They Cloned Tyrone

Unless you are hearing that it could be up for Oscars, it's always hard to tell if a Netflix original film will be any good. Their track record isn't all that impressive, to say the least, but I was still very much looking forward to They Cloned Tyrone. Now streaming, this film ended up being a mixed bag for me, with enough positives to at least say it wasn't bad. When filmmakers embrace a certain tone and run with it, I'm always going to commend that, but here's why it didn't quite work for me overall. Fontaine (John Boyega), Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx), and Yo-Yo (Teyonah Parris) all find themselves uncovering a mystery together after Fontaine realizes that he has been cloned. This leads them to figure out that there is an underground government conspiracy that must be stopped. Multiple cloned have been made of certain humans and the reasoning behind it is honestly something I wouldn't be surprised about in reality. The social commentary and fun dialogue kept me interested, but the look and pacing of the film nearly put me to sleep. The costumes, music, dialogue, and performances were all well-done, which is frustraing because I believe this film would've been perfect at about 90-minutes. I'm not someone who gets easily bored just because a film is long, but at two hours it truly felt nearly three. There are terrific and fun moments throughout, but in between, the conversations become boring and even some of the revleations are revealed multiple times and felt repetitive. I admired the attempt here, but it didn't go anywhere interesting enough for me. They Cloned Tyrone is the type of film that I enjoyed watching, but can't recommend, because I feel that many viewers will find it dull and slow. Juel Taylor worked well with these performers, but I ultimately believe the calm, cool, and collected attitude to his direction ended up creating a slower film than he was intending. There's nothing special about this film in my opinion, which is very disappointing, because I loved the premise and I love the cast in everything they do. It has its moments and some viewers seem to really like it, but it didn't quite do it for me.

They Cloned Tyrone is marketed as a supernatural comedy in which three denizens of an American ghetto discover that their existences are being controlled by a vast government conspiracy. But aside from a few lines it's not funny, and I don't think it's really intended to be. I think the filmmakers were going more for incisive social satire. If so then they failed. This movie's ham-fisted messaging gets diluted by the hyperbolic goofiness of the execution. It's also technically incompetent in places, with inadequate scene lighting and sound mixing that makes the dialogue indecipherable. Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris do their best to elevate a moronic script; but watching Royal Shakespearean doofus John Boyega try to act gritty and hard is just cringe.