Netflix has released the first trailer for “They Cloned Tyrone,” and it promises a crazy grindhouse pulp comedy starring Jamie Foxx and John Boyega.
Film aficionados pay attention to the title “They Cloned Tyrone.” Whenever the title supposedly reveals the entire movie pitch, i.e., the short version of the plot, you know that it’s not about the what, but about the how. If the audience doesn’t have to find out what’s going on but can sit back and relax with the only question of how crazy something can get, then you can really enjoy the popcorn. And if possible, you shouldn’t choke on it from laughing.
That’s exactly what the just-released first trailer for the mystery comedy with Jamie Foxx (“Day Shift”), John Boyega (“Star Wars – Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker”), Teyonah Parris (“Candyman”), Kiefer Sutherland (“24”), and David Alan Grier (“Arizona”) delivers. And what you get to see there exceeds everything you can imagine under the title.
Underlaid with Rockwell’s extremely fitting paranoia classic “Somebody’s Watching Me,” in which Michael Jackson sang the chorus, the trailer unfolds a damn delicious Schlock/Blaxploitation atmosphere that you otherwise only get from cheaply cranked-down video store titles from the eighties and nineties. Trashy pearls, where you knew exactly what to expect: the deeper you went into the cliché box and the cheaper the effects worked, the more you celebrated.
Director Juel Taylor knew exactly why he would send a drug dealer (Boyega), a pimp (Foxx), and a prostitute (Parris) together to uncover a twisted conspiracy:
“My writing partner [Tony Rettenmaier] and I used to joke about who would make the worst possible detectives—the worst possible candidates to be thrust into the middle of a conspiracy. […] I wanted the world of this film to be in a hermetically sealed bubble where you feel like time has stopped.”
And while one might initially think that Foxx and Boyega are unlikely to be suited for those roles, they’re actually exactly the kind of characters that really got them started. For Boyega, it was the role of teenage gangster Moses in the sci-fi comedy “Attack the Block,” which has a similar atmosphere to “They Cloned Tyrone” and which you can stream via Amazon. For Foxx, it was the parody of Little Richard in the comedy show “In Living Color.”
This unlikely trio uncovers a conspiracy in this pulpy sci-fi comedy, with the US government experimentally using the Black Quarters. And they poison their favorite foods and drinks to do it! This has to be stopped, and it’s coming to Netflix on July 21, 2023.
How is Jamie Foxx doing right now? Last April, Jamie Foxx was reportedly rushed to the hospital due to a medical emergency. The exact reason was not communicated. At the time, the actor was filming the Netflix action comedy “Back in Action” alongside Cameron Diaz. The family and circle of acquaintances remained silent for weeks until Foxx’s daughter, Corinne, let it be known in early May that her father had indeed been out of the hospital for weeks and was on the mend (via Independent).