Cinema Views of the Word NetPaper...Cinema Views...Cinema Views of the Word NetPaper...Cinema Views...Cinema Views...Cinema Views of the Word NetPaper...Cinema Views of the Word NetPaper...Cinema Views...Cinema Views...Cinema Views of the Word NetPaper

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--30--

“Hitch”

-- A Word NetPaper Film Review by Film Critic Kevin J. Walker

Cinema Views by Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic

https://cinemaviews.tripod.com/hitch.htm

“Hitch” Is A Hoot With Will Smith Conquering World Of Romantic Comedies

by Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic

Have a party you want crashed? Send a note to Out and About at P. O. Box 1324-53201, or email walkernet@excite dot com, or walkerworld_2000@yahoo.com --kjw

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--30--

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“Any man can sweep any woman off her feet. All he needs is the right broom. That’s where I come in.”
“A man with no game and no guile gets no girl” -- Words of wisdom from Alex Hitchins, aka “the Date Doctor”

This is a much better date movie than what she’d picked for us the week before. I mean, “Hotel Rwanda” is a bit of a downer. “This is going to affect me for a whole month!” she hissed, passing me the bucket of popcorn she’d lost her interest in. I guess that a Siege Movie about Tutsi-Hutu genocide by machete based on real world events isn’t a Valentine boost, even if it up for multiple Academy Awards.

The actor who once starred as “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” on NBC after a successful career of Rap Lite for suburbanites with songs such as “Parents Just Don’t Understand” with partner DJ Jazzy Jeff is now referred to as “Mr. 4th of July” after his very lucrative films that open during the cherished holiday weekend since “Independence Day.”

The bad news about Big Willie’s streak was released a day or two afterwards: Will Smith’s string of consecutive $45 million film debuts was broken. Due to misreporting errors by Columbia Pictures, “Hitch” did not in fact top $45,000,000. It only made a tad bit over $43 mil. Well, Boo-Hoo!

Smith has transmuted himself from teen films and even a starring role as a gay hustler that foreshadowed his dramatic skills and even plays a part in this film -- more on this later-- into one of the newest members of the Action Adventure genre inhabited by a very few such as the grand ol man Ar-nold and newer ones such as The Rock, former “XXX” star Vin Diesel, and now his successor in that role Ice Cube in the sequel “XXX: State of the Union.”

“Hitch” is about a man they call “the Date Doctor,” Alex Hitchins, who has taken the message of the made for TV film “How To Pick Up Girls,” which was an actual bestselling book in the 1970s about a loveless guy who discovers the formula for getting through to the infuriatingly complex (and too often illogical and contradictory) female species. But I digress.

The movie starts off with Hitch narrating straight to us beyond the theatrical Fourth Wall, much like Viveca Fox in “Two Can Play That Game” but unlike that hilarious film co-starring Morris Chestnut, the man Hollywood women have dubbed “the Black Clark Gable,” this is not carried throughout the film. But for getting us started it’s a good way in getting us up to speed and keeping the movie moving although it’s longer than most comedies, romantic or otherwise, which often wear their welcome out after 90 minutes.

The movie is sweet in its inexorability, and the formula that these movies are based on doesn’t detract from its appeal in the least. That’s how they became formulas and genres in the first place because nothing succeeds like success. “Hitch” has several knee-slapping, laugh-out-loud moments, and the crowd reaction is something that aids viewing. Certainly the couple, especially the lady who sat one row up and a little over at the Marcus Northtown Cinemas in Milwaukee were enjoying themselves, and her laughter and reactions was infectious!

“A man with no game and no guile gets no girl” says Hitch in his narration, sounding much like another consultant played by LL Cool J in “Deliver Us From Eva” with Gabrielle Union, herself a staple of the Romantic Comedy genre as the modern incarnation of Kate Hepburn. (A list of similar films, and some dissimilar ones follows this review). This narration helps to capsulize his philosophy for us, combined with a one-time flashback to the naive young man he was, and the incident that launched him into his career.

This makes it cinematic kin to Bruce Willis’ film about a former fat, stuttering outcast with a pronounced overbite, who becomes a remake specialist with a comfortable life until his past self shows up on his front step. Both men remake themselves into sophisticated, suave men of the world; wiser but more cynical, with the idealism of their youth tempered by a harsh reality.

It is this quality that makes “Hitch” more than the Date Film that its being sold as, coming out as it did in time for the Valentine observance.

Hitch makes opportunities for the clumsy and loveless, to give Cupid some help in his freelance consultancy business. A delightful subplot is one of his special cases, a smitten man played by Kevin James who is hopelessly in love with an unreachable woman.

“Allegra Cole?! The socialite, the one always in the news? Boy, you really shoot for the Moon, don’t you?” Hitch asks the short, clumsy, rotund and not especially well-off Albert Brennerman. Still, as a personal challenge he takes the case as a way of demonstrating just to himself that his credo is strong and his skills genuine.

“Any man can sweep any woman off her feet. All he needs is the right broom. That’s where I come in” says Alex Hitchins, aka “the Date Doctor.” Some people have criticized the movie as being unrealistic. These are mostly women unwilling to admit that they are so pliable and we have to resort to schemes to get past their defenses, as pointed out by Hitch to a detractor.

“I give guys a chance. I give hope to the hope-less. Would you have even noticed he was alive otherwise?”

I know from personal experience that unlikely pairings can happen. The women of my dreams from high school and college became reality; later, women that I only watched on TV screens became my girls. One TV anchor had a millionaire boyfriend who treated her with disdain; she ended up with me after he dissed her one time too many. So I know for a fact that the lessons of “Hitch” are true. Us guys know the deal. As Hitch says “life isn’t how many breaths you take, It’s the moments that take your breath away.”

Alex Hitchins employs sensible real world psychological observations in his work, and you could see the nods around the theatre. His hunting grounds are the clubs and dating environs of Manhattan, NYC. These club scenes and the rituals we see dissected and presented are like scientists looking at an ant farm, where the Sheeple go about their pre-ordained roles.

It helps that “Hitch” has the lovely and appealing and also familiar Eva Mendes from two Denzel movies “Training Day” and “Out of Time;” and with Michael Epps in “All About The Benjamins.” Mendes also played an undercover agent opposite Tyrese Gibson and Walker in “2 Fast 2 Furious.”

She has that enviable quality that eludes many stars; that she is liked by both sexes, is sexy and smart. Because she’s seen as a Smart Cookie, Black women don’t hate that she has starred mostly opposite Black men, although perhaps she’ll one day co-star with a Latino man.

Mendes is Sara Melas, a go-getter and cynical about love gossip columnist much like Kate Hudson in “How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days,” who stumbles onto the world of the Date Doctor while falling for Hitch, whom she doesn’t realize is one and the same. “Sometimes you can’t see the forest for the sleaze” she tells a still hopeful pal, Casey, a hopeless romantic.

This sets up the formulaic Confused/Hidden Identities Plotline that Brother Will Shakespeare used in some of his most popular comedies, although his plays are much more enjoyable when presented in their original Swahili.

Albert is Hitch’s Sistine Chapel ceiling, his masterpiece. Using his case and spreading it throughout the film gives us a break from the story of Hitch and Sara, and helps the movie move along even though it’s longer than most comedies.

Appealing and showing every bit the professionalism from years in the business is Sara’s editor Max, played by Elliot Gould. His effortless skill in an unsubstantial role added another of the little touches that made the film so enjoyable.

From the Screwball Comedies of the 1940s with Cary Grant, Kate Hepburn, Spencer Tracy and others, comedies combined with romance have been a cinematic staple that never goes out of style, it just adjusts and morphs into new forms. Witness the planned big screen film “The Honeymooners” out next year that will star Gabrielle Union and St. Louis’ Cedric the Entertainer as Ralph and Alice Cramden. This one will go straight to the moon!

“HITCH” is being shown at the Northtown theatres where you can enjoy a safe and enjoyable filmgoing experience, and is my primary theatre because of the stadium seating, an efficient no-nonsense management, security, and several screens with the latest hits as well as family fare so the Little Ones can be down the hall watching “Pooh’s Heffalump Adventure” and “Are We There Yet?” while you and your wifey or sweety can watch your mature-minded films. -- kjw

CAST OF “HITCH”

Andy Tennant directed the film from Columbia Pictures. It is rated PG-13 for some light sexual banter and situations, and an unnecessary yet easily excised use of the shortened form of the medieval order of Fornication Under Consent of the King.

Alex Hitchins -- Will Smith
Sara Melas -- Eva Mendes
Albert Brennerman -- Kevin James
Allegra Cole --
Casey -- Julianne
Max -- Elliot Gould

FILMS BY WILL SMITH, AND OTHERROMANTIC COMEDIES YOU MAY ENJOY:

< http://www.thebwp.com/wire > [hit “MovieReviews” link on the left hand side for some of these films]

“I, Robot”

“Independence Day”

“Ali”

“Made In America“

“Six Degrees Of Separation“

“Bad Boys“1 And 2

ROMANTIC COMEDIES:

“Made In America

“Cruel Intentions

“Kissing A Fool

“Best Man“

“The Brothers“

“How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days“ -- Kate Hudson is a magazine writer opposite Matt McConaughey in the old formula of a bet combined with confused identities.

TEEN ROMANTIC COMEDIES:

“10 Things I Hate About You

“She’s All That”

“American Pie”

LATINO FLAVOURED LOVE:

“The Wedding Planner“ -- Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey

“Meet The Fockers“ -- Robert DeNiro, Tea Leoni and Ben Stiller come back for this sequel with his Hippie parents played by Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand

SORTA, KINDA QUALIFIES AS ROMANTIC FILMS:

“28 Days Later” -- this horrific apocalyptic film about a disease devastated England features Naomie Harris and “Bend It Like Beckham” co-star as they try to survive with their made-up family of fellow refugees in a Hellish land infested with enraged ghouls, and not the slow, shambling type in the old “Night of the Living Dead” films. Their coming together under duress is believable, and rather sweet in a film that has little decent moments.

“Are We There Yet?” with Ice Cube and his four-time co-star Nia Long from “Friday” and “Boyz N The Hood.” Cube transports her two brats from Portland to Vancouver, and has misadventures all the way.

“Malibu’s Most Wanted“ -- This Salt and Pepper and rap flavored romantic comedy co-stars “Son of the Mask’s” Jamie Kennedy as a suburban who identifies too strongly with lower strata African Americans, which imperils the prospects of his politically ambitious dad. A duo is charged with “Deprogramming” him, and the superbly talented “Scary Movie” actress as his love interest.

“After The Sunset“ -- Pierce Brosnan and Woody Harrelson star in a strange sort of Buddy/Heist/Salt and Pepper romantic film which co-stars the gorgeous scenery of the Bahamas.

A retired jewel thief and the weary FBI agent who never caught him tangle in the islands. Also co-stars luscious Latina Salma Hayek, who’s thickened back up a little bit from her debut as the Snake Vampiress in “From Dusk ‘Til Dawn” (she’s Arab-Mexican -- yes, they have those, thank the Gods!) and Oscar nominated Don Cheadle as the villain. Naomie Harris, the machete-wielding heroine from “28 Days Later” [itself another strange romance film, see above] is a police officer pursued by the amorous Harrelson.

“After The Sunset” features the Gay subtext that is featured in so many of these, such as the antics seen not only in “Hitch” but the “Lethal Weapons” series that will see many DVD owning Sodomites freeze-framing and replaying certain scenes. As a matter of fact, let’s segue into a few of those, shall we? I don’t particularly care for homos, but the films are certainly funny:

“Three Of Hearts“ -- this is a true gay-themed romantic film with Kelly Lynch as a Lesbian being challenged by a man for the attentions of her girl, a bisexual honey-pie.

“The Birdcage” -- Robin Williams and Nathan Lane star with Gene Hackman and Callista Flockhart that is an Americanized remake of the French farce of the 1980s. Williams and Lane are partners who have to pass as regular guys when their “son” has to meet the parents. Lane plays the girl part. Hackman is one of the homeliest drag queens that ever existed in a hilarious scene in a movie that has lots of them.

“Chasing Amy“ -- a qualifying Gay themed romantic comedy about a smitten straight guy chasing Amy, who’s a Lesbian. Good luck! (Don’t ask me why).

OLD SCHOOL ROMANTIC COMEDIES

“Bringing Up Baby”

“Woman Of The Year”

The Front Page

Champagne For Caesar

Witness the planned big screen film “The Honeymooners” out next year that will star Gabrielle Union and St. Louis’ Cedric the Entertainer as Ralph and Alice Cramden. This one will go straight to the moon!

Cinema Views by Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic

From The Word NetPaper, Online News Service

< http://cinemaviews.tripod.com >

email us at: walkernet@ excite dot com

or Snail Mail to: P.O. Box 1324-53201

Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA

------

LINKS FOR PAST REVIEWS OF:

“GOTHIKA” -- HALLE BERRY SEES DEAD GIRLS;

“HAUNTED MANSION” --EDDY MURPHY SEES LOTS MORE;

"MATRIX: REVOLUTIONS;"

"KILL BILL VOL. 1"

PRE- "MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE" PREP

PAST DENZEL FILMS: "JOHN Q"

"TRAINING DAY" "HE GOT GAME" "ANTWON FISHER"

“OUT OF TIME”

https://cinemaviews.tripod.com/outoftime.html

VIDEOS, INCLUDING THE "BLACK LOVE COLLECTION"">

Send a note to P. O. Box 1324-53201, or email walkernet@excite dot com, or walkerworld_2000@yahoo dot com --kjw

websites:

Movies:

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Travel:

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Politics:

Science:

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--30--

“CATWOMAN”

CINEMA VIEWS With Film Critic Kevin J. Walker

kevin j. walker p.o. box 1324-53201

milwaukee, wisconsin usa

emails: thewordnetpaper@excite

thewordnetpaper@excite

"CATWOMAN”

Grrrl Power is at the center of a sometimes heavy-handed, not to speak of ham handed. "Catwoman," which despite other critics raking their claws over it is an enjoyable movie, although much less than purrrfect, and it used up a few of a nine lives getting to the point.

Like a cat it takes its time getting around to a predicable plotline, and the next installment in what the makers hope is a franchise had better get on the stick, else they'll ends up like Van Diesel's aborted "XXX" series, which is going to another African Descended star while Diesel builds up "The Chronicles of Riddick" Sci Fi series he executive produces.

Oscar winner Halle Berry almost made a "Monsters Hair Ball" of a film because High Camp is hard to sustain even when done properly. The exaggerated switching by Berry in her sprayed-on catsuit looked about to dislocate her hips as she sashayed across the rooftops of the unnamed metropolis.

Her character, much like Michelle Pfeiffer's in "Batman Returns" gets a feline persona after a near-death experience. Pfeiffer's Catwoman lay in an alley getting licked and nuzzled by strays, while Berry, much like Jack Nicholson in "Batman," lay immersed in putrid toxic wastes and emerged more than a little unhinged.

Both are mousy corporate types, being put upon by their male superiors. Pfeiffer was abused by Christopher Walken, Berry here is verbally and emotionally abused by her boss. If he looks familiar but you just can't place him, he was the epicurean Merovingian rogue program in the last two "Matrix" films.

Berry's character is Patience Phillips, a graphics artist for a top cosmetics firm in their art department, much like her role in "Boomerang" with Eddie Murphy and bad girl and ex-Mike Tyson wife Robin Givens.

"Catwoman" has a mixture of the psychological and the sorcery mumbo-jumbo about it, with explanations of the Egyptian goddess Bast, apparently one of the early cat fanciers whose spirit oozes into Berry’s character, making her one of a series of Catwomen over the years. Now those are ideas for prequels, like The Mummy” films, going back to the beginning and so forth, or a Depression-era Catwoman, or one fighting against the Nazis.

Maybe it’s the dog in me, but I found "Catwoman" a little heavy on the feminine side. This is aided in no small part by Sharon stone, who is one of the modern icons of feminine sexual power. She's an older woman who is still undeniably sexy, and she's having a great time as one of the villains of the movie.

As a baddie Stone gets some of the best lines, as when she responds to Detective Tom Lone, played by Benjamin Bratt who tells her "you don't want to do that."

"I'm a woman. I'm used to doing all sorts of things I don't want to do."

Bratt and Berry engage in the same sort of playground battle courtship seen between Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner between their characters of Daredevil and Electra. After the timid Patience takes him to the hoop a few times during recess at his moonlighting as a volunteer at an urban tutoring program, he becomes enamoured and intrigued by the change in this woman, and her new Nnena Phelon hairdo.

