Review: "BLACULA" Can't Stop, Won't Stop Rising from the Grave

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 47 of 2023 (No. 1936) by Leroy Douresseaux

Blacula (1972)

Running time: 93 minutes (1 hour, 33 minutes)

MPAA – PG

DIRECTOR:  William Crain

WRITERS:  Joan Torres and Raymond Koenig

PRODUCER:  Joseph T. Naar

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  John M. Stevens (D.o.P.)

EDITOR:  Allan Jacobs

COMPOSER:  Gene Page

BLAXPLOITATION/HORROR/ROMANCE

Starring:  William Marshall, Vonetta McGee, Denise Nicholas, Thalmus Rasulala, Gordon Pinsent, Charles Macaulay, Emily Yancy, Lance Taylor, Sr., Ted Harris, Rick Metzler, Logan Field, Ketty Lester, Elisha Cook, Jr., Jitu Cumbuka, Eric Brotherson, and The Hues Corporation

Blacula is a 1972 American blaxploitation vampire horror and romance film directed by William Crain.  Originally released by American International Pictures, the film was a hit and inspired a wave of blaxploitation (black exploitation) films, including its own sequel, Scream Blacula Scream.  Blacula focuses on an 18th century African prince-turned-vampire who awakens to find himself in modern day Los Angeles.

Blacula opens in 1780, in Transylvania at Castle Dracula.  The African prince, Mamuwalde (William Marshall), has traveled there with his wife, Luva (Vonetta McGee), to seek the help of Count Dracula (Charles Macaulay) in suppressing the African slave trade.  Dracula refuses and after some insults and violence, he bites Mamuwalde and curses him to an immortal existence as the vampire, “Blacula.”  He imprisons Mamuwalde in a sealed coffin in a crypt hidden beneath the castle, where he also leaves Luva to die.

In 1972, Blacula emerges from his coffin and begins a reign of terror and death.  However, he is shocked to discover a young woman named Tina Williams (Vonetta McGee) who looks exactly like his long-lost Luva.  Initially hesitant, Tina warms to Blacula, who introduces himself as Mamuwalde.  In turn, Tina introduces him to her sister, Michelle Williams (Denise Nicholas), and her boyfriend, Dr. Gordon Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala).

A pathologist for the Los Angeles Police Department, Dr. Gordon has been investigating the deaths of people whom he suspects are victims of a vampire.  Teaming with LAPD's Lieutenant Jack Peters (Gordon Pinsent), Gordon must discover the force behind these deaths before its too late, even as Tina finds herself irresistibly drawn to Mamuwalde / Blacula.

I have seen Blacula several times, but I had previously not attempted to review it.  I have seen several “Black vampire films,” but I have previously only reviewed Spike Lee's Da Sweet Blood of Jesus (2014), although I have not seen the film it remakes, Ganja and Hess (1973).  Of course, I have reviewed all the films in New Line Cinema's Blade franchise that began with 1998's Blade.

When I discovered that Blacula was available on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) via Spectrum On-Demand, I decided to view it again with an eye towards writing a review.  I must say that I'd forgotten how good the music is, especially the funk score by conductor, composer, and record producer, Gene Page (1939-98), which was one of the first of its kind for a vampire film.  The songs:  three performed by the pop-soul trio, The Hues Corporation, and one by the short-lived L.A. soul group, The 21st Century Ltd., are quite nice.

Something I noticed for the first time is that Blacula depicts a world in which African-American professionals are equal to their white peers.  In fact, it isn't even a question that they are not.  For instance, Dr. Gordon Thomas is respected and his orders are followed without question.  The only time that his opinion is questioned involves the obvious – telling people that there is a vampire loose in Los Angeles and that he is murdering people.  Obviously, a blaxploitation film would feature a cast of black leads, but the film isn't really about them being “Black.”  Blacula, in a way, is a movie about humans fighting the forces of darkness; this time, the lead vampire killer is a black man.  Sometimes, I got the feeling that Blacula was almost nonchalant about the characters being African-American.

Of course, Blacula could not pass as an ordinary vampire film when the late, great stage, television, and film actor, William Marshall (1924-2003), played the title role.  Marshall doesn't play Mamuwalde as a victim, which he is (of Dracula); rather, he is a man (or creature) awakened to new circumstances, and as he did in his former life (based on assumptions), will live it to the fullest.  I like that Mamuwalde / Blacula is a man who gets what he wants.  Perhaps, that is what makes Mamuwalde so memorable to African-American audiences.  He isn't a tragic or misunderstood monster; he is a king.

I have believed for a long time that given the space and runtime, Blacula's screenwriters, Joan Torres and Raymond Koenig, with William Marshall adding his ideas, could have made a greater film.  Still, William Crain's deft directing and Allan Jacob's precision film editing allow Blacula to breeze past its shortcomings.  I love Blacula, obviously, and I can't wait to see it again.

