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BROCK PETERS PASSES; WAS ADM. CARTWRIGHT IN "STAR TREK" FILMS;

MAKE THAT TWO TO BEAM UP:
JAMES MONTGOMERY "SCOTTY" PASSES

"xXx: State Of The Union" Is Delivered By Ice Cube and Samuel L.Jackson

"SAHARA" -- Penelope Cruz, Steve Zahn, and Matthew McConaughey go to the Motherland in search of Confederate gold?

"SIN CITY" -- Comic books weren't like this back in my youth! Frank Miller, Roberto Rodriguez and Quarentino's violent, sexy opus.

"BEAUTY SHOPPE" LADIES CUT UP PLENTY

IN NEW FILM FRANCHISE THAT'S BETTER THAN PARENT

"CONSTANTINE"

ACADEMY AWARDS OF 2005

"HITCH" -- WILL SMITH SAVES THE ROMANTIC COMEDY THIS TIME IN ENGAGING COMEDY WITH EVA MENDES AND KEVIN JAMES

"LACKAWANNA BLUES" ON HBO

"I, ROBOT" -- WILL SMITH TAKES OVER THE SUMMER AND SAVES HUMANITY IN FILM VERSION OF ASIMOV'S CLASSIC

"CATWOMAN" -- HALLE BERRY LEAPS INTO ACTION FRANCHISE OF '60S PRE-FEMINIST ICON

"NEVER DIE ALONE" -- DMX STARS IN DONALD GOINES' TALE OF URBAN RETRIBUTION

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"TUPAC RESURRECTED"

"MATRIX: REVOLUTIONS" WRAPS UP TRILOGY RIGHT

"KILL BILL" IS QUARANTINO'S HOMAGE TO CHOP SOCKY ACTION GENRE

"OUT OF TIME" WITH DENZEL WASHINGTON, SANAA LATHAN, EVE MENDES

The Academy Awards were ho-hum this year, but it still was a spectacle. Why did an actress wear a Hefty bag? Why did a former exotic dancer wear a dress slit so high you could almost see her burning bush? Why didn't Ruby Dee win for "American Gangster?"...

Netitor of The Word NetPaper BROTHA SCIENCE OSCARS 2008 – ITS A WRAP!

Ruby Dee was up for Best Supporting Actress for playing Denzel Washington's accommodating mama in AMERICAN GANGSTER which was otherwise shut out of the acting awards. Had she won at 83 she would have been the Academy's oldest recipient ever.

AUGUST RUSH's "Raise It Up" was nominated for Best Song by creators Jamal Joseph, Charles Mack, and Tevin Thomas which they performed for the ceremony in a rousing rhythmic display.

Incidentally, Charlize Theron is African American. (South African native). Her accent is Gone, Baby Gone from all the American parts she's played, and unlike people such as Sean Connery (Scotland), Eric Bana (Australia) Mel Gibson (Aus.) Nicole Kidman (Aus.) and Russell Crowe (Aus.) she doesn't go home enough to recharge her linguistic skills to get her accent back. Countrywoman Cate Blanchett's is almost on its way out. But I digress.

Daniel Day Louis won Best Actor for "THERE WILL BE BLOOD." He finally got his head on straight after saying a few years ago he wanted to retire and become a cobbler. This is his second win after "My Left Foot." He's kept his Brrritish occ-cent.

Javier Bardem won Best Supporting Actor for NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, a modern Western about a botched drug deal, a missing fortune, and a brutal mob enforcer played by Bardem. He delivered his speech in Spanish, saying "This is for all of us!"

He brought his mother to the ceremonies. He's a real man. He was the lead in "The Dancer Upstairs," about a Spanish counter terrorist operative on the trail of the country's top killer.

This focus and preponderance of foreign born nominated, obscure arty films and depressing subject matter may have depressed tune-ins for the show, the lowest rated Oscar show ever, and a lame host from a tiny cable online community.

The budget movie houses have several of these films since the timing drops them into their schedules when the nominations and ceremonies are underway. The bigger chains then scramble to have them back.

Among the big films only "Juno" made any real money, over $100 million largely from the youth appeal and positive Pro Life message of a teen who eschewed having an abortion and chooses to give the baby up for adoption to Jennifer Garner and her husband.