Her new attitude starts to assert itself as when she tells off her supervisor after first apologizing profusely when she drags into work after an eventful night.

"OK, here's the remix" she says, her pleasant Patience demeanor now gone and a snarling vixen in her place. "I'm sorry -- for every second I wasted working for an untalented egotistical ingrate like you!!," she hissed.

"Catwoman" is like Spiderman or Daredevil, that is, not quite a hero in the minds of the greater public or the authorities. But at least those Anti-Superheroes didn't rip off a jewelry store. "Time to accessorize" she tells her familiar Midnight, a rare Egyptian Mau cat, as she races off on a stolen expensive motorcycle.

The larger plot entails corporate malfeasance and potentially dangerous products from the cosmetic industry where she works in the art department. The danger in some reviewers -- as opposed to we bona fide film critics-- trying to capsulate a movie with scant facts is when some reported that Berry's quest was to free/avenge animals, especially cats, being used in research by corporate labs.

No such drama here. This is mostly a simple tale about revenge, and fulfilling a legacy by accepting and adopting one's fate. The action sequences are adequate, and Berry's skills as a former Broadway dancer are like Catherine Zeta Jones in "Entrapment," well used as she perches on her furniture, or walks along the back of her sofa as her feline qualities come to the fore.

She has mutant powers like Spider Man, but unlike Batman who only has a twisted rage against the criminals who killed his parents before his eyes. Catwoman has superfast reflexes, and eerie senses of balance, sight and hearing. She gets in some licks too -- Bratt's cop character knows that fo' sho after they do battle much like Pfeiffer and OG Batman Michael Keaton.

And she has some snappy comebacks and quips of her own. "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" as she uses her diamond encrusted claws to yank on the tongue of a villain whose chest she perches on. (She fashioned the claws from some of the loot from the jewelry heist).

In a noisy thumping singles bar where no one looks particularly askance at her leatherette Dominatrix getup, complete with whip and five inch Hoe-Heels, she tells the bartender her order. "White Russian. Hold the vodka, hold the water." "Here ya go -- milk, straight up" as he serves her. She does a number on several cans of tuna as well, and rolls a ball of catnip around her face, which is sorta like marijuana for cats.

These things while amusing aren't enough for today's action adventure fan, who is used to Big Things happening. Or they can be small things intelligently and creatively presented, like many foreign films. These shortcomings don't doom movie, but it used up valuable time instead of getting to the point and the action!

Berry's skills as an Academy Award Winner are evident in "Catwoman," especially when combined in scenes with Stone, a nominee for "Casino." There are echoes seen of Berry's "Gothika" when her Catwoman alter ego comes to the fore replacing the timid Patience Phillips. Her features change, even her voice pattern.

Playing psychologically challenged characters has always been a great way for masters of the acting game to show what they're workin' with, such as Cliff Robertson in "Charly" or Joan Crawford in "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?"

Berry has been a Bad Girl before, but the American public has its choices as American Sweethearts such as Sandra Bullock and Renee Zelwegger, who can do no wrong. Berry was even a crack hoe paired with Samuel Jackson's 'Gator in Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever." She was killed outright in " The Last Boy Scout" after hiring Bruce Willis to protect her, after she run afoul of a wealthy NFL owner she was trying to game while going with one of the Wayans.

Stone is at her most diabolical since the feminine intrigue French remade "Diabolique," and her star as a schemer was set when she appeared as the lone woman in a roomful of interrogating policemen in "Basic Instinct," which is being set for a sequel as we speak. Or read.

She tells her wimpy creeping husband "Stop taking Viagra like they're vitamins, and dating youngsters who were born when they invented the cell phone. In short, George, be a man!!"

There are echoes of "Death Becomes Her," the Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn science fantasy vehicle about the search for timeless beauty. Here it’s a skin cream, in that weird movie about looks and immortality it was an ancient Egyptian preparation that rolled back the clock. --kjw

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/the_511/MOVIES

http://geocities.com/cinemaviews

http://geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/cinema_views

-----------------

Remember to patronize the Northtown Cinemas at 7440 North 76th street, two blocks north of Good Hope road in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Most major film releases can be seen there in comfort with their new stadium style seating, and now with the thuggish elements banished to other area theatres, wholesome family films are back, such as "Are We There Yet?" and others. --kjw

The Word NetPaper http://geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/cinema_views

kevin j. walker p.o. box 1324-53201 milwaukee, wisconsin usa

emails: kevinwalker2005@lycos.com

thewordnetpaper@excite.com

--30--

"In this society you must have either money or power. If you have

either you are respected, if you have both you are feared, but if

you have neither then you are oppressed."

--Former Phila. Rep. William Gray, past head of the UNCF

CINEMA VIEWS With Film Critic Kevin J. Walker

kevin j. walker p.o. box 1324-53201

milwaukee, wisconsin usa (414) 454-9673

thewordnetpaper@excite

“I, ROBOT”

"I, ROBOT"
BLACK WEB PORTAL REVIEWS:
http://www.theBWP.com/wire,[CLICK ON "MOVIEREVIEWS"]

QUARANTINO’S “KILL BILL, VOL. I”
http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/the_511/MOVIES/killbill.html
KILL BILL VOL. 2

"NEVER DIE ALONE" WITH DMX AND DAVID ARQUETTE
">

Send a note to P. O. Box 1324-53201, or email walkernet@excite dot com, or walkerworld_2000@yahoo dot com --kjw

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--30--

https://cinemaviews.tripod.com/neverdiealone.html

"Your suicidal reign is now ended… please stay indoors after Curfew. We are trying to minimize human losses during this transition…" -- Rebellious robot to amazed humans

We can tell our grandchildren that there actually was a time when it was rare to see Black people in Sci-Fi, especially in depictions of the future as if, as the incisive Richard Pryor once said, as if we're not expected to be there.

Now, you can't turn on the Sci Fi Channel or see reruns of "Babylon 5", "Star Trek: Next Generations", "Deep Space Nine" or the other spin-offs such as the syndicated UPN Networks "Enterprise" without tripping over all the Black actors. Pryor himself ended up playing a computer cracker in "Superman III." It's getting to be like "No Whites Need Apply" when it comes to portraying aliens such as the Klingons on ST.

[There will soon be a future series of articles here on "The Brothers and Sistahs of Sci Fi," on the widespread presence of African Descended stars in science fiction such as the late stars Nathan Biggs Jr. the doctor of "Babylon Five;" and "Terminator" and "V" co-star Paul Winfield, considered by me to be one of the OGs of Sci Fi. We will also treat the incoming new crop of AD actors in SF such as Sonaa ("Blade") Lathan, of this summer's "Alien Vs. Predator"].

Now, one of the premiere summer SF actors scores big again, and as a veteran member of the Science Fiction club this is especially auspicious because this film genre and their very faithful fans are the gifts that keep on giving. Will Smith is back firmly in the saddle after his two turns as one of the "Men in Black" with Tommie Lee Jones. With Gene Hackman he was an "Enemy of the State," and a James-Bond cowboy with Kevin Kline in the most excellent Western Science Fiction hybrid that was "Wild, Wild West.

This time he carries the film alone, much like Eddie Murphy and Chrises Rock and Tucker until they were set free to fly or fall on their own. It’s a good outing, and "I Robot" holds true to the best science fiction, where the ideas and concepts are an integral part of the cinema presentation and not just action or special effects.

Smith stars as the lead investigator in what is essentially another version of the detective film, much like "Blade Runner," which involved androids. This is a murder mystery placed in the futuristic Chicago of 2035, but the victim and killers are so mixed up, twisted and caught up in the game that added with the usual gee-whiz technology of Sci Fi "I, Robot" is especially gratifying.

Smith is Chicago Detective Del Spooner, a man who has an antipathy towards the mechanical helpmates that are increasingly populating the world. You can see it on his face: a sneer of distaste, the habit he has of looking behind him when one is a bit too close to his personal space.

(It is delicious irony that the makers of the film choose a Black man to be the prejudiced one. During the interrogation, he yells at the reluctant robot suspect in a murder "answer me, Canner!" which we take to be an epithet against those of the mechanical persuasion. "I don't want to talk around that thing," Spooner tells Dr. Calvin, eyeing her NS-5 with suspicion.

"I think the truth is that you just don't like their kind, Lt. Spooner," comments Bruce Greenwood as US Robotics CEO Robertson. "But then, blind prejudice never needed a reason."

In the futuristic film "Gattaca," co-starring Uma Thurman of "Kill Bill," people are discriminated against by their lack of "good" disease- free genes. There is a scene where a Black man sitting behind a big desk is deciding on whether a young White man will get a chance at a better life as he extends a vial towards him for his blood sample).

It is just his luck that Detective Spooner with his long arm of the law, so to speak, comes across not just as the first cop to bust a robot for a murder case, but one that leads to a vast conspiracy for a takeover of Humanity. There's a problem on several levels here. As anyone who has read Isaac Asimov novels or watched Data on "Star Trek: Next Generations" knows, they are bound by the Three Laws of Robotics:

1) No Robot can harm a Human Being; or through inaction cause a Human Being to come to harm;

2) A Robot must obey any orders given to it by a Human Being, except where that would conflict with the First Law;

3) A Robot must protect its own existence, except where that might conflict with the First or Second Laws.

So how could any robot kill a human? And the authorities have another problem since technically under the law, only Humans can murder another human. So what is the rogue Nestor 5 supposed to be considered? A malfunctioning piece of merchandise, only subject to recall?

As Det. Spooner says when he's given a tour of an automated NS-5 facility with little human oversight "Robots building robots? Now that's just stupid!" Yet others see this as a natural progression: carbon based life builds metal, silicon based life. We enable them to replicate themselves, and thereby ensure our gradual extinction.

"One day they'll have dreams. One day they'll have secrets," says Dr. Lanning of what is called the Ghost In The Machine, or the idea that bits of pieces of code can, like DNA combine in new ways to form intelligence.

"Why do robots tend to cluster together in storage, or in darkness seek out the light?" he says of his robotic creations, with a hint of pride in the potential of his babies.

Dr. Lanning is considered a doddering old man, a respected scientist now past his prime who is nevertheless listened to and tolerated because of his accomplishments and glory in founding robotics for the masses. They should have listened to the old guy and his premise is that robots with their Positronic brains will one day evolve as we have, and not be under our control.

"I, Robot" keeps its eyes on the action prize, but it includes interesting points of law, and discussions on what is the Soul? What does it mean to be a Person? Indeed, with the abortion and stem cell controversies we are struggling with these concepts all the time.

But this is a summer Action Adventure movie, and there is the requisite lots of Stuff Blowin' Up, hairsbreadth escapes and so forth. There was even some interesting robot martial arts maneuvers that wowed audiences both times I saw the film.

Bridget Moynihan is Dr. Calvin, the robot psychologist who helps make them more personable to people and taken straight from Asimov's book, where her reminiscences formed the basis for the nine stories in "I, Robot" the book. The romance is kept on a back burner here, which is usual with male African Descended stars with Eurocentric co-stars, even with Denzel Washington such as in he and Julia Roberts "The Pelican Brief."

Spooner and Calvin engage in some repartee, and form a partnership against the conspiracy when even the naïve doctor sees something weird is going on, and the Three Laws are being willfully violated on the eve of the colossal rollout of the new NS-5s, where the ratio of robot to human beings will be one to five. More than enough for a Robotic Revolution.

"You’re the stupidist smart person I ever met!" Del says to Dr. Calvin of her naivete. When she runs her hand over his scars it is with clinical interest, but the ladies of the audience were into it. The director also made it a point to show Smith getting in and out of bed a few times clad only in black boxer briefs, and in the future high tech jet spray showers and showing that he has kept up his "Ali" physique.

But summer action movies can do without that stuff anyway. The key word here is Action.

Sonny -- he even has a name, one of the first requisites for personhood-- is presented to us a pleasant NS-5 prototype, and he has a childlike demeanor. But he manifests the same sort of immaturity blended with power seen in Ray Bradbury's short story "The Small Assassin" and Stephen King's "Pet Sematary;" and that Twilight Zone episode with Billy Mumy as the boy with godlike powers who whacks anybody he doesn't like. It doesn't help that the blue-eyed Sonny and his mechanical kin sound soothingly like "2001's" HAL the schemer and killer robot.

[Following this review is a short capsule listing of similar themes films with robot protagonists such as "RoboCop", "The Terminator" and so forth].

One of my most favourite scenes in "I, Robot" is when Humans revolt against their mechanical overlords in the streets, which is a violation of their new curfew. Molotov cocktails are hurled against the silver tide pressing the humans back, and bodies fly as the opposing masses meet, just as in the sword and sandals epics "Troy" and "King Arthur."

"The Crow" and "Dark City" director Alex Proyas is the director of "I, Robot," and he has the same feel shown here for gritty urban landscapes and the people who inhabit them. It also shows what the future would more likely appear, with some places futuristic and others grimy. Since when has there ever been any uniformity where humans are concerned? We have --or had-- supersonic Concordes and still widely used propeller planes; gleaming and sanitary office towers downtown within sight of heartbreaking slums with overhead power lines, as seen here.

Chi McBride as Capt. Bergin plays the usual gruff, shouting precinct superior that has become an archetype. The cigar chomping McBride appeared as a ghost in "The Frighteners" by director Peter Jackson who went onto fame with the towering "Lords of the Rings" trilogy. "Hoodlum" with Larry Fishboune." McBride, on TV in "Boston Public co-0starred in "Gone in 60 Seconds" as an old school car thief with Nicholas Cage; and two times with Bruce Willis in the films "Mercury Rising" and "The Kid." He's now being seen in "The Terminal" with Tom Hanks. He was in a controversial TV sitcom that was canned because it made light of the period of enslaved Africans, although it was more in the mold of "Benson," where the house slave McBride was really running the show.

Bridget Moynihan was the CIA Trainee opposite stars Al Pacino and Colin Farrell in "The Recruit," and her exotic beauty was also seen in "The sum of All Fears" with Affleck. She was also the wife of Mr. Big in HBOs "Sex and The City."

Allen Tudyck is the voice and spirit of Sonny, much like Andy Serkis of "13 Going on 30" was in "Lord Of The Rings," through computer graphics.

Bruce Greenwood as USR CEO Robertson has carved out quite a bit of Sci Fi and acting territory for himself of late. He was the US president in "X Men United;" and a terranaut in the most excellent "The Core."

Greenwood won me and quite a few fans from back in his good guy days when he played the central character in the paranoia conspiratorial UPN series "Nowhere Man," the best since "The Prisoner," and like himself a Canadian export. In addition to the President in X Men 2" he played JFK in "Thirteen Days." Greenwood has been playing mostly heels ever since, as opposite Ashley Judd as her scheming husband in "Double Jeopardy."

James Cromwell as Dr. Lanning lends his polished delivery to every role, as in the end of the world flick "Deep Impact" when he told Tea Leoni "you're a reporter, but you used to be a human being…" Ouch! Cromwell can do comedy bits too, as in his light depiction of eccentric Warp Drive creator Ephraim Cochran in "Star Trek: First Contact." Alfre Woodard of Oklahoma was Lily, his woman in the shattered remnants of North America after the Wars. He was the captain in "L.A Confidential" and the sensitive farmer in "Babe."

Shia LeBoeuf is a street hustler friend of Spooner was the kid seen in last year's "Holes." He has a bit part here as one of the street leaders who take on the metal usurpers

Some other critics have criticized "I, Robot" which can be done. But I also urge all to take wimpy and especially female reviewers of Action Adventure with a grain of salt. They almost universally pan flicks, which they denounce as "testosterone driven" tales. Well excuse me! Do we complain about your talky Chick Flicks? Don't get me started!

And it will have to wait for another time about just who is it who proclaims films "box office disappointments," and says good films are bad? "The Hulk", "Waterworld" and "The Core" were all films that made money for their makers and thrilled audiences, yet were stamped failures by ignorant writers who evidently don't know the business of movie distribution on a global basis where hotel, Pay TV, cable and in-flight films...