B+

7 of 10

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Friday, October 20, 2023

The text is copyright © 2023 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved.  Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: "COMING 2 AMERICA" is Simply a Nice Reunion Movie

Coming 2 America (2021) – streaming film
Running time:  110 minutes (1 hour, 50 minutes)
MPA – PG-13 for crude and sexual content, language and drug content
DIRECTOR:  Craig Brewer
WRITERS:  Kenya Barris and David Sheffield & Barry W. Blaustein; from a story by Justin Kanew and David Sheffield & Barry W. Blaustein (based on characters created by Eddie Murphy)
PRODUCERS:  Eddie Murphy and Kevin Misher
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Joe “Jody” Williams (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  David S. Clark, Billy Fox, and Debra Neil-Fisher
COMPOSER: Jermaine Stegall
Academy Award nominee

COMEDY/ROMANCE

Starring:  Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Shari Headley, Jermaine Fowler, Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan, KiKi Layne, Wesley Snipes, James Earl Jones, John Amos, Teyana Taylor, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Nomzamo Mbatha, Bella Murphy, Paul Bates, Akiley Love, Rotimi, Louie Anderson, Trevor Noah, and Morgan Freeman

Coming 2 America is a 2021 American comedy film from director Craig Brewer.  It serves as a sequel to the 1998 film, Coming to America.  The film originally streamed on Amazon Prime.  In Coming 2 America, the crowned prince of a prosperous African nation discovers that he has an illegitimate son in America.

Coming 2 America opens in the African nation of Zamunda.  It is the 30th anniversary of the wedding of Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy) to Lisa McDowell (Shari Headley).  They have three beautiful daughters:  the eldest, Meeka (KiKi Layne); the middle, Omma (Bella Murphy); and the youngest, Tinashe (Akiley Love).

Akeem is summoned before his dying father, King Jaffe Joffer (James Earl Jones), and the King's shaman, Baba (Arsenio Hall).  King Jaffe is upset that Akeem never sired a son, and by Zamundan law, only a male can inherit the throne.  However, Baba reveals that Akeem did indeed sire a son in Queens, New York City when he visited the United States over three decades ago (as seen in Coming to America).  In fact, Semmi (Arsenio Hall), Akeem's best friend and aide, knows the circumstances that led to Akeem conceiving a son with a bar patron.

Akeem and Semmi again travel to America where they meet Akeem's “bastard,” a young man named Lavelle Junson (Jermaine Fowler); his mother, Mary Junson (Leslie Jones), the bar patron; and Kareem “Uncle Reem” Junson (Tracy Morgan), Mary's brother and Lavelle's uncle.  Akeem really needs Lavelle to return to Zamunda with him.  He requires a son who can marry the daughter of General Izzi (Wesley Snipes), the leader of Zamunda's neighbor, Nexdoria.  Izzi is a threat to Akeem and Zamunda, unless the two nations can be united by marriage.  Can Lavelle be the heir Akeem needs, and if so, what about Akeem's eldest daughter, Princess Meeka?

Coming to America remains one of my favorite Eddie Murphy films, topped only the fantastic 1983 film, Trading Places.  Coming 2 America is not so much a sequel as it is a film that acts like a sequel to Coming to America.  The new film is more like one of the TV reunion movies of old 1950s and 1960s television series that used to pop up on network television in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s.  Like them, Coming 2 America gives us our favorite old characters (at least the ones that are still alive) and some new characters, and sprinkles in some cameos, for instance, Morgan Freeman and his famous voice.

As usual, Ruth E. Carter delivers solid gold with her costume design, and the film's production values are marvelous.  The film has a good song score and soundtrack.  There are a lot of funny scenes in Coming 2 America, but overall, the film's narrative drags.  Most of the film takes place not in America, but in Zamunda, although the scenes that take place in America (Queens, NY) pop and are generally fun.

There is not much else to say other than that I really like Coming 2 America as a reunion movie.  I have been a fan of Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall for decades, and I am always happy to see them.  So, to be honest, I am happy that Coming to America has a sequel, of sorts, in Coming 2 America.

6 of 10
B

Thursday, March 18, 2022


NOTES:
2022 Academy Awards, USA:  1 nomination: “Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling” (Michael Marino, Stacey Morris, and Carla Farmer)

2022 Black Reel Awards:  “Outstanding Costume Design” (Ruth E. Carter)

2022 Image Awards (NAACP):  2 nominations: “Outstanding Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture” and “Outstanding Soundtrack/Compilation Album” (Eddie Murphy, Craig Brewer, Kevin Misher, Randy Spendlove, Jeffrey Harleston, Brittney Ramsdell for the album “Coming 2 America” – Amazon Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)


The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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#28DaysofBlack Review: "IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK"

[One of the emerging film talents of the last decade is writer-director Barry Jenkins.  His incredible adaptation of James Baldwin's 1974 novel, If Beale Street Could Talk, proves that Moonlight, which won the “Best Picture” Oscar, was and is not a fluke.]

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 6 of 2021 (No. 1744) by Leroy Douresseaux

If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

Running time:  119 minutes (1 hour, 59 minutes)

MPAA – R for language and some sexual content

DIRECTOR:  Barry Jenkins

WRITER:  Barry Jenkins (based on the novel by James Baldwin)

PRODUCERS:  Dede Gardner, Barry Jenkins, Jeremy Kleiner, Sara Murphy, and Adele Romanski

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  James Laxton

EDITORS:  Joi McMillon and Nat Sanders

COMPOSER:  Nicholas Britell

Academy Award winner

DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring:  KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Teyonah Parris, Colman Domingo, Ethan Barrett, Melanni Mines, Ebony Obsidian, Dominique Thorne, Michael Beach, Aunjanue Ellis, Diego Luna, Emily Rios, Ed Skrein, Finn Wittrock, Brian Tyree Henry, Dave Franco, and Kaden Byrd

If Beale Street Could Talk is a 2018 American drama and romance film written and directed by Barry Jenkins.  The film is based on James Baldwin's 1974 novel, If Beale Street Could Talk.  The film follows the efforts of a young woman and her family as they try to prove the innocence of her lover after he is charged with a serious crime.

