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benlael
Reviews
Get on Up (2014)
not really
I cant believe someone from across the pond was chosen to write & have produced the story of one of the most talented, prolific, soulful and iconic artist/performers of the later half of the 20th century...
Chadwick is on it, but the story was a new age meets broadway rendition of how many would like to characterize and see the lives of the offspring of ex-slaves overcoming to make it in the land of the free: propagandous!
So young kids and the like from here on will look at this and believe this is the story of The God Father of Soul....
mission accomplished!
(coulda got clint eastwood to do this hatchet job...)
Sextuplets (2019)
a very laudable performance overall! (maybe its an ethnic thing?)
Not being an avid movie watcher i found this to be pretty incredible to pull off! there are definitely decent references & resemblances to people i know, so perhaps this has more to do with culture - or the lack thereof in some opinions! combine that with many current viewer's potential to be saturated with comedies & characters, with the plethora of material that is out there consuming a pandemics' worth of one's "entertainment hours" and yes this may not stack up to some, but for a very occasional viewer this was crazy!
kinda reminds me of terminator. when it first came out, it seemed & really sounded so cliche and predictable, but if you started to watch it you became kinda hooked & later realized that it's kinda classic!
this movie's not perfect, but i think it's damn ambitious, and as a plot is pretty plausible and for one person to act out all these parts is darn incredible!
a very laudable performance overall!
Juanita (2019)
ms woodard's myriad of priceless expressions
Ms Woodard's myriad of expressions are priceless and what the made the movie for me. Yet at the same time the fact that there is not ONE regular Positive image of a Black Man in this polemic of a film (the bus stop guy doesn't count) is really problematic...
Black Panther (2018)
Amazing - the movie and the recent reviewers
I've seen a few superhero movies and in context this one is unique in that the panther is constrained in some respects by also having to be a ruler/politician of a country. the movie makes the viewer privy to some of the inner conflicts of this unique challenge. however, the idea behind the suit is very engaging, and the society something to consider and entertain: what if there existed a land never colonized, how would they fare? with technological advancement meeting tradition would a physical battle for the country's leadership be replaced by... voting? computerized selection? their tradition respects bloodlines and prowess. somehow i think the prodigious racial aspect of the movie has some people uncomfortable with that idea and imagery, likely causing them to squirm in their seats with their brains bursting trying to find every possible angle why this fictional superhero in a fictional country in a fictional universe is so utterly unrealistic!
so now a few weeks after release and the movie's overall reception has exceeded projections and expectations. now i've noticed what seems a concerted effort to slow or halt the appreciation and success of this artistic work of fiction: keep it out of the media, produce highly critical muted reviews, and refrain from mentioning it in public discourse (if at all possible). perhaps it will die a quieter death.
i believe it is, nonetheless, an amazing story! the part that reflects on america's unfairness to some of its less fortunate citizens certainly will offend many who are among the privileged, but again, this is a work of fiction, just like so many of the glimpses the public is given of africa - this continent with 50 some countries speaking over a thousand languages reduced to what amounts to a small backwater in the public's eye...
A Rage in Harlem (1991)
Very TOUGH Movie
This movie is TERRIBLE-ly funny to me - the characters are all just totally "CHARACTERS!" - colloquially speaking! So the many prior mixed reviews are likely because this may not be a cultural expression that everyone can or wants to appreciate. I think another reviewer noted this may not play well in what amounts to less 'cosmopolitan' parts of the U.S. It is thereby easy to see why a few 'good old boys' getting shot up is "violent!" (But war movies, werewolves, cannibalism and the like are - not so bad?) This, even though the movie and writer have billed this as an action comedy, loosely based on Chester Himes' novel.
I found that Robin, Forrest, Gregory, and Danny were all absolutely perfect in their roles, but most especially that indefatigable Forrest: "I ain't movin' - I ain't movin'..." And Miss Givens' Immabelle is ICONIC as many others have said. She PLAYS that role (a la Mike Tyson?). Then there's the dark, dangerous Djola, who I thought has been totally overlooked and underrated for his unforgettable role as the 'leader of the pack.' I thought he and his baritone voice portrayed an entertaining, impavid, two gun bad guy, without being vicious or ruthless.
I believe this movie is delightful with its twists and turns, and truly colorful characters. Bill Dukes is an outstanding Director! (Hence, the five-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival!) I gave it a one star because there will be some who go to WORST RATING first to see why they WON'T like this...
No Good Deed (2014)
I guess movies are not really supposed to portray reality...
Whoever wrote and/or directed this does not have kids, hasn't been around attorneys, and must have hired their cousin to do the music score.