GONE BABY GONE director Ben Affleck had his on fire baby brother Casey as lead, but the most excellent film was shut out much as "American Gangster" in nominations. Casey did get nominated for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" starring Brad Pitt. Amy Ryan was up for Best Supporting Actress as the Boston single mother whose young daughter's disappearance is being investigated by Affleck, Monaghan, Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris.

OSCAR HOSTING WAS WEAK

Jon Stewart wasn't bringing a lot of popularity to the screen with him. Goatee Boys, TwentySomethings who get their news from his fake topical news show, and latte drinkers on college campi don't count for much. But he got some points in.

Politics crept into Stewart's presentation when he commented on the struggle for primacy between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, with the barest connection to Hollywood.

"Usually, whenever there's a African American or woman president a huge meteor is about to hit the Statue of Liberty" quipped Stewart in an unusually apt zinger. I'm thinking Morgan Freeman in "Deep Impact."

The prolonged writers strike made it a chance there'd be no awards show at all, like the Golden Globes, and many people were mentally divorced from the event. Then, there was the subject matter which was murderous, gloomy and overtly arty and foreign based.

All combined meant no real reasons to tune in and give almost four hours of one's life that couldn't be gotten back. I'll bet the show's organizers are rethinking how best to woo Chris Rock back to do his host thing. Comedians have been the preferred host pool since Johnny Carson, Billy Crystal and Steve Martin did such a good job in the 1980s. They followed with multiple hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Chris Rock.

FILMS HONOURED WHAT FEW PEOPLE SAW ON THEATRES

Denzel Washington capped off the show presenting the Best Film award. He won the Best Actor Academy Award winner for "Training Day" in a year for what has been termed the African-American Oscars for the tripartite wins that night (Halle Berry for "Monster's Ball;" Washington; and Sidney Poitier for Lifetime Achievement).

"Thank God for teen pregnancy" in 'Juno'," which this year passed for a Feel Good movie, quipped Seattle based conservative radio talk show host and critic Michael Medved of this year's "empty" crop of gloomy and/or murderous movies: SWEENEY TODD; THERE WILL BE BLOOD – which wasn't a rip off of the "Saw" and "Hostel" franchises, but about a morally conflicted oil businessman of the late 1800s played by the victorious Daniel Day Lewis.

"What is 'No Country For Old Men' about? That if you come across $2 million dollars in the desert from a drug sale gone bad and a shootout, don't pick it up?" Medved asked.

OSCARS BECOMING ENTERTAINMENT WORLD'S SUPERBOWL

Prince had a jamming post-Oscar party in the Hollywood Hills. Of course, many people have to with a lot less.

I've been to Oscar viewing parties, both sanctioned and not. (They'll send lawyers after you, if they can catch you. Smart ones don't advertise it, but people know. There actually is a law that you can't show broadcasts of sports or movies even for free without an Exhibitors license. Around the Superbowl is when you hear of that. So, all those patio and lawn parties with the projection TVs or flat panels might get you a terse letter.

Usually they don't bother, they're too busy trying to close down the bitTorent movie downloaders who are doing for feature films what happened to the CD and music sales! More on that in the Technical articles, and the evolving Web ver.2.0

The Oscar ritual is becoming a growing type of cultural Superbowl. Instead of just a night, it starts days before with gatherings and fittings and parties and sightings. It seems to be evolving much as Halloween has, which has long been snatched from the kiddies and now is the second most expensive holiday season.

The Superbowl and Academy Award seasons fill the void of the long period of drought between the end of the month long Thanksgiving and Solstice season and the growing March 17th multi-day bacchanalia of St. Patrick's Day.

The Spring Equinox celebration we call Easter, from its older name of Ishtar, from Persia and thereabouts, would be the next one after that. Go read about the Real Reasons For Tha Seasons.

ABC knows how to use what they have. They front loaded their Oscar pre, post and next day God Morning America shows to boost their lineups. Barbara Roberts had her customary interviews; Jimmy Kimmel Live's late night show and his foul-mouthed girlfriend the comic and cable show star Sarah Silverman had dueling ribald cuckold videos.

"I'm wearing 'JC Pen-ay' – from the after 5 section," quipped GMA co-host Robin Roberts as she reclined on the loungers on the Oscar set the next day. Really? Are they from the same line as Tar-Zhay? (Target!)

