Kazaam Review (1996) Starring Shaq the Rapping Genie - Rental Reviews

Kazaam. The genie movie Shaq wants you to forgot about! In this episode of Rental Reviews we cover the best (worst) movie of 1996. It follows the story of Max. A kid struggling with his parents divorce and being the master of a genie named Kazaam.
Check out more Rental Reviews here: • CONGO... Just like Jur...
Follow us on Twitter:
James - / cinemassacre
Justin - / justysilverman
Kieran - / kieeeeern
Tony - / hackthemovies
#Kazaam #Shaq #Cinemassacre

[@OuterRaine]

James looked preoccupied with trying to figure out how to fit Shaq in the store

[@erainmartinez8175]

well this movie existed

[@hulkamal5434]

Arabic speaker here. The text doesn't mean anything, it's gibberish. They even wrote some letters backward

[@thechemiist14]

Who cares?

[@lotus-prince]

@@thechemiist14 Justin Silverman, who asked the viewers to translate the Arabic last year, which is when the comment you're responding to was posted.

[@johitay1324]

Asked my buddy from work (who is a native Arabic speaker) he even said it doesn’t mean anything.

[@SamJohnnyVoices]

Why am I not surprised

[@timmyt603]

@@lotus-prince I appreciate it dude! I only came to the comments to find out the answer to that....I thought it looked awfully symmetrical aside from the center part. Your comment was one of the top comments and answered that so thanks so much!

[@gamestation2690]

Fun fact: One of the bullies near the beginning is played by Efrain Ramírez, best known as Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite.

[@khaimk4r4su]

Well gosh

[@thestwinner680]

*Napoleon Bonafrog* (TMNT voiceover;) )

[@gamestation2690]

@@thestwinner680 That was Jon Heder.

[@Gustavo-fm2vm]

Also Wade Robinson.

[@CarInMyAss]

Didn't know that

[@enricovanderswanlake364]

Its such a shame they stopped making rental reviews

[@erainmartinez8175]

got that right 0:12

[@Beefhammer]

Should have had Shaq instead of Will Smith in the new Aladdin movie.

[@Iconhulk]

FR

[@WiiMan25]

No they should've had Sinbad.

[@roadtonever]

Any day!

[@blakestone3526]

Why?

[@sdmfbastard]

Shoulda been sinbad

[@tribalisnt]

"You're a monster" That was some Oscar winning acting right there.

[@Mariowave94]

After Kazaam I'm still waiting for the day for you guys review Space Jam

[@frankjosephjaeger2675]

No one say shit about that movie Space Jam was awesome

[@TheSonOfTheDragon]

I would love to see that, especially their thoughts on Lola Bunny.

[@moriellymoproblems7842]

Gonna fly like an Eagle....

[@CarInMyAss]

@@TheSonOfTheDragon Lola is smoking hot

[@TheSonOfTheDragon]

@@LUCKO2022 Calm down I wasn't mocking her, In fact she's one of my favorite Looney Tunes characters. I just like seeing people's reactions to her.

[@chrisvanvlair2577]

“You shat on Caddyshack, But you love this Shaq, You sad sack” This quote made me laugh so hard I saw spots, but i had not felt that good all April .

[@doubleflores8350]

Chris VanVlair it was pretty funny.

[@austins.2495]

Slight chuckle worthy at most

[@favoritemustard3542]

@@austins.2495 **raspberries**

[@natedog769]

shaq always looked like he was 40

[@anavash]

Like how Danny Devito has been 49 his entire life ha.

[@CarInMyAss]

Yeah he has looked like the same age for years. Good for him now though, he doesn't look as old as he could

[@kennywu8522]

That's dope they got Will Smith for the intro

[@xotl2780]

Ha.

[@benmalsky9834]

I liked Will Smith.

[@scottking5555]

Best...comment...ever

[@masonlewis8462]

@Levi M I still don't get it unless it's an Aladdin reference

[@Pako_equis]

Keep the Genies name out your motha fkn mouth 👋😂

[@598gh]

I'm Arab and I couldn't figure out what was written, it's just random letters.

[@kennethd4958]

I like how the front of the movie says "The $19 Million Comedy Hit!" Like the amount of money spent makes it a better movie...

[@todbilegotgonbat3943]

Sounds like a sequel to the Mandela Effect video.

