Black Film of the Week: I’M GONNA GIT YOU SUCKA (1988)
Director/Writer/Producer Keenan Ivory Wayans
There’s so much to unpack with this parody of 70’s era Blaxploitation films!
Jack Spade, played by the film’s creator Keenen Ivory Wayans, comes home to the ghetto and finds his brother Junebug dead from a gold chain overdose. With help from his hero, bad-ass John Slade (Bernie Casey), and a team of washed-up crime fighters that includes other Blaxploitation mainstays like Jim Brown, Issac Hayes, and Antonio Fargas, and 80’s tough guy Steve James as Kung Fu Joe, Spade declares vengeance on Mr. Big, the white crime leader responsible for selling gold chains on the streets.
Also starring Dawnn Lewis as she was completing her first year on “A Different World” as Jack’s sister-in-law/love interest, and her TV co-star Kadeem Hardison as Mr. Big’s main henchman alongside future comedy all-star Damon Wayans, as well as the recently departed Ja’net Dubois as Jack’s kick-ass mama, and hilarious cameos from Anne-Marie Johnson, Clarence Williams III, David Alan Grier, John Witherspoon, Tony Cox, KIm Wayans, Hawthorne James, and most famously Chris Rock in the “How much for an order of ribs?” scene, there are tons of laughs packed into these 88 minutes.
And imagine, if this film wasn’t made, there would have been no ”In Living Color” sketch comedy show, and tons of comedy geniuses, including Jim Carrey, would not be household names today.
Recently unearthed through Wayans’ interview with the Television Academy that “...Sucka'' was initially sabotaged to only get a very small release, then go straight to video to honor the studio’s growing home video department. Despite being released in 5 small markets at Christmas-time, against “Twins” no less, “...Sucka” still came in 2nd at the box office. Two weeks later the studio released it in NY, now in 200 theaters total, against “The January Man” (starring Kevin Kline) showing in 1500 theaters nationwide. “January” made 1.9 million that weekend against “Sucka”s 1.6 million. The former is soon dumped into the video market, and Wayans and crew become stars!