Rapper DJay (Howard) works the angles to get his first record made, with help from assorted people in his Memphis 'hood. And when he hears that rap superstar Skinny Black (Ludacris) is heading to his area, he throws together a supreme hustle to grab Skinny's attention.
I heard Quentin Tarantino was asked what his favorite movies of 2005 were. His reply: Sin City, The Devil's Reject's and Hustle & Flow. I have seen and own the previous 2 movies on DVD and was looking for something new that I hadn't seen yet at work before I left and came upon Hustle & Flow. The movie never really seemed to interest me but for what it's worth, it was a lot better than I anticipated (although the pace of the movie was kind of slow). Terrence Howard was nominated for Best Actor for his part of DJay and rightfully so. I felt I was watching Scarface again with the amount of times he said 'man' or 'mang' but it added to his character. I really dug the deep south accent and he's putting together quite the resume recently, with roles in Crash, Ray, Hustle & Flow, Four Brothers and Idlewild. He was able to play a pimp but almost in a gentle sort of way, if that makes any sense. He seemed to be a very humble man who did what he had to so he could fulfill his dream of being a rapper, by any means necessary of course. It was great not to see the stereotypical "pimp" who constantly beats women and picks fights with others, meanwhile every other word out of his mouth is "f*ck" or "sh*t."
Secondly, it's always great to see the icon Isaac Hayes himself on the screen, as he had a small role in the film as bar owner Arnel. Finally, I always enjoy Anthony Anderson's work and have been since I first saw him in Me, Myself & Irene. However, I haven't seem him in too many dramatic roles and this was definitely a nice change for him. Over the course of the last 3 years he's also been on my favorite show on TV, The Shield, as kingpin Antwon Mitchell (again, another great dramatic role).