If Beale Street Could Talk introduces “Tish” Rivers (KiKi Layne) and Alonzo “Fonny” Hunt (Stephan James).  They have been friends their entire lives, and begin a romantic relationship when Tish is 19 and Fonny is 22.  They struggle to find a place to live because it is the early 1970s, and most New York City landlords refuse to rent apartments to black people.  Fonny, a young artist and sculptor, is later arrested and accused of raping a woman in an unlikely scenario.

It is afterwards that Tish announces to her parents, Sharon (Regina King) and Joseph Rivers (Colman Domingo), and to her sister, Ernestine (Teyonah Parris), that she is pregnant.  Not everyone in Fonny's family, however, is happy about the impending birth of a grandchild.  As the months drag on, Tish, Sharon, and the rest of the family realize that they will have to give an all-out effort in order to help Fonny's lawyer, Hayward (Finn Wittrock), free Fonny from a criminal justice system that will do anything to keep him behind bars.

I love the beautiful cinematography in If Beale Street Could Talk.  I think it does so much to sell the exquisite love story at the heart of this film, and If Beale Street Could Talk is a romantic movie.  It imagines love in the ruins of a society shackled by white racism and white supremacy.  In that way, director Barry Jenkins' film can literally talk to his audience about racism and oppression of black people while telling a poetic and expressionistic story of two young black people in love.

If Beale Street Could Talk is shaped by a number of excellent performances, with Regina King's Sharon Rivers as the port-in-the-storm for the tossed and turned ships in her immediate family and circle.  King is the sun queen, and in her warmth, KiKi Layne and Stephan James can grow and build their characters and their characters' love story into something that is so strong that it overcomes everything working against it.

In his Oscar-winning Moonlight, Jenkins told the story of gay boy growing into a man by taking the ordinary coming-of-age story and making it something extraordinary for the ages.  In If Beale Street Could Talk, Jenkins' racial drama is told as a timeless love story.  Perhaps, making a film set in the 1970s be timeless is most important, as the racism and oppression of then are not only symptoms of that time, but rather are also the breaths that this nation takes.

In the end, I am amazed by Barry Jenkins.  His film is about love and shows us love and is love.  Love, love, love:  I am overwhelmed.  If Beale Street Could Talk holds to the truths that Dr. Martin Luther King spoke on love (love's transforming powers).  Normally, I would feel anger after seeing a film like this, but in the end, Jenkins' fascinating aesthetic of love and Black Consciousness wins out.  This is why I am still trying to figure out which is the best film of 2018 – BlacKkKlansman or If Beale Street Could Talk?

10 out of 10

Tuesday, February 2, 2021


2019 Academy Awards, USA”  1 win for “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: (Regina King); 2 nominations: “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures-Original Score” (Nicholas Britell) and “Best Adapted Screenplay” (Barry Jenkins)

2019 Golden Globes, USA:  1 win for “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture” (Regina King); 2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture – Drama” and “Best Screenplay - Motion Picture” (Barry Jenkins)

BAFTA Awards:  2 nominations: “Best Screenplay-Adapted” (Barry Jenkins) and “Original Music” (Nicholas Britell)

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#28DaysofBlack Review: All Black Cast is Glorious in "CARMEN JONES"

[For her performance as the title character in Carmen Jones, Dorothy Dandridge became the first African-American actress to be nominated for the “Academy Award for Best Actress.” Dandridge was also the first Black actor nominated for an Oscar in a leading role category, besting by four years Sidney Poitier, the first Black man nominated for “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (for 1958's The Defiant Ones). Dandridge was dead a little under 11 years after the release of Carmen Jones.]

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 5 of 2021 (No. 1743) by Leroy Douresseaux

Carmen Jones (1954)
Running time:  105 minutes (1 hour, 45 minutes)
PRODUCER/DIRECTOR:  Otto Preminger    
WRITERS: Harry Kleiner (screenplay); Oscar Hammerstein 2nd (lyrics and book); (based on the opera by Georges Bizet)
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Sam Leavitt (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Louis R. Loeffler    
COMPOSERS:  Herschel Burke Gilbert (musical director); Georges Bizet (original music)
Academy Award nominee

MUSICAL/DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring:  Harry Belafonte, Dorothy Dandridge, Pearl Bailey, Olga James, Joe Adams, Brock Peters, Roy Daniels, Nick Stewart, and Diahann Carroll

Carmen Jones is a 1954 American musical film produced and directed by Otto Preminger.  It is a film version of Oscar Hammerstein II's 1943 stage musical, Carmen Jones.  Hammerstein wrote the book (story) and lyrics to Carmen Jones and set them to the music of Georges Bizet's 1875 opera, Carmen.  However, Carmen Jones is a contemporary version of the Bizet opera, with new lyrics, and it features a lead cast of all African-American and black actors.

Carmen Jones is set during World War II.  The story opens as a young woman, Cindy Lou (Olga James), arrives at the “Parachute Division” of A.J. Gardner Manufacturing Corp. (apparently located in North Carolina), where U.S. Army soldiers provide security.  Cindy Lou is there to meet her betrothed, Corporal Joe (Harry Belafonte), a young soldier who is about to enter flight officers training school.  But Cindy Lou isn't the only young woman with her eye on Joe.

Carmen Jones (Dorothy Dandridge) is an employee at the parachute factory.  One of her fellow employees describes Carmen as a “hip-swinging floozie.”  She arrives late to work wearing a loud red skirt, and she shamelessly declares that he wants Joe – mainly because she is attracted to men who play hard to get with her.  Joe seems bound and determined to focus only on Cindy Lou, and, in fact, he wants to marry her right away.