[@randalgraves6979]

Its a prequel to Shazam 🤔

[@sizier]

Dude, I saw the thumbnail for this video and thought exactly what you said.

[@ligeringspirit1133]

@@randalgraves6979 i dont think so because the the actor said he never act in that movie before 🤔

[@randalgraves6979]

I mean The Shazam that just came out. From DC. 😏🤨

[@ligeringspirit1133]

@@randalgraves6979 lol

[@JustinWhangYt]

19:47 damn Steve aoki's looking rough

[@austins.2495]

Hai

[@BazTheStoryteller]

Wonder is Tony going to see the Aladdin remake. If he does, he should go to the cinema dressed like Jafar.

[@redmage7716]

I mean he already has the costume.

[@glennwelsh9784]

I'm just impressed that he has a Jafar costume for some reason.

[@sofakingonmynuts1438]

Im impressed they make kid costumes that big! We need to diet

[@FamilyGuyBob]

Craig from Malcolm in the Middle is back!

[@smoothSnake23]

Lmao!!

[@altrogeruvah]

Craig Feldspar!

[@hammerbrother2835]

supermario_2 but cooler

[@SuperCaleb360]

11:59 what a weird transition. Like we needed a moment of silence for Shaq being killed by rain food.

[@josephcummings2691]

yeah that made no sense, WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!

[@Lucios1995]

An ad came right after that transition for me, that must have been why

[@equalityforall2378]

You mean food rain xD

[@MikeELtheGamerLPShow]

Justin was wearing a Game Sack t-shirt when Tony called him a sad sack.

[@elfang0r]

Hence why Tony points at it when he says that.

[@PolarPhantom]

That shitty genie is bizarrely amazing and mesmerising.

[@hammerbrother2835]

PolarPhantom beats Sonic from the new movie trailer every time

[@Yoyle-gp2xq]

Ahh a Cinemassacre upload that warms my heart

[@Illumirage]

don't they all though

[@SmrtPhonRtistCF]

I hope they review BASEketball next, it'll be a timeless rental review.

[@TurboNutterBastard.]

SmrtPhonRtistCF they review shit films...not awesome films.

[@pspblows99]

if they havent dont it yet, they should do "willow"

[@Bklyn93]

The "master tape" could be a DAT tape. Those were used as masters in the 90s.

[@FIXTREME]

RyManda It could also be a Digital Compact Cassette, no?

[@jhcoverdrive9287]

So I actually went searching the comments because that part stuck out to me (I figured someone else made the same observation)...I’ve worked with audio engineers, there are/were cassettes of various types used in audio production. Old ADAT tapes were pretty much VHS tapes used for audio, too. I know, that’s a little bigger than what they’re showing in the movie but just saying, not all “tape” in audio production is reel to reel

[@bigkmoviesandgames]

I love all the Mandela references in the background of the Kazaam video.

[@alexdavidson7785]

A reality that NEEDS to be checked

[@tranquil3727]

I love that James is like completely lost in thought for most of the review. It's like Kazaam was so bad that it gave him an epiphany that he couldn't stop thinking about.

[@dustbucket7949]

Gotta love James just spacing out over how tall Shaq is

[@erainmartinez8175]

He's right 5:30

[@whaler3232]

I like how James is humble enough just to let the other 2 guys just run all over the place and he basically stands back.

[@sharazjeck3928]

Honestly these rental review videos are just a nugget of gold on youtube just a group of guys chatting about movies, keep em coming 👌👍

[@herbiehusker1889]

That Genie is better than Will Smith as the Genie.

[@schtive81]

I had a friend who worked at a video rental store chain called "Hollywood Video" during the mid to late '90's. I talked to him in recent years, and he is convinced that Mandela effects are real and that the movie Shazaam starring Sinbad was also real. He told me that one day, while he was routinely moving VHS's from the "new releases" section to their appropriate sections in the video store, he placed a couple copies of Kazaam in the kids section, and then noticed that there was already a copy of a movie called Shazaam in the same spot. Then he pointed this out to his co-worker because these two movies were so similar to each other and only released one year apart. When he heard about the Shazaam Mandela effect, he thought people were full of shit, because he knew that movie was real. But after discovering that the movie never existed, he fell deep into the Mandela rabbit hole.

