Tyler Perry's A Fall from Grace

This is not a review, just some immediate thoughts....I just finished watching Tyler Perry's ''A Fall From Grace" yesterday..

So let me first say this...I don't have a problem with Tyler Perry, I admire the man's hustle...He Writes ,Produces and Directs his films and plays and TV shows and he owns his own studios...

Not very many people can match that ...It is something to behold and admire..So having said that...Let me say this....The movie was okay, not one of his best..(My Favorite TP movie was "The Family That Preys" with Sanaa Lathan, Alfre Woodard and Kathy Bates from a few years ago)

This story was a little over the top, but it had a twisty ending that I won't spoil for you...All I'll say is Phylicia Rashad was as far from Claire Huxtable as you can get and leave it at that... The Lawyer in this story had to be the worst Attorney in history.....Tyler should have just played his part in his regular hair...WHY DID HE NEED THAT WIG?? And that is all I'm going to say...It was entertaining...Not the worst movie I've seen..Not by a long shot.

Saturday 7- Seven Movies I intend to see

Haven't done one of these in awhile...


1. GREENBOOK-  Seems like Mahershala Ali has been popping up in all of my favorite pictures, "Hidden Figures", "Moonlight", et al and is said to be featured on the third season of HBO's "True Detective"  In "Green Book" he plays Jamaican Jazz Pianist Don Shirley in the unlikely story of an African American Musician and his Italian -American Driver and Bodyguard in the Jim Crow South of 1962.

2. IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK -Read the novel by James Baldwin years ago about  Tish, a newly engaged Harlem woman who races against the clock to prove her lover's innocence while carrying their first born child. It's a celebration of love told through the story of a young couple, their families, and their lives. Directed by "Moonlight" director, Barry Jenkins.

3. AQUAMAN- Okay...I'm a comic book nerd from way back...I always felt that Marvel's Sub-Mariner and D.C.'s Aquaman were never given justice on the big screen the way Batman, Superman, The Avengers,Spiderman et al were...So come December...I will be there front and center....

4.THE UPSIDE- I know, I know...It's the inter-racial buddy movie thing again....It's also the "Magic Negro" thing too...but come on Kevin Hart is in it...It's something new for him...A Drama...and he's a fellow Philadelphian...I gotta ride with my homeboy!

5.HALLOWEEN- Okay...I saw the first Halloween back in 1978, when Jamie Lee Curtis and I were both 20 years old...It's 2018 and Jamie Lee Curtis and I are both 60...Which means Micheal Myers must be 74...If Jamie Lee doesn't kill him in this movie...I'm afraid I'm going to have to do it...We runnin out of time Jamie Lee..

6.NOBODY'S FOOL- I love Tyler Perry....and I love Tiffany Haddish....Do I need a third reason to want to see this film?

7.THE GIRL IN THE SPIDERS WEB- If you loved the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and I did, you've got to be curious about this...the second installment in the series.

Get On Up

My Wife and I went to see "Get On Up" last night out at King of Prussia..The movie was a little uneven...but there were some great performances by "The Help's" Viola Davis and Octavia Spenser . True Blood's Nelson Elias , Philadelphia's own Jill Scott, Dan Ackroyd and Good Peeples, Chris Robinson...

Chadwick Bozeman..who I saw in "42" as Jackie Robinson,kills in "Get On Up" as James Brown....He's going to be the next big star...Don't Sleep on Him!

I Did Not Write This....(But What if I had? )

I'm going to share this article I read in today's Huffington Post... Let me first say that I did not write this...This article was written by a white woman and surprisingly..She wrote things that me and a lot of my friends have talked about in private ,but never written or said aloud...

Perhaps I'm glad she beat me to the punch...Not that I wouldn't have written this sooner or later..but she wrote this today-

From Blogger Olivia Cole(A white female)-

I'm tired of seeing white people on the silver screen.
First, let me note that I am white. I am a white woman who goes to the theater to see probably a dozen films (if not more) in a given year, a white woman who readily consumes TV shows and series and often blogs/tweets about them. I love film. I love what Hollywood could be, but I must say that I don't love what it is, and that is a machine generating story after story in which the audience is asked to root for a white (usually male) hero over and over and over (and over) again. I'm tired. I'm tired of directors pretending that white actors are the default and that people of color are a distraction when it comes to filmmaking. I'm tired of black women in Hollywood being relegated to roles of slaves and "the help" over and over again. I'm tired of films convincing themselves that they are taking on something fresh and new, the likes of which the world has never seen, but in actuality adhering to tired tropes and stereotypes.

One example that comes to mind is Avatar, a "groundbreaking" film about aliens and humanity, which, underneath it all, is the same old White Savior story. But more recently is Lucy, the film starring Scarlett Johansson in which a woman named Lucy evolves and is able to use 100 percent of her brain's capacity after she unwittingly ingests a massive amount of drugs.

