Movie Review: 'Back on the Strip'

Back on the Strip (2023)

Directed by Chris Spencer

Written by Eric Daniel, Chris Spencer

Starring Spencer Moore II, Tiffany Haddish, Wesley Snipes, J.B Smoove, Bill Bellamy, Faizon Love

Release Date August 18th, 2023

Published August 23rd, 2023

Why is this movie called Back on the Strip? That's a rhetorical question that I am merely using as a jumping off point, don't try to answer it. The main character of Back on the Strip has a role that fits neither of the two meanings the title implies. Merlin (Spencer Moore II) is not 'back on the strip' as in returning to Las Vegas, he's never been there before. And Merlin has never stripped down as a professional stripper before. Thus, he can't be 'Back on the Strip.' I call him the main character because the movie revolves entirely around Merlin and yet you can sense that no one involved in the making of this movie has any interest in Merlin or confidence that lead actor, Spencer Moore II can carry this movie.

Back on the Strip should just be called Merlin, or you could call it 'Magic Merlin' and hope that people get that it is a reference to Magic Mike. That would make far more sense than the actual title. Then again, considering that Back on the Strip is a slapdash, slipshod, nonsensical movie to begin with, why does it matter if the title is also nonsense? I'm spending time complaining about the title because complaining about the actual movie is a deeply unappealing obligation that I have. Here we go...

Back on the Strip is about a dreamer named Merlin. As a kid, Merlin fell in love with magic and dreamed of being a professional magician. Unfortunately, his earliest attempt at achieving his dream was a disaster of epic proportion. Mostly, this failure introduces the running gag and theme of the film, Merlin has a giant penis. I'm not merely saying he has a giant penis, I'm saying his penis is a medical anomaly. The entirety of Back on the Strip hinges upon revealing his secret giant penis and then returning to that as a gag and plot point throughout the rest of the movie.

It's as if someone thought that they could turn the stereotypical joke about African American men and large penises into an entire movie while simultaneously not making a pornographic movie. That's a weird challenge to give yourself as a filmmaker but this is where we are. Kid wants to be a magician, gets sidetracked by his own enormous penis, and that is Back on the Strip. So, just how does Merlin's massive member sidetrack his dream of becoming a magician? Honestly? Do you really care? Okay, fine, Merlin's mother, Verna (Tiffany Haddish), sends her son to Las Vegas to achieve his dream.

With the help of an old friend, Rita (Colleen Camp), the owner of a rundown flophouse hotel, Merlin will have a place to live and the chance to audition his magic act in the last City on Earth where being a magician might be a viable profession. Unfortunately, things don't work out as planned. Merlin's auditions fail and facing the end of his dream, he gets an unlikely lifeline from Rita. Rita has a bar connected to the fleapit hotel. It was once home to a group of popular strippers called the Chocolate Chips. When Rita's new main stage attraction bails on her, she offers to let Merlin do his magic act there.

Through some of the most forced action ever brought to the screen, Merlin accidentally lights his pants on fire and they disintegrate to reveal his specialty boxer shorts containing his oversized schlong. A bachelorette party that happens to be on hand immediately begin tossing money on stage and after Rita hits some music, Merlin decides to go with the flow and shake his massive penis for cash. This gives Rita the idea to reform The Chocolate Chips with the help of the group's former lead dancer, Luther aka Mr. Big (Wesley Snipes).

The performance by Wesley Snipes in Back on the Strip has a trainwreck fascination about it. It's both wildly insane and a very specific series of acting choices. Snipes is clearly... performing. He's affecting an odd accent, his face is alive with bugging eyes and wide eyed expressions. Only some of this is appropriate to the scenes in which he is acting. At times, Snipes appears to have been edited into Back on the Strip solely so that he can say lines to no one in particular, as if they had this footage of Snipes and needed to find a way to use it. Thus, Luther babbles to himself, out loud, numerous times throughout Back on the Strip and it is never not a jarring instance.

I haven't even mentioned the rest of the supporting cast, a group of often very funny actors who enact the dumbest and most obvious clichés of their characters. Let's see if you can guess the joke surrounding the character referred as 'The Body' and played by comedian Faizon Love. 30 years ago he was a muscled up bodybuilder turned stripper. So what is the easiest, laziest, most dimwitted joke possible in this scenario? He's now overweight. The former bodybuilder now has a large beer gut and none of the defined musculature of his youth. Surprise!

J.B Smoove and Bill Bellamy also have lazy supporting roles in which their current life is in opposition to their former life as a hedonistic stripper. Smoove's character is now a Priest who bumps and grinds for the Lord. Bellamy has gone from being the most sexually active member of the Chocolate Chips to being a married father of four daughters who drives a minivan. If you find these obvious juxtapositions amusing then I congratulate you on discovering comedy for the first time.

The most egregious and moronic supporting character however, is one played by Gary Owen. Owen plays Dr. X, a former member of the Chocolate Chips, an all black stripper crew. This is odd because Dr. X or Xavier, is a white man. The movie makes sure to underline Owen's whiteness by making him as stereotypically white bread as possible. The joke, such as it is, is that none of his fellow dancers were aware 30 years ago that he was white. How, you ask? Because he wore a mask and a heavy tan and these are the least observant human beings on the planet.

UGH!!!! As I have mentioned, the film centers on Merlin and his giant penis. So, naturally, the makers of Back on the Strip decide that this story about a young man, his massive penis, and his move into the world of adult entertainment needs a narrator. Who better to be that narrator than Merlin's own mother, Verna, played by Tiffany Haddish. If you'd told me that this movie was made by someone who was enacting a series of bizarre sexual fetishes and had just enough money to pay for some well known actors, I would believe you completely. That's really all that would make any sense about Back on the Strip.

I have seen more than my share of terrible movies but wow... Back on the Strip is up there. This movie is desperately inept, inane, idiotic and insulting. The scenes do unfold in what appears to be the correct order, so it has that going for it. Beyond that however, everything is just a series of bizarre choices that are equal parts lazy and complete nonsense. It's truly unlike any movie I have ever seen. It's an R-Rated comedy but only because it centers on one young man's giant penis. The rest of the movie could be PG-13 aside from the visual of this giant penis covered by specially made underwear. What a weird movie.

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