfer and an strong DTS 5.1 Surround Sound (Also in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound). DVD has an fine commentary track by the director and producer:Matt Alvarez. DVD has four entertaining featurettes, Deleted Scene, Outtakes and more. The film has an fine music score by John Murphy (28 Days Later) and an good looking cinematography work by Glen MacPherson (Exit Wounds, Romeo Must Die, Walking Tall-2004). It is worth seeing, especially if you are a fan of Cube's or Epps' films. Written by Actor/Producer:Cube and Executive Producer:Ronald Lang. Eva Mendes co-stars as Epps' girlfriend. Carmen Chaplin is the grand-daughter of the famous silent comedian:Charlie Chaplin. Super 35. (*** ½/*****).

... View More
monsura2

Co-written, co-produced and starring Ice Cube. You know, I never considered it, but he's one hell of an actor. Ice Cube is the best thing about Ghosts of Mars and he owns Friday and Next Friday. Here, he's a bounty hunter in Miami whose prey loses a winning lottery ticket in the middle of a diamond theft by an evil criminal mastermind.Michael Epps (Omar's brother maybe?) is quite good. The chase for the diamonds and the lottery ticket is reminiscent of some of those old Bill Cosby/Sidney Poitier flicks from the 1970s and yet it never really tips into the comedy realm but never loses that urban thriller edge either. The ending however was a little too The Whole Nine Yards for me.Great action sequences, nasty villains and good guys to root for. Look for Anthony Michael Hall as a white trash trailer park deadbeat. Not a bad rental.

... View More
asylum50

yep, that was one loud yawn. in this horrid little piece of celluoid i can see the beginning of a new generation of blaxploitation movies. only instead of people with huge afros going on about "jive turkeys" we hear from people with cornrows (Ice Cube's wearing really bad extentions in this flop) bouncing around saying things like "bling bling" and it's well..."all about the bengamins". looking for a plot are you? why would this movie need one, it had money, flashy cars, flashy apartments, flashy slang, flashy women (only acessories of course), sports endourcements, guns guns and more guns, that guy cicero from gladiator, and rap stars out the ying yang. mike epps once again plays the loud mouth "brotha" from the streets who's a con man...suprised. his "antics" get so annoying by the end of the movie you have to fight yourself to keep from throwing your television out the window. i'm suprised that a movie about nothing more than deep unfettered avarice could be taken very seriously. there was some schlock about a lotto ticket and diamonds but who really cares, pass this one up and go read a book instead.

... View More