[@nowonmetube]

Now where's that Shazaam rental review video gone?

[@alexdavidson7785]

somebody answer Answer Now

[@KumaPaws376]

[Seinfeld Music intensifies]

[@thatonea-hole]

*WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH THAT?!* *AIRPLANE FOOD, LIFE, WHATEVER*

[@firetiger-io7no]

Easy to beat!

[@EnderTails]

When I read the title, I read it "Shazam", looks like the Mandela effects are kicking in.

[@codyw518]

Ender tails I remember this as Shazam. So weird. Wtf is Kazzam

[@FreakofNature147]

@@codyw518 It's the Mandoozie Effect

[@vsgamingandatheism5017]

Sinbad

[@moccalou]

I figured this was what reminded them of it. I've been making jokes for months now people are going to confuse Shazam in 20 years with wasn't that the weird Shaquille O'Neal Genie movie?

[@themadplotter]

Stop perpetuating stupid terms coined by morons.

[@BooshmanLee]

Wow, James really had very little to contribute during this one.

[@noizyme]

James sounded like he slept through most of it. These other two guys sounded like they LIVE for this movie. Very weird chemistry here.

[@countrylyricist]

He secretly likes it. 😂😂😂

[@GodKill123]

There's really not much to say about this movie altogether. James said it best himself, this movie is pretty generic.

[@hellmuth26]

james isn't funny or personable, that's the problem with this, and a lot of these videos.

[@countrylyricist]

@@hellmuth26 His AVGN is pretty funny. But yeah. The other Cinnemassacre videos are hardly worth watching.

[@andrewweinstein7740]

Well you certainly are getting your money’s worth on those Genie effects.

[@spoogie35]

Fun Shaq fact, I recently discovered a box of CD's I've had since the 90's. Among them, it appears that I have both of Shaq's albums. Gonna give them a spin and see what I was thinking as a child...

[@ToruKun1]

This was actually one of my favorite movies as a kid, I even had the novelization of Kazaam (which I found at a Goodwill LOL)

[@otistebeats3958]

ToruKun1 Was the Novel any better? d:

[@killionaire3651]

Same here

[@ToruKun1]

@@otistebeats3958 No, mostly because it didn't explain how and why Shaq was able to squish that guy down into a basketball LOL

[@josephborderline]

Get Shaq on the show. That would be awesome.

[@Manbearpig65]

haha the bad guy in Kazaam is Ranjit from How I Met Your Mother

[@dem0nrage]

I avoided this movie like the plague. Even as a kid I knew it was bad.

[@HelgaCavoli]

I went in the theater for this. THE THEATER!!!! As a kid (and even then I knew it was huge mistake. A little too late).

[@InscentiveAdvice]

Totally n being serious bc there is no proof now for what I am saying but no bullshit n really being honest here. I never cared for Kazam as a kid bc I thought it was a strait knock off of sinbad shazam. The comedian sinbad who I never in life called sinbad I referred to him his entire career as shazam the genie. Not until I was older did I care to give kazam a fair chance.

[@Invidente7]

Oh, the one where shaq turns a bad guy into a basketball ... OMG! A leslie nielsen autograph!

[@PJVids83]

The cinematographer on Kazaam was Charles Minsky and he specializes in that whole fairy tale look. He worked on episodes of Spielberg's Amazing Stories and the movie Pretty Woman.

[@RandomizationShow]

Mandella effect probably still has james buggin’ out 😂😂

[@officersquarehead]

They spent 99% of this movie's budget on the junk food scene.

[@WolfHero]

I'm Arabic man the scene in Arabic it's just some Letters do not mean anything

[@WolfHero]

@@UR86 thank you

[@malamri424]

the arabic club name is gibberish, does mean anything

[@Magnilous]

Do the Sinbad genie movie next!

[@macaroniart7523]

STFU

[@Christophersanchez1326]

Technically it doesn't exist.🤔 But only in past life.

[@Christophersanchez1326]

@@AtomicClown69 where's my uncle Rick when I need him. 😆

[@someguy5319]

Its real look it up

[@RiClive]

@@someguy5319 nope

[@eddie_retro6192]

FUN FACT: The kid is Francis Capra who also played young Calogero "C" in the movie A Bronx Tale.