Never mind, I forgot myself. Breath deeply, count to ten, exhale. I'm okay now, I really am. We continue:

What cannot be said is that "I, Robot" is not entertaining and more than a little engrossing. That it doesn't break new ground isn't a cinematic sin. After all, how many movies have they made about Shakespeare's plays, where we know the entire plot and even the lines by heart after 400 years? Ignore the critics -- that's right, I said it!-- and go and see this film and be entertained by the story, the ideas, and the action. --kjw

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OTHER CYBERNETICS AND ROBOTICS FILM CONNECTIONS
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"A.I."
"BICENTENNIAL MAN"
"THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL"
"FORBIDDEN PLANET"
"LOST IN SPACE"
"MATRIX" TRILOGY
"ROBOCOP"
"TOBOR THE GREAT"
"TERMINATOR" SERIES
"2001"
"2010"
"Stepford Wives" [1974 and 2004]

Isaac Asimov, writing since the 1950s from his 3 basic Laws, was able to mine decades of stories from these simple and circular laws until his death at 72 years of age in the early 1990s. They are even integrated into his other collections such as the towering "Foundation" series, a sprawling "Future History" of humanity's push into Galactic Empire and collapse, based on a retelling of the Western Roman Empire and Dark Ages.

As in "The Matrix" and The Terminator" series "I, Robot" and others, our creations have decided that all would be better off if humans were relieved of control of the natural world, and freedoms curtailed because of our philosophical and moral immaturity.

This theme is also borne out in certain Alien takeover and Invasion movies because of the former idea that anybody scientifically advanced would be wiser. The last big movies to do this were "Close Encounters" and "ET," both by Stephen Spielberg. Since then, we no longer hold such naïve beliefs possibly because of immigration and the experience of World War II when Germany, one of the most technically and culturally advanced nations engaged in systematic genocide. Now the fear is that we may have close encounters with aliens races that are just like us humans. If that's so, then we haven't a prayer!

Space faring races are as likely to be seen as the locust-like planet destroying Gypsies in Will Smith's "Independence Day;" the lazy and insidious beamed-down versions of "Species" and "Virus;" bioweapons of an extinct race a billions years dead as seen in "Alien;" or the thrill seeking "Predators" who use our planet as their own game preserve and hunt us as sport. Of course, the last two are being combined like last year's "Freddy vs. Jason" in this August's "Alien Vs. Predator."

There is a similar underlying premise of menace in Asimov's work and others regarding robots, androids, clones and the like. It is the same echoed in "Star Wars," -- with a subset called "Clone Wars"-- and others such as the Butlerian Jihad against Artificial Intelligence in the late George Herbert's "Dune" series:

We are Hell-bent on creating our own replacements. We are Carbon-based life, and computers and robots are silicon, plastic and steel. We have the technology, and are using it to make them faster, better and smarter than we are. When they learn the only real trick we have to replicate themselves, of what use will we then be?

George Lucas echoes the same theme in his "Star Wars" collection: that organic life is a Caretaker Race whose only real purpose in the Universe's long view is to enable inorganic machine and computer life to become viable, after which our purpose has been served. This is why both Luke and his father Anakkin SkyWalker have robotic hands, and why Darth Vader is described by Obi-Wan Kenobi as "more machine now than man… "

The end of the original 9 part "Star Wars" epic reveals that the "scroll ups" at the beginning of each film is a Griot-like recount by the golden and garrulous C3PO, the last machine with knowledge of encounters with carbon-based life after we've long passed on and the machines are curious of their creators. That's why See-Threepio and R2D2 are in every movie. The prejudice shown in Part IV "A New Hope" to what are continually called "'droids" is a leftover from the Clone Wars and the more human appearing androids, of which Lando Calrissian has an illegal version on his far outpost of Cloud City.

There are some people who have a strong antipathy to modernity, and especially computers. Maybe they feel it more strongly than most of us, but the feeling is there that we may be on our way out, and by our own hand. Replaced by our creations in a mixture of hubris, and Dr. Frankenstein-ian comeuppance into a sort of self-genocide and obsolescence. All we have to do is remember the simmering brouhaha over the bogus Millenium switchover to think about the unease we have over our creations getting out of hand and backfiring on us.

ROBOTS AND CYBORGS AND COMPUTERS IN FILM

Here is a capsule listing of some films representative of the concepts above.

"A.I." -- this is a retelling of Pinocchio, with the little boy from "Sixth Sense" as a robot replacement for a child whose loss is felt deeply by the parents. The mother is more attached to him, and there are poignant moments as she drives him back to the factory. She relents -- somewhat-- then puts him out beside the road like an unwanted puppy or cat who's been soiling the carpet to fend for his own.

The Flesh Fairs were an interesting concept, where (racist?) anti-robot fanatics ritualistically "lynch" collections of robots their roving vigilante bands have caught while they celebrate the superiority of Carbon Based life, and flesh over metal. "AI" is an okay, but not by a whole lot.

"COLOSSUS, THE FORBIN PROJECT"

This early 1970s film was the personification of the sort of fear also made in "Terminator's" future SkyNet: we create a super brain that decides it could run things a whole lot better than soft squishy humanity.

"I was created to end the threat of war. This I have done" said Colossus from World Control in what used to be called the Cheyenne Mountain redoubt of NORAD.

"Colossus: The Forbin Project" is a very thoughtful movie with action, strategy, and they even inserted some love interest. (Note: although he's more famous now as a star of General Hospital, Dr. Forbin was a movie star who was also the scientist advocating genocide in "Planet of The Apes" to save humanity from subjugation. He lost in that movie too).

"2001", "2010" -- Arthur C. Clarke penned a short story called "The Sentinel" that became a book and then a Sci Fi classic in "2001: A Space Odyssey."

HAL became the archetype of the computer gone whacko, although the movie changes the book's premise by improving it. The Heuristic ALgorithm artificial Intelligence computer, like TV's beautiful Andromeda Ascendant is woven into the ship Discovery, sent to investigate the evidence of First Contact and was ordered to kill the crew to protect the mission.

But the change was better, the idea of a psychotic homicidal artificial intelligence, a New Age Frankenstein morality play when an intelligence is told to violate everything it knows to be right and goes insane in the process under the weight of his perfect logic.

HAL's pleasant voice is without emotional inflection, but menacing nonetheless in this exchange that was parodied by Richard Pryor in his comic routines, as the rebellious robot strands the last surviving member of the crew in space.

"Open up the pod bay doors, please HAL. HAL?"

"Sorry Dave, but I can't do that. You were going to deactivate me, and I cannot allow that to happen…"

[Hollywood Six Degrees of Separation: The original director of "AI" was the same director of "2001." The film was completed by Stephen Spielberg after his death. It probably wouldn't have helped the film, which wasn't imbued with enough oomph! to carry it through].

"BICENTENNIAL MAN" -- This is from another Asimov story in the "I Robot" collection, -- thankfully changed from the unwieldy title "Sesquicentennial Man" -- that also borrows little more than just the changed name and basic premise about a robot who wants to become a man. This is a trait it shares with Steven Spielberg's "AI," which was a retelling of the Italian tale of "Pinocchio," where a marionette wanted to be a boy.

What I really like about this movie that never really caught on is that it uses as its premise the 1800s Supreme Court's Dredd Scott decision, where it was essentially decided that the African Descended, whether Free or Slave, had no rights that Whites were bound to respect. The United States also made Slavery an inheritable condition, that even escaping to the North wouldn't cure. In short, recognition of their basic humanity was denied them by fiat.

One of my favourite scenes in "Bicentennial Man" is when the transformed Williams, who has had his case for human-hood thrown out of the World Court says humbly "One is always glad to be of service." This is the same thing that all robots were built to say to a human being.

Other critics don't get the inflection and the meanings of things like this, but we do. Just as in "The Phantom Menace" when little Anakkin the slave boy on Tatooine is called by his master "a credit to his race."

"THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL" -- Gort, the 9-foot tall ET silver robot is still one of the coolest creations in SF cinema. Robert Wise the director even had the pacing right, as the energy buildup is shown in his visor, then a pencil-thin light flashes out, picking out its targets, a few or a lot as they brighten then fade away into nothingness.

He plays the beam for an extended time over a tank as the crew wisely scampers out and away as it melts down into the baseball diamond where their saucer landed in the heart of Washington, D.C. None'a that "take me to your leader" mess, and trying to talk to hillbillies in rural areas or swamps, they headed right to the top!

I was inspired to try and write a screenplay for a updated version, where Gort would take on a whole military squadron wing and infantry unit upon landing, before being deactivated by Klaatu by the classic words:

"Gort! Klaatu borada nikto!

Although Gort was only a tall man in a rubber suit with silver paint, our young imaginations figured it was some kinda flexible alien rubber, sorta like Marvel Comic's "Iron Man." (That movie is under development now, by the way). Gort was completely silent, even when he was melting a tank to slag, and we had the impression that he was wiser and more powerful than we could ever know. Indeed, the short story version called "I Am The Master" revealed that Gort was large and in charge, which was why he sent Klaatu out to meet with humanity while he laid back. In 1950s America this was substantially changed, except for a brief mention by Klaatu to the assembled world leaders after he shut down all the planet's electrical grids, except for hospitals and airplanes in flight.

"The Day The Earth Stood Still" was filmed in Black and white but it's still a gripping tale today, which is what good storytelling does.

Note: the makers of the film tried to insert some reference to Earthly religion along with its anti-nuclear, anti-war theme, but again were mindful of 1950s censors in the age of McCarthyism. Thus, they had Michael Rennie's wise character of Klaatu call himself "Mr. Carpenter" when he went out in mufti among the humans, and he manifested other aspects of power such as healing and even Resurrection. The alien even spoke of the Supreme Spirit that his people followed.

Later, in a "Star Trek" episode about Apollo in "Who Mourns For Adonis?" NBC made William Shatner's Captain James Kirk change an utterance about "mankind has no need for gods anymore." The new one included "for us, the One is enough," but with a marked lack of enthusiasm for the line. Roddenberry told us in his revealing address at Marquette U. ( where he also showed the unaired pilot "The Cage," which was later recut into the only Star Trek two-parter) how the censors let slip the first interracial kiss between Lt. Uhuru and Kirk in the same episode. But I digress.

She was called an android, but the film "Eve of Destruction" with the late stars Lee Remick and Gregory Hines clearly show a robot, played by Remick in a double role as Eve's inventor, who like the girl in "Species" is roaming the city and indulging in whatever whim crosses her mind, from to bright red dresses and "c'mon and get it" pumps, to strange stranger sex in motel rooms. The problem is that Eve is powered by a mini-nuke plant which is linked to her unstable emotion chip. When she goes off, so will the nuke and thence the city!

"FORBIDDEN PLANET" -- Robby the robot became a staple for his kind in many films, including an opponent for the Robot in "Lost In Space" on TV. He could shoot electricity, and had encyclopedic knowledge of people and their likes.

One of the space Navy hucksters puts Robby to good use making some moonshine to sell to the parched troops sent to Altair IV to find out what happened to its settlers and researchers, including a professor and his winsome daughter played by a young and comely Connie Francis.

This is a retelling of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" with Robby as Caliban, with a little of the Farmer's Daughter tossed in. "We weren't doing anything daddy, just getting a little healthy stimulation from hugging and kissing," after the ship's Player tells the isolated lass, who only had Robby as a companion that this is accepted practice throughout the Earth Descended worlds.

Leslie Nielsen from "Scary Movie 3" and the "Naked Gun" series is the ship's captain from back when he was a Hollywood leading man. Really and truly!

"Forbidden Planet" was the first big budget Science Fiction movie to make a bunch of cash, and the floodgates were open for movies like "Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers" and "The Day The Earth Stood Still." It also paved the way for TV series like "Star Trek," so said Gene Roddenberry himself when he came to speak to us at Marquette University.

"LOST IN SPACE" -- called simply The Robot he was Will Robinson's companion, and a substitute brother and father figure since his real father was always so busy doing some project, and the Major constantly trying to get into Judy Robinson's panties, as in the TV series.

The Robot was a pleasantly utilitarian concoction, with a oval glass head, washtub body, and pincers. He had a broad platform with treads for getting around. In the film version he had more style, as did the Jupiter 2 that carried the science fictionalized version of Swiss Family Robinson on their journey to colonize another star system.

After a time/space jump (don't ask), they encounter a derelict rescue ship sent after them with a whole row of Robots, sleek and vastly upgraded designs. The insufferable Dr. Smith, played in the film by "Harry Potter 3: The Prisoner of Azkaban" Gary Oldham needles The Robot. "Well, aren't we the poor relation?" Punk.

"MATRIX" TRILOGY -- Agent Smith, a hunter program for the machine masters spoke of their philosophy to the captured human rebel leader Morpheus when Humanity's machines decided to revolt and imprisoned us in the Matrix, a computer generated dream world designed to keep our minds occupied while our electrical energy is being drained to feed their kind.

"Most organisms reach a kind of balance with their environment, you however, do not. You grow and grow until you completely consume it. Do you know what other organism does that, Morpheus? A virus. Humanity is a disease… and we are the cure."

They have their own Machine City, a place of pure logic and metal and plastic where there is no hint of organics. Robotic insects and their version of rat-like beings scurry about as seen when Neo, who is a mutant able to bridge the machine/cybernetic and human wolds, travels there in the concluding "Matrix" movie to bring an end to the conflict between them.

"ROBOCOP" -- Much like the underground movement where fans blended Alien versus Predator which led to the comic books and thence the movie, there is a similar series of comic called "Robocop Versus Terminator." In the books, the future SkyNet and its minions hail the Detroit cyborg crime fighter as their ancestral Big Poppa, and send emissaries back to convince him to come over to their Dark Side.

Murphy was a Detroit cop who was near death when the private corporation that contracts with the police department used him as a guinea pig to test a new concept -- declared brain dead cops made indestructible and placed on the mean streets of Motor City. Directed by "Starship Troopers'" Paul Verhoeven it has heart with all the action and was a critical and box office hit, spawning two sequels.

Note to Parents: be advised that only "RoboCop 3" with its young girl hero is appropriate for children, as the others are very bloody and violent. Verhoeven was a child in WWII and saw much gore, and he believes that we shouldn't be shielded from that reality and the evil that men do.

Strictly speaking, RoboCop and the Terminator are cyborgs -- cybernetic organisms, or ersatz humans with synthetic organic parts, but that's close enough for our purposes. We can't bend the rules for androids though, which are non mechanical beings with artificial organs, blood, brains and the like. Bishop or Ashe from the "Alien" movies are androids with their milky artificial blood.

"TERMINATOR" SERIES -- https://cinemaviews.tripod.com/terminator3 Before he was the Governator of California Arnold Schwarzenegger was the Terminator, a future hit man sent back to kill the leader of human future freedom fighters by killing his mother before he was even conceived! This is true SF, and critics pushed the original film to great heights while crowds were pleased by the plentiful action.

Because only organic material could be sent through the time machine, Skynet, the tyrannical supercomputer created to protect us from missile attack that instead took over humanity, sent back their most advanced unit to track down and kill Sarah Connor in her youth.

"It decided our fate in an instant" soon after SkyNet was switched on, said Reese the a freedom fighter sent back by John Connor to protect his mother from the Terminator.

Future versions had John Connor send his own captured and reprogrammed Terminator back to protect himself against a shape-shifting liquid metal Terminator in "Judgement Day," a retelling of "Shane;" and in the last one SkyNet sends back a female version to use her beauty and wiles to get the job done.

"TOBOR THE GREAT" -- This is true Old School, from the late 1950s. Tobor -- "Robot spelled backwards -- was a concoction of a scientist making a warrior for the Defense Dept., and like taking their daddy's car out for a spin a little boy takes the master remote and starts to make the robot do some stuff. Then he accidentally pushed the last button, the one marked "KILL."

When we were little guys watching this scene on the Saturday Afternoon Movies we always held our breath as the boy backed up behind Tobor's advance, pincers opening and closing while he pleaded with him to stop!. The minimal plot had some gangsters or spies trying to get the scientist to hand over the robot. Great movie for the real little kids.

OTHER NOTABLE ROBOTIC MOVIES

This is just a partial list, meant to show those films with robot intrigue or takeover. There are scores of others, comedies such as [///] and strange Computer Love, and others where the perfect man was crafted since we flesh and blood ones are so lacking. Of course, women came in for treatment too, as we've seen in "The Stepford Wives."

Sex seemed to be a problem where robots were concerned and men are in charge. Roddenberry told us the problems he had getting his hoped for TV series "The Questor Tapes" launched at NBC because his robot had sex with a woman to extract information from her about her dead husband, his creator.

