Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 31, 2019

A kind of intriguing but unsettling idea occurred to me as I watched this often scabrous if potentially shocking parody of so-called "hood" movies put together by the often provocative Wayans Brothers: why not let the Wayans do a Madea movie? It's perhaps instructive to compare how Tyler Perry approaches his depictions of black communities and how the Wayans approach the same at least general setup, and it's also perhaps instructive to see how each wrests laughs out of various situations. Perry, for all his smack talk as various characters, tends to be more "polite", at least when compared to the gonzo proclivities of the Wayans, but it's at least arguable that the Wayans manage to hit the comedic bullseye more squarely and more often than Perry tends to in many of his films. Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood got a Blu-ray release from Echo Bridge Entertainment several years ago, and this Lionsgate repackaging is for all intents and purposes the very same release.

My colleague Marty Liebman covered the Echo Bridge Entertainment release on Blu-ray several years ago, and for those wanting a plot summary and thoughts on the film, I refer you to Marty's Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood Blu-ray review. You'll note I gave a slightly lower score to the overall film than Marty did; while I love a lot of this film, especially its no holds barred takedown of various "hood" movie tropes, I personally found it a little too broad at times.

Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Don't Be a Menace in South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate films with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. I'd be hard pressed to point out any major differences between this presentation and the older Echo Bridge Entertainment Blu-ray. As Marty mentioned in his Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood Blu-ray review, while it's surprising this was given an interlaced presentation, the results here are often at least decent, and in better lighting conditions, actually pretty good looking, with a vibrant palette and at least passable detail levels. Some of the "montage" sequences see a considerable uptick in grain and bit of splotchiness, but otherwise this is a decent presentation that may not overly impress, but which shouldn't overly disappoint.

Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While this sports the same DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track as the Echo Bridge Entertainment release, in the latest installment of "different reviewers, different opinions", I'm upping Marty's 3.5 score for the Echo Bridge Entertainment release slightly, since I found it rather full bodied and providing some nicely directional effects. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout the presentation, and I noticed no issues whatsoever with regard to distortion, dropouts or other damage.

Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This release ports over the exact same supplements that were on the older Echo Bridge Entertainment release. See Marty's Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood Blu-ray review for a few more details, though my PC is showing that these are all offered in an interlaced format, while Marty shows the Echo Bridge Release offered a progressive presentation, for what that's worth. Weirdly some of these have been authored so that chapter skipping ahead is not allowed.

• Interrogation - Deleted Scene (1080i; 1:44)


• Wayans Brothers Behind the Scenes (1080i; 3:22)


• Hood Movie Gumbo (1080i; 4:27)


• All The Things Your Man Won't Do Music Video (1080i; 4:45)

Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Don't Be a Menace in South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood is definitely not the film for anyone who's a charter member of the "PC police", since the Wayans seems to delight in shocking people with absolutely outrageous gags, in both the sight and verbal categories. This release bascially duplicates the Echo Bridge Entertainment Blu-ray of several years ago. Technical merits are generally solid despite an interlaced presentation. Recommended.