However, after Carmen gets in a fight with another female employee, scheming Sgt. Brown (Brock Peters) orders Joe to take Carmen to a civilian jail in the town of Masonville, which is over fifty miles away from the parachute plant.  Fate and circumstance seemed bound and determined to bring Carmen Jones and Corporal Joe together, but the cards and the spirits seem to say they are bound for tragedy.

When it comes to Carmen Jones the musical film, I can take it or leave it.  Oh, I enjoyed it enough, and some of the songs actually tickles my senses.  For me, the joy of Carmen Jones is its magnificent cast.  It is a shame how things were for African-American actors and performers in film back in those days.  This cast includes actors who should have dominated their craft and profession.

When Dorothy Dandridge first appears as Carmen Jones, she cuts through this film like a red hot knife through butter, and it is not only because of the hot red skirt she wears, which could launch a thousand ships.  Her presence is glorious, and director Otto Preminger clearly makes her the center of the film – as if he had a choice.  Because Dandridge, who was a singer, did not sing opera, she does not sing in the film; her singing voice is dubbed by Marilyn Horne, but Dandrige's lip-syncing is so convincing that it is hard to believe that she is actually not singing.  I can see why she captured the imaginations of enough voters in the Academy Awards to earn a “Best Actress” Oscar nomination as Carmen.

That is saying something considering that Harry Belafonte as Joe throws off quite a bit of energy himself.  When he wants to, Belafonte moves about like a panther, all power and lightning.  Belafonte's name appears first onscreen among the performers, and he acquits himself very, very well.  Belafonte's singing voice is also dubbed (by LeVern Hutcherson), but he also does some powerful lip-syncing, probably because he is also a singer.

If there is another actress in Carmen Jones packing as much dynamite as Dandridge, it is Pearl Bailey as Frankie, one of Carmen's friends.  Wow!  I am almost without words to describe how mesmerizing Bailey is the moment.  When she sings “Beat Out Dat Rhythm on a Drum (Gypsy Song),” Bailey pumps so much sexual heat into the film that I am surprised that scene did not get cut out by censors.

So I recommend Carmen Jones to anyone ready to see that an all-black cast can be magnetic on the screen.  They can be sexy and alluring and make you want to follow them on any adventure.  They can transport you to another world, and … they make Carmen Jones much more than it could have been.

8 of 10
A

Tuesday, February 2, 2021


NOTES:
1955 Academy Awards, USA: 2 nominations: “Best Actress in a Leading Role” (Dorothy Dandridge) and “Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture” (Herschel Burke Gilbert)

1955 Golden Globes, USA:  2 wins: “Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical” and “Most Promising Newcomer – Male” (Joe Adams)

1956 BAFTA Awards:  2 nominations: “Best Film from any Source” (USA) and “Best Foreign Actress” (Dorothy Dandridge-USA)


The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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"Think Like a Man" a Frothy Battle of the Sexes

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 72 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux


Think Like a Man (2012)
Running time: 122 minutes (2 hours, 2 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sexual content, some crude humor, and brief drug use
DIRECTOR: Tim Story
WRITERS: Keith Merryman and David A. Newman (based on the book, Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, by Steve Harvey)
PRODUCER: William Packer
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Larry Blanford
EDITOR: Peter S. Elliot
COMPOSER: Christopher Lennertz

ROMANCE/COMEDY

Starring: Michael Ealy, Jerry Ferrara, Meagan Good, Regina Hall, Kevin Hart, Taraji P. Henson, Terrence J, Jenifer Lewis, Romany Malco, Gary Owen, Gabrielle Union, La La Anthony, Chris Brown, Wendy Williams, Sherri Shepherd, Caleel Harris, Arielle Kebbel, Steve Harvey, Tony Rock, and Luenell with Matt Barnes, Shannon Brown, Rasual Butler, Darren Collison, Lisa Leslie, and Metta World Peace

Think Like a Man is a 2012 ensemble romantic comedy from director Tim Story (Fantastic Four). The film is based on comedian and actor Steve Harvey’s 2009 advice book, Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man. The film follows four male friends who conspire to turn the tables on the women in their lives when they discover that their ladies have been using Steve Harvey’s relationship advice against them.

Cedric (Kevin Hart), Dominic (Michael Ealy), Zeke (Romany Malco), Michael (Terrence J), Jeremy (Jerry Ferrara), and Bennett (Gary Owen) are friends who like to get together and talk about their relationships with women. Cedric is going through a divorce, and Bennett is happily married. Jeremy’s relationship with his longtime girlfriend, Kristen (Gabrielle Union), is frayed, although he doesn’t seem to notice it. Dominic uses deception to begin a relationship with Lauren (Taraji P. Henson), a successful businesswoman.

Zeke meets Mya (Meagan Good), a young woman who has just decided that before she has sex with a new boyfriend, he has to wait 90 days. Zeke, however, always wants to “hit it” right away. Michael begins a relationship with Candace (Regina Hall), a single mother, but Michael is a mama’s boy, and that creates strife in the new relationship.

However, Kristen, Lauren, Mya, and Candace decide to take the advice of Steve Harvey (playing himself) as presented in his book, Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, to help them get the upper hand in their relationships. When the guys discover what their ladies are doing, they decide to get familiar with the same book. Game on!

The first thing I want to say is that Kevin Hart is a pure scene-stealer. Hart not only plays a character, Cedric, but he is also the film’s narrator. As the narrator, he practically owns half this movie. He’s good; he’s funny.