[@vipset87]

u got shazaam with sinbad somewhere over there??

[@kameron454ci]

the gumball scene was the best

[@alexdavidson7785]

U believe that movie existed???

[@alexdavidson7785]

@@kameron454ci tell me move about it..

[@Jhayzer021]

Shaq has a sense of humor, well you should thanks Adam Sandler for that. 😁

[@eveoftartarus2602]

You just had to bring the genie back.

[@hi-friaudioman]

That "master tape" wasn't actually a cassette tape... it was a DAT tape, which was a popular studio standard of the time and could've actually been a studio master back in the 90's. As each tape holds 8 tracks of uncompressed 44.1khz 16bit audio.

[@Doyledeth]

Let me guess. Is your rug gonna be double parked outside?

[@FreshSprints]

Seriously love these segments. You guys kill it every time. I had the same copy of kazaam when I was a kid because my dad worked for the wherehouse entertainment and we constantly had promo tapes coming in. It was great.

[@camp7203]

1. UHF 2. Dirty Work

[@countrylyricist]

Dirty Work is the shit!! Just watched it today for the umpteenth time.

[@iamradical]

Dirty work is one of the best comedies ever

[@countrylyricist]

@@iamradical Definitely agree.

[@alexdavidson7785]

!

[@wcoleman99]

The only thing I remember about his movie is one of the Boyz II Men guys sang the theme/love song called wishes.

[@SimonBergeron1977]

Watch out, he's gonna make Shaq-Nado soon enough! XD

[@TheNotoriousOTZI]

I had only two VHS movies in my childhood and they were The Mask and Kazaam. I watched them over and over again. Kazaam is love, Kazaam is life.

[@Gideon_Judges6]

Actually in the clip you guys showed for Da Brat master recording, it looked like a DAT which is exactly what a studio would have used back then. It's a high quality digital recording, just on magnetic tape.

[@nativerambler9818]

The wishmaster! That’s the movie I walked into with my mom once in the 90s as a little kid and thinking it was kind of creepy. I’ve been trying to remember what the name of that movie was for like 20 years. I kept thinking like “dream catcher” or some shit like that lol thanks for reminding me

[@robertnorthup8583]

Was wondering if they would ever do this review. Cinemassacre serving up another steamy pile of nostalgia!!

[@nansformer]

am i the only one who watches these over and over again? i literally pull up the rental reviews playlist like atleast every other day and rewatch them all over again. in a way it feels like im hangin with some of my buddies. because all of you are so easy to relate to :D id love to see an Evil Dead vs Evil Dead 2 episode one day!

[@jerrywemhoff]

That wasn't a cassette tape, it was a DAT. Before everything went fully digital, they were industry standard for final mixes to be sent out for mastering.

[@davidconlee2196]

Thanks guys. Keep these coming!

[@indrachaudhari7874]

OMG I was going to ask you guys for this movie review... now do steel, space jam, nutty professor, the mask, breverly hills ninja, batman and robin..

[@kev3d]

I'm pretty certain the UN has decreed The Mask as a crime against humanity.

[@unintentionaleffectiveness4393]

I’m liking your picks, those are great for this nostalgic kind of video

[@notmeeee2001]

Its funny how they mentioned how bad steal,and speed 2 are because i seen them together in a double feature. Back when movie theaters still did that

[@AJScraps]

I've been waiting for this for a decade xD

[@adammasciocchi6399]

This movie made me text my dad to apologize for making him take me to see this when I was 10; thanks Cinemassacre!

[@stanlee06]

Marshall Manesh aka Tony's father plays villain in Kazaam, and I knew I know him from somewhere, he also plays Ranjit in HIMYM.

[@Bigbadbog]

Love these skits guys. Thanks for the hilariously fun stuff lately.

[@_--INFiNiTE_C0NSCi0US--_]

Look into the 'Testament of Solomon' and 'Lesser Key of Solomon'. King Solomon was said to capture every demon inside an urn, in which he sealed them in with 'divine' symbols/sigils. He would call upon any demon he sees fit to do his deeds from this urn. - Very much like the modern concept of a "genie" in a lamp.

[@danieldougan269]

At the time this movie was released, Shaq was still playing for the Orlando Magic. So that might he been why he didn't get any hometown love from the LA Times.

