Change Your Image
dslcobra
Reviews
The Man (1972)
What would Obama Do?
For some reason - reasons I could probably imagine - "The Man" seems to have been buried and covered up as if it never existed. I'd heard about this movie but rarely saw anyone talk about it, never saw it released on DVD or VHS and never saw it on TV despite the fact Obama won the presidency in 2008 and the film has relevance in his regard.
"THE MAN" is a TV show based on a novel of the same name written by Irving Wallace. The film, made in the early 70's, hypothesizes the racism and conspiracy that might possibly result from a clash between a Black man inevitably becoming President of the USA, and White Supremacism attempting to derail him.
Since, back then, writers probably didn't believe it was likely a Black president would be elected by majority vote, the premise involves a Black man becoming president through succession. The President and the Speaker of the House are killed in a building collapse in Germany, and the Vice President is too ill to fulfill the duties, the position falls into the lap of the seemingly ineffectual Douglas Dillman (James Earl Jones), president pro tempore of the Senate (and who's own party affiliation is never mentioned).
Dillman finds himself at first, having to find his voice and having to rise above the Whites in the cabinet who attempt to undermine him and talk over his head attempting to be "powers behind the throne".
In finding his own voice, the Whites surrounding him begin to fear him and seek to ensure he doesn't get too serious about his position and seek a real re-election.
Next, he finds himself in a clash between Black activists such as his own daughter (Janet MacLachlan) and the scrutiny of society when he must resist extraditing a Black American who attempted to assassinate a Apartheid South African White official.
This is where I will end my explanation because I don't want to give spoilers.
I find it so ironic that every pre-Obama film about a Black POTUS has so accurately depicted the racial discourse that would follow. This film takes place during apartheid and Black militant civil rights activism (not many years after the Assassinations of both Malcolm and MLK) but, the exact same issues are being dealt with today which is why Obama attempts to steer clear of issues such as the "Gates Arrest", "Rev Wright's church" and other so called "black issues".
Not to mention that less than 8 minutes into the movie one of the displeased White officials mentions "I know 6 states that will probably attempt to secede from the union over this man's appointment".
Even in Chris Rock's comedy "Head of State", it wasn't an hour before he's linked to The Nation of Islam.
Apparently, with all of these Black POTUS, its impossible for a Black man to be president without being impartial or linked to some radical faction.
Fortunately for Dillman, he didn't have to deal with the 244/7 news beast or the non existent Internet allowing false information and fear about his presidency to be easily propagated.
THE MAN is an interesting film and Jones does a standup job as always of being a dynamic actor. I'm glad I got a copy of the film and I'm going to copy it for friends who've never seen it. (and probably won't since the media is bottling it up)
Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Dickesode (2006)
One of the best ATHF episodes ever
Aqua Teen Hunger force is an acquired taste.
It requires you to turn off the part of your brain that deals with logic and accept crude/repetitive and absurd jokes. Its not on the same satirical level as South Park or Family guy, but it has its place among the stoners in our community.
In this episode "dickesode", Carl wins a prize on a slurpee cup where he will "get his dick ripped off" by two assailants working for "Mr Wongburger". It is revealed that Mr Wongburger, is himself, a giant penis...his assailants are testes extolling the behavior of old stereotypical Chinese/Japanese caricatures.
The word "dick" is used more than 50 times in this 15 minute episode and that's not even counting the extended moments of silence. Its similar to south Park's "shit" episode in this manner, but on some level, it manages to be funnier despite its absolute absurdity.
Although some selectively sensitive viewers will be disgusted by the racial caricatures and the excessive use of the word "dick", its still funny and according to the demographics rating it, its most popular with older audiences.
Exosquad (1993)
One of the best epic space sagas ever
To call Exosquad a "cartoon" is unfair. This saga is absolutely brilliant with its parrallels to the reality of war, racism, prejudice, ethnic cleansing, and the brutalities of totalitarianism.
