New Season of "Bleach" Debuts on Adult Swim

VIZ MEDIA ANNOUNCES THE PREMIERE OF THE LATEST SEASON OF BLEACH ON ADULT SWIM

Episode 168 of The Smash Hit Supernatural Action Series Launches This Month

VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced the nationwide premiere of the latest season of BLEACH on Adult Swim. The latest English-dubbed installment – Episode 168 – of the hit animated action series will air on August 28th. Check local times for availability (http://www.adultswim.com/shows/bleach/).

In the newest season of BLEACH, after Sosuke Aizen’s rebellion, Gin Ichimaru’s departure from the Soul Society left the captain’s post of Squad Three empty. Shusuke Amagai is appointed as the new captain much to the squad’s dismay. But over time, Shusuke proves himself to be a good leader and wins over the team with his ability and personality. Meanwhile, a mysterious girl named Rurichiyo Kasumiohji appears in Karakura Town. Rurichiyo is the princess of a noble family in the Soul Society and a target for assassination. Worried for her safety, Rurichiyo’s guardians ask Ichigo to become her bodyguard. With new faces in the mix, another spectacular battle is about to begin in the Soul Society!

“BLEACH is a powerhouse property that delights millions of fans across North America each week, and we’re very pleased to have Adult Swim’s continued support for the series,” says Ken Sasaki, Senior Vice President & General Manager of VIZ Media. “Check out the newest adventures of the Soul Society in the launch of the riveting new story arc, and then stay tuned to Adult Swim for a new episode of the other hit VIZ Media anime series KEKKAISHI that immediately follows!”

BLEACH is a popular manga and animated series (both rated ‘T’ for Teens), distributed domestically by VIZ Media, that follows the adventures of Ichigo, a 15-year old student with the ability to see ghosts. When his family is attacked by a Hollow — a malevolent lost soul – Ichigo encounters Rukia, a Soul Reaper, and inadvertently absorbs her powers. Now, he’s dedicating his life to protecting the innocent and helping tortured souls find peace.

BLEACH is also a tremendously successful property internationally. The manga series, created by Tite Kubo, has been licensed to more than a dozen countries and has sold over 50 million copies in Japan alone. In North America, the manga has sold more than 2 million copies, and the dubbed version of the animated series is viewed weekly by millions in the United States and Canada on cable broadcast. This success has further spawned an array of related video games, apparel, action figures and other merchandise. The subtitled version of the anime can be viewed for free online anytime on VIZAnime.com.

More information on BLEACH is available at Bleach.viz.com.


About Adult Swim
Adult Swim (AdultSwim.com), launched in 2001, is Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.’s network offering original and acquired animated and live-action series for young adults. Airing nightly from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. (ET, PT), Adult Swim shares channel space with Cartoon Network, home to the best in original, acquired and classic entertainment for youth and families, and is seen in 97 million U.S. homes. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news, entertainment, animation and young adult media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.

About VIZ Media, LLC
Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), is one of the most comprehensive and innovative companies in the field of manga (graphic novel) publishing, animation and entertainment licensing of Japanese content. Owned by three of Japan’s largest creators and licensors of manga and animation, Shueisha Inc., Shogakukan Inc., and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions, Co., Ltd., VIZ Media is a leader in the publishing and distribution of Japanese manga for English speaking audiences in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and South Africa and is a global ex-Asia licensor of Japanese manga and animation. The company offers an integrated product line including the popular monthly manga anthology SHONEN JUMP magazine, graphic novels, and DVDs, and develops, markets, licenses, and distributes animated entertainment for audiences and consumers of all ages. Contact VIZ Media at 295 Bay Street, San Francisco, CA 94133; and website at www.VIZ.com.

Review: "The Losers" is Just Not Good

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 68 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Losers (2010)
Running time: 97 minutes (1 hour, 37 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sequences of intense action and violence, a scene of sensuality and language
DIRECTOR: Sylvain White
WRITERS: Peter Berg and James Vanderbilt (based upon the comic book series written by Andy Diggle and illustrated by Jock and published by DC Comics/Vertigo)
PRODUCERS: Kerry Foster, Akiva Goldsman, and Joel Silver
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Scott Kevan
EDITOR: David Checel

COMIC BOOK/ACTION/MILITARY

Starring: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans, Idris Elba, Columbus Short, Oscar Jaenada, Jason Patric, and Holt McCallany

The film, X-Men, which debuted in 2000, is seen as the film that began the current wave of superhero movies. In the 10 years since X-Men’s debut, the worst movie based upon a comic book that I have seen was The Punisher in 2004.

