Hip-Hop. Money. Fame. Deception. Murder. All Collide in New Original Scripted Series, “TALES”, Premiering Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Creator and Executive Producer Irv “Gotti” Lorenzo Delivers, “TALES”, a Scripted Anthology Series of “Song Stories” Weaving Classic and Current Hip-Hop Songs into Visually Stunning Narratives
Woody McClain (New Edition Story), Keith Powers (New Edition Story), Jennifer Freeman, Elise Neal, MC Lyte, Boris Kodjoe (Real Husbands of Hollywood), Lance Gross, Matthew Noszka, Chet Hanks, Clifton Powell, Christian Robinson, Michelle Hayden, Michelle Mitchenor, Lil Duval, DC Young Fly, Rico Ball and More to Star in This Highly Anticipated New Series
#TALESonBET
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Legendary Music Executive and Murder Inc. founder Irv “Gotti” Lorenzo has A Story to Tell and it’s heading to BET Networks on June 27, 2017. “TALES” is a scripted anthology series of “song stories” weaving classic and current hip-hop songs into captivating visual narratives from the lyrics of some of hip-hop’s greatest hits. Far beyond the music video or the live event, “TALES” brings hip-hop alive in a completely new way for television.
Through songs like NWA’s “F*ck the Police”, Notorious B.I.G.’s “I Got A Story to Tell”, Meek Mill's “Cold Hearted”, Fetty Wap’s “Trap Queen”, to name a few, each song’s lyrics are imagined as cinematic adventures with different directors, including Irv Gotti’s directorial debut. Each episode is written by a different screenwriter, introducing “TALES” as an innovative twist to the hip-hop culture by reimagining our favorite hip-hop songs as we know them into “mini-movies”.
Each episode of “TALES” embodies and redefines hip-hop music in an exciting way that is completely original to television. The premiere episode, recreates NWA’s “F*ck the Police”, which focuses on a controversial police shooting of a young boy that flips the biases and stereotypes of today’s society. The lyrics of other rap classics like Notorious B.I.G.’s “I Got A Story to Tell”, Meek Mill’s “Cold Hearted” and Fetty Wap’s “Trap Queen” serve as the thematic backdrop for each cautionary tale and crafted into visually stunning mini movies.
Each week, the suspenseful stories reimagine the meaning of each original song and take viewers on an exciting adventure into some of the stories that play inspiration to the most iconic hip-hop hits. The rotating star-studded cast includes Woody McClain (New Edition Story), Keith Powers (New Edition Story), Boris Kodjoe (Real Husbands of Hollywood), Jennifer Freeman, Elise Neal, MC Lyte, Lance Gross, Christian Robinson, Matthew Noszka, Chet Hanks, Clifton Powell, Michelle Hayden, Michelle Mitchenor, Lil Duval, DC Young Fly, Rico Ball and more help bring the music to life in the highly anticipated BET original series.
Created and executive produced by pioneering hip-hop hit maker, Irv “Gotti” Lorenzo and his Visionary Ideas production company alongside producer Ron Robinson, writer/producer Joy Kecken and co-producers Darcell Lawrence, John Bryant and Sonny Lorenzo.
For more information on “TALES” log on to BET.com. Join the conversation on social media by logging on to BET’s multiple social media platforms by using the hashtag #TALESonBET, Facebook.com/BET, Twitter.com/BET, Instagram.com/TalesOnBET, and Instagram.com/BET.
ABOUT BET NETWORKS:
BET Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ:VIA)(NASDAQ:VIA.B) is the nation’s leading provider of quality entertainment, music, news and public affairs television programming for the African-American audience. The primary BET channel reaches more than 90 million households and can be seen in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom and sub-Saharan Africa. BET is the dominant African-American consumer brand with a diverse group of business extensions: BET.com, a leading Internet destination for Black entertainment, music, culture, and news; CENTRIC, a 24-hour entertainment network targeting the 25- to 54-year-old African-American audience; BET Digital Networks - BET Gospel and BET Hip Hop, attractive alternatives for cutting-edge entertainment tastes; BET Home Entertainment, a collection of BET-branded offerings for the home environment including DVDs and video-on-demand; BET Event Productions, a full-scale event management and production company with festivals and live events spanning the globe; BET Mobile, which provides ringtones, games and video content for wireless devices; and BET International, which operates BET in the United Kingdom and oversees the extension of BET network programming for global distribution.