Lucy is about what humankind could be -- it's about possibilities. As Lucy's brainpower grows stronger and the volume of knowledge she is able to access increases, she delivers monologues about how little humans understand about death, existence, and the universe, mediating on time and history. The film likes to think of itself as reimagining everything that we think we know about humanity, and presents to us their vision of what the most evolved woman on earth looks like:
A blonde white woman.

See, I just can't get right with that.

You see, I was an anthropology major in high school and by the time I was 16 I'd learned all about Lucy (Australopithecus), the collection of bones found in Hadar and thought to have lived 3.2 million years ago, one of the oldest hominids we know of.

Lucy the film doesn't try to hide how cute they thought they were being by naming the supreme evolved being in their film "Lucy" -- they show an ape-like creature crouched by a stream to illustrate just how far human beings have come, and say as much in the opening lines, depicting vast cities built up to show our progress. The original Lucy was not really an ape, though. She had small skull capacity like apes, but her skeleton shows she was bipedal and walked upright like humans. Hadar, by the way, is in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia.

So I guess what's sticking in my craw is the assertion that while human life originated in Africa -- a detail the film neatly skims over, placing the ape-like Lucy that Johansson sees in North America -- somehow the way we imagine the most evolved human being is blonde and white. Even more, when Lucy gets surges of knowledge in the film, her eyes flash brightly blue. Because blue eyes, we all know, are the universal symbol of superiority, right?

How is it that in a film whose premise rests on the idea of reimagining the past, present and future, we still end up with a blonde white woman with flashing blue eyes as the stand-in for what personifies evolution and supremely fulfilled human potential? At one point the Ape-like Lucy and Evolved Lucy meet face-to-face as Evolved Lucy does a bit of time-traveling. Their fingers touch, and we see them deliberately posed to mimic the famous Creation of Adam painting, and in that moment I saw what I suppose we were supposed to see: humanity at its beginning, and then humanity at its end, at its most perfect. Blonde, white and blue-eyed.

I can't accept that. I can't accept that there was only one black woman in the entire film, who delivered one line and who we never saw again. I can't accept that the bad guys were Asian and that although in China, Lucy's roommate says, "I mean, who speaks Chinese? I don't speak Chinese!" I can't accept that in Hercules, which I also saw this weekend, there were no people of color except for Dwayne Johnson himself and his mixed-race wife, whose skin was almost alabaster. I can't accept that she got maybe two lines and was then murdered. I can't accept that the "primitive tribe" in Hercules consisted of dark-haired men painted heavily, blackish green, to give their skin (head-to-toe) a darker appearance, so the audience could easily differentiate between good and bad guys by the white vs. dark skin.

I can't accept that during the previews, Exodus: Gods and Kings, a story about Moses leading the Israelite slaves out of Egypt, where not a single person of color is represented, casts Sigourney Weaver and Joel Edgerton to play Egyptians. I can't accept that in the preview for Kingsman: The Secret Service, which takes place in London, features a cast of white boys and not a single person of Indian descent, which make up the largest non-white ethnic group in London.

I can't accept that in stories about the end of the world and the apocalypse, that somehow only white people survive. I can't accept that while my daily life is filled with black and brown women, they are completely absent, erased, when I look at a TV or movie screen.

I can't accept that. And I can't accept that when we think about the potential of humankind and what our brains are capable of doing and thinking and feeling, that people of color would be absent from that imagining. I can't accept that. And I won't.

I'm tired of seeing people that look like me crowding screens both big and small: I am not what the world looks like. Hollywood, stop whitewashing characters. Give us more films like this year's Annie. I'm no Lucy -- like everyone else I'm only using a tiny amount of my brain's capacity. But you don't need to be a superhuman logic-machine to see that Hollywood has a major problem with depicting people of color, and it's time to actually reimagine what the world can and should be.
--
Thank You Olivia Cole for saying some of the things I have been saying since I was 14 in one way or another, when I would get so angry at the Oscars and Emmys...Thank you for saying what I would have said eventually!

And The Oscar Goes To.....

I must admit that of all of the award shows on television at the present time....The Oscars still get my adreneline pumping....I sit sit in front of the television like the fan boy that I am and wait with baited breath for someone in a tux and or a gown to announce ....''And the Oscar goes to......"

I was angry when Diana Ross didn't get it for "Lady Sings the Blues" in 1972...Angry still when Dianne Carroll didn't get it for Claudine and when year after year talented African American and Latino performers and movies were ignored by the Oscars...with the exception of Butterfly Mcqueen who won 20 years before I was born and Mr. Sidney Poitier who won win I was six years old and not yet watching the Oscars or anything that wasn't produced by Walt Disney or Hanna-Barbera.