Roberts kept her hair on this time, but is as prone to take it off if it gets uncomfortable or in the way. When she did her runway model dare a few weeks ago she doffed the hairpiece she wears while she undergoing her chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer.

I had a lady friend whose head was close shaven. I liked it a lot, because she had the head shape for it. When she grew her hair back I didn't like it as much, although she had ear lobe-length hair when I met her. But I digress.

Since ABC was the sponsoring station, they had access to all the good stuff, while the other networks' news shows used the after ceremony setup where they let people blab on and on, with the photogenic back drop. This way there's no nagging music-hook about to usher you off the stage while you're thanking the nanny and the gardener, et cetera while the show drags into the night.

ABC also used the opportunity to push "Pushing Daisies" co star and Broadway singer Kristin Chenowith, who does some on the limits pushing show about her pie shoppe partner who has the power of resurrection over anything dead. You have to be there. It will be covered in TeleViews. It also stars Chi McBride, and Ellen Green who does her own singing. You know her as Seymour's boo from "Little Shop of Horrors."

DIABLO CODY – THIS IS WHY SOME WOMEN SHOULDN'T GET TATS

Diablo Cody, tatted up best Screenwriter for "Juno," was a refreshing departure from the cutesy gown wearing chicks in the ceremonies and red carpet. She didn't even bother putting makeup on that thing on her right arm nor wear a single sleeve over it, as some did. Screw 'em she seemed to say. Hers was at the upper limit of respectability and almost looked like some wayward jewelry.

This is why smart women who plan on going nice places someday don't get large red/blue/green obtrusive tattoos. They don't go well with gowns, although Tractor Pull Redneck chicks don't think they'll ever have to care. Or apparently Mary J. Blige who had them on both arms, looking like a Thug Babe who wandered into the ceremonies on her way to a Gangsta Rap concert in the same building.

Blige's tat wasn't a li'l one like Viveca Fox's either, a little fox on her left upper arm which was even in "Independence Day." (I looked at her a lot. The Late Bloomer from Chicago had a shake dancer scene, not to speak of her humorous amorous scenes in the hilarious "Booty Call" with "Ray" Best Actor winner Jamie Foxx.

Cody also seemed a little like the character Juno, and thanked her parents who loved her "just the way I am." She probably has an interesting history which we will no doubt be exposed to. It turns out that she went to high school in Chicago Land area. She was always adventurous, her friends said of the former stripper and exotic dancer. We could tell that from Cody's dress, with a slit so high up her thigh you could almost see her Burning Bush!

We'll know much more of her; winning Oscars will do that to/for you, as well as pumping up the receipts of a movie that is still in theatres. Watch your papers for the ads, with the little man statuettes marking them as something you want to see.

RED CARPET MICROSCOPE TRAINED ON STARS; COJO'S BEST & WORST DRESSED– SWINTON WEARS A TRASH BAG;

Jennifer Hudson, last year's Best Supporting Actress winner for "Dreamgirls" and praised for her fashion sense didn't reproduce it this year. She seems to be noticeably slimmed down this year. She should take Mo'Nique with her wherever she's been going.

Marion Cotillard, the Best Actress winning star of LA VIE EN ROSE period biopic on the life of French chanteuse Edith Piaf was mah-velous, and like "Muriel's Wedding" star Toni Colette was transformed back in real life into a lovely creature. Goo-gobs of raven hair spilling over her shoulders, she was in a cream coloured gown as she accepted her award in heavily French accented English.

Makeup was also simple. Celebs' mouths didn't look like they'd sucked on raspberry Popsicles before they came out of the house.

"Way too many people are getting dressed in the dark" complained the designer, commentator and Entertainment Tonight correspondent CoJo.

Anne Hathaway – "That wasn't a dress, it was a float in the Rose Bowl Parade," CoJo said of her red ruffled number. Red was the order of the night for women. Nobody much cares what straight men wear to the Academy Awards. They wear black tuxes.

There are some women who can do no wrong on the red carpet walk. They have their own style and seem to always know what works for them:

Nicole Kidman; Cate Blanchette; Kelly Preston; Cameron Diaz; Helen Mirren; Renee Zellwegger; Jessica Alba, Hillary Swank.

"This is what a star is supposed to look like," he said of Swank. The stringy actress and two time winner favours bare arms and shoulders, and simple but elegant designs.

"Take note, take pictures and study for next year, girls."

