The wackness of "The Wackness"

[MilSpex]

I mean come the fuck on, by throwing in a couple of biggie tracks and saying "dope" and "mad" repeatedly you`re in 1994 NYC drug/youth culture now?? The actor dude just came off as an overweight, under talented LA actor speaking patheticly contrived lines written by an idiot.

I mean compare KIDS dialogue to The Wackness. KIDS sounds so natural coz it was actually made in the time but the Wackness comes off so fucking corny with random "mads","dopes" and "Yo"s sprinkled around in a really contrived way , really bothered me:

KIDS

The Wackness

[seenmy]

with a trailer like that what else would you expect?

[Moksha]

I actually really dug the wackness. Being from new york and being 14 in 1994, I think it did a great job of capturing what was going on outside of what some consider the "hood". I mean there's life and real true new yorkers outside of the lower east side and downtown areas. As a matter of fact, I think a lot of what was portrayed in the movie really reminds me of high school and some characters i know.

I dunno, I went in expecting a really bad flick but i was extremely satisfied when i saw it. I think comparing with kids shouldn't be the way to go. Not every kid in nyc was like kids.

[weirdnjfan1]

I really enjoyed The Wackness, mainly because it showed what it was like in NYC. Yes, I will say that Kids was a bit better, but at times, it was unrealistic. Yes, I know that there are a lot of kids like that in NYC, but not all kids sneak into pools late at night, do a ton of drugs or even deflower every virgin that they see, it seems unrealistic. However with The Wackness, it is an honest deception of what it was like living in an average middle class family in the city in 1994, which I can relate more than Kids.

[Moksha]

I really enjoyed The Wackness, mainly because it showed what it was like in NYC. Yes, I will say that Kids was a bit better, but at times, it was unrealistic. Yes, I know that there are a lot of kids like that in NYC, but not all kids sneak into pools late at night, do a ton of drugs or even deflower every virgin that they see, it seems unrealistic. However with The Wackness, it is an honest deception of what it was like living in an average middle class family in the city in 1994, which I can relate more than Kids.

well put. my thoughts exactly.

because truthfully, plenty of us were not living like the characters in kids. I think they both did a decent job of showing what was going on in that era.

[tac0tron]

I have a pot head friend that absolutely idolizes The Wackness.

...Is it cause he's a pot head?

[Canvas08]

I mean come the fuck on, by throwing in a couple of biggie tracks and saying "dope" and "mad" repeatedly you`re in 1994 NYC drug/youth culture now?? The actor dude just came off as an overweight, under talented LA actor speaking patheticly contrived lines written by an idiot.

I mean compare KIDS dialogue to The Wackness. KIDS sounds so natural coz it was actually made in the time but the Wackness comes off so fucking corny with random "mads","dopes" and "Yo"s sprinkled around in a really contrived way , really bothered me:

KIDS

The Wackness

how do you know what 1994 NYC drug/youth culture was like? were you part of it?

[jeepster]

yo, milspex, no hate, but you're a year late on this one. everyone decided this movie was a trite piece of shit already.

[MilSpex]

I actually really dug the wackness. Being from new york and being 14 in 1994, I think it did a great job of capturing what was going on outside of what some consider the "hood". I mean there's life and real true new yorkers outside of the lower east side and downtown areas. As a matter of fact, I think a lot of what was portrayed in the movie really reminds me of high school and some characters i know.

I dunno, I went in expecting a really bad flick but i was extremely satisfied when i saw it. I think comparing with kids shouldn't be the way to go. Not every kid in nyc was like kids.

yeh I understand that the kid in The Wackness was from the UES and the kids in KIDS were probably LES. but that doesn`t excuse the dialogue or the delivery. Whether or not KIDS was completely realistic or not the dialogue written by Korine (another actual NYC club kid) was so much more creative and real to me. I mean in the `90s I saw interviews with NYC club kids on Aussie TV and they talked more like Casper than that fat kid in the Wackness. Me and my friends in High School even developed some dumb language that mixed up all that shit from hip hop and shit and was way more interesting than the stale hollywood scriptwriting in the wackness. Its so obvious the kid in the movie has never talked like that in his life before, what a shit actor...and shit dialogue. I mean the way Casper and Telly talk I thought that was the coolest shit in the world when I saw the movie in `95 and The Wackness is like the Pearl Harbor of NYC street culture movies. It just seems so fake and contrived. I mean in the wackness it was like he couldn`t say anything without adding "mad" or "dope" really inconvincingly. The kids in kids almost talked normally sometimes coz thats natural communication, they only used slang when it aided communication or made sense, not just "to be cool" like the kid in The Wackness seemed to be doing.

