Movie: Jamie Kennedy's Blowin' Up was a seven episode series on MTV that detailed the exploits of Jamie Kennedy and his little partner Stuart Stone as the duo tried to break into the wonderful world of rap. Neither of the two look like your stereotypical rappers, neither possessed any street cred, and neither have had the kind of hard life that drives your typical rapper into a life of success. The joke of the series is how it blends just enough reality with a scripted set of encounters with a number of actual rappers and folks in the industry, with cameos from some of the most famous individuals of pop culture, including a lot of people in Houston, Texas such as Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, grill expert Johnny Dang, and rapper Paul Wall. The two had some minor success as a comedy rap act, even releasing a CD of songs, though a number of people have complained that the music is either too serious (and the duo lacked the background to come off as anything but posers) or too comedic (since the novelty aspect of the music was like an updated, poor man's Weird Al Yankovic).

If you've watched much reality TV, you'll know that despite the advertisements to the contrary, it is virtually all scripted and professionally acted. Accepting this as a modern day fact of life, the series worked thanks in large part to the chemistry between Kennedy and Stone. Kennedy plays a spoiled rich guy just shy of 40 trying to act like someone years his junior while Stone comes across as a hanger on type clinging to Jamie's success so desperately trying to make a name apart from his friend that he'd do anything to make it big (in effect, the whole idea behind the title "Blowing Up" is to make it big in an enterprise). Jamie acted like he was wasted much of the time, a neurotic mess of a guy that worried about everything while Stuart acted like he was born a black man in a rich white Jew's body.

If you enjoy rap though, the music was often hilarious ("circle circle dot dot, I got my cootie shot..."), the dynamics between the leading men just right, and there were more guest stars from the rap world then a season of MTV Raps ever had. The episode filmed in Houston during the All Star Game was a hoot, and yes, the rap commercial with multi-millionaire Jim McIngvale was real, he does sell incredible amounts of furniture, and he is a very nice guy (though his commercials are often annoying as heck, he's bigger than anyone else involved with the series other than George Lucas, but a true humanitarian sponsoring many causes to help people out). I doubt if the entire series had been real if they would have captured the spirit of rap any better then they did as the various legends gave Jamie and Stu plenty of free advice on their quest for superstardom.

I would have liked to have seen a few more episodes but this was all they made, ending with the record deal by Warner's after a long series of buffoonish attempts to break into the business with cameos by Snoop Dogg, Ice T, Paul Wall, Professor X, and scores of others in the rap field to boot. While I had no doubt that the majority of footage was scripted, it was handled in such a way that the goofy charms of Jamie and Stu were best utilized and I can see why they made some minor waves in rap as a comedy act (according to the commentary tracks, a goof video made by the pair led to interest by Warner Communications, that led to the series rather then the other way around). In all then, while I'd never heard of Jamie Kennedy or Stuart Stone, by the time I finished watching this DVD set and all the extras, I felt as if their raw talents were at least as good as the rappers they were imitating and would pick up a copy of their CD if I found it cheap. I'd rather they keep the music either all comedy or all real attempts at truly serious rapping but the series was worth a rating of Recommended to me nonetheless. Here's a look at the episodes in the order they were shown on MTV (about a million times as I recall) as well as on the double DVD set:

1) Dope Ass Rapper
2) Law and Disorderlies
3) Up Your #@&!
4) Grillz
5) Do It Yourself
6) The Break Up
7) Deal With It

Picture: Jamie Kennedy's Blowin' Up was presented in the original 1.33:1 ratio full frame color as aired on MTV earlier this year. The footage used in the show was a mixture of static shots, handheld work, and concert footage in the spirit of a behind the scenes styled collection of footage. Given the nature of the budget, the guerilla styled camera work, the rapid paced editing, and other factors; this looked exactly like it should have (and would never have looked if done for a larger network). For the record, all the same pixilation displayed during the cable run of the show was kept in the DVD set (including the stripper footage, the fans in the concert, and such things as blurring out license plates and police officers).

Sound: The audio was presented in 2.0 Dolby Digital English as original recorded. There was a decent amount of separation on the music but the rest of it could have been shot in monaural from all I could tell. It had all the same bleeped out cuss words as the cable presentation, annoying a friend that watched a few episodes with me, but aside from a few times when the vocals were hard to hear, it was well shot in terms of audio too.

Extras: For a mini-series consisting of seven episodes, there were a lot of extras and they added some serious comedic value for me. Each episode had an audio commentary by Jamie Kennedy, Stuart Stone, and director/executive producer George Verschoor. Most of the time, Jamie and Stu dominated the tracks, staying in character as they continually messed with one another with George jumping in from time to time. They did provide a lot of funny anecdotes about what was taking place as they shot the show, so fans will want to check them out. The first disc also had the infamous Rolling With Bob Sagat music video, a short featurette called Lighting the Fuse that spent considerable time on the duo getting interviewed by an MTV correspondent, and a DVD thinpak case that outlined the episodes. The second disc had a tremendous number of deleted and extended scenes lasting almost an hour and broken up into multiple chapters so you could access any of them at will (the term "more" comes to mind since there was more of everything here, though still bleeped and pixilated as in the show). This was followed by a 6.5 minute long section called Rappin' with Jamie and Stu that was broken down in to four sections; Kabob Kabob, Circle Circle Dot Dot, Mattress Mack, and Bar Mitzvah Party. Each segment served to further the admittedly light career of the two as they sought fame and fortune in the rap world but none lasted long enough to make a lasting impression outside of the Mattress Mack commercial. There was then a section labeled as MTV Overdrive with 43+ minutes of more deleted footage and extended scenes, 6 short interviews with Bob Saget, Ice T, Joe Simpson, George Lucas (railing on critics no less), Ed McMahon, and E-40; none of them lasting very long. There was also an 8 minute section there called Rollin' with Jamie and Stu consisting of footage where they are truly Rollin' with Sagat, Crooked Stick, The Stalker Song, and Where I'm From. This was followed by a hugely funny Infomercial for the Blowin' Up CD (lasting nearly 30 minutes and parodying everything from Richard Simmons to Girls Gone Wild). There were then 24 minutes of podcasts with Circle Circle Dot Dot, Crooked Stick, 1984, and Rollin' with Sagat as the themes. These were mixed in terms of how funny they were but it highlighted the comedy aspects that the Jamie and Stu team could provide very nicely. There were some trailers to other shows and a double sided thinpak DVD case here too. In all, it was a great selection of extras for the short series.

Final Thoughts: Jamie Kennedy's Blowin' Up might leave some of you guessing as to how much of the show was real, how much was fake, and how much to take seriously but the bottom line is that it was a very entertaining spoof of the rap world, complete with guest appearances of most in the field worth talking to. The pairing of Jamie Kennedy and Stuart Stone was inspired on many levels and I hope they consider a follow up season or series that makes best use of their talents. I wasn't a fan before this 2 disc set but I found their often juvenile humor and codependency a hoot as will a number of you out there that might not have seen this when it aired on MTV. The music might not have reached the level needed to sustain their rap careers or hit the mark as often as other parody artists seem able to do but it almost always brought a smile to my face, leaving me humming bits and pieces for days on end. Check it out.