I can't imagine a three or four year old (daughter) EVER "behaving" that well! They would be asking questions, giggling, frightened, crying, spying (on mommy and that man), running away, etc., at everything from a strange man in the house, loud voices, someone falling down the stairs, gun shot(s), etc.; disagreements in the car - he grabbing her little brother and the little girl is oblivious, being caught up on her tablet with what: Sponge Bob? Dora? Doc McStuffins?
Then: "Wait in this closet, and mommy will be back..." Never!!!!! Little girls typically do the opposite of what you ask them to do, and then there's lots verbal second guessing behind most of what you tell or ask them!
So a lawyer comes home saying his plea was rejected by the judge and the other lawyer says "oh, that's terrible..." What?!? There are many lapses in the reasonableness of the house wife/former defense attorney's character in my opinion. She never asks this large, muscular stranger she allows into her house where he lives, what he does, where he's going, anything about the towing service, virtually nothing for a ex-prosecuting attorney: not reasonable! Oh, she was lonely and he was lovely...
And while Idris is all that, I did not think he nailed the twisty/crazy Manson-like qualities of a sociopath. It appeared for a moment in the hearing room where his facial expressions showed his inner conflict, but aside for the over-dramatic music score, I did not see conflicted, troubled, Anthony Hopkins, Anthony Perkins, Jack Nicholson, etc. Show me some edges...
And there are many in the BLOG section who have a variety of opinions as to what Colin's ultimate plan was. Seeing the movie twice I think I have a clue, but maybe not: I think his plan needed to be a little more discernible - he was supposed to be a smart guy: couldn't show any of the planning or plotting? For me it seemed like he stumbled upon this house - except the big time attorney leaves a love note to his girl friend on a piece of mail from his house...
My bottom line is that if this script was not intentionally poorly written, then it was done either hastily, or dumbed-down for whatever audience the movie was to appeal to...
Which brings up the issue of symbolism in "post-racial" America - two Black men playing principal roles in a movie: a good looking, large, hulking, violent and ruthless, Black convict who is smart, beguiling, and clever; and a good looking, large, hulking, Black attorney - both leaving behind or passing over the attractive Black woman and wife, because both are caught up in an affair with this White woman... One's a liar and a cheater; the other's a con man and killer...
Look over the major roles of Black Males in America over the years and count how many are constructive, family oriented, intelligent, not cops, not military, not pimps, thieves, drug dealers, or "gangsters," and summarize that there is no cause for concern on Hollywood stereotypes.
I'm just saying...
The Butler (2013)
It's a Great Movie if you've been there!!!
As usual, the haters - conservatives and the associated complicit - find this movie over-hyped, not factual, a guilt trip, under-acted, over-acted, etc... My dad had a saying: "you throw a shoe in a pack of dogs & the one that hollers is the one you hit!" Having grown up in the fifties, and talked to my older relatives from earlier generations: THIS IS REAL people! Many of my friends & neighbors came home in body bags from Vietnam. The Panthers didn't start out violent - they were just trying to stop getting beat, arrested and shot for spurious reasons - oh and feed the poor! People lived two lives with two faces - IT WAS REAL! Families were torn apart because the youth were part of the 'spirit of the times' and the parents had been terrorized by Jim Crow - a pretty harmless sounding expression of bitter hate-filled behaviors that lynched ONLY a few hundred thousand (and I bet even that number is wholly under estimated). Maybe like S Africa we need a TRUTH & RECONCILIATION period to acknowledge the savagery imposed on a people and their culture that affects them to this day! The opposition to Obama is not really all that point or policy-based: its the "haters" looking for ways to degrade, debase, & defeat the spirit of the times. I thought the movie portrayed a very good look back, and I had tears along the way.
Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
The World is Full of Many Types, but ONE STAR?
After reading many of the reviews - good and bad - on this and several other movies I've seen or am familiar with I've come to believe that some people wouldn't be happy in Heaven. They would find something to complain about or that would detract from an everlasting state of bliss. Being particularly erudite doesn't help these people because it seems to allow them to make all the more eloquent their critiques of a flower's beauty or a bird's song.
When I read that neither the father nor the girl had any prior acting experience, and that the father has five kids of his own, and works hard running his own business, doesn't drink, and I then look at some of these review ratings of ONE STAR, I can only conclude that some people are probably just unhappy, pessimistic, naysayers who perhaps are fortunate to have never witnessed what life can be like with a paucity of circumstances.
Yet even in the most impoverished lives and places there is found joy and beauty and a host of positives that get put down and shot down and belittled by these elitist sharpshooters and snipers - from some other side of the tracks? To give this and other movies I've seen and enjoyed ONE STAR says that some people must simply be HATERS, or racists, or both, or maybe they just don't want some movies to have higher ratings.