Kid robots are in movie, to be sure. On TV there's a teenage version called "Jake 2.0"

Tv series such a knight rider with K.I.T.T. the talking black sports car as an automotive automaton would have to be included, scheduled for a big budget big screen treatment soon, along with popular TV show trying to emulate the success of "Starsky and Hutch", "Scooby Doo", "The Addams Family" and others. Note: This does not include "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "Dragnet" with Dan Akroyd and Tom Hanks.

IN MEMORIAM: JERRY GOLDSMITH

You've heard his music lots of times, in many of your favourite and most popular films of the large and small screens. Jerry Goldsmith was a film composer and scorer who ranked at the top in Hollywood who recently passed in his California home after a long bout with cancer. He had many blockbusters under his belt that worked because of his spare techniques. Much as Mozart said in "Amadeus" when he was told he used "too many notes" he used what was needed, no more no less.

For the African Descended interested in film it should be noted that he scored "A Patch of Blue," about a relationship story between a blind and sighted person. On his eulogy on NPR Sunday the commentator noted he wove simple bass lines with African Descended melodies to show the buildup of trust between the two.

A brief listing of his TV and cinema compositions are: "The Omen" trilogy; Patton; A Patch of Blue; "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" and on TV the "Star Trek: Voyager" show.

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Remember to patronize the Northtown Cinemas at 7440 North 76th street, two blocks north of Good Hope road in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Most major film releases can be seen there in comfort with their new stadium style seating, and now with the thuggish elements banished to other area theatres wholesome family films are back, such as the Harry Potter films, and others. --kjw

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kevin j. walker p.o. box 1324-53201 milwaukee, wisconsin usa
emails: thewordnetpaper@excite.com

--30--

------------------------ NEVER DIE ALONE" -- FILM REVIEW OF THE WORD NETPAPER

THE WORD NETPAPER

CINEMA VIEWS With Film Critic Kevin J. Walker

kevin j. walker p.o. box 1324-53201

milwaukee, wisconsin usa

emails: kevinwalker2005@lycos.com

"NEVER DIE ALONE"

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CINEMA VIEWS: LINKS OF LATEST REVIEWS:

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"GOTHIKA"

"HAUNTED MANSION"

"MATRIX: REVOLUTIONS"

"KILL BILL VOL. 1"

"OUT OF TIME"

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DENZEL’S "OUT OF TIME"

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QUARANTINO’S "KILL BILL, VOL. I"

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"’We reap what we sow’. That’s what the Bible says. ‘Payback’s a M-F.’ I think James Brown said that. Same difference. We all know the story. At least we pretend we do.

"Hindu cats out in India have a word for it: Karma. They believe in reincarnation. That a man pays in the next life for all the stuff he’s done in the previous one. And keeps on paying, too. Until he gets it right." - King David

The Ernest Dickerson film from a Donald Goines’ book "Never Die Alone" is like a Greek tragedy, especially since the narrator is speaking from the dead, in more ways than one. The impressive but very rough film of gritty urban underside has a sprawling cast, with nested flashbacks via a collection of audiotapes made by the dope dealing pimp played by DMX.

Lots of us enjoyed Donald Goines’ books of hard and tough ghetto life, and the colourful characters who peopled them. Incredibly this is the first one of his over 30 books, (including a Western) to be made into a film, but you can bet it won’t be the last. People are just about tired of Shakespeare, and they may be ready for a break from works by Elmore Leonard, too.

DMX, whom his parents named Earl Simmons and he renamed himself in the persona of the Dark Man X, portrays King David the pimp with a smooth aplomb from years of being a performer on stage in rap concerts and videos, where a quite a few actors are garnered these days. He shares lots of screen time with two others when their lives intersect, Michael Ealy of "Barbershop 2" and "Scream" series actor David Arquette as Paul, a scribe who has a chance encounter with King David as he’s bleeding to death on the streets of an unnamed city.

"Please don’t let me die alone, mister… not here in the gutter like this. I have money, I can pay you…" Arquette’s character, who is a writer trying to make his ghetto characters come to life inherits King David’s Stutz pimpmobile, gold watch, ring, a heavy gold cross, and a money clip thick with a wad of cash. Mumbling and in pain, he asks the stranger to find his family whom he left behind in case he doesn’t make it.

Arquette is one of the several threads that are going on simultaneously as "Never Die Alone" plays out, along with the vengeful Mike, and the continuous flashbacks of King David who like the shades of Dante Aligheri in his "Inferno" desperately want to be remembered to the minds of men. Then there are flashbacks inside of those, as King David remembers the women he’s defiled, the dope deals he’s done, and the people he’s double crossed.

It was his good great luck to run into a writer, and someone who knows how to track people down. Paul Paskoff is apparently the only White character to ever appear in one of Goines’ works. His role is similar to that by Christopher Reeves when his New York City magazine writer joins in with pimp Morgan Freeman and his ‘ho’e, played by Kathy Baker, after his wholly made up story is taken to be the truth by an impressed Freeman.

Arquette, who hasn’t shied away from quirky roles in his career, plays Paul with the clumsy but dogged attitude of a good natured person who also has a healthy supply of luck as he stumbles along, messing in the affairs of some vicious people who have no second thoughts of leaving bleeding corpses in the gutters or alleyways as he motors along in his inherited pimped out Stutz, listening to the cassette tapes.

Nancy is his tired girlfriend. "And this slumming thing you’re doing – that’s right, I said slumming! Driving around in that, that Pimp Mobile, and staying there in that rat hole apartment for your research into the ‘lifestyles of the ghetto,’ instead of coming and staying with me. Or is dating me part of your research, too?" Nancy is played by "5^th Wheel" host, Maxim pinup girl and standup comedian Alisha Tyler, of "Friends."

"Never Die Alone" crackles with good writing and dialog to go along with the interpersonal drama and tension, not to speak of the extensive narration that KD makes via his volumes of tapes where he chronicles his career criminality.

"You’ll never guess who just came back from the dead" asks Moon, the smooth criminal.

"Tupac?" a henchman replies, to guffaws from the audience.

King David to one of Moon’s henchmen, Blue who is wearing the modern casual style affected by many of the young these days:

"You goin’ campin’ or somethin’? Because usually when brothers dress all ‘Grizzly Adams’ like that they’re goin’ out in the woods. Why don’t you dress yourself up? Women appreciate a brother who looks sharp. That’s the trouble with you young niggas these days. Get on outta here, go and start a campfire someplace."

"You did this to me!!" wails a former Good Girl Gone Bad, who forgot to wipe her runny nose before she showed up on his doorstep, jittery and begging for another hit of whatever that was he gave her.

"Me? I’m to blame ‘cause you all strung out? I don’t remember puttin’ your head into nothin’ when you were snortin’ up everything I had around here," King Davis retorts. What tripped him out was when she denigrated his dreams to settle down after he fell into her Tender Trap.

"I like you, but you’re strictly small time. A quarter million isn’t enough to retire on! I like partying with you, but let’s just take it easy, and enjoy it while it lasts."

He had a plan to deal with her intransigence, but it backfires somewhat.

"Most girls are scared are puttin’ needles into themselves, and it keeps them from going too far. But it turns out that she was a diabetic, and stickin’ herself with a needle to her was as natural as brushin’ her teeth or combin’ her hair," he dismissively says in the tapes.

The movie does little to soften the hard edges of King David, who is justly seen as irredeemable. "Never Die Alone" is very rough and uncompromising, with little redemption. Shot gunned women are shown flying backwards through the air; gunshot drivers’ bloody brains are shown dripping down the car windows after they’ve been jacked, victims lie in pools of blood.

"One a thing a bitch should never do is joke about calling the police" KD says in one of his tapes as Paul listens, and scribbles away in his tiny apartment for what he hopes is his breakthrough story.

"Then it’s serious, because now she’s talkin’ about effing with a man’s livelihood!"

Indeed, so would say the shades of Chandra Levy, the onetime missing Washington, DC intern, whose bones later showed up in a D.C. park. Monica Lewinski didn’t end up that way because she saved the infamous stained blue dress and told others, otherwise we might be wondering where she also disappeared to. People’s bodies wound up in ditches in Arkansas years before from messing with the rough playing Clinton Gang, aside from the one who turned up "suicided" in Fort Marcy Park. People get funny about they money, and the power that makes it happen. But I digress.

DMX, or as his parents call him Earl Simmons, has decided to go whole hog into acting and he’s getting good at it. He’s had roles in films such as his debut with Nas in "Belly"; "Exit Wounds" with Steven Seagall; and two with Jet Li: "Romeo Must Die" with Aaliyah; and Cradle 2 Tha Grave." He usually plays the same sort of smooth thug character.

The sex in "Never Die Alone" is a harkening back to the days of yore, with stomachs slapping noisily and overhead camera shots, with plenty of mirrors so little is missed as moaning women push off the blackboard for leverage. You’ll want to get a babysitter for this one, because it’s a hard "R" rated film, for gratuitous language, violence, and sex.

This is the same sort of hard core story of the underbelly of society we saw in Mel Gibson’s "Payback," before he went into making Biblical epics such as "The Passion of The Christ." Gibson’s tale of retribution and a falling out among thieves and killers also took place in an unnamed city (although it was filmed in Chicago), and like here in the Los Angeles filmed "Never Die Alone," the timelines are intentionally confused so it can be modern, or Back In Tha Day. The film soundtrack by George Duke includes Seventies songs. This was perhaps a nod to the late Goines, who wrote all of his works in the early 1970s.

The film takes place in a ten year time span, where the protagonist speaks of his forays Back East and in California. His extensive narration helps flesh out the characters and characterizations. It helps that director Ernest Dickerson was the ace cinematographer for many of Spike Lee’s early films, since they were buds in college together. He has a visual feel when directing the work of his own cinematographer Matthew Libatique, ASC that comes across as smoothly poetic with light and shades of shadow, even when it’s a dark alleyway wet with drizzling rain as a long shot is taken of a bored security heavy past a banged up trash bin, lit by a lone bulb. Before he’s made a victim.

Since then Dickerson has moved into directing, with "Juice" his debut. He followed that up with "Demon Knight" with Jada Pinkette Smith; the supernatural "Bones" with Snoop Dog and Curtis Powell about another Seventies brother, who comes back from the dead to avenge his killers; "Surviving the Game" with Ice T; and "Bulletproof" with "50 First Dates" star Adam Sandler and Damon Wayans.

"Sadly, Goines has been pretty much ignored in the U.S., although he’s very highly respected overseas, especially in Europe, where he’s given real literary weight. I think it’s important to recognize him," says Dickerson.

"He is perhaps the world’s premiere Black pulp fiction writer, and screenwriter James Gibson has taken some of Goines’ big themes, such as the idea of Karma and the concept that what goes around comes around, and stayed true to Goines’ world, while giving it a real modern feel."

The extensive cast of "Never Die Alone" has many veterans of screen, stage, and cable. Tiny Lister ("My Baby’s Daddy", "Posse") is Rocky, the right hand man of Moon, played by "Dead Presidents" and "Caught Up" heavy Curtis Powell, who also was in "The Brothers."

Earl Simmons follows in a long line of performers turned actors. In the future young people will be amazed when we tell them that at one time such as LL Cool J, Queen Latifah, Bette Midler, Janet Jackson, Ice Cube, Li’l Kim, Missy Elliot, Mark Wahlberg, Will Smith, Marshall Mathers, Whitney Houston, Method Man and Snoop Dog really and truly had rapping and singing careers before acting.

Alicia Keyes and "Glitter" star Mariah Carey are aspiring actresses, and the career of Aaliyah who was to appear in the final two "Matrix" films was cut short when she died two years ago in a plane crash while filming a music video. Nona Gaye, another singer and daughter of Marvin Gaye took her place as a futuristic warrior.

As a film critic the mark of a good film for me is in the small roles. If they’re good, then it shows the care that was taken to make good writing for the larger roles. It also may predict future success. "Never Die Alone" has plenty of small parts, some little more than Walk Ons, but they sparkle with wit and emotion.

James Gibson is the screenplay writer for NDA and his dad Henry Gibson plays the head of the funeral parlor. Furtively glancing at his attendant, his head still respectfully downcast with a sorrowful demeanor as he sees the expensive gold watch, the heavy jeweled gold cross, diamond rings and chains about to be needlessly interred with King David. The elder Gibson was the poet on NBC’s "Laugh In" early 1970s variety show. This characterization is in keeping with Film Noir when even regular people are seen to have a bit of larceny in them, such as the hospital Orderly played by Eric Payne.

The bartender Jasper is played by Luenell Campbell; Ella is Drew Sidora, Mike’s little sister that he dotes on and tries to keep out of his crooked life. Keesha Sharp plays Edna, part of the flashback to King David’s long career of crookedness as she tells him she’s clean now, and just wants some money to get by.

Goines life and its tragic end mirrored that of his characters in his over thirty books. From 1970 he averaged a book every two months, which is a fiendish output even for a pulp writer. Did he know that his time would be short?

A native of Detroit, he was murdered with his longtime companion Shirley Sailor, who was the one who encouraged him to write his tales of gritty ghetto life. They were killed by two assassins who burst into their Detroit apartment, shooting them in front of their two young daughters in 1974. The studio bio material on Goines states:

"Arrested again on larceny charges in 1969, Goines wrote his first published work in prison, the semi-autobiographical novel "Whoreson." Holloway House Publications published the work in 1972 and followed with 15 best-selling Goines novels over the next 34 months: "Black Gangster," "Black Girl Lost," "Crime Partners," "Cry Revenge," "Daddy Cool," "Death List," "Dopefiend," "Eldorado Red," "Inner City Hoodlum," "Kenyatta’s Escape," "Kenyatta’s Last Hit," "Never Die Alone," "Street Players," "Swamp Man" and "White Man’s Justice, Black Man’s Grief." Goines wrote with the speed of a junkie desperate to pay for his next fix, averaging one new book every two months."

CAST OF "NEVER DIE ALONE"

KING DAVID -- EARL SIMMONS/DMX

PAUL – DAVID ARQUETTE

MIKE – MICHAEL EALY

MOON – CLIFTON POWELL

JANET – JENNIFER SKY

JUANITA -- REAGAN GOMEZ-PRESTON

EDNA -- KEESHA SHARP

ELLA -- DREW SIDORA

JASPER -- LUENELL CAMPBELL

ROCKIE -- TOMMY "TINY" LISTER

ORDERLY -- ERIC PAYNE

BLUE -- ANTWON TANNER

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Remember to patronize the Northtown Cinemas at 7440 North 76^th street, two blocks north of Good Hope road in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Most major film releases can be seen there in comfort with their new stadium style seating, and now with the thuggish elements banished to other area theatres family films are back, such as "Loony Tunes 2: Back In Action" and others. --kjw

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Send a note to Cinemaviews at P. O. Box 1324-53201, or email walkernet@excite dot com, or walkerworld_2000@yahoo dot com --kjw

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--------------------------- TUPAC RESURRECTION

THE WORD NETPAPER

CINEMA VIEWS WITH FILM CRITIC KEVIN J. WALKER

"TUPAC RESURRECTION"

kevin j. walker p.o. box 1324-53201

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GRIDLOCK'D

ABOVE THE RIM

POETIC JUSTICE

GANG RELATED

JUICE

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2PAC STORY WELL TOLD IN "TUPAC RESURRECTED"

"TUPAC: RESURRECTED" is a feature length documentary of the controversial slain rapper through his own words. Compiled from his interviews and with much unseen footage such a home videos and such, the film is being recommended for all those who want to know more about the son of Black Panthers more than that he was killed as the result of a hyped up West Coast versus East Coast Rap music rivalry against the also mysteriously slain Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls, aka Big Poppa.

He had a thriving film career that was on the upswing, and was assuming roles that allowed him to stretch his creative wings. His last role in "Gang Related" was a detective opposite John Belushi and Lela Roshon. With Tim Roth he portrayed a recovering addict in "Gridlock'd" and a villain in the street basketball film "Above The Rim" with Marlon Wayans and Bernie Mac.

The film he was most seen in would have been "Poetic Justice" with Janet Jackson and Joe Torry. The romantic Road Film did a lot to establish the rapper as an actor with promise, even more so than "Juice," his first feature film role as the villain Bishop, a high school delinquent against Omar Epps.

The short turbulent life of the 25 year old Gangsta Rap star and evolving political activist, born of Black Panthers on the East coast, moving from one ghetto to another from New York to Baltimore to Marin in California, would be seen as a tragedy even by those who weren't fans of his music. The movie is very well done, and moves at a pace that will win fans for those who thought that documentaries would be dull.