Then in the late 80's something happened....It started with Lou Gossett and went on to include, Whoopi Goldberg, Denzel Washington, Cuba Gooding Jr. , Morgan Freeman, Forrest Whitaker, Jamie Foxx,Jennifer Hudson, Halle Berry and now includes the beautiful Lupita Nyong'o...We started winning Oscars....

Not only did she win...but the Brother who adapted the screenplay,John Ridley won for best adapted screenplay...(12 years a Slave)captured a statue too!

I'm happy that they won and I'm ecstatic that 12 Years a Slave , a movie directed by Steve Mcqueen....(Not the late action movie star, but Black British Director) won for movie of the year....

So I'll close by asking this.....Enough with the slave movies Hollywood....I know I should be grateful for the big wins last night and I truly am...But I'd like to see a moving picture about Black survivors, Black Heroes...Black people who win in the present day....Not see Black victims anymore...Hollywood likes to congratulate itself ever so often when a "Black" film like the" Help" or "Misisisippi Burning" or "12 Years a Slave" wins big...but how about "The Butler"...a piece of contemporary history and extroidinary film that got completely overlooked by Oscar???

I'm just saying...Oscar...you're getting better...but the room for improvemant is never filled!

Keith's Music Spotlight

One of my wife and I's favorite movies of the 90's or the early part of the millennial..I'm not sure what year it was that this movie was released was Director, Malcolm D, Lee's (Spike Lee's cousin) movie, "The Best Man"....

Now after all this time...The sequel is being released....The missus and I plan to see it next week when it comes out...but in the meanwhile, here is some music from the movie's soundtrack...A winner from Uncle Charlie Wilson...Enjoy it!

The Butler

Wifey and I saw Lee Daniel's new film ''The Butler " last night... It's not very often that I see a movie that nearly moves me to tears...but I have to admit..This was one of those times...Great movie! I felt like I was following a time capsule of my life....His service for the Presidents begins the year before I was born and ends when I'm about 25....

It was an incredible journey and an incredible movie...Not at all what I expected...but better..I'd advise folks to go out and see it....If for no other reason than the director, Lee Daniels is a West Philly guy who grew up just two blocks from me...We are both the same age and yet..I never knew him or remember him from the neighborhood...Which is amazing..I knew everybody and everybody knew me back then or at least I thought so. Go see his movie!

Fruitvale Station (Coulda Been 60th & Market Street)

This weekend...I finally got around to seeing "Fruitvale Station", the much anticipated movie about the Oscar Grant killing in Oakland, California on New Years Day, 2009....In the wake of the Trayvon Martin killing and the subsequant acquitall of George Zimmerman...you would think that I would shy away rom seeing a murder about yet another young black male who was senselessly gunned down....Yeah, you would think!

Oscar Grant was 22 years old when he was killed on New Years Eve....by a trigger happy and inexperienced rookie transit cop who says he mistook a gun for a taser... I watched this movie, which I'm glad portrayed the victim as a human being and not the monsters they always portray us as on the 6:00 news when we get shot or worse, killed...

See ,Oscar Grant could have been me when I was 22...I was somewhat like him...a little under employed...Didn't too much know what I was going to do with my life at that time...My parents were pretty much sick of me around that time too...And but for the grace of God...I could have very well of taken a walk on the dark side back then...

Trayvon was me at 17...Tall,lanky, still unsure of my place in the world...Still not quite ready for prime time...and by God's grace...I lived to see my hair turn gray or rather start to turn gray...Neither Oscar, nor Trayvon got to see their hair begin to turn gray...

But I digress...This is the true story of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident who wakes up on the morning of December 31, 2008 and feels something in the air. Not sure what it is, he takes it as a sign to get a head start on his resolutions: being a better son to his mother, whose birthday falls on New Year's Eve, being a better boyfriend to his girlfriend, who he hasn't been completely honest with as of late, and being a better father to Tatiana, their beautiful 4 year old daughter.

He starts out well, but as the day goes on, he realizes that change is not going to come easy. He crosses paths with friends, family, and strangers, each exchange showing us that there is much more to Oscar than meets the eye. But it would be his final encounter of the day, with police officers at the Fruitvale BART station that would shake the Bay Area to its very core, and cause the entire nation to be witnesses to the story of Oscar Grant.

That's the Bay Area Rapid Transit station where he met his death....That could have easily have been the 60th street El Station right here in West Philadelphia...or Kiladelphia as they call our city nowadays...

I did a lot of hanging out back then, late 1970's, Early 1980s....It was just as dangerous to be a black male then too...We had stop and frisk before the term was coined...I was stopped at least once a week and frisked because I looked like I was someplace I didn't belong... I wasn't driving then and didn't own a car...
Me and my friends rode the Bus and the subway everywhere....Even picked girls up and went on dates on the Bus and Subway....Because the girls weren't driving either....That of course would be unheard of today, but nobody had a lot of money then..We all were young and struggling and there was a kind of understanding and unity amongst us that young black people don't have today.