[MilSpex]

yo, milspex, no hate, but you're a year late on this one. everyone decided this movie was a trite piece of shit already.

I couldn`t find the thread, the search function on here is a POS.

[evisu 2000]

fuck this movie

but fuck kids too

[jeepster]

I couldn`t find the thread, the search function on here is a POS.

not even sayin there was a thread though. The world decided this movie was fucking trash.

[Mr Waffles]

this thread sucks.

[AstroWolf]

I worked at NASA back in the day. My best friend worked the door (all 52 of them). Kids is alright, But wayyyyy to negative. I was 14 when shit was going down and was amongst the youngest in the scene. Only this kid Joey was younger, about 13. kids gets it 85% right. But that other part is reaaaaaly wayyyyyy off. Ain't seen the wackness, miss mad shit living in the eu.

But for all the truth in kids, there is mad shit that pisses me off.

[evisu 2000]

kids is realistic but so what

milspex your cred is bein questioned right now

do you even know who bo jackson is

you know shit about streetwear but what the fuck you know about anyything preme references

yofuckin

witts didn't even recognize the blackhawks logo

that's just as bad a s a du rockin a bad brains tee but now knowing who they are

[evisu 2000]

thangs gota get a lil bettta

thats why we out late nights cluthin our berettas

[evisu 2000]

do you even fuckin know who peter sellers is YOU AUSsie cocksucker wtd wtd wtd

[fearitself]

they talk funny in the wackness (9)

[6MT]

how do you know what 1994 NYC drug/youth culture was like? were you part of it?

actually he doesn't know much, he is from Australia.

[ImRatherUnique]

its not 94-95 anymore, so dont expect 94 realness from some new

oh and uh sorry mil but, ya not. i mean all the

jordans supreme in 2xl and bdus in the world dont make you anymore

casper than the next kid guzzling 40s cause he saw it in kids

that being said blunts, 40s, and being rude in your park is a ny past time of many , but for some reason i dont think its one of yours

[Spaghettini]

Telly was djing at the bar I was at for my 21st birthday. When he found out it was my 21st bday, he bought me a shot of whisky, stopped the music, and sang happy birthday with my friends, with half a bar full of people booing him for doing so.

Gimme dat KIDS rep

[fffffut]

best line in the movie

I just look at the dopeness. But you, it's like you just look at the wackness, ya know?

[Guest Phrost]

sup telly/johnny weeks. bubs was just trying to school him

both ended up with the bug

[MilSpex]

its not 94-95 anymore, so dont expect 94 realness from some new

oh and uh sorry mil but, ya not. i mean all the

jordans supreme in 2xl and bdus in the world dont make you anymore

casper than the next kid guzzling 40s cause he saw it in kids

that being said blunts, 40s, and being rude in your park is a ny past time of many , but for some reason i dont think its one of yours

uh when did I say I lived that culture? You should know by now I`m a geek who studies and appreciates this culture, just like a geek who studies robots from Japanese cartoons or one that studies Star Trek. I NEVER said I lived that.

I did go to high school in the early `90s tho and even in Australia there was a lot of that culture. undercuts, Jordans, Stussy, Mossimo and Eastpak, skating, watching Jordan play, talking like Do The Right Thing, Wu Tang Clan, getting drunk and high etc etc.. I thought that shit was all so cool then, but like today I chose not to participate in drugs or alcohol, I was I guess what they call "straight edge" now in High School. I mean I`d go to some parties but I wouldn`t drink or use drugs and I was proud of being the geek and coz I didn`t give a fuck I was accepted and had friends. So yeah some of those scenes in Kids I`ve seen in real life even growing up in a shitty place like Australia people bought into this same skate/hip hop culture at that time..until Cobain died, then everyone flipped to flannies and shitty clothes and were suddenly rock fans.

Thats why I completely geeked out at Uni when I saw Jap exchange students coming in wearing like what we used to in High School but way more advanced and higher quality and brands I didn`t know and shit. It was like a continuation of high school culture that all the Aussie kids had given up on but the Jap kids were trying even harder to do. You see how I study this shit, its a hobby for me, not a lifestyle you dumbasses.

[MilSpex]

sup telly/johnny weeks. bubs was just trying to school him

both ended up with the bug

Funny thing is the movie makes out like Casper gets it in the end too but female to male transmission of HIV is extremely fucking difficult. He had a better chance of being hit by a bus than getting HIV from having unprotected sex with an HIV positive female one time.

oh and who`s Bo Jackson and Peter Sellers? Don`t even insult me. Maybe some 14 yo on hypebeast wouldn`t know but what 31 year old wouldn`t? Come the fuck on.