The Losers, a military-style action thriller which hit theatres this past April, is based upon a comic book of the same name. The Losers was published by DC Comics under its Vertigo imprint for 32 issues from 2003 to 2006. Written and created by Andy Diggle and drawn by the artist Jock (the British comics artist, Mark Simpson), the series followed a Special Forces team tied to the CIA and later betrayed by their CIA handler, Max.

The Losers is the worst comic book movie I’ve seen since The Punisher. The movie introduces an elite U.S. Special Forces unit sent into the Bolivian jungle on a search-and-destroy mission. The team is led by Franklin Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and includes William Roque (Idris Elba), Jake Jensen (Chris Evans), Linwood “Pooch” Porteous (Columbus Short) and Carlos “Cougar” Alvarez (Oscar Jaenada).

Despite a few surprises, the mission goes well until Clay and company are betrayed by their commander, Max (Jason Patric), a man whom they’ve never met. Presumed dead, the men struggle to make enough money to return to the U.S., but Clay is approached by Aisha (Zoe Saldana), a beautiful operative who offers to help them get home. Her price is what amounts to a suicide mission – kill the heavily-guarded Max. Meanwhile, Max is plotting to embroil the world in a global war by launching an environmentally-friendly bomb with the power of a nuclear weapon. But some of the people on this mission are also hiding secrets and plotting betrayal.

Like many current action movies, The Losers is slickly produced and offers plenty of flashy visuals, but it feels clunky and moves with an awkward gait, like a kid whose legs and feet are growing faster than he can adjust to them. In fact, for all the fast moving The Losers does, there is no sense of urgency in the characters. This is a guy movie about a band of guys (and one girl) who kick ass, but they just aren’t very interesting. Also, as Clay, Jeffrey Dean Morgan is just not cut out to be the lead in a movie.

Early in the film, Clay and his unit are supposedly desperate to go home, but don’t really seem to be doing much to get back. The entire bomb sub-plot just doesn’t have that ticking-time-bomb sense of urgency that films about bombs have (like the hugely underrated The Peacemaker from 1997). There is really only one truly cool moment here, and that is when Chris Evans’ Jake Jensen breaks into Goliath Worldwide Headquarters. The scene is so funny that it seems out of place with the rest of this sluggish movie.

Here, even the witty banter that is standard for a standard action flick is lame. Director Sylvain White, who used his flashy style to make Stomp the Yard feel so electric three years earlier, seems to know what he wants to do with The Losers. He simply made movie that makes it seem as if he didn’t know what he was doing. With The Losers, the viewer is the real loser.

2 of 10
D

Thursday, August 19, 2010

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Major Educational Publisher Pledges to Waiting for "Superman"

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT PROVIDES $100,000 IN NEW CHILDREN’S BOOKS TO U.S. LIBRARIES IN NEED

Joins WaitingforSuperman.com “Pledge Progress Meter” at the 60,000 Pledge Level

HOLLYWOOD, CA (August 16, 2010) – Paramount Pictures, Participant Media and Walden Media jointly announced today that global education leader Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has joined the WaitingforSuperman.com “Pledge Progress Meter” by committing to provide $100,000 worth of new children’s books to U.S. libraries in need once 60,000 people pledge to see the award-winning documentary film WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN.”

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is the world’s largest provider of educational materials for pre-K–12 schools. Since 1832, the Boston-based company has combined its tradition of academic excellence with a commitment to innovation for the future.

"We are proud to support this film because it shares our mission to promote literacy and an appetite for learning among the nation's students," said Barry O'Callaghan, Chief Executive Officer of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. "An essential first step to improving our education system is providing those students with better quality and more accessible literacy-based resources within and outside of the classroom."

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is the fourth major organization to take the pledge and join the WaitingforSuperman.com “Pledge Progress Meter.” FirstBook, OfficeMax® and DonorsChoose.org have already committed to making a difference in education by taking the pledge.

WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN” directed by Davis Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth”) will be released under the Paramount Vantage banner and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It examines the crisis of public education in the United States through multiple interlocking stories. Designed to start a national conversation, the movie and corresponding “Take the Pledge” campaign aim to inspire everyone to create innovative and long-term solutions to help change the course of our kids’ lives for the better. The “Pledge Progress Meter” launched in May as a way for non-profits, foundations and corporations to match individual pledge levels with powerful action items aimed at helping both students and public schools.

The film opens in New York and Los Angeles on September 24, nationwide in October.

The film is produced by Lesley Chilcott, with Participant Media’s Jeff Skoll and Diane Weyermann serving as executive producers. It is written by Davis Guggenheim & Billy Kimball.  For more information about the movie, or to take the pledge go to http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/ or text “PLEDGE” to 77177.

To join the conversation visit us on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/WaitingForSuperman

What does your school need? Tell us by Tweeting #MySchoolNeeds at http://www.Twitter.com/WaitingSuperman


About Paramount Pictures Corporation
Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. The company's labels include Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Digital Entertainment, Paramount Famous Productions, Paramount Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., Paramount Studio Group, and Worldwide Television Distribution.

About Participant Media
Participant Media is a Los Angeles-based entertainment company that focuses on socially relevant, commercially viable feature films, documentaries and television, as well as publishing and digital media. Participant Media is headed by CEO Jim Berk and was founded in 2004 by philanthropist Jeff Skoll, who serves as Chairman. Ricky Strauss is President.

Participant exists to tell compelling, entertaining stories that bring to the forefront real issues that shape our lives. For each of its projects, Participant creates extensive social action and advocacy programs, which provide ideas and tools to transform the impact of the media experience into individual and community action. Participant’s films include The Kite Runner, Charlie Wilson’s War, Darfur Now, An Inconvenient Truth, Good Night, and Good Luck, Syriana, Standard Operating Procedure, The Visitor, The Soloist, Food, Inc., The Informant!, The Cove, The Crazies, Oceans, Furry Vengeance, CASINO JACK and the United States of Money, Countdown to Zero and Waiting for “Superman.”

About Walden Media
Walden Media specializes in entertainment for the whole family. Past award-winning films include: “The Chronicles of Narnia” series, “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” “Nim’s Island” and “Charlotte’s Web.” Upcoming films include the third installment in the Narnia series “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.”

About Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Boston-based Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company is a global education leader and the world’s largest publisher of educational materials for pre-K–12 schools. The Company publishes a comprehensive set of best-in-class educational solutions, ranging from research-based textbook programs to instructional technology to standards-based assessments for students and educators. The Company also publishes an extensive line of reference works and award-winning literature for adults and young readers. With origins dating back to 1832, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt combines its tradition of excellence with a commitment to innovation. To learn more about Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, visit www.hmhpub.com.

Review: Sylvain White Made "Stomp the Yard" Step with Fire

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 79 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Stomp the Yard (2007)
Running time: 114 minutes (1 hour, 54 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for a scene of violence, some sexual material, and language
DIRECTOR: Sylvain White
WRITERS: Robert Adetuyi (based upon Gregory Anderson’s earlier screenplay)
PRODUCERS: William Packer and Rob Hardy
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Scott Kevan (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: David Checel
NAACP Image Awards nominee

DRAMA/MUSIC/ROMANCE

Starring: Columbus Short, Meagan Good, Ne-Yo, Darrin Dewitt Henson, Brian J. White, Laz Alonso, Valarie Pettiford, Jermaine Williams, Allan Louis, Harry J. Lennix, Allan Louis, and Chris Brown

In the film, Stomp the Yard, “stepping,” an ages-old style of dance done by African-American college fraternities, takes center stage. Steppers demonstrate complex moves and use their bodies to create rhythmic sounds (slapping their legs, clapping their hands, stomping their feet, etc.) While the drama is certainly good, this film’s electric vibe is the result of both Sylvain White’s direction and Dave Scott’s choreography.

