One Spoon of Chocolate (2026)    36 Cinema Distribution/Action-Thriller-Drama    RT: 112 minutes    Rated R (strong violence, some gore, language throughout including racial slurs, sexual content/nudity, drug use)    Director: RZA    Screenplay: RZA    Music: Tyler Bates    Cinematography: Brandon Cox    Release date: May 1, 2026 (US)    Cast: Shameik Moore, RJ Cyler, Harry Goodwins, Paris Jackson, Blair Underwood, Johnell Young, Michael Harney, Rockmond Dunbar, E’myri Crutchfield, James Lee Thomas, Michael Bekemeier, Brandon Bonilla, Jason Vendryes.

Rating: ** ½

 So many questions, so many questions. So many questions filled my head as I walked into the theater lobby after seeing One Spoon of Chocolate, the latest film from RZA, the Wu-Tang Clan rapper who branched out into filmmaking more than a decade ago with the gonzo martial arts flick The Man with the Iron Fists (2012). It was a messy one (narratively speaking), but it knew enough not to take itself seriously. Unfortunately, that’s the new movie’s biggest liability. It’s way too serious and self-important for a supposed B-movie revenge thriller.

 Now we come to the moment of truth. How should I approach my review of One Spoon of Chocolate? Should I review it as a critic or a movie lover? I know, I’ll review it as a critical movie lover. It’ll be the best (or worst) of both worlds. It’ll be fun, you’ll see.

 The action centers on Unique (Moore from the animated Spider-Verse films), an Iraq War vet/ex-con who goes to live with his cousin Ramsee (Cyler, Night Patrol) after getting the okay from his parole officer (Underwood, Krush Groove). It doesn’t take long for him to learn that the small Ohio town of Karensville is ruled by a white supremacist gang run by local creep Jimmy (Goodwins, The Gentlemen), the son of the town’s extremely racist sheriff (Harney, The Iron Claw). Naturally, Unique runs afoul of the gang and his cousin ends up dead, murdered. He spends the rest of the movie planning his revenge while they try to track him down.

 Wait, there’s more to One Spoon of Chocolate. Writer-director takes a cue from Get Out with the inclusion of a subplot involving black men meeting a fate worse than instant death. There’s a reason the town tops the list of most organs donated. Some powerful locals are running a black market organ ring. It works like this. Jimmy’s thugs beat down victims, their organs are removed and their deaths are made to look like accidents. This is what happens to another one of Unique’s cousins at the beginning of the movie.

 Okay, let’s talk about the beginning of One Spoon of Chocolate for a minute. It’s weird. The aforementioned cousin is walking down a lonely road hitchhiking. He’s picked up by a car full of hot young girls. Say what? This is a scenario out of a teen comedy or a porno movie. You would never see this happen in an action movie unless….. uh huh, it’s a set-up! The victim-to-be goes into a convenience store to buy booze only to come out and find the gang waiting for him with baseball bats in hand. Now here’s my other question. Why would he put himself in that position to begin with? He knows there’s a violent gang of racists running around. Obviously, he was thinking with the wrong head, but still.

 Here’s another question I have about One Spoon of Chocolate. When is it supposed to be taking place? They never mention a year or even a decade. It can’t be now. Know how I can tell? No cell phones, no computers, no mention of social media. In one scene, somebody uses a pay phone. Those have been gone for quite a while now. I’m guessing it takes place sometime in the late 90s/early 00s due to mention of Iraq and Kuwait. It definitely feels like a movie out of our time.

 You might have noticed the “Quentin Tarantino Presents” tagline on the poster. He’s one of the film’s executive producers. He served the same function on The Man with the Iron Fists. It makes sense. He was RZA’s mentor on the set of Kill Bill for which he composed the score. The rapper learned about filmmaking from QT. He’s still learning. It shows in the film’s sloppy execution.

 It’s time for me to be brutally honest about One Spoon of Chocolate. It’s a mess. It’s poorly written and badly directed. It has a nice grindhouse aesthetic, but RZA should have followed suit in terms of story and tone. He lets it get weighed down by a heavy-handed message about racism in modern-day America. It’s not supposed to be that kind of movie. At least I don’t think it is. I didn’t get that impression from the trailer. I thought it would be more of a B-movie with plenty of action and bloody violence. One Spoon of Chocolate has all that plus a fair amount of gratuitous nudity, but it’s not as fun as it should be due to the seriousness with which it takes itself.

 The acting is bad as well. It’s amateurish for the most part. Harney, as the sheriff, is clearly imitating Rod Steiger from In the Heat of the Night except with more n-words. Moore’s lines sound totally rehearsed, especially in the climax when he delivers a Rambo-esque monologue about the history of black people in America.

 Ah yes, the ending. One Spoon of Chocolate has a cool blood-soaked finale in which Unique goes up against the whole gang by himself with a few homemade weapons. That part I like. I didn’t care for how RZA left things at the end. Neither did several members of the audience. One gentleman shouted, “This is some bull****!” That sums it up succinctly.

 I know what you’re asking. Did I like One Spoon of Chocolate or not? The answer is yes for the most part. It’s badly made yet I admire RZA for realizing his vision his way. He still has a lot to learn about tone and nuance, balancing the serious with the silly, but he’s definitely got something going for him. Also, I love watching a**hole racists get what they deserve. Who doesn’t?