CoJo also liked Katherine Heigle's red Grecian retro one-shouldered number, and proclaimed her the night's fashion Numero Uno.

PASSION FOR FASHION SQUAD -- RIVERS DUO GET CATTY ON THE RED CARPET WALK; THE ROCK IMPRESSES THE FASHIONISTAS WITH HIS COOKIN'

Mom Joan Rivers and her daughter Melissa The Merciless cover the red carpet, their acerbic wit and rapier commentary have become a part of the other broadcasts that cable has instituted. E! and other webcasts have become a growing part of the Oscar ritual which is a type of cultural Superbowl.

Tilda Swinton – "she looked like a guy;" "…Like she was going to a kd Lang concert" both interchangeably said, like a verbal tag-team on WWF.

"Kerri Russell always looks good, retro old school;

"Her hair looked like a Donald Trump comb over" one of them said of another actress;

Anne Hathaway's thinness: "A lot of these actresses are too thin, like they're doing a remake of 'Schindler's list' Joan said, although she liked the train part of Hathaway's outfit;

Heidi Klum's "ortho neck brace" large collar to her red dress, "like she fell asleep in a Gay airline flight" and just kept wearing the neck pillow.

"I didn't like it either, but if you're 200 feet tall you can get away with it," added Melissa Rivers. Klum was on the arm of her hubby the British crooner Seal.

Joan gushed about Duane "The Rock" Johnson and his stylish tux, fitted to his athletic frame.

"Finally, Clooney has a run for his money, men are getting into the act. And this guy was a wrestler, now he's a movie star," and now one with fashion sense. That's a "Game Plan."

TILDA SWINTON'S VAMPIRELLA GETUP; GET HER A BLOOD TRANSFUSION – STAT!!

MICHAEL CLAYTON co-star Tilda Swinton, another Brit much like fellow countrywoman Cate Blanchett who often plays red-blooded American roles, came in for a good ripping up over her shapeless black shroud looking getup.

"She looked like she was wearing a big old sack. 'oh look, were recycling...'

"She's a statuesque beauty, with those big green eyes; we need to see her body... and she was wearing a sack. Belted at least," sniped Jill, a commentator on NBC's Today Show.

About the pasty No Makeup look that a few others employed an unconvinced Joan opined "We want our movie stars to look beautiful."

"People don't want to see you the way you roll out of bed" said a Sistah actress.

Some of us have seen Tilda's physical gifts before. In the most excellent film "The Beach" she and Leonardo DiCaprio had some vigorous and sweaty edge of the bed activity, with her in the superior position.

The leader of the expatriate community near the Malay Peninsula then imperiously told him "Now get some sleep. I may wish to have sex again in the morning," as she turned away from him and plumped her pillow.

How come I never meet women like this?!

NEXT: We'll have a satirical, political list of contending films linked to the presidential candidates and those around them. –kjw

TeleViews and Cinema Views Combination

2007 Oscar Orgy Of The Word Netpaper

— This Year's Academy Awards A Royal Event Celebrating A King, A Queen, And A Little Princess —

• Jennifer Hudson, America's Sweetheart

• Did "Norbit" Controversy Doom Eddie Murphy's Chance For Gold?

• MIA: KeKe Palmer and "Akilah And The Bee"

• The Party After The After Party

• Why Aren't The Oscars Shown In Theatres?

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by Kevin J. Walker, Netitor
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Although not at the level of the landmark 2002 Academy Awards, this year was almost another Black Thang as awards for Best Actor and Best Supporting went to the home team. 2005 saw an award for Jamie Foxx for Best Actor for the musical biopic "Ray." This year the award went to Forest Whitaker after there was an early buildup for Will Smith that faded in the stretch, while Jennifer Hudson won her first time out.

Ellen DeGeneres, the Louisiana born hostess of the evening had her first time emceeing the 79th Academy of Arts And Sciences awards, following a growing tradition with other comics such as Billy Crystal, Chris Rock, and Whoopi Goldberg. She recycled some of her Oscar nite and its buildup for her syndicated show as have Oprah and others, especially those affiliated with the ABC network which carried the awards show.

DeGeneres said about the diversity of the nominees and Hollywood itself "I have to put it out there and just say that if there weren't any Blacks, Jews and Gays, then there would be no Oscars."