The other half of the ownership goes to director Tim Story. I think that Story’s talent as a director is largely untapped. His two Fantastic Four films for 20th Century Fox were underserved by uneven screenwriting. Story shows his skills in Think Like a Man, because there are so many characters and so many actors playing them that the director has to get a handle on them. Handle them Story does, which is quite a feat, as there are way too many characters in this movie. Still, Story gives every actor the opportunity to make the most of his or her character, and most of the actors take advantage of the opportunities. That is why Think Like a Man movie works.

Think Like a Man is a frothy, romantic comedy, and it has the same cinematic bubbles and fizz to tickle the nose that movie audiences find in frivolous romantic comedies featuring predominately white casts. Tim Story delivers the same feel-good charm which directors of those other films do, but with a way-too large cast.

Think Like a Man may be the best romantic comedy starring a predominately African-American cast to date. It’s sweet and filled with empty calories, but they feel good going down. They’re so good that you might want more… later.

7 of 10
B+

Saturday, September 08, 2012

Review: "Hitch" is Funny and Sweet (Happy B'day, Eva Mendes)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 22 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Hitch (2005)
Running time: 115 minutes (1 hour, 55 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for language and some strong sexual references
DIRECTOR: Andy Tennant
WRITER: Kevin Bisch
PRODUCERS: Will Smith and Teddy Zee
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Andrew Dunn
EDITOR: Troy Takaki and Tracey Wadmore-Smith

COMEDY/ROMANCE

Starring: Will Smith, Eva Mendes, Kevin James, Amber Valletta, Julie Ann Emery, Robinne Lee, Nathan Lee Graham, Adam Arkin, Michael Rapaport, Jeffrey Donovan, and Matt Malloy

The subject of this movie review is Hitch, the 2005 romantic comedy starring Will Smith. In the film, directed by Andy Tennant, Smith plays a professional matchmaker.

Alex “Hitch” Hitchens (Will Smith) is a professional “date doctor,” who helps mostly shy, insecure, and nervous men learn to be confident enough to date the woman they just can’t get out their minds. His biggest project is to help a pleasantly plumb accountant named Albert (Kevin James) find his confidence so that he can woo his employer’s biggest client, wealthy playgirl, Allegra Cole (Amber Valletta). Hitch runs into his own complications when he becomes smitten with Sara (Eva Mendes), a New York gossip columnist. Both Hitch and Sara have dating issues, especially Sara, who usually erects an impenetrable wall whenever a man attempts to be friendly with her. However, Sara is determined to discover and publicize the identity of the mysterious “date doctor” about whom she’s been hearing in relation to the Allegra-Albert romance, even if it costs her personally.

Early reviews of the film suggest that Hitch is a trifle and a bit a fluff that Will Smith manages to save with his endearing film personality. Hitch is lightweight subject matter, but Will Smith and his co-conspirators make this a winning romantic comedy and comic romance. It’s not as good as When Harry Met Sally, but there is a lot more meat on Hitch’s film bones than on most romantic comedies about mismatches and misunderstandings. Will Smith does give this film vibrant life because he is a fine actor and a radiant movie star. He is comfortable and super confident on the big screen, and the camera loves him. If Denzel Washington is the heir to Sidney Portier, then, Smith is the black Cary Grant.

The rest of the cast, however, does it part. Eva Mendes is more like a co-star than supporting player. She carries this film, and there is an air about her that suggests she can go toe to toe with a man in the vein of Katherine Hepburn. No, Ms. Mendes isn’t yet as good as Ms. Hepburn, but she seems headed in the direction of being a movie star because in this film, she shows that she can carry a lead role by making her end of the story as engaging as that of the central character.

Kevin James is surprisingly delightful. I like him, but I’ve never quite enjoyed his CBS television comedy series, “The King of Queens.” James usually plays charming, fat guys, and everyone seems to love a fat guy who can make fun of himself. James is also witty and sarcastic; his self-effacing tendency and smart alec cool serves him well in Hitch, making him a scene-stealer.

After spending years directing episodic TV, director Andy Tennant has worked mostly on romantic comedies, Sweet Home Alabama being his biggest hit to date. At present, Hitch may be his best work as he took Kevin Bisch’s funny script and made it into a high-energy comic romp of misunderstandings and dating chess matches. Some might see this as a “chick flick,” but Hitch is simply funny. Like many films, the ending is too sweet by a mile. Still, it works, and Will Smith has another winner.

7 of 10
A-

NOTES:
2006 Black Reel Awards: 3 nominations: “Best Actor” (Will Smith), “Best Film” (Will Smith, Teddy Zee, and James Lassiter), and “Best Original Soundtrack”

2006 Image Awards: 2 nominations: “Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture” (Will Smith) and “Outstanding Motion Picture”

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"Good Deeds" is Good Indeed

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 16 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux


Good Deeds (2012)
Running time: 111 minutes (1 hour, 51 minutes)
MPAA - PG-13 for sexual content, language, some violence and thematic material
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Tyler Perry
PRODUCERS: Ozzie Areu, Paul Hall, and Tyler Perry
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Alexander Gruszynski
EDITOR: Maysie Hoy
COMPOSER: Aaron Zigman

ROMANCE/DRAMA

Starring: Tyler Perry, Thandie Newton, Gabrielle Union, Eddie Cibrian, Brian White, Jordenn Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Beverly Johnson, Rebecca Romijn, and Jamie Kennedy, Andrew Masset, and Victoria Loving

Good Deeds is a 2012 romantic drama from writer/director Tyler Perry. Although Perry is also the film’s lead actor, this isn’t a “Tyler Perry film,” as far as what we generally expect of a Perry film – broad comedies often featuring the character, Mabel “Madea” Simmons, who does not appear in this movie. Good Deeds is about a businessman who leaves his comfort zone to help a struggling single mother.

