Reviews

First let me say ... I am an Eddie Murphy fan. I think he's a comic genius. And that's why I was so surprised to see him star in and even write such a low level and offensive comedy.

The first few minutes of the film started out with a little promise, but it didn't take long for the film to fall to such a low level that I cringed from early in until the movie was over. And even though I watched to nearly the end, I demanded my money back. It's only the second time I've ever done that, and I'm an avid film goer.

What was so offensive? I don't know where to begin. Most obviously, every "fat" gag in the book was used. Eddie Murphy plays an overweight woman who is ugly and evil, and every nasty thing you can think to say about her is said. To make it worse, the leading lady is Thandie Newton who is extremely thin, which only goes to further emphasize the other extreme.

Maybe Eddie Murphy thought he could get away with this because he shows, in The Nutty Professor, how an overweight man can "get the girl". But, really, that just shows the extreme double standard that remains when it comes to overweight men versus women.

Now, I'm a realist, and I know that the double standard is not Eddie Murphy's fault. Still, he plays on it here in such a nasty way that it offended me, an open minded, in-shape male. And for those who argue that it's the character's attitude and not her weight that made her "the bad guy", then why make her fat in the first place. And why have so many nasty fat jokes.

The movie was offensive on other levels too. The racial humor wasn't funny. There are some lines with attempts at humor that really go too far. Many of you who have seen it will understand what I mean. And those who haven't, I hope you don't support this film out of curiosity. Please, wait for cable. There is nothing in this that you can't wait to see.

I heard that it was Eddie Murphy's brother who came up with this idea. If EM did this as a favor to his brother, he could have done his brother, and himself a bigger favor by bringing Charlie in on a better project and tossing this script.

On the one positive note: Eddie Murphy does put his all into these characters as always. His job as Norbit gets lost in the low class, low level "comedy". Even though I just saw the film, I had to really remember that his performance as Norbit was decent. All I can think about is how offended I was, and how thoroughly depressed an overweight woman sitting at the end of my row looked throughout most of the film (she left before I did).

Real quick ...

I meant to write this review after seeing the movie during the first week. But, it looks like many of you feel the same as me, so I'll add my two cents and make it quick.

The film is very good, and it makes you feel good to see it. Jennifer Hudson did Jennifer Hoilday proud. (She just won the Golden Globe for it. Well deserved.) Eddie Murphy is fantastic as James "Thunder" Early. I couldn't help but to be reminded of his James Brown imitations on SNL (and of his song "My Girl Wants to Pary All The Time"). He continues to show how talented he is. Even though he's not a singer, his performance is spot on for the film.

Beyonce wasn't bad. Her acting was a little flat at times, but she shined when she was on stage, as always. She's not an actress, but she held her own. Still, she got lost sometimes with Jennifer and Eddie doing such stand-out jobs.

I wasn't sure how the play would translate to film. I saw the play, and I greatly enjoyed the film.

It's difficult to give a clear judgement on this film. There are some things that are almost brilliant about it, while other things were absolutely terrible. This is often the side effect of a writer/director who can either write and can't direct, or direct and not write. The latter is the case for this film.

Bryan Barber is a name to watch ... as a director. He may be one of the few video director who has come on the scene and proved that he can be a very good, and even outstanding director for films. As a director he was very creative and smart (forgiving the few shots that were "borrowed" directly from other directors), and he made a lot of choices that really work well.

As a writer, the story was simple and underdeveloped. The characters were one dimensional and bland. The action lacked any sort of motivation at all. In fact, it was only the fact that the members of Outkast have presence on the screen that gave me any reason to care about anything going on in the "story".

I am a writer, and I have friends who are screenwriters. Normally, I won't give a film with a story this weak much of a grade at all. Story is everything. But Barber did such a good job as a first time director, that he actually made his poor script watchable. He's lucky that it was a musical because that gave him enough elements to work with outside of the dismal/cliché dialogue.

If anyone who knows Barber is reading this, tell him to find a good script. There are people out there with good material just waiting to screw it up by directing it themselves. Maybe they can save each other. With a good script, Barber could be one of the best young directors out there. I can't wait to see!

Okay, I said that I would try to comment more on short films, so here's another one that I thought stood out. And like another film I commented on, it was the writing that made this one work.

Most of this film is us looking at a television screen as a young man watches a tape of his father sending him a message from prison. I won't say too much about what's going on with the young man at the time, but we see right away that the message came a little too late.

The monologue by Gregory Alan Williams (Pops) was well written, and his performance delivered it in a real and effective way. Some of the other parts of the film were a little contrived and not as well thought out than the message, but I think it was all really just to show us the importance of being timely with such a message and to give us some visual drama to surround the monologue. And the monologue is so well done, that the film is worth seeing for that.