"Dreamgirls" fulfilled a dream to win a rare first time gold for the homey homegirl Jennifer Hudson of Chicago. She thanked the influence of her late grandmother, also a singer who had her own dreams too, but wasn't able to see the least of them come true.

JENNIFER HUDSON, AMERICAN SWEETHEART; THICKNESS IS CELEBRATED IN TINSELTOWN – FOR A HOT SECOND

"I have to take this moment to thank my grandmother…if only my grandma could be here… she was my greatest inspiration. She was a singer, but she never had the opportunity…omigod… She's probably in Heaven shouting right now… she made me what I am," Hudson said in her heartfelt Oscar acceptance speech for best supporting actress in "Dreamgirls."

"Look what God can do!" she said tearfully.

Hudson, in the backstage mockup they instituted so the stars can go on and on for the media without getting the musical hook before the live TV cameras, also graciously thanked the original "Dreamgirls," thereby going farther than the films producers. Jennifer Holliday, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Loretta Divine were cited for their contributions. Divine ("Crash"," Waiting To Exhale") has a cameo inspired by a subplot concerning her character from the "Dreamgirls" play. Holliday the original rejected Effie Whit, has been vocal about her being shut out entirely from the movie version.

Hudson has an infectious down to earth-ness and genuine big-eyed gratitude at even being at the party. Wholesome and talented, very pretty with her healthy normal girl next door shape, glistening lips and flawless skin – and looking good like a great many regular women do, by the way– Hudson is a welcome change indeed from some other public celebrities with their near-suicidal antics, and some that have gone all the way over.

Earlier in the broadcast she did a song with her "Dreamgirl's" co-star Beyoncé Knowles, who has been graceful in hiding her disappointment at being shut out in all the love being showered on Hudson. Stopping just short of sounding sour grape-ish, in an interview the thickish songstress said if she had been allowed to gain 40 pounds instead of lose twenty pounds for the starring role of Deena, she could have gone for Effie's coveted role!

Sara Ramirez, the thick beauty on ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" introduced the winner of an online homemade commercial by Dove soap and cosmetic company celebrating real beauty that was run for the first time during the show. The great Hollywood culture diversity march continues!

Simon Cowell of course managed to find a cloud around Hudson's silver lining Sunday night as the show's producer and one of the 3 judges snarked "its going to be a bit of a problem because now when we kick somebody off 'American Idol' they'll think they can go off and win an Oscar."

IDOLATORS AIN'T SCURRED OF NO SIMON!

It's a fortunate fact that with millions voting for you, you don't necessarily have to win at "American Idol" to be one, which was established long before Hudson's buildup. The so-called biggest losers to whims of a capricious American public as well as the technical call-in FUBARs and pranksters trying to throw the contest have gone on to craft several best selling albums, as by Chris Daughtry and last year's second place female finisher Katherine McPhee. Kellie Pickler, Carrie Underwood, and the other Idolators are all doing quite well.

The Pilobus Dance Theatre did their silhouette thing from the car commercials at the ceremonies, which was a classy cut above some of the other antics of the annual Oscar. There was no need for fancy production numbers like a modern day Busby Berkeley musical, just talent intelligently applied.

There was an absence of mega blockbusters this year among the contenders as even the action films such as "Blood Diamonds" had a social message. "Pan's Labyrinth" was like the four-statue winner and Best Film "The Departed" a multi-awardee, but for technical and art things for the stunning fantasmogorical film.

Ironically –or perhaps tellingly– Fox News television and radio pundit Bill O'Reilly called the Friday before all of the major awards and the best animated feature award right on the head by using his theory that Hollywood uses an equation involving Political Correctness, Ecological Propaganda, and a Liberal Agenda to push their values onto an American public. Thus, with his formula in hand on Friday, on his shows O'Reilly predicted correctly all of the big winners Sunday night:

• BEST ACTOR – FOREST WHITAKER, "LAST KING OF SCOTLAND"

• BEST ACTRESS – HELEN MIRREN, "THE QUEEN"

• BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS – JENNIFER HUDSON, "DREAMGIRLS"

• BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR – ALAN ARKIN, "LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE"

• BEST DIRECTOR – MARTIN SCORSESE, "THE DEPARTED"

• BEST FILM – "THE DEPARTED"

• BEST DOCUMENTARY – "AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH"