Wesley Deeds (Tyler Perry) is a San Francisco-based businessman who is CEO of Deeds Corporation, the software company his late father started. He is engaged to marry Natalie (Gabrielle Union), a beautiful young woman who works in real estate, but his mind is always on work. With the assistance of John, (Eddie Cibrian), a company executive, Wesley is currently trying to buy a rival company, but Wesley’s resentful younger brother, Walter Deeds (Brian White), may be trying to sabotage the company. Their mother, Wilimena (Phylicia Rashad), is totally plugged into planning the wedding. Wesley Deeds does what he is supposed to and expected to do.

However, Wesley is jolted out of his scripted life when he meets Lindsey Wakefield (Thandie Newton), a single mother who is a janitor in Wesley’s office building. Lindsey speaks her mind and is fiercely independent, but when she and her daughter, Ariel (Jordenn Thompson), are left homeless, she needs help. A chance encounter brings together two people who are in a really bad place in their lives.

If Wesley Deeds can be said to leave his comfort zone in this story, then, it can be said that Tyler Perry, for the most part, leaves his comfort zone to create Good Deeds. This is an uplifting movie that emphasizes living the life one wants to live (or trying to) by relying on one’s self. In this movie, Perry pushes believing in yourself as a vehicle of change rather than a belief in faith and God as the path to change. Good Deeds is by no means anti-religion, but this is the most secular film Perry has done to date. The religious themes and testifying that are so evident in his broad comedies are absent in this romance and drama.

I was also surprised by how well written the screenplay is, considering (once again) that Perry has left his broad comedy comfort zone. Good Deeds does sometimes come across as an African-American soap opera (especially the elevator scene late in the film). However, this is also a character drama that puts a laser focus on Wesley Deeds and Lindsey Wakefield. Perry really delves into these characters and pulls out their insides so that the audience can see what makes them tick. Perry shows the audience the inner conflicts and struggles as much as he depicts Wesley and Lindsey’s exterior drama.

I think that Thandie Newton is, as usual, very good. She can do trials and tribulations as well as any African-American actress, and better than most. Perry, on the other hand, is mostly hit or miss as Wesley. There are moments in which he just does not seem convincing as an upper class Black man from an old money African-American family with an Ivy League pedigree.

Another of the film’s faults is that it largely ignores some of the other characters that have potential: Walter and Wilimena Deeds and Natalie, in particular. Perry created three good characters in them, but gave them small spaces to shine except in moments that seem like little more than stereotypical melodrama. Young Jordenn Thompson as Lindsey’s daughter, Ariel, also steals a few scenes.

Still, Good Deeds is really about Wesley and Lindsey, and to that end, the film is a pleasant drama that has a few riveting moments. These moments can jerk some tears from the audience, and that’s surprising to me. I didn’t expect even that much from Good Deeds.

6 of 10
B

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Review: Thandie Newton Makes Star Turn in "Flirting" (Happy B'day, Thandie Newton)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 64 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Flirting (1991)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Australia
Running time: 99 minutes (1 hour, 33 minutes)
MPAA – R for scenes of teen sexuality
WRITER/DIRECTOR: John Duigan
PRODUCERS: Terry Hayes, George Miller, and Doug Mitchell
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Geoff Burton
EDITOR: Robert Gibson

DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring: Noah Taylor, Thandie Newton, Nicole Kidman, Bartholomew Rose, Felix Nobis, Josh Picker, Kiri Paramore, Marc Gray, Kiri Paramore, Jeff Truman, Marshall Napier, Kym Wilson, and Naomi Watts

Danny Embling (Noah Taylor) is a free-spirited young man attending St. Alban’s, an all-boys prep school in rural Australia, circa 1965. Called “Bird” by his classmates, Danny is an outcast. He meets Thandiwe Adjewa (Thandie Newton), a sophisticated girl from Uganda, the daughter of Ugandan dissidents living in Australia. Thandiwe is a student at Cirencester Ladies College, an all-girls prep school across the lake from St. Albans. Danny and Thandiwe began an interracial romance that blossoms despite some prejudice they face from fellow students. Nicole Kidman plays Nicola Radcliffe, at first a rival, then eventual confidant of Thandiwe.

Flirting, a follow up (or sequel) to the 1987 John Duigan film, The Year My Voice Broke, is one of the best and least contrived depictions of first love ever put to film. Taylor and Newton bring verisimilitude to this tale of surprising and unexpected love. One can just feel the spark between them and how their love grows, so that as the relationship progresses, their actions seem so natural.

The film also has a numerous supporting performances; many are small, but add just the right touch for the film’s setting and narrative. Bartholomew Rose as Danny’s friend, Gilbert “Gilby” Fryer, is full of advice for Danny and perhaps a little envious of him (or has a “boy crush” on him as boys sometimes do have on particular male friends). Nicole Kidman also adds a nice touch in a small but motherly role as the “it” girl at Cirencester. John Duigan’s gentle film has touches of John Hughes’ teen romances (Pretty in Pink) with the dramatic narrative detail of a John Sayles (Passion Fish, Lone Star) film.