We were under no illusion that this was a post racial Amerika....We knew all about the man!!  We also didn't have rappers and singers filling our heads with unrealistic notions of material wealth either...I believe we  and by we...I mean the young people of my era had a closer grip on reality.....I guess all generations say that...but I just don't honestly see a lot of critical thinking going on amongst todays youth...I hope I'm wrong.

I'm just saying...The police hassled us...and we kind of expected it and our parents did a good job of telling us how to govern ourselves...I remember my mother sternly telling me..."If a policeman stops you, don't you say a durn thing.(She never said damn, I think she made up the word durn to keep from cussing!) You keep your mouth closed and speak only if he asks you a question...don't give him no lip." She wasn't being mean, she was trying to keep me alive...So that I could live to see my hair turn gray! She did a good job and where-ever she is...I thank her every day of my life.

This was one of the things my mother said to me then that I listened to and obeyed...Cops stopped me and I offered no resistance....They searched me and I didn't say a word unless they asked me  something and then I was on my way most of the time... A couple of times they took me "for a ride" to some far away neighborhood and dropped me off and then I had to make it back home the best way I could...(This was for repeatedly violating the curfew) but that only happened twice...One of my cousins , who is eight years my senior told me that that happened to him also... And he hadn't violated the curfew!!So it wasn't a new thing...This was just life for a black male in Philly or pick a city USA!  It seems so foreign to some people though!

I don't know of any white person my age or younger whose parents had to have that talk with them... You know why? Because the Trayvons and the Oscars don't look like them...They tend to look more like me...They aren't going to be stopped and asked what they are doing anywhere...But I still might!

They aren't going to be profiled....But I might!!! And you can best believe if they are accidentally shot in the back by a cop.....That cop is going to do more than 11 months in prison....That's all Oscar's killer got...11 months...

Go see this movie....It's beautifully acted by Michael B. Jordan...'Wallace " for those of you who used to watch "The Wire" on HBO.. new comer, Melonie Diaz and Oscar winner, Octavia Spencer from" The Help"

Gatsby

I don't know what the critics...(The real movie critics) are going to say about this movie...They may cut it up, savage it.....but me...I have mixed emotions about it.

Yesterday ,My wife and I went to see "The Great Gatsby" in the movies with Leonardo Di Caprio and Tobey McGuire...I vaguely remember reading the book in college for an English class and having a spirited debate /discussion about the themes F.Scott Fitzgerald was trying to convey which basically is...You can remake yourself all you want, but you can't escape your past or who you really are... The movie worked okay for me...The music was kind of off putting...(Jay -Z scored the movie..) Hearing Hip Hop in the 20's felt kind of weird!

But, you know what I say...To each his/her own...I gave it a three out of a possible five.
Yes....This was actually in the movie! Go figure!

Saturday 7 (Seven last films I saw and my thoughts on them...)

1. Flight

 

Great story, good ending....Bad Denzel is always more interesting than good and noble Denzel.This might potentially win him another Oscar. At any rate , he should at least get a nomination.

2.Skyfall

What can I say? It's Bond, James Bond...Loved the action photography...and the fact that the story didn't try to re-invent the wheel...It stayed true to the franchise.


3. Alex Cross

Great action move. A surprisingly good showing for Tyler Perry...Sorry this film didn't do better at the box office than it did...(and no...Madea did not show up in a cameo!)



4. (HBO's) The Girl

Okay...This wasn't in the theatre...but I only said...Movies...didn't specify theatrical or cable release.... As a fan of Hitchcock's movies...I no doubt was drawn to this for it's salaciousness....I admit it...Very well acted.

5.Think Like a Man

Probably the most fun I had at a movie this year....Of course it was a dat night movie that I attended with my wife and a few friends... It lead to many great and honest conversations about relationships.

6. The Dark Knight Rises

I actually went to see this, one day after the tragedy in Colorado.....Great movie...It's Batman afterall...My favorite superhero.... I attended the day after the tragedy to make a statement and that statement was that the crazies are not going to control my life or stop me from living.


7.Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

One of the best murder mysteries I've seen in a good while... Once again, Daniel Craig puts in good work in a film...

Weekend Update- Red Hook Summer

My wife and I went to see Spike Lee's new joint- "Red Hook Summer" Friday night...I can remember when a new Spike Lee movie was a major event...Now not so much anymore...This film was a tad long and took too long to get to the point,but when it did..it really did knock you for a loop! Worth seeing!

Fans of  "The Wire" will of course recognize the great Clarke Peters  (Detective Lester Freemon) in the title role as Bishop Enoch and Isiah "Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet" Whitlock as ironically enough a detective and James Ramsone "Zoogi" from season two in small roles.