[@Jade-ur8pl]

When are you guys gonna review The Room?

[@Zanderuu]

Hey Justin, if you see this.. Qui-gon Djinn made me laugh

[@theactualTVB]

A stupid popular opinion... but Kazaam is still better looking than the upcoming Aladdin remake.

[@ProductionsByRayne]

R.I.P Robin Williams

[@loganfravel204]

I like the original opening of these videos better,mostly because the second opening is like a sitcom,and the third opening sounds like the theme to Seinfeld.

[@ultromegus3134]

Shaq give that boi some cream... With ice cream from the pocket

[@nealmcbealthenavysealicall794]

Can I start singing over you?

[@thelittlebosniaexperience8181]

To be fair, some kids DID decorate their lairs with stolen stuff. We had one of those spring horses from a playground and a functional gumball machine in ours.

[@ACARDtvMusic]

Loved this movie as a kid and Disney, back in the late 1990’s, would play it. The ending always had me tearing up..

[@HelgaCavoli]

You were the right demographic. This movie is really bad.

[@ACARDtvMusic]

Helgali 🤣 I mean it was aimed towards kids pretty much.

[@Saintnick90]

"Why do you hate good movies but like trash like this?" The internet in a nutshell.

[@CrayZgunZ]

This is where sinbad was mistaken for making fkn shazam

[@TheFailedmessiah]

Accomplished comedian Sinbad filed for bankruptcy for a second time. It looks like things have gone from Sin BAD, to SIN WORSE.

[@theblackhundreds7124]

my God.

[@TheFailedmessiah]

I saw this movie on a field trip with my school during summer camp. So it has memories for me. Imagine a bunch of kids in a movie theater. We had fun.

[@SylvanasWindrunnerResurrected]

Wasn't this actually the movie Shazaam with Sinbad? But they reshot the scenes with Shaq and renamed it Kazaam?

[@alexdavidson7785]

Not sure

[@cottinball80]

Yes!

[@tthomaselli2]

I didn't want to see Kieran disappear from this review. It would've been nice to have seen the 4 of you tear this movie apart.

[@reyvilla8501]

Ugh... im getting 'Steel' flashbacks

[@Morgil27]

When I was a kid, my grandpa was good friends with someone who owned a video store, and he gave us a ton of those demo tapes for cheesy 90s B movies like this.

[@r3n3gad33]

Isn't Kazaam a rip off Sinbad's Shazam, which doesn't exist. But in our timeline it's a superhero movie about Captain Marvel which is not the same Captain Marvel in another superhero film called Captain Marvel. I'm soo confused.

[@Hatingmeisconforming]

I liked the junk food scene

[@TheRealMaxJenius]

Jinn are basically like angels and demons, but can be either good OR evil. They also get trapped in lamps from time to time apparently...

[@quagthias]

I mean, he wasn't kidding, that Genie looks significantly better than the 3D animation of that Mortal Kombat movie from last week.

[@jonathanredford215]

This was a guilty pleasure even as a kid lol. The raining food scene still sticks with me. I wanted to live in that warehouse with candy piled to the sky

[@turnbull832]

The genie sounds like a young postal dude.

[@lazybacon7520]

lol at James' face when he said Running Man was based on a Stephen King book. He was like "wait, what?"

[@postalkisuke]

that's because it's by Richard Bachman

[@Dreeza68955]

Same thing lol

[@michaelroush6798]

Love watching these reviews. I was searching and couldnt find anyone that has done much on the TV show ALF from the 1980's. Id love a review of the series ALF. I know its movie rental reviews but it would be cool to seea tv show review too.

[@bitwize]

The whole Shazaam rumor was probably a conflation of Kazaam with Shazzan, a Hanna-Barbera show with a similar-looking genie that belonged to two kids.

[@AyanamiSportswear]

The Shaq Pack from Burger King !

[@ACARDtvMusic]

Could Heavyweights possibly be the next Rental Review? This will def be an endless series just like the AVGN ones.

[@goldenblue8991]

I remember the teacher making us watch this in class when I was in 2nd grade in the 90s.

[@cakerbaby69]

Golden Blue89 letting*

[@aljaberhk]

@@cakerbaby69 no

[@oliverkloshophdndrecords50]

I am a huge fan of game sack!