When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Blistering performances.

This movie sucks, lol. I've seen far better blaxploitation, and it's a wonder Rudy Ray Moore even lent his talent to this film, considering how good his own movies are. He must have been hard up or out of work, or doing charity because even he can't save this movie. Yeah the music sucks but that is the least of the problems in this film. It is good for showing 70s Chicago, which seemed a lot less overpopulated back then as the city more so resembles Philadelphia than it does the Chicago we take for granted today. If you're nostalgic for a blaxploitation film that was filmed in Chicago rather than New York or LA this is the movie for you, if not don't waste your time. You can watch it for free on Hulu.com if you're really interested, save your money ...

Released in 1976, Monkey Hustle (or Hu$tle, as per the title cards) is a so-so entry in the African-American action/comedy films that were preeminent in the 1970's. The lead player here is Baby D (Kirk Calloway), a Chicago teen who apparently is a con-artist in training. He and his friends are mentored by Big Daddy Foxx (Yaphet Kotto), an established con-man (read: 'hustler') who has taught his apprentices how to fleece the unsuspecting from their (presumably) hard-earned money and merchandise. The popular hangout for the kids is at Mama's restaurant. Mama (Rosalind Cash) doesn't like the kids being taught how to steal and con, and only barely tolerates folks like Foxx and the even more flamboyant Glitterin' Goldie (Rudy Ray Moore).The plot of the film, such as it is, tacitly revolves around plans for the city to build a highway that would go right through where Baby D and everyone else in this (south side?) neighborhood live. Thus begins the titular 'Monkey Hustle' which involves scamming city officials and others who have an interest in razing the neighborhood. Mostly, the civic activism of the plot only serves as a tenuous link for several extended skits and unrelated misadventures involving all the film's characters. Future soap star Debbi Morgan and future "Hollywood Shuffle" director Robert Townsend are among the film's younger cast.The black "exploitation" trend was already waning in Hollywood, and this only had minimal success at the box office upon release. This is not among the 'classics' of the 70's era black comedies (that title goes to cult favorites like Uptown Saturday Night and Car Wash), but it's interesting to see respected character actors Kotto and Cash more or less slumming it and interacting with the likes of Moore (who basically plays a less foul-mouthed Dolemite here). Viewers who are not cult-comedy/exploitation/black-film completists should only rent, not buy.

Although I found this movie entertaining, I'm afraid it made zero sense. How was anybody in the neighborhood capable of getting scammed by Daddy Foxx? Everyone in the neighborhood saw everybody else practically every day; couldn't they just get their money back the next day? And what was he supposed to be doing, anyways? Selling boxes? Who the hell was Goldie supposed to be, and what did Daddy Foxx have on him? What was the cop taking money for exactly, and why did he pay Baby D? How is it, at the end of the movie, that the bulldozers were already on the streets, ready to tear the town down, yet seconds later a fat guy pulls up in a limo and reverses the demolition? Long story short, this movie leaves many questions unanswered, but it did make me laugh a couple of times, so it got a 2.

Because I really have to throw up. Back in the seventies, there was a genre called Blaxploitation. Most of the films were utter trash. This is one of the trashiest! This film is pure garbage. Have you ever seen a play in a black-oriented neighborhood? You know, that over-acting kind of acting, similar to what's found on Good Times (TV show), full of stereotypical pimps, hustlers, theives, welfare recipients and too tight jeans. Just plain horrible. A waste of film.