If you've been to almost all Spike Lee movies , as I have...you might recognize actress Camilla Johns (Nola Darling) from his very first film..."She's Gotta Have it." in the mix and some great newcomers like Nate Parker...

Like I said...Worth a watch!

Sparkle Memories

I didn't see the original "Sparkle" when it was released in 1976.  I  probably am the only person in my neighborhood or should I say of my age bracket and race that did not. It was one of those movies that everybody in the neighborhood said they were going to see.

It was definitely a "date" movie....Every guy that had a girl knew that his girl wanted to see it and was saving up his coins and making sure his car was gassed so that he could take her.
At 18 and fresh out of high school..I had no car...I had no drivers license at the time...But I did have coin...The money from so many well wishers at my graduation gave me more than enough money and with money came confidence.

There was a girl I wanted to take who we'll call Stacy....We had been secretly meeting over at the 55th Street projects, Kissing and promising each other a letter when I went away to college....And of course we both knew that we were lying.   She had at least another year of high school to do and I would be miles away in college.

Anyway, we agreed to go to see Sparkle...She'd be ready at an agreed time...We'd catch the Bus, then the El and attend the showing downtown... Yes we were going on a date in which we'd be riding the bus...Unheard of now....Unthinkable now.....In fact, it happened in the movie I viewed with Whitney Houston and Jordan Sparks with my wife this weekend and I had to chuckle.

Before we could go on our date....Stacy called me and said that her grandmother had passed away....I was stunned...I gave my condolences and all and felt genuinely sad for her...I had known Ms. Flossie for quite some time.

So that's why I didn't go to see Sparkle in 1976....But Stacy went!!!!  She went with an older guy who had a car!!!  Oh and Ms. Flossie?? She looked pretty good for a dead woman, coming out of the STATE STORE with a fifth!!!   Guess she really wanted to be with spirits closer to home!

II-

So fast forward to the present.....I'm married now and have a car and drove my wife to see "Sparkle" with Whitney Houston and Jordan Sparks.....Ms. Flossie really is dead now....Has been dead for close to 16 years! Stacy?? I don't know what became of her....Shame on her for telling such a lie....And the guy who took her to see Sparkle owns a towing company.....

The movie was great....Derek Luke, Cee Lo Green, Mike Epps and Carmen Ejongo were fantastic....My hat is tipped to Producers T.D. Jakes and director, Salim Akil.

It was a little sad to see Whitney Houston on the screen....She died months ago and never got to see her film released.....I won't talk about plot, storyline and nuance...You have to go see it....But I will say that in one scene where Whitney Houston sings..."His Eye is on the Sparrow."...There wasn't a dry eye in the house.

Today...I'm going to see if I can find the original Sparkle on DVD and catch up on what I missed in 1976.

That Exit door

Okay, so yesterday, in light of the tragedy in Aurora ,Colorado....I went to see The Dark Knight Rises...I decided that I was not going to let the bad guys win...I was not going to let this simple bastard, this nobody who decided that he needed attention so bad that he just through regard for human life to the wind...win.

I was not going to allow James Egan Holmes to destroy my joy , to keep me from enjoying life.  I was going to see "The Dark Knight Rises"..Damn him! I said...

After all this is Philadelphia...Philly right? Not Aurora, Colorado...This isn't going to go down here...This wouldn't go down here!...Right?  I'm sure that's exactly what those people in Aurora ,Colorado thought too!

So I bought some hot buttered popcorn and some goobers , a hot dog and a coke.. I'm sitting on the end seat, next row to the back...(.Just in case something does start...I can drop ,roll and hit the door fast)....And then, the previews begin...

I should note that I'm by myself...My wife is not into superhero action flicks like I am, so I was solo on this trip. So the previews are done and the movie begins...Like everybody else...I'm glued to the screen, into the story....and then...about twenty minutes into the film....the exit door, up by the screen swings open!!!!!!

Everybody gasped!  I said -"AWWWWW sh(rhymes with it!)" ,then...........then.......nothing!  There was no one there...Must have been the wind.....or some smart alec who thought this might be funny. The attendant immediately slammed the door shut!

People everywhere breathed a sigh of relief and looked at each other with that uneasy look one has ,when one has been embarrassed....We all smiled and chuckled amongst ourselves ,while secretly checking our underwear.

Then Anne Hathaway as the Catwoman appeared on the screen and we all quieted down and got back into the movie.....

After all...this is Philadelphia...That couldn't happen here!!!.....Nahhhh!!!

Why I might not be too Enthusiastic About Seeing Another Tyler Perry Movie!

Madea's Witness Protection opened yesterday in area theatres. My wife , who loves Tyler Perry and everything Tyler Perryesque is interested in seeing this movie...Which means that I...being the good husband that I, will be taking her to see this movie....Probably sometime tonight.