I don't normally comment on short films. (Though I may do it more often.) I try to make comments that matter, and honestly, it's too difficult to find a way to see short films even if you hear about them. But maybe enough comments will help to change that.

I just got back from the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, and I have a lot of film on which to comment, but I had to make one of them this gem of a short film, Hit Me. Here's why ...

First, it's a full film! It's only 25 minutes long or so, but it's a full interesting story with suspense and intrigue. It's really like a miniature feature.

There are mainly two characters, and it could have been a boring talking-heads-film like you see in many shorts with two characters and a lot of dialogue, but it's not. The main character hires a hit-man to kill himself, and then finds himself trapped in a bathroom with the hit-man on the other side of the door. But the man wants to live now. Compelling, right? It really is.

What makes it work is that the writing is not what you often times see in these festival films. It's neither amateurish and cliché, nor pseudo-intellectual and trite. It's smart and real, and the performances are very good. The actors are both professionals and they both do a great job delivering this story and their emotions.

I saw this film twice. I saw it on Friday with a group of shorts and then went to see it again with another group of shorts two days later. The main reason I saw it again is because there is this little piece of wisdom at the end that I wanted to hear again. I jotted it down and looked it up online just to see if it was taking from somewhere else. It's not. Like the rest of the film, it's original. This is just really good and well thought out writing. I know that the writer and the director said they are trying to raise money to do the feature, or a similar feature. I hope they get it. They both did a good job. The director got great performances from the cast and really made this film flow as good as a full budget feature.

This is one of the best shorts I've seen at a festival in a long time.

Amazing! I just got back from the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles. I keep saying I'm going to try to give more comments on good Indy films because they need the support. From my comment history you can see that I've tried here and there. This year I'll try harder, and PAFF provided a lot of great reason to do so this year. Now, back to the comment.

Amazing! This film is touching and powerful, and it owes most of that to one of the great performances I've seen in a film in recent years. Presley Chweneyagae plays a young thug (Tsotsi), who discovers a baby in the back of car he jacked. Now this may sound like something we've seen before, with a grouch or criminal finding his more sensitive side through a baby, but it's not. For one, the setting is very different, and it adds a new and interesting culture to the story. Also, our main character is much more full and complex than the run of the mill American counterpart we normally get in this story. Even if everything goes just how you expect, this journey is worth taking with this cast in this setting.

Now, I do have to say that there is an obvious omission of some of the causes that would allow an intelligent and obviously big hearted "thug" to be in the situation he is in life. Of course, having seen the writer and heard him speak, I'm not surprised. There's still a long way to go for the oppressed in South Africa, and, like always, the oppressors' unwillingness to face their wrong doing will make things take that much longer. But I digress ...

Even with the omission, and any predictability, this film will touch you deeply. The lead actor's performance is so true and so heartfelt that it will certainly connect with the human spirit in anyone. I haven't seen a performance this powerful in some time. It's De Niro in Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. It's Denzel in Glory and Hurricane. I don't believe that the Academy saw this film and appreciated it enough to nominate it for best foreign film, but didn't nominate this young actor for best actor. I've seen the nominated performances, and they were all very good, but this young man in this role blows them away, in my opinion. This is a special performance. And I can only guess that it's because he's a new and unknown foreign actor that his performance has been overlooked in all of the main ceremonies around the world. But, I promise you, my assessment in not an exaggeration. This performance is one for the ages. I just hope he's recognized in some way other than an anonymous voice on IMDb.

See the film. I give it a 9 ... with a 10 performance.

I'm really late in commenting on this film. I saw it at the Pan African Film Festival a few years back. It had a profound effect on me, and I wanted to run to IMDb to tell the world, but life got in the way.

I'm preparing to fly out to the festival again this year, and I happened to see this film on IFC. The short synopsis on the site should be enough to peak interest, so I'll just say that it's worth every minute. Rarely do I see a film where the performances are so good that I actually shake as I watch the characters go through their trials. I was with them every step of the way. And the subject matter is deep and dark, but the film still has a lot of light, and even humor.

Chiwetel Ejiofor has proved to be a top notch actor again and again, but this film was the first time I saw him in such a significant role. He owned it. After seeing him, so one else could have done it.

Audrey Tautou also gave a heartfelt performance. Her eyes tell so much, and I felt her heartache as well.

The story is very well told. My only issue with the film is not with the film itself, but with the marketing. First, I thought it should have been marketed to a wider audience in the US. Most people have never heard of this gem. Secondly, it was marketed as a thriller, and I think that gave the wrong idea to some. It's not a thriller in the traditional sense. There is no big action or unrealistic twists. Instead, it uncovers a human tragedy that is more devastating and complex than most thrillers approach.

It's a great film. And, I tend to judge films by how they affect me, so this one gets a ten.

First, let me say, this film is very funny. It had the potential to be one of the great comedies in recent times. But it also had it's shortcomings that for me, and I'm sure for others, were too much to overlook.