[Orion]

I liked it. I don't mind wading through some shitty dialogue if the conceptual story is good, which I thought The Wackness was. I liked the relationship between Josh Peck and Ben Kingsly and was into how his idea of love / a relationship didn't end up happening. I dunno, it just hit me right. I know Kids is like, the cool movie to like and all, and it was good enough, but I thought the Wackness worked.

[sunkenshoes]

ayo i cant watch the wackness. how can you take a movie seriously that features that kid from drake & josh.

[AstroWolf]

Care to expand on the bullshit from Kids? Any personal story you care to share? Sounds interesting.

I would not even know where to begin to start... the main problem i had with kids was that all my parents friends started talking to me like they finally understood me and my generation after they saw it, when really, the scene it paints was a very small portion of the overall scene of the early 90's..

nasa was a scene of scenes that would all intermingle... there were the people making it happen, the people who worked there, the crackheads who ran away from home to go out, the kids who promoted other clubs who just went to get money from handing out flyers... it was a very odd mix of people. for instance, you had the kids who would have to go hoem early cause thier parents still wanted to seem like they cared, or were responseable, so you had heads who were always ghost when shit started to get good... they would miss everything... then at about 430am, the clubs would shut down, no more booze for the club kids... so what did Astro Earl, Walt Paper and the infamous Michael Alig do? they would invade nasa, and be riiiiiipppppped on whatever amazing drugs they did... boozing like mad too, nasa was a dry club, why we could stay open past 4... till 7 or 8 a lot of the time.... milspex shows his lack of connection to reality in saying harmony was a club kid... if you ever saw a real club kid, you would know, he aint one at all. he was just a writer kid, who ran in to larry clark in washington sqare park and told him about a story he wrote about a kids dad taking him to a brothel for his 13th birthday... something like that. i never hung with harmony, but knew his GF at the time pretty well as i worked with her back then.

the blunt scene in kids says it all to me, sure we smoked in the park all the time... but not where they were... and if you ever got in to a fight, you were done, they would sure as shit pinch you for that back then, but they were cool about looking the other way on the reffer.

in a lot of ways, the best parts of kids were the carrers it launched... harmony is a real talent, and its too bad we cant get more blood from that stone of his mind, but its to be expected with the way he makes movies... chloe is a hero to fashion, and a really nice person... its too bad leo (telly) does not do more, he seemed like he could have done some stuff... Justin (casper) hung himself a little while after filming Friday 2... too bad for him... jon abrams ended up being on the Ellen D show as a dj and in scary movie and a bunch of other shit... its a real piece of nyc, that time and place, i just wish it showed the fun we were having instead of making us seem like little demons or fucked up dementos... again, i did not know all these people, did not really care to, but i knew a handful of the people in the movie, and some of them were ok, even after thier heads blew up...

this is about all i can get in to without making it more personal, or starting to ramble, which i guess i already have done, but if ya got any other questions im here for ya.

boo ya.

here are somepics i googled for the sake of killing time at work...

nasa in nasa mode

old nasa flyer... i still have a box full of a ton of thse i collected...

scotto (on the right), half of the duo who was responsable for any of it happening... other dude was DJ DB (not pictured)... hes still out there making music...

a bad scan of another nasa flyer...

the afore mentioned Astro Earl in full earl mode...

i wish i took any pics back then, thse dont do anything any justice at all.

[willerd]

Great post; because of my older siblings I really think of the nineties as being kind of drug-fueled era of skate parks and raves. Growing up in the 00s was a lot more tame by comparison, at least in my world.

My experience growing up in the 00's has been drug-fueled, but based around music, mostly dnb/electro either at festivals or clubs. As well as that most busy house parties ive been to at university have had drugs flying around pretty much as freely as the booze, its pretty inherent to British youth culture atm. I guess it's just the people you're friends with and the places you live.

edit: on topic - Kids and The Wackness both have their charms, it goes without saying that Kids is gonna have the authenticity being made in the times, The Wackness is only ever gonna be a contrived effort. It's like expecting a cover band to be as good as the real thing. I actually thought the point of The Wackness was to tell a coming-of-age story about a loner pot-dealer, not to accurately map out the realities of a decade.

[jeepster]

there's a trilogy of movies... for some reason the name is escaping me at the moment. They're these loud, Kids inspired trio of films like nicknamed the "Apocalypse Trilogy" (not the John Carpenter trilogy) - anyone know what I'm talking about? The last one of the trilogy has an alien that beams up one of the main kids in it? It's just your standard tales about misanthropic teenagers in 90's LA struggling with social anxiety, sexuality, growing up, etc.

ring a bell with anyone?

sub-URBIA was also pretty decent.