To date...I have seen every Tyler Perry movie released.... And I have nothing against the man...Nothing at all. I applaud his talent...writing, producing, directing and acting in movies and plays and executive producing, what is it, three television series?? That's quite a feat for anyone, Black or White....

I understand why my wife and every black female I know loves him and is so fiercely loyal to him too...His stories speak to them in a way that no other black film-maker has ever spoken to black women.  That's cool.

But people act a damn fool at his movies....and here in is why I am not enthusiastic about going to yet another opening of another Tyler Perry movie.  First off...When his movies opens...All of the church folks load up their vans and bring scores of women (and their hapless husbands) to the movie complex...Thus there are limited parking spaces!

At the concession stands...There is a line of women gossiping and laughing and holding up the line.....Same thing with the bathroom.....You can't get in (to the men's room ) because the women have the exit blocked to it because of the line leading to the ladies room.

And last but not least...some MEN act strange at these movies too! Did you know that I almost got in a fight at one of Tyler Perry's movies...  It was "Why Did I Get Married?"  I was at it to see my home girl, Jill Scott
in her first major movie role...I went to get popcorn....(Only time I could get it was after the movie started!Go figure!)

The theatre was nearly crowded to capacity....There was three seats left in our row...Me, my wife and this guy appeared to race for the space...My wife got one seat, the guy got the seat next to her and I was left with the seat on the end.   I politely asked the man if he would take the end seat so that I could sit next to my wife.  A reasonable request.  He said "NO".   Can you believe this?  I was incredulous.....I lost it......

"MANNNN, get up out of that seat." I yelled..

He looked at me and calmly said "NO."

At this point, I was livid....but my wife, having the cooler head and wanting to see the movie...got up and ushered me and her to another row, where we found two seats together...All the while I kept giving this guy the side eye and wanting to slap the @%&^ out of him.

In all fairness, that never happened again...but all of the other stuff, crowded parking lots, concession stands and restrooms continues....Pray for me tonight!   (I'm kidding!)

RED TAILS

I went to see George Lucas (Producer of Star Wars  ,for those of you living under a rock) movie , "Red Tails" with my wife and daughter last night...It's a 2 hour action film that was done very well...This is not the first time a film has been done about the Tuskegee Airmen...There was another film that featured Laurence Fishburne, Andre Braugher ,Malcolm Jamal Warner and incidentally, like this one... Cuba Gooding Jr..


Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard were the best known actors in this movie, but the actors playing the fighter pilots are outstanding.Newcomer Nate Parker as Captain Marty "Easy" Julian is a restrained trained pilot, while David Oyelowo plays the talented, difficult Joe "Lightning" Little. (My favorite charactor in the movie for various reasons.)


In 1941, the black airmen trained at Tuskegee Institute broke the racial barrier. The pilots and ground crew were determined to contradict a 1925 Army War College study that concluded blacks were "mentally inferior and not as courageous as the white man."

They proved their worth when the 332nd Fighter Group, with its red-tailed airplanes, was assigned to protect U.S. bomber groups attacking Germany. They brought the vast majority home safely.

In one of the finer scenes in "Red Tails," a group of black pilots walking past the Officers Club in Italy are called back by a white officer.Black officers were not allowed in the "Officers" club back then. Reluctantly they turn around to face what they believe will be an attack.

Instead, the officer wants to thank them -- he's a bomber pilot and the Red Tails had brought him and his 10-man crew back alive. He invites them into the club, introduces them to the startled, hostile white airmen as their saviors, and all the pilots, black and white, end up drinking together.

There's a discussion between white and black pilots of the different labels that African-Americans have been given. As one white pilot says, "We call you colored." A pilot shoots back, "We prefer Negro."

In a more telling moment in the same scene...an Airman played by singer Ne Yo says to a white officer...."When yall get mad, yall turn red...When you're jealous you turn green with envy...and when you're afraid...you turn yellow and yall call us
colored!" The white officer has to laugh..It is perhaps the funniest and yet realest moment in the film in that it demonstrates humanity, a commonality if you will.

The love story between one of the Black airmen and an Italian girl who he marries begs the question of what would've happened to them after the war. Would he be able to take her home to America? Would he come back for her? The film answers the immediate question, but not the larger one. Of course, we know the answer to that!


I don't want to spoil it by giving away anymore of the movie...but you should go to see it...The buzz on Facebook and Twitter is encouraging...Hopefully This movie will help George Lucas at least break even on his investment.

Dessert Flower

I love independent cinema. I love Black independent cinema even more. Here in Philadelphia, we have a chain of theatres called simply "The RITZ"...Their slogan used to be -"Movies to talk about." At one of these movie houses you can see a movie filmed in The U.K. , Ireland, Japan, France,Spain or elsewhere in the world.