After the shooting death of his brother, Duron (Chris Brown), Darnell James Williams or DJ (Columbus Short), a talented Los Angeles street dancer, finds himself in Atlanta with his Aunt Jackie (Valarie Pettiford) and Uncle Nate (Harry J. Lennix) and attending the historically black college, Truth University. As DJ struggles to adjust to this new world, much of it about class and privilege, his life becomes even more complicated when two rival fraternities recruit him. Mu Gamma Xi has won the college step championship for 7 years in a row. Theta Nu Theta wants to win, and they see DJ, with his hip-hop inspired moves, as the stepper who will get them over Mu Gamma’s title hump. However, it is DJ’s romance of April Palmer (Meagan Good), the refined daughter of Dean William Palmer (Allan Louis) and the girlfriend of Mu Gamma’s star stepper, Grant (Darrin Dewitt Henson), that just might derail his college career.

It is of great importance to reiterate how good the film’s raucous dancing is and how much of the film’s drama is invested in these astonishing dance moves. That’s why quite a bit of the film’s success should be credited to Dave Scott, who also choreographed You Got Served. Scott skillfully blends various dance styles into something new and very explosive.

Still, it’s director Sylvain White (I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer) who builds a sustainable narrative structure and riveting character drama out of the dancing. For the film’s opening minutes, White creates a sequence that is as intense and visually vibrant and forceful as anything in the film 300, which was released about a month after Stomp the Yard. White adroitly balances the eye-popping dance numbers with the drama of college life. In fact, White has directed the most realistic film about African-American college life since Spike Lee’s School Daze.

White makes the best of his leads, Columbus Short, who is more willing as an actor than he is skilled (so far), and Meagan Good, who is pretty but still very raw as an actress. Short is an accomplished dancer, having toured with Savion Glover’s “Stomp” dance extravaganza. Through the duo of Short and Good, however, White makes potent social statements about class conflict amongst African-Americans and also poverty and justice, and all the while, Stomp the Yard dances until your heart and spirit soar with these stunning steppers.

7 of 10
B+

Friday, May 18, 2007

NOTES:
2008 Image Awards: 3 nominations: “Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture” (Columbus Short), “Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture-Theatrical or Television” (Sylvain White), and “Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture” (Meagan Good)

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First Season of "Cougar Town" Now on DVD

Press release:

ABC’s Hilarious New Comedy Comes to DVD!

COUGAR TOWN: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON

Debuts on DVD -- August 17, 2010

BURBANK, CA, July 2010 – Audiences can bring home the hilarious first season of one of TV’s funniest new series beginning August 17, as ABC’s laugh out loud comedy Cougar Town comes home on DVD, from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment in Cougar Town: The Complete First Season.

Golden Globe® nominee* Courteney Cox (Friends) stars in the hilarious hit comedy Cougar Town: The Complete First Season. After spending the last seventeen years as a wife and mother, recently divorced Jules (Cox) has reluctantly waded back into the dating pool and quickly finds herself in over her head.

Now forty-something and single, Jules tackles real-life issues – dating, parenting and friendship. It doesn’t help Jules that her two best friends can hardly stand each other, her ex-husband is hanging around more now than he did during their marriage…and there’s that handsome divorced neighbor that Jules can’t quite get out of her head. Packed with laugh-out-loud moments and featuring a cast of television’s brightestcomedic stars, Cougar Town struts its stuff in this DVD collection, along with exclusive bonus features and one or two special surprises. Cougar Town – it’s more than a place, it’s a state of mind.

COUGAR TOWN: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON was created by Bill Lawrence (creator of Scrubs and Kevin Biegel and also stars Christa Miller (“Scrubs”, “The Drew Carey Show”, “Seinfeld”), Busy Philipps (“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”, “ER”), Dan Byrd (“Heroes”, “CSI”), Josh Hopk (“Private Practice”), Ian Gomez (“The Drew Carey Show”) and Brian Van Holt (“John from Cincinnati”).

Bonus Features:
DVD Exclusives
• Bloopers
• Deleted Scenes
• Taming Cougar Town – Discover How Cougar Town Has Evolved From Its Initial Comedy Pilot Into Today’s More Subtly Sexy ABC Hit
• ‘Ask Barb’ series
* *Best Actress in a Television Series, Musical or Comedy (2010)

DVD non-Exclusives
• Jimmy Kimmel Live: Saber-Tooth Tiger Town
• Ask Barb – The Ultimate Cougar Answers Your Questions
• ‘Stroking it with Bobby Cobb’ series

Cougar Town: The Complete First Season is priced at $39.99 SRP (US) and $44.99 SRP (CAN).