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Showing posts with label Lance Gross. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lance Gross. Show all posts
Monday, May 29, 2017
Monday, July 22, 2013
Review: "Tyler Perry's Temptation" Talks Lust and Happiness
Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor (2013)
Running time: 111 minutes (1 hour, 51 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some violence, sexuality and drug content
DIRECTOR: Tyler Perry
WRITER: Tyler Perry (based on his play, The Marriage Counselor)
PRODUCERS: Ozzie Areu, Paul Hall, and Tyler Perry
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Alexander Gruszynski
EDITOR: Maysie Hoy
COMPOSER: Aaron Zigman
DRAMA
Starring: Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Lance Gross, Kim Kardashian, Vanessa Williams, Robbie Jones, Renee Taylor, Ella Joyce, Brandy Norwood, and Andrea Moore
Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor is a 2013 drama from writer/director Tyler Perry. The film is based on his 2008 play, The Marriage Counselor (at the time, his tenth play). Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor focuses on an ambitious married woman who is tempted by a handsome billionaire to leave her husband for all the material things a rich man can give her.
Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor is the thirteenth film by Tyler Perry. It is both the most financially successful film in which Perry did not act and is also his highest-grossing drama at the box office. Although it is not Perry’s best drama (which I still think For Colored Girls is), Tyler Perry’s Temptation is a powerful film.
The film opens as a marriage counselor works with a young married couple having serious problems. After the husband stalks off, the marriage counselor tells the young wife, Lisa (Andrea Moore), a story about a young woman named Judith (Jurnee Smollett-Bell). In her mid-20s, Judith is married to Brice (Lance Gross), whom she has known for almost two decades. They live in Washington D.C., where Brice works as a pharmacist. Judith works for Wise Counsel, a matchmaking agency owned by the flamboyant Janice Wise (Vanessa Williams). Judith is unsatisfied at this job, as she wants to open her own marriage counseling company, but has to wait.
Judith meets Harley Madison (Robbie Jones), a young tech billionaire who started a social networking site called, Class-Meet. Harley wants to invest in Wise Counsel, and Janice picks Judith to work with Harley in order to help him understand the agency. Harley turns out to be more interested in Judith, and begins to tempt her with the things his wealth and influence can give her – if she submits to his sexual advances. This temptation, however, could change Judith’s life forever, in ways she does not expect.
The usual melodrama and soap opera theatrics that we have come to expect of Tyler Perry’s films are in evidence in Tyler Perry’s Temptation. The religious moralizing is also in play, but this time the emphasis is on religious symbolism and metaphors. I won’t go into detail, as that would spoil some surprises. One religious element that is forced comes in the form of Judith’s mother, Reverend Sarah Ogalvee (Ella Joyce). The reverend seems more comical (hilarious, even) than sanctified or spiritual (which does occur in some scenes).
Tyler Perry’s Temptation works because Perry digs deeply into the pursuit of satisfaction as a theme – from personal, such as individual and marital satisfaction, to professional, such as career goals and material wealth. Perry is not so stupid and heavy-handed as to say that dissatisfaction leads to temptation in search of satisfaction. Perry suggests, as least it seems that way to me – that temptation is the easy and simply thing. Being tempted is fun and feels good. Acting on that temptation is where the problems come in because getting what you want or thought you wanted does not mean you will be satisfied or happy.
Also, seduction can be magical, but the actual consummation, sexual intercourse, or affair might not be quite what you thought it would be. In the film, notions of satisfaction and seduction lead to the idea that people change, sometimes often. So in this movie, change becomes something like a specter, dark and ominous, threatening marriages, friendships, professional relationships, family, etc.