In Exosquad, a race of artificialy created humanoids -bred for slavery - revolt against natural humans in order to exterminate them and take their own place as the rightful rulers of the Sol system.
In the outer reaches of the solar system, are the Space Pirates who were prisoners forced to mine the outer planet's moons for raw materials for building spacecraft. A group of violent, angry people bent on revenge against the people of earth.
In the middle are humans, who make up the populous of Earth, Venus and the space Navy, The Exosquad. Besides commanding a large force of battleships, they are trained for heavy weapons - including E-Frames - powered armor battle suits that increase the destructive power of individual soldiers.
While the plot sounds like the run of the mill anime, the show is given a distinctive American feeling by a cast of western actors, as well as a distinctive sense of realism and authenticity by graphic violence and actual death of characters as well as other brutalities of war such as forced labor, starvation, summary executions and stories of resistance, betrayal and honor.
This show goes well beyond the average cartoon and despite its watercolor animations, the high quality artwork and voice acting ranks Exosquad right up there with other space sagas such as Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica.
This show was highly enjoyable and I rate it a perfect 10.
My only disappointment is that the show was unfinished. The episode "Beyond Chaos" begins an incomplete story arc that would have been better left concluded in the episode "Fall of the Neosapien empire". In many ways, this left me disappointed - like the final episode of Space: Above & Beyond but, if you can overlook "Beyond Chaos", the rest of the series is unfortgettable and brilliant.
Babylon 5: In the Beginning (1998)
EXCELLENT made for TV Sci-Fi movie
"In the Beginning" is a mark of brilliance...a perfect made for TV movie for the Babylon 5 series. It is the best of the B5 movies with the second being the pilot episode.
ITB chronicles the genesis of the Earth Minbari war which was a holy war started by misunderstanding between Humans and a powerful alien race called the Minbari. In the struggle, a huge chunk of humanity is killed as the Minbari march towards Earth, destroying human colonies on the way.
Since this movie comes near the end of the 3rd season and out of chronological order, it answers many unanswered questions that B5 watchers would expect to be answered from the 1st Season onwards.
On its own, the story is PERFECT. There is plenty of CGI war scenes, plenty of dramatized war scenes and plenty of intrigue. A perfect reason to bother getting into the series itself if you weren't a fan.
Prison Heat (1993)
What happens to Women in Prison?
The first time I saw Prison Heat, it was on Cinemax back in 1997. It originally came out in 1993 along with "Chained Heat" and "Chained Heat 2" (there must have been some sort of fetish about women in prison?).
Anyway, "Prison Heat" is about some young women travelling across foreign boarders near turkey who are framed for drug possession and put in one of these foreign prisons. Unknown to them is the fact that the prisons are flesh traders and selling hot young women into sex slavery/harems/etc.
The story follows Rebecca Chambers and Lori Joe Hendrix's characters closest. Rebecca is the tough, more mature woman while poor little Lori Joe with her massive breasts, small waste and girlish - innocence becomes the target of the Prison Warden Saladin. Saladin starts by giving her the eye and then proceeds to molest her (in one of the most erotic sexual assault scenes I've seen on film).
This type of film must fall into some sort of rape fetish category because in addition to Saladin, little Lori Joe is targeted by prison lesbians too.
Once the girls figure out that they are about to be trafficked, they must hatch an elaborate plot to escape the prison.
The story isn't bad actually and the film is watchable. If you like this type of film, its an *instant classic* but many of you, understandably will not be interested or sexually aroused by a rape fetish flick.
Tokyo Eyes (1998)
Booooring
This is probably my least favorite Kitano Movie. The film is centered around a sociopath who uses a modified gun to scare criminals and "mean people" by shooting off center at them. He is pursued by a young girl who believes that he's not a bad person - just misunderstood. The movie is a story designed specifically for Japanese or for those who are culturally inclined towards Japanese media. Everything about the movie from the street scenes to the underlying comedy relief reeks with Japanese influence. If you want to see what life is like as a Japanese person, it is a good movie, other than that its boring to all but the most open-minded of foreign love story lovers.