Street Date: August 17, 2010

DVD
Suggested Retail Price: $39.99 US; $44.99 Canada
Feature Run Time: Approx. 552 minutes (24 thirty-minute episodes)
Rating: US: TV-14 DLSV (US)
Canada: 14A Mature Theme, Language May Offend
Aspect Ratio: Widescreen (1.78:1)
Languages: English
Subtitles: Spanish, French subtitles


For more than 85 years, The Walt Disney Studios has been the foundation on which The Walt Disney Company (DIS: NYSE) was built. Today, the Studio brings quality movies, music and stage plays to consumers throughout the world. Feature films are released under four banners: Walt Disney Pictures, which includes Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios, Disneynature, Touchstone Pictures and Marvel. Through the Home Entertainment division, innovative distribution methods provide access to creative content across multiple platforms. Original music and motion picture soundtracks are produced under Walt Disney Records and Hollywood Records, while Disney Theatrical Group produces and licenses live events, including Broadway theatrical productions, Disney on Ice and Disney LIVE!. For more information, please visit http://www.disney.com/.

Final Season of "Ugly Betty" Now on DVD

Press release:

Complete Your Collection with The Hilarious


ABC’s UGLY BETTY: THE COMPLETE FOURTH AND FINAL SEASON

Available on DVD August 17, 2010

BURBANK, CA, July 2010 – The world of high fashion takes on a whole new, hilarious meaning in Ugly Betty: The Complete Fourth and Final Season, available on DVD August 17, 2010 from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. There are underdogs and then there is Betty Suarez, the ultimate “fish-out-of-water.” Her efforts to fit in with her colleagues at a glossy magazine may bring unintentionally hysterical results, but they also have audiences rooting for their favorite fashionista.

The collectible four-disc release allows viewers to complete their collection and relive every endearing moment of this heartwarming and irreverent comedy with all 20 final-season episodes uninterrupted, with never-before-seen bonus features.

Betty sure has come a long way! She is finally coming into her own and getting what she’s worked so hard for. But what she doesn’t realize is that she’s starting over in so many ways, and if she wants to play in the big leagues she needs to keep up. Ugly Betty: The Complete Fourth and Final Season focuses on her transformation – both personally and professionally – and how she will navigate these new waters as only she can. If Betty wants to succeed, she will once again have to rely on her heart, perseverance and intelligence – along with some help from her family, friends and a few unlikely allies.

“Ugly Betty” stars America Ferrera as Betty Suarez, Eric Mabius as Daniel Meade, Tony Plana as Ignacio, Ana Ortiz as Hilda, Judith Light as Claire Meade, Becki Newton as Amanda, Michael Urie as Marc, Mark Indelicato as Justin, Daniel Eric Gold as Matt Hartley and Vanessa Williams as Wilhelmina Slater.

Ugly Betty: The Complete Fourth and Final Season is priced at $39.99 SRP (US) and $44.99 SRP (CAN).

Ugly Betty: The Complete Fourth and Final Season – DVD Bonus Features:
• Betty Bloops
• Deleted Scenes
• Betty Goes Bahamas
• Mode After Hours
• Webisodes

Street Date: August 17, 2010

DVD
Suggested Retail Price: $39.99 US; $44.99 Canada
Feature Run Time: Approx. 860 minutes (20 1-hour episodes)
Rating: TV-PG DLSV (US)
Aspect Ratio: Widescreen (1.78:1)
Languages: English
Subtitles: Spanish, French

Based on “Yo Soy Betty La Fea,” the groundbreaking Colombian telenovela that became an international phenomenon, “Ugly Betty” is from ABC Studios. The series has been awarded Emmy®, Golden Globe, Peabody, NAACP, ALMA and Imagen awards and earned 19 Emmy nominations. Executive producers are Silvio Horta (“Urban Legend”), Academy Award®-nominee (Best Actress in a Leading Role, Frida 2002) and Emmy® Award winner (Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Comedy Series, Ugly Betty 2006) Salma Hayek, Jose Tamez, Richard Heus, Victor Nelli Jr., Jon Kinnally, Tracy Poust, Henry Alonso Myers and Sheila Lawrence. Co-executive producers are Chris Black, Gail Lerner and Abraham Higgenbotham.

"Our Family Wedding" Unites Black and Brown

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 67 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux


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