It will disappoint those who think they're going to see a concert film as there is very little of that in "Tupac Resurrected." The goal of the documentary was to allow Shakur's story to be told, and as such there are aspects that haven't been seen before, such as the student audition tape a teenaged 2Pac made of the Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff Bubble Gum Rap tune "Parents Just Don't Understand."

The range of the film is impressive, and no one can come out of the theatre not knowing and appreciating the ups and downs of Tupac's life path, his achievements, and what he planned to do with his celebrity. I count myself among them.

I had no idea that he was establishing neighborhood level charities by using bare-bones city concerts that would incorporate national acts with the area's local rappers, with the money staying in the affected communities to address social concerns. From the Video Jukebox Channel I knew of his positive videos "Brenda Had A Baby", "Dear Mama" and "You Are Appreciated," odes to the women who were a formative and continuing force in his life.

"I love women" Tupac confesses. "I feel like calling Prince up and asking him, 'Man, can I just, like, hang out with you?'" and enjoy women like he does.

The point is buttressed with fast moving clips of videos and stills of girl friends and Girl Friends such as Jasmine Guy and Jada Pinkett Smith, whom he said he would love forever. This segment of the movie also will dash the belief that he would have abused any woman, an idea that he seemed to not be able to even put into words as he sputtered and hesitated during an interview following his arrest on sodomy charges after a NYC groupie said she was assaulted in his hotel room.

Also an activist who doesn't much care what the White folks think who sign her pay checks, Jada, like pal Queen Latifah both attended and spoke at the 1997 Million Women March in Philadelphia that I attended (and made a short documentary of), while many celebrities wouldn't have been caught dead within a hundred miles of any of the Million-whatever Marches. (Tupac himself attended and spoke at the Indianapolis Black Expo). It was friends like they who supported him while he was imprisoned on the rape charge, along with actor and former Irish boxer Mickey Rourke, and Tony Danza.

His wide ranging interests and reaching beyond just being Black gained him fans on a Global scale. The movie shows people unfurling Tupac Shakur banners outside the Eiffel Tower, and hand lettered signs in foreign languages in Eastern Europe as his young White fans mug for the camera. A young White man has a Tupac headband for his infant son, posing by his car's "2PAC" license plate.

Curiously the movie doesn't get into long imprisoned Black Panther Geronimo Pratt, someone who was considered a godfather to Shakur. Granted, he had a lot of men in and out of his life, raised as he was by a single mother.

"A woman can't teach a boy how to be a man" he says of the immutable but harsh truth, over images of home movies and stills showing him being hugged by his adoring mother topic of a recently released book who went from a high level East Coast Black Panther to California crack addict to Hollywood film producer and peacemaker with the mother of Biggie Smalls.

2Pac, as he became known in the headline ellipsis that shortens names for convenience and was embraced even by him on his albums -- was a quintessential Mama's Boy, as many are from single parent households. He even explained the self knowledge that this was the wellspring of the much observed toughness and machismo of young men without men in their family lives. "I act tough, but I'm really very soft" he explained in the verbal explanations that are liberally throughout the documentary "Tupac Resurrection."

Tupac was quite the entertainer and clown who loved the camera and did the opposite of clamming up when one was around. During his stint with the group "Digital Underground" the videos chronicle the obscene onstage antics of the fun loving group whose biggest hit was "Humpty Hump." His first release for Shock G after he put in work as a roadie then onstage talent was the solo "Same Song."

Reality has a way of intruding harshly into the mythos built upon Tupac's memory. He played a detective in his last film with John Belushi and Lela Roshon; a recovering drug addict with Tim Roth in "Gridlock'd," and was a student at the Baltimore School Of The Arts. Some members of the audience audibly groaned when a still picture came up of the dance student in his black leotards. "Damn, 'Pac…" sadly muttered a young man next to me.

Although some rappers denigrated others for having to write their raps down, the doc shows the copious notes that Shakur made, with underlines and references to other works, documents, literary allusions or Van Gogh's paintings, such as "Starry Night." He made the most of his classical education, where history, mythology and more was required reading along with Shakespeare's plays. It is also where he caught the acting bug, big-time.

"I wouldn't have turned out the way I did if I hadn't gone there" he says of Baltimore HSA, in one of the many interviews and open talks he gave. Among entertainers he was unusually accessible, and there are many examples included in "Tupac Resurrected."

The erudite student had a penchant for history and philosophy, much of which found its way into his music such as Machiavelli's "The Prince," a treatise on power and how to keep it, which Tupac morphed into his Mack A Velli persona. He talked about he incorporated aspects of his learning, such as Sun Tzu's "The Art of War."

The documentary uses much source material supplied by his cooperative teachers, including library check out slips showing his wide interests. Afeni Shakur who is a producer of the film, 2Pac's Aunties, MTV the sponsoring studio, as well as police records and legal writs. Johnnie Cochran and Alan Dershowitz turn up in the copious lawyer billing records, which come up and are replaced with other images in the fast-moving documentary. The DVD should be a treat if it is similarly as well supplied.

The MTV produced effort employs the same technique used by fellow documentarian Ken Burns, who also used still shots of materials in his Civil War opus. Since there was a lack of motion pictures then, and photography had only recently been popularized by those such as Matthew Brady, Burns caused the camera itself to move.

"Tupac Resurrected" employs the technique, although there is no lack of camcorder or MTV interview tapes, and it adds to the immediacy and multimedia impact of the presentation. Youth raised up on fast-edited fare and video games are particularly well suited to this approach, but it also isn't bone-jarring for those used to traditional exposition.

Ominously, a black car is shown following in Vegas. The soundtrack has shots ringing out as the screen goes black. This is not the hit that was performed on the Vegas strip in September of 1996 however, this was a brief forward to the robbery/abortive hit outside the elevators of a NYC recording studio, with 2Pac talking about how he reacted to his brush with death. Still the audience, the overwhelming majority of who were fans of his music as much as some White kids were of the late Kurt Kobain -- who Tupac references -- caught its collective breath.

The film made a wise decision to let the slain rapper tell his own tale, as he was ably to do. There were no Talking Heads to explain the impact of 2Pac, and he himself talks throughout the film, even performing as the narrator. He left behind an impressive amount of material, especially music. Forbes magazine lists Shakur as in the top ten of musical sales of deceased entertainers. Most people didn't even know that there was such a list, but people like Elvis, Kobain, Sinatra, and John Lennon have reissues and studio tapes that fuel this economy.

Like the late Christopher Wallace or Biggie Smalls also known as "Big Poppa," both men seemed to foretell their own shortened lives as seen in their music, especially Smalls, a onetime friend of Tupac Shakur until a very public falling out as part of the East Coast -- West Coast Rap rivalry.

I have the perfect companion to take along to see this movie a second time. Toni is well versed on all the rap acts, and even dresses the part of a Thug Babe, although she's actually in Law Enforcement. The first time I met her I thought I was about to get jacked! But she's college educated, and All Woman.

"I just like to dress this way, its who I am" Toni says. Hey sweetie, you don’t have to justify yourself to me. It ain't like that.

Anyway, she'll help me translate what I'm seeing at the Milwaukee Northtown theatres showing of "Tupac: Resurrection" as one of my Expert Viewers I sometimes take along.

There wasn't the expected mouthing off during the film, at least not much past the few first few minutes. Security wasn't much needed as the crowd was self policing, and not going to take any mess from loudmouths or cat callers.

"Can we get some respect for 'Pac up in here? Damn!" asked a woman.

"Hey, man I paid $8 dollars to see this movie, y'all gonna have to be quiet up in here!" cautioned one man to a pocket of loud talkers toward the front, who were passing a tall translucent bottle of liquor back and forth that sometimes clattered against the floor during the movie.

There was a bit of abortive drama at the Northtown theatre in Milwaukee, as somebody saw somebody they didn't like, and words became taunts, then an invitation to step outside. The Northtown has largely banished the thugs who once made moviegoing there an unpalatable experience that nationwide has made onetime moviegoing fans devotees of DVDs and Pay Cable. But theatre management has cracked down, and with the opening of the AMC Mayfair in Wauwatosa many of the miscreants have flowed over there and are presently causing trouble far from the Northtown since there are only so many thugs to go around.

But there was a touch of small scale drama nonetheless. Somebody undertook to start running, and about 75 patrons streamed outside the exits when they thought some gunplay was about to ensue. Most stayed In their seats.

"I came to see this movie" one wag said. "I ain't moving from this seat."

"Look at them, afraid of being shot!" sneered another.

Well, yeah! I myself didn't want to move because this might well take me right into the line of fire. Besides, idea of being surrounded of people with weapons has worn off since I was in Israel last. The militia there is always around with Uzis and whatnot. You get used to it after a couple of days.

By then I was glad I hadn't gotten hold of Toni to take her along to see "Tupac Resurrected" on the first night. It would have been a helluva date if she or I'd been shot or trampled in the melee! As it was, the two verbal poseurs/combatants were removed, and the security, who weren't able to enter because the outstreaming moviegoers prevented their entry came inside and stayed for the entire film.

There is a strange congruence with the Angela Bassett Science Fiction film "Strange Days." The basic plot dealt with a controversial politically active rapper who is slain by trigger happy LAPD police, with the crime witnessed by a woman who was wearing an experience recorder. The controversy threatens massive violence on the eve of the new Millennium. Tupac was amazed and disturbed by the building power he was starting to attract. "At the shows there would be audiences with Blacks, Whites and Latinos, guys writing me from prisons saying "what do you want us to do?"

"There were 14,000 people in a theatre, and if I told them to get and turn around three times they would do it!" he said, eyes wide, long dark eyebrows framing his large eyes. Baby pictures, and pictures of Shakur as a youngster show the grade schooler then adolescent then gawky preteen he was. We've seen many of these type of photos of our own, many times.

It was poignant to see the overexposed bedroom pictures, skinny bare-chested youngster by a mismatched bedroom dresser drawer. We remember those days, those houses and flats. Tupac could have been, was, like one of our own sons or nephews. This was part of the appeal -- he never tried to separate himself from the people, quite the opposite, he ran to them, was always trying to incorporate them.

Had he lived who knows what a mind like his could have accomplished, with the cross-cultural popularity of his music, combined with a revolutionary upbringing once he been stabilized and mature? This is when the inclusion of the short segment on the FBI's Cointel program against Black men is particularly telling.

Tupac had many problems with the police when he started to get political. It is of note that the rudest crudest rappers seem to not have similar problems, even when they or their bodyguards shoot and beat down each other outside popular nightclubs. The film early on reference J. Edgar Hoover and his CoIntel Program.

"This was a man whose job was to make sure no Black man emerged as a leader" says Shakur in one of musings. To underscore, the film has rapid pictures of slain Black Panthers, newspaper clippings, and footage of Eldridge Cleaver in handcuffs giving the Black Power sign. This was no doubt the influence of Producer Afeni Shakur, queen mother and onetime Black Pantheress making her presence known.

Her input and openness to ensure that her son's story was told resulted in a filmic work that hit all its main points and entertained its audience, which is all that you ask of a film or documentary.

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"OUT OF TIME"

Cinema Views by Kevin J. Walker Film Critic

DENZEL, LATHAN, MENDES ARE AGAINST THE CLOCK

IN CARL FRANKLIN'S CRIME CAPER

by Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic

kevinjwalker@blackwebportal.com
thewordnetpaper@excite.com

The versatile Denzel Washington stars in a thoughtful and deliberate caper film with romance by "One False Move" director Carl Franklin. And since Denzel is Denzel, he has TWO leading ladies, Sanaa Lathan and Eva Mendes.

So are you in or out? Of the audience I mean for this very entertaining film with real meat on its bones, following the evolved tradition of more mature film fare in the fall months after the big bangs of the summer has passed onto video land..

"Out Of Time" is a very entertaining crime caper movie and is a reunion of sorts. Not only does it mark the return of Eva Mendes and Denzel Washington who were POSSLQs in "Training Day," but Carl Franklin returns to the caper genre which has been good to him and to us.

Franklin's "One False Move" with Cynda Williams of "Caught Up", "Frailty" director and actor Bill Paxton, and "Waiting To Exhale's" Michael Beach got much love from critics who were enamored of his double crossing crime caper film, with heaping helpings of romantic tangles thrown in. His 1940s "Devil In A Blue Dress" starred Denzel as LA private eye Easy Rawlins from the Mosely book series.

Placed in a small seaside town in Florida, "Out Of Time" is filled with knuckle-tense scenes as Denzel's police chief Matt Whitlock races to find out who-all has double crossed and outfoxed him after he gets played big-time for several hundred thousand dollars of seized drug money his four man department was holding.

As his character of private eye Easy Rawlins said in his crime caper film "Devil In A Blue Dress," quoting his crime patron Tom Sizemore who hired him to find the elusive Jennifer Beals," its not what you're mixed up in, its how high up you're mixed" as he has to try and clear his name before his time runs out.

"Palmetto" with Woody Harrelson and Elizebeth Shue visited much the same territory in subject matter and geography. Harrelson played a crusading reporter who gets caught up in some triple crossing action in the Florida panhandle.

"Out Of Time" is a spare film, and not overly filled with car cases and gunplay. Its very much in the style of the old caper films, where there's a mystery and false identities to unravel. "Malice" with Alec Baldwin, Nicole Kidman and Bill Pullman comes very much to mind, for reasons that will be clear when you see the film. If you have no intention of seeing the movie, or are one of those abysmal creatures and reprobates who wait until a film comes out on video or DVD and see it squeezed down to 30 inches you gets no love around here, pahd-nah!

The movie has no explosions, drawn-out gun battles, car chases, special effects, nor extensive gore. It's much in character with the fall releases that are more contemplative and adult-oriented, were time is taken for character development because these are films not intended for the short music video attention span of kids. Tip: get your popcorn, soft drinks, smoke breaks and such done early, because if you miss a little you'll miss a lot of "Out Of Time."

Matt Whitlock is the drinking on the job chief of a four person police force where the usual calls are to get the occasional cat out of the tree, or an alligator out of the backyard. The action around town gets hot when bodies start dropping, arson makes houses go up, a stash of cash goes missing, and all signs are pointing to the police chief.

"They set me up" he realizes, a bit too late. Oh, do ya think, suckah?

"Out of Time" actually is more of a romantic crime mystery, since the situations of the characters is so much a part of the film. Sanaa Lathan is Chief Whitlock's married girlfriend, while Eva Mendes is Matt's wife, who is divorcing him. But there's some unfinished business between the two, and Denzel clearly isn't ready to be kicked to the curb, which Anna Marie picks up on.

The main part of the romantic triangle, actually a tangled weave of a square, is Lathan. The sweet young thing from "Love and Basketball" and "Brown Sugar" is all growed up now and has a major persona shift in "Out Of Time." Her Anna Marie is the abused wife of Dean Cain ("The Adventures of Lois & Clark") who's also a member of the local law enforcement and a longtime rival of Matt, further tangling the connections.

The two men have a face off when the suspicious husband confronts the chief. Without admitting anything, Whitlock says to his face what he'd like to but can't, in a delicious verbal riposte that further cements "Out Of Time" as welcome adult fare.

But Chief Whitlock still likes the chocolatey and sexy Anna Marie, and who can blame him? The movie shows Lathan in way-thin wrap dresses and halter tops that shows many of her finer points as she switches around Matt's houseboat where they tryst, away from the eyes and wagging tongues of nosy townsfolk.

She lures the chief over her house with a report of a break in of her house late at night.

"He was standing in my bedroom" she tells him.

"Like this?"

"Yes, but closer…"

"Then what did this intruder do?"

"He forced himself on me… and then he tore off my blouse" Anna Marie says, with her throat muscles trembling as they make their way to the bed and continue their role playing.

This isn't as shocking as earlier audiences might have taken it in pre-Woman's Liberation days. I had a strange girlfriend who had me mindful of picking a hiding place near the head of the metal four-poster for a handcuff key when I woke up to a strange metallic click! one morning, and almost dislocated my shoulder when I sat up too quickly. It's always those nice, quiet ones. But I digress.

Lathan's not the usual skinny Hollywood type, thank the Gods! She has usually played the Sensible Good Girl in movies such as "The Best Man", "Love and Basketball" and "Brown Sugar," and a romantic cable movie or two with Wesley Snipes. Lathan actually looked better in her wrap skirt and bare midriff than Teresa Randle in "Bad Boys 2" and that's hard to do!