Prior to what the average American moviegoer thinks...Good movies are made outside of this country. If you don't mind english sub-titles sometimes..and you get into the actual story being told..You are in for a great time at the cinema.

There are also some great films made here in the U.S.A. on a shoestring budget that aren't backed by a major studio that wound up getting shown to limited audiences. Ever wonder why you never heard of a movie like "The King's Speech" that won big at the Oscars? It's because you didn't check out independent cinema at movie houses like the Ritz!

Oh...and the popcorn is the best in the city...bar none...You can taste the butter melting on it.

II-

Now for the real reason I wrote this post.....There is an independent movie out that is getting a lot of early buzz on Facebook, Twitter and other websites called 'Dessert Flower' that I want to pull your coat tails to...It probably will wind up in a movie house like the Ritz and in limited theatre openings across the country.

Based on the book of the same name, Desert Flower is at its core a story of courage and hope and one woman's journey. This biopic examines the life of Waris Dirie (played by supermodel Liya Kebede), a Somalian woman who at the age of 13 fled her home before her impending marriage and ultimately became a world-renowned model. The film touches on the sensitive issue of genital mutilation, which Dirie experienced at the age of 3, and the woman's fight to eradicate the horrifying procedure.

Despite the subject matter at it's core...This film and the upcoming "Mooslum" with Evan Ross are two independent Black films that are worth your while to see. Desert Flower is currently playing in select U.S. cities. Go see it and I hope the popcorn in your venue is as good as I know the popcorn is going to be at THE RITZ!

Love Jones 4 "Love Jones"

In the 90's when my wife and I were in our late twenties or early thirties...We went out with two other couples on a date night. We went to see "Love Jones" It was a cool little movie that had Larenz Tate, Isiah Washington (who you ladies all remember from the first few seasons of Grey's
Anatomy.)

I loved the movie...At first I thought we were seeing a "chick flick" and us poor men folk were just going along to get along...I'm certain the other two guys thought so too...but in the end..We all loved the movie equally. This was during the era when Spike Lee , not Tyler Perry was putting Blacks on the big screen and making us look good too. This was a little before John Singleton's Boyz in Da Hood" and F.Gary Gray and the others. Like I said, It was the early 90's.

As I recall, we liked the movie so much that when we left the theatre..We all walked to the record store and bought the soundtrack to the movie on CD...It had a great Neo Soul soundtrack that fit the times and our mood. It's still to this day, one of my favorite movies.

Set in Chicago, Darius Lovehall (played by Larenz Tate) is a young black poet who starts dating Nina Moseley (played by Nia Long), a beautiful and talented photographer. While trying to figure out if they've got a "love thing" or are just "kicking it," they hang out with their friends, talking about love and sex. Then Nina tests the strength of Darius' feelings and sets a chain of romantic complications into motion.

Remember that? Well, I hear that Tyler Perry is one of the directors who is thinking of remaking this gem of a film. Why has Hollywood always got to remake something? There is a total of 50 remakes either already released or in rotation to be released...What? Have they run out of original ideas or are they just scared to risk failure by trying something different that we haven't seen?

Before some of my male readers get all postal at the thought of Tyler Perry being the director...remember, I said that this is all just a rumor for now. I personally think he could do a good job with the material, as long as someone else wrote it....This is not an attack on Tyler. I respect the man's hustle and for all of my fellow bloggers and readers who criticize the man for breathing sometimes ,I would like to lay something on you-

What other Black man or woman for that matter has their own studio...Has complete creative freedom to write, direct,produce and compose music for their own projects as well as hire Black and minority personel ? Come on...Tell me who? Not Spike Lee, Not John Singleton, Not any other Black filmmaker. They all have to go hat and hand and beg the big studios for money. To his credit, Tyler and Oprah have bankrolled a couple of projects by other directors, such as Philly's own Lee Daniels, Director of Oscar winner, "Precious"

But, I digress...If the original screenwriter of "Love Jones" writes it...Why not let Tyler Perry direct it? This type of movie would be right up his alley. Then again, this is just my opinion.. I don't even know if the rumor is true that he's going to be the one.

However,Love Jones is near and dear to the hearts of a generation of African Americans, like myself and a few who were a little younger who were starved for relatable movies when it came out. If it is done again...I'll use the words of a friend of mine- "It better be done right."

The Night Catches Us

I'm not getting soft or backing down from the continuing political debate, but it is close to Christmas and I don't necessarily feel like bashing republicans and right wing politicians right up to the end of the year...So as you may have noticed..my past few posts have been on well softer things like family , music ,people and what have you.

A couple of weeks ago ,I was enjoying one of my favorite past times other than reading or writing and that is, cinema. I love movies. I love independent movies the best and here in Philadelphia, we have three movie houses called the Ritz that shows independent movies from around the world and from American film-makers also. Since I won't be going to the Sundance film festival anytime soon,I go to the Ritz and enjoy my own private Sundance festival here.

