'Top Five' Red Band Trailer

Last month we checked out the first green band trailer for ‘Top Five,’ but now Chris Rock’s directorial debut has revealed a red band trailer, which also reveals all of that NSFW language and humor that the first trailer had to hold back. Rock may be taking his leap from actor and comedian to director seriously, but you didn’t think a film directed by Chris Rock would be totally void of F-bombs, did you?

The new trailer certainly recycles some of the same scenes and jokes from the first, safer-for-work trailer, but here everything is enhanced by more profanity. Yes, profanity is often hollow, and if your film or television series or stand-up comedy act is already unfunny, throwing in some bad words isn’t going to make your product any better. But Rock is a master—as are many of his very talented co-stars in ‘Top Five’—and sharp, talented comedians like Rock know how to use profanity as punctuation, to help enhance their point, not detract from it.

Typically when we see a red band version of a trailer, the additional naughty language and innuendo does nothing to make us want to see the film even more. The red band versions are just slightly-dressed up versions of what we’ve already seen (looking at you, trailer for ‘Unfinished Business’), but this one makes us want to see ‘Top Five’ even more than we already did.

Rock makes his directorial debut and also stars in the film as Andre Allen, a successful comedian and actor on the verge of being washed-up, who’s struggling to figure out the next phase of his career. When a New York Times critic rips his work apart, Andre takes an opportunity to work with a journalist from the Times on a new project that defies what his fiancee and his agent expect from him.

‘Top Five’ boasts an impressive supporting cast, including Rosario Dawson, Tracy Morgan, Jay Pharoah, Gabrielle Union, Kevin Hart, Michael Che, Leslie Jones, Sherri Shepherd, Cedric the Entertainer, Anders Holm, and Romany Malco. The film hits theaters on December 5.