Hip-hop is not just a style of music, for it comes associated with an attitude, an attitude that notoriously does not wholly reject the ghetto from which it springs. Whether the music, and culture, should thus be seen as the free expression of the dispossessed, or as one of the chains tying them down, is this a moot point (though it's worth noting that every revolution in popular music over the last half-century has been seen by respectable society as the end of the world). 'Black and White' is a celebrity-studded collection of small stories about characters living the hip-hop life, its focus on the interplay of the white community with this essentially black form of music. It's not badly executed, although it's hard to get very interested in any of the characters. One peculiarity, though, is how little hip-hop there actually is on the soundtrack, a strange vacuum at the heart of the film; also, we see little in the way of everyday life in the world from which the music emerged. The result is watchable, but there are no real insights, sociological or musical, to be had.

"Black and White" exploits and demeans black and white racial stereotypes in a mess of sensationalistic and pointless subplots. The film manages to almost sort itself out by the end though few will care. This steaming dogpile of cardboard cutout characters and pointless drivel is film making at it's worst and a good example of why right-wing conservatives are gunning for Hollywood.

On one side (black),a group of black gangsters that spend time doping, having intercourses with white rich girls and threatening the neighborhood, trying to become rappers. On the other side (white),a group of ridiculous white rich boys and girls that spend time doping, having intercourses with black men, having classes with a gay blonde colored hair teacher or fighting with their own families. A filmmaker and her ridiculous gay husband interested in filming these two groups. Obs.: poor Robert Downey Jr., is this a condition for his parole, or is he doing drugs again? An outstanding actor like him making again this gay role! At least, `One Night Stand' is a great movie. Last, but no less ridiculous, a corrupt white cop and … Mike Tyson, as a `guest star', giving lessons of life behavior. Put all of these characters blended together with a lot of stereotypes and we will have a too much verbal movie with an empty message in the end. Screenwriter and director James Toback should rent some Spike Lee movies and try to learn how to make a good movie about the Afro-Americans and their communities. What was his intention? A drama, comedy, or what? To complete this mess, he could have finished this flick with a clip of Hair's song `Black Boys, White Boys'. My vote is four.