“Boo-Ya” When Matty Rich’s Straight Out of Brooklyn was released the same day as Jungle Fever, the petulant little leader of the Black New Wave struck out at his inexperience, unwillingness to go to film school, and manipulability in dealing with his studio. When Lee saw John Singleton’s Boyz ‘N’ the Hood, he nodded, congratulated …
It bothers me when people get ticked off at Spike Lee’s public persona, because I think that he does himself and his work a disservice by falling into the same trap that he so presciently warned the world of in what I think to be the best made and most important movie of the last …
“My grandpa asked me once if I care if I lived or died. Yeah I do. And now it’s too late.” I am white. I have also often accused by more than a few people of having so much of a reverence for black community and culture that I really wanted to be black. Their …
Sam Jackson seems to be more than willing to show up for any movie where there is a crew of at least three people, but he seemed to make a special effort to let people know how cool he thought Fresh was. Fresh is a tale of innocence lost and revenge gained, with an unreal …
Boyz ‘N’ the Hood had Ice Cube in it, but Dr. Dre kicks his beats all over the druggy hypnotized world of Deep Cover. I remember seeing the trailers for this movie and thinking it was just some low budget thing a studio had in the can for a while and thought it could toss …
“The royal penis is clean your highness.” This movie’s legacy has been filled with so much controversy that somewhere along the way the film’s magnificent heart and hilarious charm have been almost forgotten and ignored. Coming To America is of course most famously remembered for Art Buchwald’s lawsuit, which claimed authorship of the movie’s story. …
“I thought you were one of the smart ones but you ain’t so you have to go.” Remember back in the day when it felt like every black made movie had to have some important message about the state of race in America. As if, young black directors were amazed that they were getting …
The first time I heard Sweat From My Balls . . .” If there was any universal lesson about pop culture and the twentieth century, I suppose it should have been to never underestimate the ability of the next generation to extend the boundaries of noise, venom, and world threatening bad taste. When I …
“Hey Be-at-tle!” Help! is one of those movies that can go either way on you. If after about twenty or so minutes you aren’t impressed with its almost divine silliness, you should go ahead and abort. You’re not ready to see it yet. The movie has often been criticized for under using its greatest natural …
“Let’s assume for a moment that you are a dishonest man.” Maybe the most warped movie of all time. Madness incarnate. The Producers brings up to me a wonderfully philosophical question. Should we remember the Nazis as a fierily effective evil group of people, Should we gasp with terror at the mere mention of their …
Tim referring to what turns out to be a rabbit: Follow. But! Follow only if ye be men of valor, for the entrance to this cave is guarded by a creature so foul, so cruel that no man yet has fought with it and lived! Bones of full fifty men lie strewn about its lair. …
How do you evaluate a satire of a trend that has disappeared from consciousness. There were a ton of really bad Airport movies in the ‘70s. I chalk it up to something in the water that led to a decade of weirdness that culminated in Ricardo Montalban, a midget, and Fantasy Island, but do you …
Inigo: Who are you? Man in black: No one of consequence. Inigo: I must know. Man in black: Get used to disappointment. Spinal Tap play dungeons and dragons. When Christopher Guest and Rob Reiner worked together on This Is Spinal Tap most of the dialogue was said to have been improvised. The Princess Bride although …
“There’s probably beer here somewhere.” Released to mass hysteria, 1983’s Strange Brew symbolically let go thousands of moths in movie theaters all across the world, jarring loose the stagnating concussion of the modern cinematic age, or then again, maybe not. Strange Brew is my own personal Mendoza line of stupidity, which means I give them …
I remember how controversial the whole Bart Simpson ‘Proud to be an underachiever’ thing was, and then all of sudden there was Beavis and Butthead and no one ever mentioned it again. Bart Simpson was sort of mischievously wily, happily under read, and benign. The B twins were willfully and gleefully stupid, barely literate, and …