Now, I am not over sensitive and I can take a joke. But, did anyone else feel that the black stereotypes were overdone, and the amount of them was overkill, especially considering that there was only one significant black character? I mean, it was fine after the first hit ... even the second and third. The movie poked it's fun at everyone. But the black stereotypes just kept coming, and they weren't funny.

Every other character in the film was new and hilarious. The writing for them was fresh and funny. But when it came to the black character it got very stereotypical. The actor who played the role did a very good job with the material he was given. But I'm sure, at times, he had to feel like the other guys got to be funny and have new material, and he was just there to be a platform for all of the same "black jokes" the writers wanted to get away with.

Again, I wanted to let it go. The film was so funny in other parts, and even had more of a story than I expected. But they just laid it on too thick by the end. There was one scene, near the end, where the black guy was selling a stereo to a black customer. It wasn't funny. It added nothing to the story. It was just two black guys being stereotypical using the "n" word in an argument for no apparent reason. The scene was gratuitous and out of place, and it was the last straw for me.

Hollywood either needs to bring in black writers for these characters, or the white writers need to dig a little deeper. Their work would be much funnier, deeper, more dramatic ... just much better if they took the time to look past the caricatures that they see in other films and on television. Talk to some black people for goodness sakes. If not, don't write for "black people". Just write for human beings. (Black actors can handle those roles too.) Or if you want to use racial humor, be creative and give these characters the same depth and thought that you give your other characters. You know? {END OF RANT}

Despite these things, the movie was funny. I can't recommend it because I'm tired of seeing the previously stated issues in films. So, I'm not looking to send it support. So, yes, if you see it you will laugh. But you'll laugh just as much if you see it on cable.

Also, if you're thinking about bringing your kids, don't. There is much more adult humor in it then I expected, even for the subject matter. That's just a heads up for parents.

I can't begin to say how great this film is, and how much it meant to me. I'm not a big fan of some of Mario Van Peebles' work, so to me, this is by far his best job, acting and directing. He captured the power and the struggle of fighting for a dream/vision, and he made the audience take the journey with him. In fact, this film renewed by interest in the original "Sweetback ..." and made me appreciate the original film to a much greater degree. I saw this film on it's opening weekend, and I pre-ordered it as soon as I found out it was coming to DVD.

Essentially, Mario plays Melvin (his father) while he was creating the independent film classic, 'Sweet Sweetback's Baad Asssss Song'. We watch as Van Peebles struggles with family, "the man" and his own personal demons to complete a film that, by all industry models, should not have been made. It was black, sexual, political, and there was barely enough money to get it off the ground. But Van Peebles was a bad mother{watch your mouth}, and he was determined to make it anyway.

If you are a filmmaker, put this film in your "must see" list. If you are struggling to build a business, follow a path less traveled, or go for any dream that seems almost out of reach, this film is also a must see for you. And, if you just want to see the power of passion, and see what a person can do on too little budget with too little time when all he has to make up for the deficit is his heart, see this film! (That last comment was about Mario, but it is also apropos for Melvin, the subject of this film).

There is nudity and strong language in the film. I mention that because I wouldn't want to send anyone to a film that might offend them without forewarning. That said, see this film!

Looking through Van Elders films and their ratings, I can only believe that he's asks family and friends to get on the site and rate everything a 10. These ratings are not deserved. I've seen the films.

First, let me say that I root for Van Elder to do well. He is obviously dedicated to making films. I was at a screening for this film, and he, with the help of his crew, took what they had available and persevered through the sometimes arduous process of making a film. The shame of it all is that they went through all of this hard work, as films require, and ended up with an amateurish, barely watchable, mess.

To say that the writing was bad would be like saying that Jeffrey Dahmer was troubled or that Al Qaeda is mischievous. There were all of three funny lines in this "comedy" and each one was stolen from other films. Elders should have realized that his audience might have seen films such as 'Fear of a Black Hat' and would already be familiar with the comedy of Chris Rock. It's deplorable to out and out steal comedic lines without giving them credit. Beyond that, the story was as predictable as the sun rising, though not nearly as entertaining. There was no real story thread, and the only character arc was for a snotty secondary character who no one cared about. Then, like many amateur writers, Elders tried to tie everything up in a neat bow by forcing an ending. Of course by that point, I just wanted the credits to roll.

The only positive thing I have to say about the film is that the performances of the two male leads were decent. Laz Alonso must truly be a funny comedic actor, because even with the witless lines he was given, his personality grabbed a couple of laughs that were not at all a result of the writing.

Van Elder is not a writer. If he is a filmmaker, I hope he recognizes his shortcomings and searches for a good script to make. He seemed quite proud of this film at the screening, but someone needs to tell him the truth. He will never be a successful filmmaker starting with scripts like this one.