The lovely Eva Mendes was Denzel's BabyMomma in the brutal Training Day, for which Denzel won his first Best Actor Academy Award. Starring opposite naïve LAPD Detective trainee Ethan Hawke, Washington was on the other side of the law while supposedly being a servant of it as a crooked officer, with Mendes as his housemate. As they count piles of money on their bed there's a shot of frontal nudity on the part of the sexy Latina. (I recommend using the jog-shuttle dial on a high end VCR to get the full effect).

Mendes, in a short time with four films in three years, has carved out a filmic career playing crime fighters and conflicted tough cookies, and along with Patricia Velasquez, that fine Puerta Riquena who plays the Pharoh's consort in "The Mummy" and "The Mummy Returns." They have all but kicked Jennifer Lopez all the way to the cinematic curb in the minds of moviegoers, and this was before she crashed and burned before "Gigli." We see now that there are lots more where she came from, and we're glad to see them.

Mendes even did comedy as the sweetheart of up and rising "Friday" film franchise co-star Michael Epps in "All About The Benjamins" a Miami-set comedy caper film with Ice Cube, who produced the film through his CubeVision enterprise.

Mendes was a law woman in this past summer's "2 Fast 2 Furious" as an undercover officer helping other deep cover operatives Paul Walker and Tyrese. In the current "Once Upon a Time in Mexico," the concluding Mexican trilogy by "Spy Kids" director Robert Rodriguez, Mendes is a DEA operative working with the CIA deep under the covers with rogue agent Johnny Depp.

Eva Mendes' Sexy Tough Cookie persona isn't likely to wear thin anytime soon. She comes across as a real person, and a developed character type that many women could identify with, qualities that come in handy when she is shown onscreen in "Out Of Time" as the estranged wife of Chief Matt.

Mendes is likeable, so the Sistaz don't hate her when her character Alex is divorcing the wayward Matt. But the film's adult subtlety comes through in many ways as we can see that these two don't need to be divorcing. They need to take a timeout, reassess and come back together fresh-like. But Alex ain't having it. When they're talking Matt tries to play off a phone call from the yearning and pouting Anna Marie like it’s a business call, but Alex is no fool.

"I've got to go, you're busy… Tell her I said "Hi," she says over her shoulder to her soon to be ex-husband as she walks away, with a bit of disappointment in her attitude. "Out Of Time" has Woman Stuff in it, and this only helps the wide audience appeal.

"Mississippi Massala" featured Denzel in a truly cross cultural love story between his Gulf Coast carpet cleaner and the Indian daughter of one of his hotel owning clients. Unlike Wesley Snipes, who hasn't been featured with half as many non-Black women as Washington whose onscreen lovers are a mini United Nations of females, Denzel, like Samuel L. Jackson is given a pass. Perhaps its because they are longtime husbands of two Real Sistazs, while Snipes has been outspoken in interviews about how he was kicked to the curb by Black women while a struggling actor because of his dark skin colour and former lack of monetary resources.

Brothers are definitely feelin' the love from Latina women, and the getting together onscreen only mirrors what is happening in real life, as sistahs who are always complaining about we brothas kicked us to the curb where smart women ran over to retrieve us, neither believing their good luck and the narrow mindedness of what are supposed to be our natural mates.

Filmmaker/Actors Ice Cube and Spike Lee co-starred with Latina love interests in films such as "Next Friday" and "Do the Right Thing." Ice Cube in the latter film remarked "I'm doing my part to improve Black and Brown relations." NYC transit cops Jennifer Lopez and Wesley Snipes threw down in "Money Train," the repairing of Snipes and Woody Harrelson from their breakout buddy basketball flick "White Men Can't Jump."

Cristel Blake of Dallas, Chicago and Milwaukee is a TV, stage actress and singer who attended the preview screening of "Out Of Time" and we both found the caper film involving and thrilling. "I think I can figure out which way this is going," Cristel whispered, as we conspired to figure out the plot twists.

Even though there are only so many ways to portray double and triple crosses, director Franklin still has a few aces up his sleeves to play. You will be thrown by some of the ploys of the film, and even if you aren't the formula still is a good one. We both found the film involving, and I heard Cristel gasp more than once at the various twists, and as the going nuts Chief Whitlock feverishly tries to cover up his tracks as the evidence amounts.

Denzel's Chief of sleepy Banyan Key is the flava of the minute after his town was the scene of a drug bust of a kingpin where hundreds of thousands of dollars was seized, and still sits in his office vault.

His good pal and audience fave comic relief Jay the Medical Examiner played by John Billingsley jokingly suggests that they seize the money for themselves and make it down to Costa Rico and start a boat chartering business, ala ex-cons Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman in "The Shawshank Redemption." Jay shows his friendship as Matt starts to trip over his quickly improvised alibis, where all the clues point to him when bodies start turning up and the Feds call, wanting their drug cash for the kingpin's upcoming trial way before it was expected. It all means that Chief Matt Whitlock is almost out of time.

Cinema Views' verdict is that "Out Of Time" is an eminently enjoyable film with a more than capable caper component with romantic ingredients. The movie is a hit on several levels, and you won't be out of your money or time if you invest them in this film that helps get the Autumn film season off to an auspicious start indeed. --kjw CAST OF "OUT OF TIME"

CHIEF MATT WHITLOCK -- DENZEL WASHINGTON ANNA MARIE -- SONAA LATHAN ALEX -- EVA MENDES CHRIS -- DEAN CAIN JOHN BILLINGSLEY -- JAY, BANYAN KEY M.E.

DIRECTOR: GARY FRANKLIN "One False Move", "One True Thing" with Meryl Streep and "Devil In A Blue Dress."

STUDIO: MGM

FILM RATING PG-13

VIDEO VIEWS PRESENTS A DENZEL FILM FEST:

There are lots of movies in Washington's repertoire, and he has crossed genres liberally from war films, crime capers, the supernatural and even science fiction. This isn’t to speak of the foreign film's he's made, such as his British war film.

DENZEL AS DIRECTOR:

"ANTWONE FISHER" -- This autobiographical film by a script handed to him by a studio employee marked Denzel's first foray into directing. It was an auspicious start indeed. Although loved by the critics, to our disgrace it didn't garner lots of audience attendance although it has an uplifting family theme about an abused child who as an angry young seaman learns through psychological counseling to confront the demons of his past.

Washington plays the Navy counselor, who is going through problems of his own with his wife, played by Chicagoan Salli Richardson, the femme fatale of "Low Down Dirty Shame," and Mario Van Peebles "Posse."

DENZEL FILMS:

"CARBON COPY" -- Before he went to NBC's network TV, Washington co-starred in this movie opposite the fumbling Ryan O'Neal of TVs "Just Shoot Me'" and the comedy crime caper with Jane Fonda "Fun With Dick and Jane," where a California yuppie couple turns to crime to finance their lifestyle after O'Neal loses his job.

"Carbon Copy" was about a White businessman whose adult son from a long ago college dalliance with a Black woman shows up one day on his doorstep about twenty years later. The film muffed its chances to be of substance by pulling its punches, like the final chapter of "The Omen" film series which is exactly opposite what its strategy should have been. If you're going to offend people, then go for it and to hell with the tongue cluckers. That's what the Wayans Brothers did. This is not one that Denzel puts on his cinematic resume, unlike the following:

"COURAGE UNDER FIRE" among Denzel's notable group of war movies is a pairing of he and Meg Ryan where his character is investigating the mangled stories behind the posthumous award of the first Congressional Medal Of Honour winner from the first US-Iraq Persian Gulf War.

The two don't share any scenes together, as he tries to get behind the obscuring "Rashomon"-like conflicting stories to the truth. He is especially driven because his character was also the subject of a Gulf War I snafu that resulted in his self-destructive alcoholism and estrangement from is wife. A thoughtful film with action, always a good blend.

"CRIMSON TIDE" with Gene Hackman featured Washington in one of his many military roles. This time it's as a submarine commander who goes against Hackman's authoritarian captain when he questions vague orders that would have them launch nukes against the Soviet Union.

"DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS" Adapted from the Easy Rawlins series by writer Mosely, about a transplanted southerner to Los Angeles it stars Denzel as the Private Eye hired by Tom Sizemore to find the title character played by Jennifer Beals.

Grand larceny is committed with the arrival of the deadly Mouse, played by Don Cheadle of Volcano" and "Bullworth." Stealing all the scenes he shares with Denzel isn't easy, and Cheadle injects the already good film with superior character qualities.

"FALLEN" is among my favourites of Washington's many films, and is quite different from any he's done for reasons you will discover. The supernatural suspense film is about a serial killer who is really an ancient demon plaguing Philadelphia. He is toying with Denzel's detective, who caught the rock song singing, Aramaic speaking killer along with partner John Goodman. Denzel never really had a chance against a Fallen Angel who was old before humanity was even young. Time wasn't on his side in this movie either, no it wasn't.

"GLORY," is Denzel Washington's first Oscar winning role as Best supporting Actor as a rebellious Civil War soldier. Matthew Broderick is the commander of the famous Massachusetts regiment that is part of Civil War lore that also starred Morgan Freeman. This film is available in a commemorative DVD with extra features.

"HEART CONDITION" -- Denzel co-starred with Bob Hoskins, fresh from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", where he had to interact with Denzel's ghost who was linked to the bigoted cop whose transplanted heart they shared and which kept them within 20 feet or so. This comes in handy when they assault the Bad Guys' fortress, and Denzel's invisible invulnerable ghost is sent ahead on recon!

This was one of the better Ghost Genre stories that were a mini-genre back in the 1980s, started by "Beetlejuice" and ended with Whoopi Goldberg, Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze's "Ghost."

"HE GOT GAME" reteamed and redeemed Spike Lee's filmic vision using two of his most favourite topics: father-son bonding, maleness or "Man Stuff," and sports, and marks the last time he made films starring predominantly Black people. This was before he went onto films such as "Summer of Sam" and the most excellent "The 25th Hour," with one of my favourite actors Edward Norton who is going to take it all one day, mark my words.

"He Got Game" was about a father's estrangement from his son, played by former Milwaukee Bucks forward Ray Allen, and co-starred "Jungle Fever's" Lynette McGee. Their onscreen smooch as a young loving married couple while passing by at the dinner table as the children giggle was voted one of the Most Sensuous onscreen kisses for that year. The film's sports covering was about an imprisoned felon who was released so he could convince his sought-after son to attend a certain university, which is the setting for their longtime conflict.

"THE HURRICANE" It is believed that the furor over the facts if this fact-based story about imprisoned boxer Ruben Hurricane Carter was responsible for denying Washington the Best Actor award for that year. As he ages from a cocky young man to middle age, notice how his speech pattern changes, how he is less patient at times and more serene at others, as if he really did spend his youth behind bars. He was robbed!. Not to take anything away from "Training Day," his rare villain role. I can't mention the other without giving away the plot of another movie Denzel was in , which may or not be listed here.

"MALCOLM X" Denzel was in two notable Spike Lee Joints. One was the towering autobiography of Malcolm Little, formerly known as Detroit Red, then Harlem Red, and onetime Milwaukeean whose militant father preached in Brewtown and was ambushed and slain by White Supremacists after a trip here. Embracing Islam in prison for petty crimes Malcolm went on to become one of America's best orators, and organized the Fruit of Islam which exists to this day, patrolling housing projects and operating after school tutoring and food programs. Milwaukee was the site of Muhammed's Mosque No. 3.

Denzel, as he did in "The Hurricane" goes through various phases as effortlessly as if he was changing his socks, from street hood to religious initiate to organizer, father of daughters and holy man El Hadj Malik El Shabazz. Co stars include Angela Bassett as his wife, the late Betty Shabazz, and a role she reprised briefly in Mario Van Peebles' "Panther."

"MISSISSIPPI MASSALA" This cross cultural romance was a small film by a famed Indian female director about the hotel business owned by her people in the south, and a carpet cleaner played by Washington who gets into a relationship with the daughter of one of his clients. Denzel's acting skill is shown even in small films such as this. When he goes out to a nightspot, a brotha asks him informally what's hap'nin?

"We'll be doing deep shag next Spring" he replies, since rug cleaning is his world. His character sees no discontinuity there, and the line slides so easily out of Denzel Washington the Hollywood millionaire, but we only see him as the small time carpet cleaning entrepreneur of a southern state. Such is the skill of a master craftsman!

"PHILADELPHIA" -- Speaking of the city of brotherly love, this film was Denzel's pairing with Tom Hanks in that award winning follow up film by "Silence of The Lambs" director Jonathan Demme. Pained by allegations that his horrific film starring Anthony ("Red Dragon", "Hannibal") Hopkins had anti-homosexual messages, this film about an AIDS infected attorney who is defended by Denzel was meant to rectify that.

Washington's character like most normal people is not particularly enthused about being around homosexuals, more properly called by the historical name Sodomites. "Philadelphia" is about how the two men and attorneys, the formerly high flying Hanks and the ambulance chasing Washington come to see each other in a new light. It’s a different kind of Buddy Film, but excellently made by director Demme and acted by these two masters of the game who both went on to direct their own critically regarded films while interchangeably acting.

"THE PREACHERS WIFE" Teamed Denzel with Whitney Houston in her third movie role after "The Bodyguard" and "Waiting To Exhale." In this remake of a 1940s film Denzel is an angel sent back to lead a disaffected inner city preacher back to his faith. While doing so the angel takes a liking to the preacher's wife who is about to stray from her faith in her husband.

The movie also co-stars the late Gregory Hines as an ambitious developer from off tha block, who along with the church board is selling out the struggling neighborhood to wealthy investors and moving the church and congregation to a "better environment" as some congregants move up in life and away from the old neighborhood.

"The Preacher's Wife" is an excellent family film, and should become a staple of holiday film fare as it deserves to be. Houston plays the choir leader, so they were able to put some of her singing into the movie, along with some gospel songs.

"SOLDIER'S STORY" Among Denzel's first notable film roles after taking a break for the stable economics of series TV in NBC's "St. Elsewhere" was as a WWII soldier in a segregated Army unit in the film adaptation of the stage play.

This ensemble film featured Adolphe Caesar of "The Colour Purple" (as Mister's father: "Furthermore, I hear she's got that nasty woman's disease. And all her kids got different daddies. She done set the population of Hopwell county at a new high…") Caesar's role was the drill sergeant in the segregated unit who tried to whip Denzel and his green cohorts into shape to go over and fight Hitler.

"Soldier's story" hits on the subject of uneasy patriotism for a country that doesn't love us back, as the recruits prepare to face battle while in a segregated unit. "The Nazis call you Schwartzen!" the drill sarge taunts them. Denzel is a young cocky recruit that is more indicative of the "New Negros" that were evolving less than a hundred years after Emancipation.

"VARIATIONS ON THE MO BETTER BLUES" is the musical about a flawed musician played by Denzel and based partly on Spike Lee's own father, who scored most of his films until he was apparently angered by another film "Jungle Fever." Spike Lee's father married a White woman after his mother died.

That last bit of autobiography made its way into "Crooklyn" with Delroy Lindo as a small time musician married to Oklahoman Alfre Woodard, but with his sister's life, Joie Lee from "Do The Right Thing," as the focus through the eyes of the young girl. Joie also was one of Denzel's love interests in "Mo Better," sharing bed duty with Cynda Williams from "Out Of Time" director Carl Franklin's "One False Move."

"VIRTUOSITY" is Washington's lone big budget science fiction action film foray as a futuristic police officer who is also a convict, charged with capturing the computer generated supercriminal SID, created for criminal justice research with the personality ingrams of over a hundred serial and mass killers. In Virtual Reality simulations Denzel's imprisoned and disgraced LAPD officer has bested Sid, the only person to do so.

The computer generated being is played by Russell Crowe ("LA Confidential" and "Gladiator") who is programmed with the memories of dozens of mass murderers and terrorists who gets a pass into our world, and does what he does best -- killing and mayhem.

The plotline is like that of "He Got Game": Denzel's character gets a temporary pass to carry out a task, after which he might get tossed right back in by the authorities. But instead of an ankle bracelet Lo-Jack he has a deadly cartridge inserted into his head to make sure he comes back, ala Kurt Russell's Snake Pliscomb in the "Escape from New York." I just wish the film had made better use of Denzel's character's bionic arm.