I was actually there to see Clint Eastwood's film "Hereafter" with Matt Damon . While I was waiting to see that film , the best part of the movie experience caught my attention. You know what that is.. The coming attractions! During the previews, a little movie caught my attention. A movie called " Night Catches Us" by an unknown Black female director named Tanya Hamilton.
(I discovered a then unknown Black director named Spike Lee in the same way many years before.)

You know of course that being a Philadelphian...I like all things Philly. The movie was filmed here
and it starred two actors from my favorite television show of all time,' The Wire' Wendell Peirce ( Detective"Bunk " Moreland) and Jamie Hector -(Drug Kingpin, "Marlo Stansfield) Those two , a Philadelphia back drop and a banging score by Philly's own premiere hip-hop /funk band the Roots was certainly enough to tweak my interest and make me say-"I'm gonna see that when it comes out."

Film director Tanya Hamilton isn't a household name yet, but the craftsmanship of her new film, "Night Catches Us", should certainly make her one. The film takes a complicated look at the Black Panther Party in 1976 and examines how the political organization and the black power movement affected the intimate relationships of the people involved in it. The relationship central to the narrative is between Marcus and Patricia, played brilliantly by critically acclaimed actors Anthony Mackie( "Million Dollar Baby" , "The Hurt Locker") and Kerry Washington. (Who played Ray Charles wife in "Ray")

Tanya Hamilton's film is based on the true story of a family friend, Carol Lawson-Green, who helped raise her. Lawson-Green went to prison for a year after she organized a protest at the White House following the Selma march and "Bloody Sunday." Hamilton was always interested in how these events shaped Lawson-Green's life, for better or worse.

To me , this film loosely seems based on the 1969 murder (In Chicago) of Black Panther, Fred Hampton, but you have to see it and judge that for yourself. As is the problem with a lot of independent Black films, they are released with very little fanfare and in few venues....My wife and I drove around the day this film was released and could not find the theatre it was supposed to be released in. As luck would have it....It was being shown on Cable -(ON DEMAND)....the same day it was released in the movies.(I've never heard of that happening before.)

We went home and for an additional $4.99 to my cable bill, I was able to see a great movie and hear an incredible soulful soundtrack. If you get a chance....whether you live in Philadelphia or not...Go see this film...It is well worth your while.

Saturday Seven (7 Movies I Can Watch Over & Over)

1. High Noon: This is one of my favorite westerns. I so identify with poor Gary Cooper as the sherif, who has to defend the town against the bad guys alone. Everyone else had left and I've felt like him so many times in my life.

2. Chinatown: You don't really know Jack until you've seen Jack Nicholson in this modern film noir classic.

3. North By Northwest: I always fancied myself as the black Cary Grant. Cary was great in this great action and suspense flick, which featured one of the first great chase scenes.



4. The Omen: The original, released in 1976, still scares the crap out of me whenever I watch it. All of that crazy singing... that nasty little boy... the animals at the zoo freaking out (they knew the devil was there, even if the stupid humans didn't). It's still one of the scariest films I ever saw.

5. Shaft: "Who's the black private dick who's a sex machine to all the chicks? Shaft! Ya damn right! Can you dig it?" When it was released in 1971, I was still a little too young to see it. I finally saw it for the first time when I was about 27 years old. I rented it and it's become one of my favorite films.

6. The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly: This was my introduction to Clint Eastwood and I've been a fan ever since. This movie is another one of my favorite westerns.

7. There's Something About Mary: This has gotta be one of the funniest movies I've ever seen! I've only seen this movie once, believe it or not... but I can't remember laughing ever so hard during an entire movie.

There are many more movies than this that I can watch over and over, but these are the seven that come to mind off of the top of my head.

Random Thoughts

1. I keep threatening to go on a blog break and just read... (other peoples' blogs and about four novels I purchased this summer).

2. I'm going to read, but I know I'll get an idea for one (or now all three) of my blogs and be at it again.

3. I picked up Zane's new novel "The Hot Box" and "Known to Evil " by Walter Mosley. I'm going to start reading one next week.

4. I don't believe in reposts. I like to keep my blogs fresh.

5. I'm curious about Twitter and starting to get bored with Facebook.

6. A lot of talented bloggers inspired and helped me out when I got in the blogging game. I just hope that I've lived up to their example of excellence.

7. Is it just me or was anybody else confused at the ending of the movie "Inception"?

8. Is the art of subtlety all but dead in music, art, writing, and media in general?

9. I've written a lot of long form fiction and short stories for my "Escapades" blog, but I really want to concentrate on and get back to my poetry!

10. I'm blessed that a lot of my favorite bloggers are also my friends on Facebook!