One controversial element in Tyler Perry’s Temptation that got a lot of people talking when the film was in production was Perry’s move to cast reality television star and tabloid celebrity, Kim Kardashian, in the film. Here, Kardashian isn’t bad, although she isn’t much of an actress. Her character, Ava, Judith’s co-worker and apparent friend, is not really important to the overall story. In fact, just about any other professional actress or actor could have played that part. Yes, Kardashian is stunt casting, but she doesn’t hurt the movie at all.
Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor proves that Perry is capable of creating dramatic films – even though the ending here seems a bit much. While I think that this is, at best, an above-average movie, it proves that Perry is getting closer to dealing with weighty material and serious subject matter in an earnest fashion, without melodrama… or at least with less.
6 of 10
B
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
"Our Family Wedding" Unites Black and Brown
Our Family Wedding (2010)
Running time: 106 minutes (1 hour, 43 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some sexual content and brief strong language
DIRECTOR: Rick Famuyiwa
WRITERS: Wayne Conley, Malcolm Spellman, and Rick Famuyiwa; from a story by Wayne Conley
PRODUCERS: Edward Saxon and Steven J. Wolfe
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Julio Macat
EDITOR: Dirk Westervelt
COMEDY/DRAMA/FAMILY
Starring: Forest Whitaker, America Ferrera, Carlos Mencia, Regina King, Lance Gross, Diana Maria Riva, Lipa Ontiverso, Anjelah Johnson, Charlie Murphy, Shannyn Sossamon, Anna Maria Horsford, and Warren Sapp
Our Family Wedding is a family drama and ethnic comedy about an African-American family and a large Mexican-American clan forced to unite when two of their brood decide to unite in holy matrimony. The families’ respective patriarchs, two overbearing dads, must put aside their differences in order to plan the wedding of a son and a daughter in less than two weeks.
Marcus Boyd (Lance Gross), a young African-American doctor, and his Mexican-American girlfriend, Lucia Ramirez (America Ferrera), a former law school student, have arrived in Los Angeles to tell their families that there are engaged to be married in two weeks. Lucia suspects that her father, Miguel Ramirez (Carlos Mencia), may not be crazy about her being engaged to a Black man. Marcus also suspects that his father, Bradford “Brad” Boyd (Forest Whitaker), a popular L.A. radio personality, won’t be crazy about him being engaged to a Latino woman. Neither has any idea just how much havoc their fathers’ over-the-top egos will wreak their special day.
Meanwhile, Lucia’s mother, Sonia (Diana Maria Riva), is busy planning the wedding of her own dreams – a huge, traditional Mexican-American affair. As insults fly and tempers flare, Marcus and Lucia will find their relationship tested, unless they can convince themselves that it may be their marriage, but it is their family’s wedding.
The best thing about Our Family Wedding is how awkward it seems, but this is not because the narrative is awkward. The film deals honestly with the animosity, prejudice, dislike, etc that actually exists (to some extent) between the African-American and Latino communities. In this movie, it is fun to watch the elders and older adults of both families squirm as they are forced to deal with each other because of their children’s impending nuptials.
Director Rick Famuyiwa does a fine job of channeling the actors’ performances to capture prejudice and bigotry in a way that is appalling, but also appealing in the context of a comic film. Forest Whitaker as Brad and Carlos Mencia as Miguel, the battling dads, deliver performances that feel quite real as self-centered, comically bigoted jerks who are not at all harmless. Their antics are really endangering their children’s marriage.
One glaring fault of the movie is that the screenplay really never decides if the movie is about Marcus and Lucia or Brad and Miguel. Brad and Miguel’s antics are funny, but they should have been the supporting act. This film’s largely untapped wellspring is in Marcus and Lucia, and the internal workings of their relationship are largely hidden. The script even fails to take advantage of the best supporting character, Lucia’s smart-mouthed sister, Isabel, sharply played by Anjelah Johnson.
