Ice-T's Pimpin' 101 Review

Distributor: Antiqua Pictures Edition Details: Re-edited Anniversary Edition Streaming Movie Specs: Genres: All Sex, Vignette Also known as: Pimpin' 101 Run Time: 85 minutes Rated: XXX Release Year: 2002/2005 Director: Tony Diablo Written by: Tony Diablo Cast: Ice-T, August Night (as August), Cherie, Obsession, Sharon WIld, Chloe Black, Ryan Conner (as Ryan Connor), Celine Maxima (as Celine), Marty Romano, Rafe, Mr. Marcus, Guy DiSilva, Mark Ashley, Mark Anderson, Coco Austin Release Specs: Audio: English Mono Subtitles: none Video: Full Frame, 1.33:1 Video Format: NTSC Format: Streaming Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): N/A Number of discs: N/A

Ice-T's Pimpin' 101 is an all sex vignette adult movie from one-and-done director and writer Tony Diablo. Ice-T's Pimpin' 101's claim to fame is the presence of rap superstar (as well as actor and author) Ice-T. Unfortunately, the talented Ice-T can't save this mess of an adult movie.

Tony Diablo appears to have blown his whole budget on hiring actor Ice-T and for licensing the soundtrack, which includes artists such as Busta Rhymes, Ice-T, M.O.P., Brand Nubian, Dirty South, SMG, and Amil among other acts. The soundtrack is excellent, which has been released by Final Level Records albeit without Busta Rhymes or Ice-T on it, and well worth picking up. However, the movie itself is awful and well worth skipping.

The movie consists of six “vignettes.” Each vignette is introduced by Ice-T, portraying a pimp, who introduces six different kinds of prostitutes; the track ho, the carpet ho, the stripper ho, the call girl ho, the wife ho, and the porno ho. Ice-T phones in his intros for each of the scenes, not that it matters because he wasn't given any material to work with. Tony Diablo would have been better off having Ice-T improvise than writing the dreck Ice-T was given to work with.

Immediately following the introduction is the associated sex scene. The sex scenes themselves are generic in nature and really have nothing to do with the introduction at all. Sadly, there was absolutely no attempt to make the sex scenes actually fit in with the non-sexual footage. The cast in the movie is good, the issue comes from the direction and cinematography.

The first scene takes place in a cramped limo, the scene as shot seems extra cramped, but the viewer assumed that is due to the limited room for shooting the threesome. However, the next scene, which doesn't have the shooting limitations that the first scene does, also has the same extremely cramped feeling. This extremely cramped style of shooting seems to be the style of cinematographer Michael Diamond, however, the end result looks completely amateur and not at all professional.

In fact, the entire production looks amateur in nature. The movie sports low production values and utilizes poor lighting techniques. In addition, the lighting arrays are visible on screen (and not just in “The Porno Ho” segment). The editing is jumpy and oddly, the host segments are presented in a matted widescreen but the sex scenes are presented in the Academy aspect ratio.

The movie concludes with Ice-T lip syncing “Ya Got Me Open” at a party. By the time the movie is over, the viewer feels bad for everyone who was tricked into being part of this piece of garbage.

The edition of Ice-T's Pimpin' 101 screened is the streaming-only re-edited anniversary edition from Antiqua Pictures on Hotmovies.com. Antiqua Pictures has done a decent job with their streaming-only edition of Ice-T's Pimpin' 101. This reviewer is unsure if Ice-T's Pimpin' 101 was shot on video or digitally. Ice-T's Pimpin' 101 is presented in the Academy aspect ratio of 1.33:1 in what appears to be 480p. Ice-T's Pimpin' 101 appears to be the best that the source material allows for. The video quality looks cheap but the movie was clearly shot cheaply. There weren't any noticeable glitches in the video and the colors in the movie look good. The very end of the movie appears to have been cut off in the streaming edition as it seems to end abruptly.

The edition is the re-edited anniversary edition from Antiqua Pictures that claims to have previously unseen footage. Exactly what differences there are between this edition and the original edition from Fatt Entertainment is unclear. The re-edited edition does appear to run three minutes shorter than the original edition of the movie did, so clearly some of the footage from the original edition is missing from this one, especially if there is also previously unseen footage in this edition.

Ice-T's Pimpin' 101 is presented with an English monaural audio track. The audio sounds bad, however, that doesn't appear to be due to Antiqua Pictures but due to how the audio was originally captured when Ice-T's Pimpin' 101 was shot. However, Antiqua Pictures hasn't appeared to have tried to remaster the audio to make it sound any better. The dialog in the movie is clear and understandable at all times during the movie.

Antiqua Pictures hasn't included any extras for their streaming-only edition of Ice-T's Pimpin' 101.

Don't let the presence of Ice-T or the excellent soundtrack fool you, Ice-T's Pimpin' 101 is nothing more than cheaply made bad porn. Remove Ice-T's introductions and you have what looks like a completely amateur adult movie with no real redeeming qualities. Ice-T is wasted and the sex scenes are horribly shot. Save your money and just buy the soundtrack.

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