8 of 10
A

Sunday, April 2, 2006

As Ever, Queen Latifah is "Just Wright"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 34 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux


Just Wright (2010)
Running time: 101 minutes (1 hour, 41 minutes)
MPAA – PG for some suggestive material and brief language
DIRECTOR: Sanaa Hamri
WRITER: Michael Elliot
PRODUCERS: Shakim Compere and Queen Latifah
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Terry Stacey
EDITOR: Melissa Kent
COMPOSERS: Lisa Coleman and Wendy Melvoin

ROMANCE/DRAMA/SPORTS

Starring: Queen Latifah, Common, Paula Patten, James Pickens Jr., Phylicia Rashad, Pam Grier, Laz Alonzo, Mechad Brooks, Michael Landes, Dwight Howard, Dwayne Wade, Jalen Rose, Kenny Smith, Mike Fratello, and Marv Albert

At first glance, the romantic sports drama, Just Wright, is special because it is a screen romance in which both the female and male leads are African-American actors. What makes Just Wright extra special is that it is a Queen Latifah movie. The Queen, with her lovely, open, and joyous film persona, always delivers a good time – even if she has to carry the movie, and she is indeed the leading scorer in this basketball love story.

The film focuses on Leslie Wright (Queen Latifah), a straight-shooting physical therapist; with her, what you see is what you get. Everyone thinks that Leslie is just the bee’s knees, even the men Leslie dates, but none of them will commit to her beyond just being a friend. A diehard fan of the professional basketball team, the New Jersey Nets, Leslie has a chance encounter with the Nets’ NBA All-Star, Scott McKnight (Common). The two surprisingly strike up a friendship, and Scott invites Leslie to his birthday party. At the party, however, Scott is immediately attracted to Leslie’s gorgeous cousin, Morgan Alexander (Paul Patten), who has her sights set on being an NBA trophy wife.

Then, Scott tears ligaments in his knee, threatening the future of his NBA career, and Scott becomes frustrated and withdrawn. Leslie eventually takes the job of helping Scott rehab his knee, but it is a full time job. Leslie begins to have strong feelings for Scott and he for her, but is Leslie destined to be a “best friend” or Scott’s true love?

Just Wright is a formulaic romantic drama. It is kind of a Cinderella story with Queen Latifah’s Leslie Wright as Cinderella, and Paul Patten’s Morgan as Cinderella’s stepsisters wrapped into one radiantly beautiful body. In this scenario, Cinderella is everybody’s best friend, but no one’s true love. The handsome prince is the rich, basketball star, Scott McKnight, who is dazzled by the beauty of the conniving Morgan.

Of course, Just Wright is selling Leslie Wright as being “just right” for Scott, and the film’s script, written by Michael Elliot (Brown Sugar), does everything to make Leslie look better and better as the narrative unfurls and to make Morgan look like a vacuous gold-digger who seems almost sociopathic. Morgan’s character would be a joke except for the fact that the underrated Paula Patten gives the kind of high-quality performance that will make the audience want to see more of Morgan. On the other hand, the script doesn’t do much with Scott McKnight other than make him a good catch as a husband – rich, loyal, and kind-hearted. Even Common, in an awkward and uneven performance, doesn’t make McKnight seem like much more than something nice for a girl to have.

Maybe it is Queen Latifah’s fault. Compared to many rapper-turned-actors, Common is usually good in the movies in which he appears, but screen presence of Queen Latifah (another rapper-turned-actor) often overwhelms her costars’ presence. Whenever she is on television or the big screen, Latifah seems to have a natural sunniness about her, and in comedies, she radiates cheer and poise. She carries herself with confidence and projects that she is comfortable in her own skin. Latifah is Just Wright; the movie clearly exists for her to entertain us. Even Paula Patten and appearances from two wonderful sisters like Phylicia Rashad and Pam Grier cannot change the fact that this is all Latifah, all the time.

When a formula works, it reminds us of why it is a formula; we can rely on it. Just Wright uses the romantic formula with decent if not always good results. But in the end, the lovable Queen Latifah makes it all right.

6 of 10
B

Monday, May 17, 2010

"Something New" is Quite Cool

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 135 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux


Something New (2006)
Running time: 100 minutes (1 hour, 40 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sexual references
DIRECTOR: Sanaa Hamri
WRITER: Kriss Turner
PRODUCER: Stephanie Allain
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Shane Hurlbut
EDITOR: Melissa Kent
Black Reel Award winner

COMEDY/DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring: Sanaa Lathan, Simon Baker, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Mike Epps, Taraji P. Henson, Donald Faison, Alfre Woodard, Blair Underwood, Golden Brooks, Earl Billings, and Matt Malloy

Kenya Denise McQueen (Sanaa Lathan) has carefully calculated her professional life, and the young African-American accounting executive is up for partner at the firm for which she works. Still, she’s concerned that her personal life doesn’t measure up to her professional success. She accepts a blind date coordinated by a colleague, but the blind date turns out to be a white man named Brian Kelly (Simon Baker). She brushes him off, but that’s not the last she hears from Brian. He also turns out to be the sexy, free-spirited landscape architect a friend recommends. A relationship develops between Kenya and Brian, but though he’s comfortable with her, she can’t get past the fact that he is a white man. She’s later meets the IBM, the Ideal Black Man, a tax attorney named Mark (Blair Underwood), and they seemingly hit it off. Although Mark seems like her dream come true, Kenya’s heart might be somewhere else – regardless of what her friends, family, and the rest of society have to say.

Something New is the latest film about interracial (an absurd term) dating. The best-known recent examples include Spike Lee’s infamous Jungle Fever and the Julia Stiles hit, Save the Last Dance. Something New is not as incendiary as the former, nor does it have the youthful passion of the latter. The film by director Sanaa Hamri and writer Kriss Turner (a TV scribe whose credits include “Whoopi” and “Everybody Hates Chris”) is rather tame, but gets its energy from a willing cast. We know what the film is supposed to be about – unexpected love, but we know what this film is really about – a black girl dating a white guy. The actors grapple with that, and all they have to work with is Turner’s screenplay, which doesn’t know if it’s a love story or a lesson planner. Everything seems a little too loose, in a subject matter that demands structure (although I may be wrong) Still, what Turner’s script and Hamri’s directing offer would be enough to make this a good film. The actors make Something New a little better than just “good.”