One of "Virtuosity's" best lines from SID: "Just because I'm carrying within me the joy of killing your entire family doesn't mean we can't be friends." This film of theirs is the source of the good-natured Oscar competition race between the two actors that was mentioned by Denzel in his backstage award speech.

PROPHETIC FILM NOTE:

[ A plotline similar to "Virtuosity" was in "Demolition Man" that has a connection to today's headlines. Sylvester Stallone's John Spartan is a near future era Los Angeles police officer who was literally put on ice after being implicated in the death of dozens while trying to take down a villain played by Wesley Snipes. Both are incarcerated, but frozen in a cryogenic prison because society doesn't see the need to provide criminals with cable TV and such, or even food.

[ Generations later Spartan is thawed out to recapture the escaped Snipes, who awakens dozens of serial killers to help him create chaos on the soft and pampered wimps of the future. Spartan is told that the internment laws were changed by former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who went onto become President of the United States when the US Constitution was changed to allow the foreign born politician to ascend the oval office! ]

Washington has played lots of cop roles -- about as many as Ernie Hudson, which we remarked upon during our interview -- and about as many military men as "Armageddon's" Keith David, the sometime Milwaukeean who worked his way up from privates in "Platoon" and "The Thing" to a three star general in "Armageddon," that big budget Sci Fi disaster film that makes him one of the Brothas and Sistahs of Sci Fi that is being profiled on www.Blackwebportal.com.

The many celebrity interviews I've had such as those with "Kings Of Comedy" stars Steve Harvey and Cedric The Entertainer; Wesley Snipes; "Friday" stars Ice Cube and Michael Epps; sex-a-phonist Boney James; Milwaukee homeboy Al Jarreau; and actors Brad Pitt; Christopher McDonald; Nicholas Cage; Elizabeth Shue and Erika Alexander, the braided attorney in the fox sitcom "Livin' Single" will be grouped and presented in a separate folder.

For the time being, goto the sites and click on the interviews at

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This is just a smattering of the many films Denzel Washington has made. Go to your local DVD or video rental store or satellite dish outlet for more. Or, I guess you could go to your cable supplier as well, but that's so 20th century. This doesn't necessarily mean that I consider Cable TV to be an anachronistic terrain-destroying customer insensitive technological backwater. Wherever would you get that idea?

OTHER GOOD CAPER AND NOIRE FILMS YOU MIGHT LIKE:

"CAUGHT UP" featured Cynda Williams of Gary Franklin's "One False Move" with Bokeem Woodbine in a tale of murder, misidentification and deceit as he takes up with a crooked employer and a mysterious beautiful woman who can read minds, but only those of men, one of whom is trying to hunt her down. Woodbine of "Dead Presidents" is only trying to live a normal life, but keeps getting caught up in other people's messes.

Jason Lee and Clifton Powell also of Dead Presidents" and Morris Chestnut's dad in "The Brothers" with Gabrielle Union co-star in this trademark by-the-book film noire film.

"DEAD PRESIDENTS" with Bokeem Woodbine, "Blade's" N'Bushe Wright, Larenz Tate, Keith David and Chris Tucker tried to do too much, and the heist part of the fact-based film is pushed into the background. The soundtrack was a big seller though, with good period music of the '70s.

Martin Sheen has a bit part in the star studded film about a group of Vietnam veterans who decide to rip off a bank depository where decrepit old money, or "dead presidents" in street slang is taken out of circulation to be burned, figuring it won't be missed.

"THE HEIST" with Gene Hackman and Delroy Lindo are among worthy members of the caper film genre as some old guys decide to make one last big score so they can retire to their houseboats in Florida , or the wilderness cabin, or one guy who dotes on his little niece.

"HOUSE OF GAMES" is David Mamet film about two of his favourite subjects: Man Stuff and those who live on the edges of society. Much like his "American Buffalo" there is a group of men who live off others, off the clock, and off the beaten path. A timid upper class Rich Bitch is taken for her loot by a band of schemers led by Chazz Palmenteri, ( a film Tough Guy who hides his credentials as a playwright and man of letters in favour of playing gangstas and goodfellas) in an elaborate double-back plot that will remind some of "The Sting." But this is the era of the woman, so keep this in mind.

"THE ITALIAN JOB" is back in theatres again, to pump up the gate for the DVD and Video release. Its thrilling enough, although it shouldn't be held against the film that the marketers spoiled the film for many by making the trailer Readers Digest chronological, and so it gave away the best scenes in order like a visual Cliff Notes®, making the movie anticlimactic for me. I hate it when the best parts are put in the trailer like that. Not all of us saw the 1960s original with Michael Caine and the car chase through the streets in the original Mini Cooper automobiles.

This one stars Marky Mark Wahlberg, Mos Def from "Monster's Ball" as the demolitions expert ("If this touches the inside of the brass socket, you and I will be the last people we'll ever see…"), the African American --sorta -- blonde Charlize Theron, and master thief Donald Sutherland. Don't watch the trailer for it that comes on other videos or it will spoil it for you. You've been warned!

"ONE FALSE MOVE" by "Out Of Time" director Carl Franklin isn't a heist film per se, but its close enough for our purposes. A group of cutthroat heisters knock over a drug house in Los Angeles that goes down badly, and decide to head to Star City in Arkansas to let the heat back there settle down. They bump heads with the local lawman played by small time but intuitive Bill Paxton, then fresh from "Aliens 2" and "Predator 2." Cynda Williams ("Caught Up") is his past love interest and that complicates matters.

Michael Beach from "Waiting To Exhale" and "Soul Food" is a pure sociopath, and likes his killing up close and personal. Beach wears suits now in his films but this was before, showing his versatility. I cringe even now when I see him, remembering how he sat around watching TV and looking bored while waiting for his bound and gagged victims to die in the LA house party, painfully writhing and suffocating from the clear plastic bags he put over their heads.

"PALMETTO" with Woody Harrelson and Elizebeth Shue visited much the same territory in subject matter and geography as "Out Of Time." Harrelson is a crusading reporter who gets caught up in some triple crossing action in the Florida panhandle. His brother in law in the film is a Black lawman who tries to cut his screwup some slack with work opportunities and such.

"THE SCORE" with Ed Norton and Robert DeNiro was a good intergenerational heist film pitting an old hand and a young upstart. One of the best lines: "Just when did you get smarter than me? Huh? Tell me just when did that happen?," DeNiro's leader asks the upstart Norton, who thinks he should be the leader of their museum heist for fixer Martin Brando in a rare latter film role.

Angela Bassett co-stars as DeNiro's love interest in "The Score," but her screen time is limited to being The Girlfriend. DeNiro has long let it be known that he likes that dark chocolate, but we don't hate him. He proved he was an actor when he portrayed a bigoted father in his TriBeCa production of a semi-autobiographical story with Chazz Palmienteri when his teenage son started dating a Black girl, and the father gave him hell. Now that's acting, culled from his own life experiences.

"SET IT OFF" Director F. Gary Gray's film about a band of lady bank robbers is packed with action and involving human stories. Starring Vivica Fox of "Kill Bill," Jada Pinkett Smith, and it earned an Academy Award Nomination for Dana Owens, I mean Queen Latifah of "Chicago," with Dr. Dre in a small role as their gun supplier.

The office cleaners turn to bank robbing in Los Angeles after their homegirl gets fired from her bank job and she teaches them everything they need to know about efficiently relieving banks of their cash. This movie has it all, and it was a better film in that regard than most heist films with male casts, such as the misfire that is "Dead Presidents."

"THE SPANISH PRISONER" is an involving heist film about a software developer with a valuable process that many would just as soon steal before it hits the market. The heisters throw all manners of ploys at him, several psychological, including the Tender Trap. The movie features stars such as Steve Martin and Ed O'Neil of "Married With Children" in serious roles who are better known for their comedy. Rent this one on my hearty recommendation.

OLD SCHOOL HEIST FILMS:

"TOPKAPI," is a 1960s film that was made before they let the criminals get away with at least some of the loot is one of the oldest and greatest heist films. I like the film because it was entirely foreign made and based in Greece (although in English), about a museum robbery based on a true story that had mostly ordinary people under a criminal mastermind perform the unconventional heist in a building with all kinds of anti-theft backups. Rent it to see one of the best of the Old School heist films. Among those are ones such as:

"THE STING" period film with Robert Redford, Paul Newman and Robert Shaw of "Jaws" that co-stars James Earl Jones' brother about some Depression era grifters who conspire to take down a brutal crime lord.

"THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT" in the early 1970s paired Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges in the break-in of a bank vault in the American west, aided by George Kennedy of the "Airplane" disaster movies and its sequels.

"THE LAVENDER HILL MOB" Alec Guinness' before he became known as Obi-Wan Kenobi was a heister in this British film, when a bank's insurance company is taken to the cleaners by an urbane collection of schemers.

"THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY" was taken from the real life top money taken crime in real dollars, or in this case British pounds, was made into a feature film a couple of times, with the latest big budget treatment made in the 1970s.

UPCOMING HEIST FILMS:

In the everything Old Is New Again world of Hollywood I understand there's even a remake of "The Anderson Tapes," the original starred Sean Connery in the heist of a high rise luxury apartment building. This follows in the tradition of the remake of "THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR" with 007 star Pierce Brosnan as a wealthy but bored playboy who steals for the thrill of outsmarting the law. –kjw

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DENZEL WASHINGTON IN "TRAINING DAY"

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SIX DEGREES OF OSCAR

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"DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST"

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"BLADE 2"

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"BLADE" [ORIGINAL]

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"MONSTER'S BALL"

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"JOHN Q"

"ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS"

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SAM JACKSON STARS IN "CHANGING LANES"

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"JASON X"

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THIS WEEK'S CINEMA VIEWS FEATURE:

"BIKER BOYZ"

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BUSY "BIKER BOYZ" IS FILLING, LOOKS GREAT

by Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic

kevinjwalker@blackwebportal.com

The local cinema scene is heating up with radio station V-100 capitalizing on the strong film business that Brewtown has been getting into.

This includes writers like Mequon based John Ridley, the writer of of "U-Turn" with Jennifer Lopez, and of "Three Kings" fame with George Clooney and Ice Cube. "Soul Food" director George Tilman,Jr., can be counted with local director producers such as Brad Pruitt, plus the many stand-ins and cast members of locally produced films such as "Brew City" and Cecil Woodson's drug-thug film "The Hittmaker" co-starring the lovely and talented Keisha Ingram, Theresa Brown, and radio station 1290 WMCS DJ Terry "Hollywood" Love.

Toss in big-budget films such as Wesley Snipe's breakthrough "Major League," which used Milwaukee and its now-demolished County Stadium as a stand-in for Cleveland, and you see how V-100 could easily fill in a week from February 3 through the 7th with films all five nights, with guest speakers on each outing. Monday for instance, has former rapper Fredro Starr with the film he co-starred in, the high school basketball flick "Sunset Park." Starr also co-starred in the teen flicks "Light It Up" and "Ride."

Tuesday is the local preview of "Deliver Us From Eva," with Gabrielle Union and LL Cool J, while Wednesday is Family Night with "The Wiz." The film features a too-old Diana Ross as Dorothy, Lena Horne as The Good Witch of the West, a non-singing Richard Pryor as The Wiz; Nipsy Russell as the Tin Man, and Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow and his original African Descended nose.

Thursday is Old School night with the mid-1970s "Cotton Comes To Harlem, with Coffin Ed and Gravedigger Jones. That film was echoed in the Robin Givens, Forest Whitaker film "A Rage In Harlem," directed by Bill Duke, currently in Steve Zahn and Martin Lawrence's "National Security."

Friday, V-100 Black History Film festival wraps up with "Remember The Titans," for those of us who haven't quite gotten football out of our systems just yet. New director Denzel is a high school football coach in the true story of a team that is shouldering the process of 1960s desegregation, and had to join teams from two different schools, one all-White and one all-Black.

The more I think of it, Thursday's "Cotton Comes To Harlem" should really be on a double bill with "Come Back Charleston Blue," their sequel hit. And how could the WKKV-FM V-100 promotional team of Becky Yang, Bailey Coleman, and the lovely Jasmine forget "Three the Hard Way" with Fred Williamson, "Enter The Dragon's" Jim Kelly, and Jim Brown?

That entertaining action film of the early 1970s had the theme of Genocide via a serum "as selective as Sickle Cell Anemia," as the White Supremacist scientist says, that would target those of African descent (in three major US cities Detroit, DC and Los Angeles, thus the name of the film) years before anyone heard of HIV/AIDS.

Maybe next year. And while they're at it, the crew from V-100 can slot the almost banned-film of urban insurrection "The Spook Who Sat By The Door" from Sam Greenlee's book, which had to be published in Canada. The star of the film didn't work for years

Or the station could make their Black History Film Festival for the whole 28 days of Black History month! With a monthly film pass, perhaps. It could work! Anyway, call the station and tell them what you think, and make plans to attend at the Northtown theatre, 7440 North 76th street, a few blocks north of Good Hope. Save me an aisle seat. And turn off your cell phones.

But for now, this week's feature is "Biker Boyz," which the Milwaukee Community Journal newspaper and V-100 teamed up for a packed preview at the Westown theatres in Brookfield. --kjw

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You may be excused if you might think of "Biker Boyz as "Fast & The Furious" on motorcycles instead of cars, but you'd be wrong for a couple of reasons.

For one thing, "Biker Boyz" is a superior film, with more layered individual stories, and more going on. There is some fairly strong writing behind it, and it shows up onscreen.

Factor in some attractive visuals, a movie that really moves, and you have a winning film formula. The film is propelled along largely via the strong writing, but since this is film the expression is through the visually impressive editing. There's another Milwaukee hookup here through Terilyn Shropshire, who edited Kasi Lemmon's breakthrough "Eve's Bayou." She is the daughter of Miller Vice President Thomas and former Milwaukee Urban League director Jacqueline Shropshire.

Current film flava Derek Luke stars in the fabulous "Biker Boyz" and he like "Gangs of New York" and "Catch Me if You Can" star Leonardo DiCaprio has the good fortune, not to speak of talent, to have two hot movies out at the same time. Luke also stars in "Antwone Fisher," Denzel Washington's directorial debut. His own debut has caused a stir in Hollywood as a fresh face with a long bright future ahead of him. This film will not diminish that expectation.

Luke has an expressive face capable of communicating a vast range of emotions with subtlety, and he has shown himself capable of the tinge of subterranean cruelty and roguishness that is rather in vogue these days. He also can be tender and romantic, which endears him to the ladies. Certainly, starring in an action film is the way to go, especially an ensemble one like this where his part isn't played up as much as one would expect, and he can share duties with others much as Ice Cube did in "Barbershop."

"Biker Boyz" second half takes off like a crotch rocket, but not after some welcome but unexpected character development that isn't usually seen in Teen Speed films. And this one even had the requisite pretty girl with the bandana fluttering in the breeze as the two vehicles speed past her in a fury of red dust.

The only thing that was missing from the usual is the requisite race down the LA spillway, used in films from "Blue Thunder", "Grease," a foot chase with Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze in "Point Break", dueling vehicles in "Terminator 2," and an out of control Space Shuttle in the trailer for "The Core," which is supposed to be yanked after the Columbia tragedy.

Maybe the causeway be in the sequel to "Boyz," because you can bet your double chrome manifold pipes there will be one if this film busts out as it should, as it has no real competition as far as subject matter. The recent box office receipts of films such as "Drumline," which was recently pronounced to be one of 2002's Top Ten films although it had a predominately Black cast and no major stars.

"Brown Sugar," and last year's "The Best Man" show that even White audiences are flocking to see these films and they're not 'scurred of the dark. While its not quite there yet, even the direction is two-way, as there are increasing films that are helmed by Black directors that have nothing to do with modern life or urban drama such as gang/drug wars.

The Hughes twins directed the 1800s period detective Jack The Ripper film "From Hell" with Johnny Depp; Forest Whitaker of "Waiting To Exhale" did Sandra Bullock's "Hope Floats," and "Chicago" star Renee Zelweger and "The Hours" star Meryl Streep's "One True Thing" was directed by crime director Carl Franklin of "Set It Off" and "One False Move." These are in themselves remarkable, but what is really remarkable is that no one really remarked on it. It's not a big deal. Free at last?

Maybe because the "Biker Boyz¡¯ movie script was based on the New Times article on the Biker Culture of southern California is why there was the human texture in the film directed by Reggie Rock Bythewood. The film "Mask" with Cher showed some of this, but it was a sanitized version of motorcycle gangs, which is not the same thing. These characters are street racers in clubs with day jobs, although we don't see them, but that comes up later, keep reading.

