A disappointing entry given the talented cast with which it is blessed, “Back on the Strip” was directed by the seasoned actor and comedy writer Chris Spencer, whose directing credits include TV’s “Real Husbands of Hollywood” and “Uncensored.” The film is essentially the tale of a young, aspiring magician named Merlin (Spence Moore II), who does not appear to have much talent in that art, and his desire to marry his best friend Robin (Raigan Harris, “Ballers”), an aspiring dancer. After being given a profanity-laced pep talk by his mother Verna (the very busy Tiffany Haddish, also a producer), Merlin goes to Las Vegas, where he is soon part of a clown act entertaining spoiled children. In this scene, a concerned father (Kevin Hart, who is in this film for about five minutes) throws Merlin out after of the party after a child throws his clown wig into a tree. We hear a lot of voice-over by Haddish.
Before you know it, Merlin is staying at the old, renamed Moxie Hotel, where weed-smoking Rita (horror film icon Colleen Camp) is the aging owner and the only other person there (?). She decides to reunite the Chocolate Chips, male strippers who worked her club known as the Cookie (get it?). She wants to add Merlin to the group.
Merlin and Luther, aka Mr. Big (Wesley Snipes), who had to leave the Chips after a serious leg injury, go out and seek the old Chips. Unfortunately, they find them. “Slim Sexy” is now Pastor Amos (J.B. Smoove). He is interested in part because the spark has gone out in his marriage to Eve (Caryn Ward) and he longs for the old days. Mechanic Desmond aka Da Body (Faizon Love) is the size of a refrigerator, but he’s willing to be a Chip, again. Tyriq Cox aka Da Face (Bill Bellamy) would love to leave his quadruplets at day care and take his clothes off, again. As it turns out, in a problematic development, Xander aka Dr. X (Gary Owen), who wore a mask in the act, turns out to be a white plastic surgeon who wore spray to make him look Black. What? “Stretching credulity” could be this film’s subtitle. ”Back on the Strip” would not mind if you thought it was film starring Haddish and Hart. It’s not, but the supporting cast is so talented that it could have worked if the writing by director Spencer and Eric Daniel wasn’t so mediocre.
It doesn’t. Spencer and Daniel’s screenplay has very little relationship with a thing called verisimilitude. Robin is the dancer who doesn’t dance. Merlin is the magician whose “show” is amateur hour. “Born again or porn again,” is a rare funny line that almost gets thrown away. The film has a blackface issue that is not resolved, even though stand-up comic Owen is quite funny and determined as Dr. X.
“Back on the Strip” is “Tragic Mike” instead of “Magic Mike.” It’s to “Hustlers” what “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” is to “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” You just know that the Magic Eight Ball bit in the opening is coming back. Will Robin marry the horrible, blowing-up-on-the-internet, put-down comic Blaze (a good Ryan Alexander Holmes)? Faizon cannot turn in a bad performance, so all you can do is feel bad for him and his costars. Snipes is a welcome presence and still has his charms But the film repeatedly name checks booze brands. After missing most of the movie, Haddish returns to reunite with someone from her (and Merlin’s) past just like you figured. Magic Eight Ball says, “Goodbye.”
(“Back on the Strip” contains profanity, sexually suggestive language and drug use)
Rated R. At the AMC Boston Common, AMC South Bay and suburban theaters. Grade: C