Still, Our Family Wedding has a large cast of characters, and there is always someone who will do or say something stupid at which we can laugh. We laugh because we recognize the narrow-mindedness, the bias, the stereotypes, and the intolerance. I can give Our Family Wedding credit for being funny, but also credit for being real about the discrimination that lurks in our hearts and minds.
7 of 10
B+
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Review: "Meet the Browns" Movie Needs More Browns
Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns (2008)
Running time: 100 minutes (1 hour, 40 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for drug content, language including sexual references, thematic elements, and brief violence
DIRECTOR: Tyler Perry
WRITER: Tyler Perry (based upon his play)
PRODUCERS: Tyler Perry and Reuben Cannon
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Sandi Sissel
EDITOR: Maysie Hoy
DRAMA/COMEDY
Starring: Angela Bassett, David Mann, Tamela J. Mann, Lance Gross, Chloe Bailey, Mariana Tolbert, Rick Fox, Sofia Vergara, Irma P. Hall, Frankie Faison, Margaret Avery, Jenifer Lewis, Lamman Rucker, Phillip Edward Van Lear, and Tyler Perry
Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns is a 2008 film based upon a 2004 play written by Perry (like many of his films). The film was later spun off into a cable television series of the same name.
The film focuses on Brenda Brown (Angela Bassett), a single mother living in inner city Chicago, with her three children: daughters Tosha (Chloe Bailey) and Lena (Mariana Tolbert), and her oldest child, Michael (Lance Gross), a talented high school basketball player. Struggling for years to make ends meet and keep her three kids off the street, Brenda loses her job when her company shuts down (on pay day!). Brenda is feeling very down when a letter from Georgia arrives announcing the death of the father she has never met.
Looking for a chance to get away, Brenda takes her family to an unnamed small town in Georgia for the funeral. Nothing could have prepared her, however, to meet the Browns, her long lost relatives. Crass and fun loving, this Southern clan welcomes Brenda and her children to raucous family get-togethers and lavish meals of traditional Southern fare. Brenda also once again encounters Harry Belton (Rick Fox), a basketball recruiter interested in Michael’s future who first visited the family in Chicago, but Brenda is suspicious of Harry’s intentions both towards her and her son. Meanwhile, back in Chicago, Michael is determined to help alleviate the family’s financial problems and begins to consider becoming a drug dealer. Should Brenda stay and fight it out in Chicago or return to her strange, new family in Georgia?
Like Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls, Meet the Browns is a drama with some humor. In a way, it also seems to be two movies – one focusing on Brenda and her family’s trials and tribulations in Chicago, and the other (the shorter of the two) focusing on Brenda’s small town relatives, the Browns. The parts of the film that take place in Chicago feature Perry’s usual besieged, single-parent melodrama, but it isn’t as good as what was in Daddy’s Little Girls. Frankly, except for a few sequences, the only part of Brenda-in-Chicago that I enjoyed was the delightful comic performance by Sofia Vergara as Brenda’s coworker and friend, Cheryl.
Meet the Browns is at its best when we are meeting the Browns, especially the wonderful Mr. Brown (David Mann), who is the main character of the spin-off television series. Jenifer Lewis also gives a salty comic turn as Vera Brown, and this film would have been better had Lewis had a bigger role. Former Los Angeles Laker, Rick Fox, gives an average performance, a bit stiff and dry, about what one would expect from former professional athletes taking up acting.
Another problem with this movie is that the lead actress, Angela Bassett, often seems out of place. There are moments when Bassett’s turn as Brenda Brown is pitch-perfect and poignant, but there are indeed moments when Bassett overacts and Brenda comes across as shrill. It is a testament to her skill that those bad moments don’t overwhelm the entire performance, as well as the movie
Audiences that enjoy Tyler Perry’s usual mixture of moralizing, affection, and forgiveness mixed with boisterous comedy and mockery will enjoy Meet the Browns, although as Perry films go, it is not one of his better films.
5 of 10
B-
Monday, July 19, 2010
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