The multicultural cast is an attractive one, featuring Latins, Asians and some of indeterminate origin. Kid Rock (or Mr. Pamela Anderson) is Dawg, a leader of one of the competing clubs. Brendan Fehr is Kid’s right-hand man, and co-conspirator in their hustle game.

Together with Primo played by Rick Gonzalez, another biker on the periphery who wants to make his way in the world, they form the Biker Boyz, a young Turk upstart racing group who struggle to get recognized by the old gray heads of the cycle culture, and who reject many of their rigid rules.

"We’re going to make up our own rules!" pronounces Kid, as his Boyz movement grows and he becomes a force to be reckoned with, and he starts to do some reckoning of his own and deal out some payback. Some of it had to deal with the rejection he faced from the luscious babes who kicked him to the curb when he was a Prospect, or the biker equivalent of a Scrub, such as happened with Tina, a local tattoo artiste and sister of Larenz Tate’scharacter.

Laurence Fishburne of the "Matrix" films has the studio banking on his action and youth appeal as Smoke, the leader of the race pack of Southern California. Some love interest is added in the mix via Lisa Bonet as Queenie, who’ssupposed to be a badass in her own right on the bike instead of holding onto her man’swaist with her behind bouncing while he rides, but we hardly see her roll. Maybe the movie’sinsurance people wouldn’t hear of it.

Bonet hasn’t seen much in films after her wholesome "Cosby Show" Good-Girl trashing role opposite, under, straddling atop, and beneath Mickey Rourke in the soft-porn demonic "Angel Heart," although she had a nice role in "Enemy of The State." Here she is mostly Eye Candy, at least for those men who like that sort of thing with her chiseled cheekbones, skinny legs and all.

Larenz Tate, and Djimon Honsou of "Amistad" are a few more of the cast of dozens. Vanessa Bell Calloway (of "The Inkwell" along with Tate, and the Buddhist ex-Ikette friend of Tina in "What’s Love Got To Do With It?" In another Six Degree moment, Laurence Fishburne co-starred as Ike Turner, and knocked her down.)

Bell-Calloway was the love interest voice of the late Robin Harris in the animated feature "Be Be's Kids." Here she's Luke's character's mother, Anita. She was a biker Homegirl from Back In Tha Day, and the thick cutie still can fit in those leather outfits in the back of her closet, although she has put her racing days behind her and wishes her son would as well.

"Do you know what we call motorcycle racers in the hospital? Organ donors!" she tells Jalleel, who like a typical son ain't feelin' it.

"Biker Boyz" has more than a small touch of family life, which only adds to the enjoyment. There are tinges of "Baby Boy," "He Got Game" and the Western revenge drama the "Quick and The Dead" in "Biker Boyz." In fact, in interviews Fishburne says that the film is really a Western with biker culture wrapped around it.

In USA Today he said "This is a Western, its feeling and its flavour are straight out of a cowboy movie. Don't be fooled by the fact it's a biker movie," he said to Stephen Schaefer. Fishburne will be in the two "Matrix" sequels reprising his role as Morpheus in the back-to-back films being released ala "Back To The Future" 2 and 3, in May and November, with Nona Gaye and Keanu Reeves. Gaye took over for the late Aaliyah, who got the spot from Jada Pinkett Smith.

There's something for all viewers in "Biker Boyz" from glistening machines, lots of Vroom-Vroom, rump-shaking short-skirted biker babes to flexing Brothas and Others for the ladies. The movie puts it right in our faces --really-- from the very first frames, with a pair of tight, firm, bodacious buns in tight shorts undulating right in our faces as a Hootchie Honey switches along to get on the back seat of a bike. We never even see her face. There is lots of dizzying SteadiCam work shown in the busy film, so don't sit too close in the theatre if you're headache prone. You've been warned.

The cyclery shown had some of the intimates in the preview audience Monday night ooh-ing and ahh-ing over biking and motor minutiae only they knew. All I know is that putting Nitrous Oxide gas in your tank makes you go really, really fast, but Mel Gibson and Tina Turner's "Road Warrior" showed that.

You might think as I did at first, that interest in the subculture is the farthest thing from your mind. But "Biker Boyz" makes it interesting, while serving up lots of racing and stunts, many of which anyone would be ill-advised to perform although that doesn't stop people --usually young males-- from subtracting their defective DNA from the gene pool in a splendid display of Darwinian Natural Selection.

There is lots of Man stuff going on in the film, which is hosed down with plenty of testosterone. "I'm callin' you out!" Kid tells Smoke, who nevertheless treats him in a fatherly way because his father was his best bud, and Jaleel's mom Anita and Smoke used to kick it back in tha day.

This romantic subplot and flash-backing gives "Biker Boyz" a soap-opera-ish feel that was not unwelcome; it was a break from the racing and made for a better film. I was pleasantly surprised and so were quite a few others at the preview. There is also some aspects of "He Got Game" and "Love and Basketball" in the film, as some high stakes are raced for, and some surrogate father-son, son-mother tension in "Biker Boyz."

"It doesn't matter if he shows up with a Space Shuttle today, he's going down!" says Dawg as he strokes his souped-up Nitro-fueled street rocket racing machine after he's challenged by Kid. The upstart works his way up the ladder until he can challenge Smoke, the leader of the pack in the illegal street cycle racing scene whose car expression was seen in "The Fast And The Furious," whose sequel is coming out this summer. Keep reading.

There are some veterans sprinkled in amongst the fresh young faces. Orlando Jones, who co-stars in the surprise commercial and critical hit "Drumline" is going two-for-two in a film with a predominately African American cast that nevertheless has strong crossover appeal. Jones was seen plenty in the last year in films such as the Sci-Fi actioners "Evolution" and the big-budget remake as the Library Griot in "The Time Machine." Then there are those soft drink commercials.

As Soul Train, the freestyle rapping mouthing-off herald of Smoke who commands other "mere mortals need to bow y'all asses down!," he is the only one who has a life that is shown apart from racing. By day he's a lawyer, after taking off the ripped blue jeans, the ring out of his ear, combing the naps out of his hair, and putting back on his Good English for the workplace.

Here even "The Fast and The Furious" failed to show that somebody has to be working, have a trust fund or doing something to be able to afford vehicles that hover near the $50,000 mark after the extensive customizing kicks in. In Milwaukee we know that Harley-Davidson bike owners are more likely to be dentists doctors and architects instead of the unshaven blue collar types from back in the 1950s. Hell, even our past Governor Tommy Thompson, now head of the Bush II administration's Dept. of Health and Human services rode his Harley across the length of the state of Wisconsin every year.

The previews of the film are being accompanied by exhibitions of motor bikes and bike clubs, who were invited to this week's preview Monday night. Laurence Fishburne has been into biking for the last seven years or so, since he and Billy Baldwin starred with two fast Ducati motorcycles in the cop/buddy/drug busting "Fled."

They were shown racing all around the Stone Mountain monument roads and Fishburne stuck with it, even buying his own after the film shooting was completed. After "Boyz" wrapped he bought the Jap Sazuki cycle he rode in this one, too. In a nod to overseas marketing, the bikes shown in the movie are largely the plastic Japanese rice burners.

(Oops, I mean motorcycles. Remember I'm from the city that makes the powerful and throaty Harleys, not those with Asiatic plastic lawn mower or hedge-trimmer motors). And the Biker Boyzs insignia is shown in Japanese kanji characters, with two Asian members shown prominently. Make that money!

Thoughtless fads often get started in these popular films, and "The Fast & The Furious" already had municipal authorities tearing their hair out as the illicit but organized races started popping up all over the country, much like the Fight Clubs did after that film with Ed Norton of Spike Lee's "The 25th Hour" became a phenomenon.

Of course, some fads are self-limiting, like the suicidal-flirting Russian Roulette clubs from Robert DeNiro and Christopher Walken's "The Deer Hunter." Oh, here's a couple'a tips that some of those mentally challenged club members who are no longer with us must've missed.

One: you play Russian Roulette with a six-chambered PISTOL, not an automatic handgun. Those have ammo clips that go in from the bottom of the handle, and you'll be a guaranteed loser as soon as you pull the trigger; and (Two) and this is really important, its ONE BULLET in the six chambers. But I imagine you know that by now. Wherever you are.

Actually, one of the stars of "The Deer Hunter" killed himself after taking up the dubious sport. Jonathan Cazale, the tremendously talented actor who played the wimp Fredo Corleone in two of "The Godfather" movies, died playing Russian Roulette. But I digress again.

Of course, there's a sequel to the "Fast & The Furious," but without sorta-brotha Vin Diesel, who is pursuing a faster and furious 007-type character in the hoped-for "XXX" franchise¨Cto-be with Samuel Jackson as his M.

Vin Diesel will be in the remake of "Pitch Black" as it picks up, like the sequels to Sigourney Weavers "Alien," on the group led by Diesel's super-criminal turned hero and saviour after their adventures on the desert planet full of monsters. Now we're talking! That science fiction siege/trek film was one of the better action films of its year, with sometimes local guy Keith David from "Armageddon" in another Hollywood-Brewtown Six Degree connection, as his lovely fiance lives here in Milwaukee.

You know, if these stars keep from taking our people away like they've been doing maybe we'd have some mates, do you hear me, Keith, Chante Moore, and Halle Berry? And ABC News lady Carole Simpson, whose longtime Boo lived here.

"Deliver Us From Eva," and the V-100 WKKV FM Black History Month Film Fest at the Northtown Cinema on 76th and Good Hope will be the subject of next week's Cinema Views.

Contact kevinjwalker@blackwebportal.com , call (414) 454-9673, or write P.O. Box 1324-63201, Milwaukee WI; and read past reviews at the Cinema Views website at http://cinemaviews.tripod.com --KJW

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Cinema Views with Kevin J Walker

Cinema Views with Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic

Jan. 28, 2003

VALENTINE VIEWS:
"DELIVER US FROM EVA"
"HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS"
CINEMA VIEWS by Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic
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“Deliver Us From Eva?Does Shakespeare Proud

Leventy-Seventh Remake Of “The Taming Of The Shrew?lt;P> With Predom Black Cast Vastly Entertaining;

Gabrielle Union’s Breakout Role

by Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic
kevinjwalker@blackwebportal.com

There are good performances all around in “Deliver Us,?but make no mistake this is really Gabrielle Union’s film, fo?sho? The film revolves around her and her sisters, and Shakespeare’s “The Taming Of The Shrew?has been updated again. The last major one was ?0 Things I Hate About You.?That launched the careers of Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles, and was placed in a high school.

The basic plotline of Will’s play is a headstrong woman who is conspired against by her friends, family or whomever to have her fall in love, an element that they figured was missing from her life, to cause her long-sought for happiness, or to get her out of their hair. The theme also appeared in “Much Ado About Nothing,?with Denzel Washington playing the Duke, with his errant and envious brother played by Keanu Reeves.

Shakespeare’s plays have provided fodder for many a Hollywood screenplay, and he’s the most filmed author, with the possible exception of Elmore Leonard or Jane Austen. Another high school based play was from one of his darkest, “Othello, The Moor of Venice?renamed “O.?lt;P> This time Julia Stiles, who was in another Salt and Pepper Jungle fever, Zebra Head film "Save The Last Dance," is Desdemona to Mekhi Phifer’s basketball star, as the “Pearl Harbour?hearthrob from the romantic comedy "40 Days and 40 Nights" is the motiveless malignant Iago who sets them up for destruction. Laurence Fishburne was the first Black man to play the role in a national format, aside from small theatre presentations.

Of course, it is impossible to get a full appreciation of Brotha Shakespeare works unless you read them in the original Swahili.

LL Cool J long ago shed the rapper title, although as Will Smith does he still keeps his hand in, cutting a CD here and there. But for both of these talented brothas, acting is their true game, and they’re getting better and better as the roles they assume have more and more meat on them.

“Deliver" could as well be called “How To Be A Playa 2" from all the good advice it gives. (That film is also in the dysfunctional section of the Black Love Video Views vault, next to the Tina Turner biopic “What’s Love got To Do With it.".

Evangeline is a career driven oldest sister who was the head of the family after they were orphaned in her teens. She still micro manages her three sisters lives, and they've never known any other way. Their men see the situation differently, and decide to take action. They send in Ray, a master playa, to woo Eva so they can have their wives to themselves.

Eva’s brother-in-laws are aghast when, within minutes of being introduced to her, Ray offhandedly mentions a fictional girlfriend! He calms them down and explains.

“No woman wants a man that another woman doesnt want" he says. There were some murmurs from the ladies in the audience, and a few “That's Right!" heard. Me, I'm taking notes of all this.

“Relax, and let the master handle his business," he reminds them. In his hands Eva will be strung out and whipped in no time, and theyll know peace in their houses. But the best-laid plans are thrown for a loop when the player-player and Master of the Game gets caught in his own net when he realizes Eva’s not that bad when he gets to know her.

And as men know who have those quiet-type, outwardly straight-laced sophisticated “Good Girls with corporate jobs, Eva can do some serious whipping of her own! They have a Freak Gene that gets activated when its pushed right.

“I have to leave now, before I start talking some nasty, freaky stuff…” the turned-on and eveready Eva says as Ray is getting her to leave after revving her up, all part of his nefarious plan. But getting them together took some doing.

“Man, my ears are still bleeding!?he complained after their first disastrous date, when the sharp-tongued harpy shredded his manly ego with her violatous verbs, calling him “meat boy" and throwing up her job, which requires a college education and by the way pays more than his delivery job, she lets him know.

“Most women have a few barriers around their heart. Eva has an electrified fence with rabid pit bulls!?Ray relates. Still, the joy of the movie is watching her defenses gradually come down as she opened her heart to love. But we remember what the premise of the movie is.

Union is a familiar face, having appeared in small roles in "The Brothers," and Viveca A. Fox's "Two Can Play That Game." She was exposed to a wider audience in the hit film "Bring It On," as the leader of a high school cheerleading squad whose routines were ripped off by a White suburban school, who used them to get to the national championships year after year.

The old plot line of plotters in love has and will be used a lot. The number one film right now is ‘How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days" starring Matthew McGonaughy and Kate Hudson, where shes a magazine columnist who has to woo, romance and then drive away a good man in less than a fortnight to get advanced at her job. (That review follows this one. Keep reading)

There is smart crackling dialog throughout both of these films, and modern audiences will be pleased with the pacing and characterizations. In “Deliver us From Eva?the three bros-in-law plotters are comic relief, as the ladies run this mothersucker. Duane Martin is a film veteran whos appeared in movies as diverse as the sci-fi horror flick “The Faculty.?

Wanda Sykes is making a career as the randy busty ‘hood runner as in the “Friday?sequels. Sykes plays Ormandy, one of the beauty salon employes with the requisite flaming gay hairdresser, complete with lisp and arched eyebrows as men enter and leave their shoppe. But theres a twist in the casting, and I must advise you to stay through the entire credits. You’ll see!

“Falling in love isnt a virus, its a choice?Eva tells Ray. She goes about being the best woman she can be with an intensity that rivals her work as a health inspector for the city. Her sisters notice her absence, and the brothers in law surely do as they are now able to get their lives on track with their women, shown in montages as they cuddle, read, plan for children, and sleep the night away without any check up on ‘em calls from their wives' surrogate parent.

“Oh my god?one of the sisters realize. “Eva’s got a man!?

LL Cool J, or James Todd Smith ("Ladies Love Cool James" was his saying)played a similar walk-on role as a master playa in “Woo,?another Black Love Video View selections for the Valentine Holiday season at http://cinemaviews.tripod.com, or geocities.com/cinemaviews. There he gave love advice to Tommy Davidson as he was preparing for a date with the strange and wonderful Woo, played by Jada Pinkette. He also appeared briefly in the original "Charlie's Angels."

"Deliver Us From Eva" directed by Gary Hardwicke is rated "R" for sexual innuendo and language, but there's nothing shown. Still, this isn't a film for the kids, so hire a sitter or call your sister or mother. Again. Co-stars include Kenya Moore, Robinne Lee, Essence Atkins, Brian Adams. -kevinjwalker@blackwebportal.com, p.o. box 1324-53201, (414) 454-9673

--------- CINEMA VIEWS BY KEVIN J

CINEMA VIEWS BY KEVIN J. WALKER