One really impressive thing about this is that it showcases so many talented Black actors, whom we’d normally not see, at least not more than once a year. Alfre Woodard is fantastic as Kenya’s mother, Joyce McQueen, and one can only assume that being a Black actress has more often than not been an impediment to her career. Here, she shines as a woman madly wedded to her social status and to the idea that her children should live up to it – or so it seems. Wendy Raquel Robinson is equally good as the friend/voice of reason, Cheryl.

Leads Sanaa Lathan and Simon Baker do have screen chemistry, mostly because they play their characters so well, knowing exactly what to give their characters respective to the needs of the story. It’s their performances, in particularly Sanaa Lathan’s that gives this film its juice. Lathan practically emanates career obsession and embodies the hard-working, professional black woman tightly holding it together in all the ways it takes to climb the corporate ladder. At times, it is uncanny how true she makes Kenya’s reactions to people and situations. Her acting in the Starbucks’ scene when Kenya first meets Brian is uncommonly good – the art of verisimilitude with an attention to detail that gives this scene a documentary feel. It’s everything she does. Kenya’s vainly subtle ticks when she’s in public with Brian seem like painful compromises with strangers so that they won’t sneer at her for being with a white man. Those things that Lathan does make this a genuinely moving picture.

Baker is perfect as the laid-back, free spirit who just won’t hide his disdain for social hang-ups. In the end, he tips the balance and makes this movie seem, if not quite real, honest in its intentions. Something New makes its points in a gentle way while offering several entertaining supporting characters and then occasionally gives the viewer a hard nudge thanks to fine situational acting. Something New is the good choice for those wishing to either make that leap to the other side or just see how cool things could be if we all just got along… or at least the few of us who get along no matter what the hell the others have to say

7 of 10
B+

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Movie Review: "Brown Sugar" Was Much Needed

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 62 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux


Brown Sugar (2002)
Running time: 109 minutes (1 hour, 49 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sexual content and language
DIRECTOR: Rick Famuyiwa
WRITERS: Michael Elliot and Rick Famuyiwa, from a story by Michael Elliot
PRODUCER: Peter Heller
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Earvin “Magic” Johnson
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jeff Barnett and Enrique Chediak (director of photography)
EDITOR: Dirk Westervelt
Black Reel Award winner

ROMANCE with elements of drama

Starring: Taye Diggs, Sanaa Lathan, Mos Def, Nicole Ari Parker, Boris Kodjoe, and Queen Latifah

National Basketball Association legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson entered the world of filmmaking as executive producer in what 20th Century Fox billed as a hip-hop romance, Brown Sugar. The truth of the matter is that the hip-hop has very little to do with the romance other than being window dressing. The fact of the matter is that Brown Sugar is actually a nice romance.

Dre (Taye Diggs) and Sidney (Sanaa Lathan, Love & Basketball) have been friends since childhood. Dre is a successful record executive and Sidney wrote articles on hip-hop music for the Los Angeles Times before moving on to run XXL magazine. They’re each other’s best friend, sharing the good times and the bad and sharing gossip and the intimate secrets of their lives. They only once came close to consummating their deep friendship as serious love, but avoided it. However, when Dre rushes into marriage with Reese (Nicole Ari Parker, Remember the Titans), a high society money girl that he hasn’t known very long, Sidney has mixed feelings, and her deeper love for Dre begins to surface.

Director Rick Famuyiwa (The Wood) and co-writer Michael Elliot seemed determined to make a film that’s simply about romance in which hip-hop is as important to the story as the romance is. Both characters are obviously big fans of hip-hop; both their careers are built around it. The writers even have the characters mouth platitudes about how great hip-hop is. But no matter how much they talk about hip-hop, rap music, or whatever you want to call it, the story of the film is about two friends finally succumbing to the love they have for each other that they both denied for so long, a denial that has one in a bad marriage and the other about to enter into one. The hip-hop love jones is strained and forced, and it severely hampers the romantic center of this movie; the love story is natural and flows.

This film may not be as well known as more “mainstream” and “traditional” romantic films like Sleepless in Seattle or When Harry Met Sally, but Brown Sugar is good. It’s not perfect, but when I was growing up, films like this simply didn’t exist. They couldn’t; racist Hollywood didn’t want to make them, and the beast always claimed that there was no audience for such a film. Well, there’s always an audience for good films; it may not be as large as the audience for Titanic, but people will find a good movie.

I must say that the performances outshine the film. Taye Diggs is a good actor, and he has the stature and emotional range to play a leading man. Can’t you just see how much fun he would have been in something like Boomerang? Ms. Lathan is new to me, but I like what she has to offer. She easily skates through her character of this soft script, managing to be a comedian, a heroine, and a lovelorn professional gal just looking for true love. Queen Latifah adds spark to this film, although her part is quite small, but her hip-hop colleague, Mos Def, is another find. He played the sidekick very well, and he manages to be “real” as a hip-hop artist without once calling a bitch a ho or threatening to peal a nigga’s cap back. He’s a natural, quite comfortable on screen, and I hope to see more of him.

If Magic Johnson has more films like Brown Sugar up his sleeves, by all means, he should go to fewer Laker games and more studio briefings.

6 of 10
B