• BEST SONG" – I Need To Wake Up" by MELISSA ETHERIDGE from "An
• Inconvenient Truth"

• BEST ANIMATED FEATURE– "HAPPY FEET"

• BEST SCORE – "BABEL"

[A full listing, including technical award winners follows at the end of the article]

__________________________

MIA: KEKE PALMER AND "AKILAH AND THE BEE"

There are some actors and movies that ought not to be forgot. Keke Palmer in "Akilah and the Bee" was another Feel Good movie that could have had a shot for its star. But here as in many things in life Timing Is Everything. The young protagonist was being talked up, but her sweet little movie couldn't overcome the calendar and people's short memories. "Akilah and the Bee" was about a girl in South Central Los Angeles who finds out she has a talent for spelling that takes her to the nationals against upper class preppy contestants with high-powered coaches.

Under the tutelage of Larry Fishburne as a tweedy college professor and spelling Bee veteran coach she blossoms and he finds his way back to opening up his heart again. Sort of like "Finding Forrester," which was like "The Karate Kid," and so forth. Since good actors can switch personas for roles, Palmer was also the rude-mouthed adolescent in Tyler Perry's "Diary of a Mad Black Woman."

WHY AREN'T THE OSCARS SHOWN IN THEATRES?

I always found it odd that the Oscars are always shown on TV rather than in theatres like they used to do with athletic events like boxing before there was cable, and how some theaters do with sports events. Here in Wisconsin, the Green Bay Packer games are shown on some Sundays for free in the Marcus theatres which have a lot of screens, so they can spare a few on a slow Sunday afternoon. Besides, they'll more than make it up in concession sales.

This is much like cable channel MTV whose awards also are shown on Broadcast TV. That 's what you do when you want people to watch them. But its a little like a restaurateur who doesn't eat in her own place. It seems sorta wrong, you know?

LITTLE QUIRKY MOVIES MAKING THEIR PRESENCE FELT, AS AUDIENCES HUNGER FOR MORE THAN ACTION SEQUELS

There are the second stringers who can make a movie come to critical and public attention such as the young Black female student in "Half Nelson" who is the saviour of her crack addicted self destructive high school teacher that she nevertheless looks up to, played by Best Actor nominee Ryan Gosling.

SHAREEKA EPPS in "Half Nelson" plays a promising student who becomes both pupil and counselor to Gosling's inspiring but flawed teacher. Ryan Fleck earned two Indie nominations for his "Half Nelson," for best director and first screenplay, co-written with Anna Boden. The Indies are the Independent Spirit awards for smaller films. They are increasingly making their presence felt both at the box office and the awards show as the moviegoing public acts like its tired of the movie industry grinding out of endless sequels. At least until this summer until "Spider Man 3", "Fantastic 4 Two, " and "Pirates of the Caribbean 3"!!

Although it wasn't a small budget film, Best Score Winner "Babel" with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchette was another welcome sign that the movies are starting to break through the cookie cutter feature of releases. The movie about cross-cultural clashes and the human interconnectedness was rife with subtitles, and at times I could almost swear I could smell the spices and feel the dust and automobile fumes. Or maybe I was having Travel Griot flashbacks from trips to the Middle East.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: WINNER ALAN ARKIN

Alan Arkin has a long movie history, from the original "The In-Laws" with Peter Falk ("Columbo"); to a similar blue collar regular guy and struggling family patriarch in "Slums of Beverly Hills." The small project film shepherded by a husband and wife team hovered like a spectre over the ceremonies, since it was seen as largely responsible for knocking out "Dreamgirls" for a nomination for Best Picture. It was expected from all the pre-Academy Awards gifts the finally filmed Broadway play received, such as all the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild SAG Awards attention that all started a month ago.

The problem was all the people who believed their own hype. They forgot that media people, and especially the print critic foreigners such as those who are the Golden Globes, don't have a say in Best Picture which all members of the 7,200 member Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood get to vote on. The media goes and on with their faves, but it doesn't move the people necessarily.

Arkin who was the original bumbling Inspector Clouseau in the pre-Pink Panther "A Shot In The Dark," beat out the rehabilitated Eddie Murphy for Best Supporting Actor. Arkin starred as the addled grandpa in the little road trip film "Little Miss Sunshine," which saw his young co star Abigail Breslin nominated for Best Actress. You may have seen her in the photo printer commercials. In the movie a regular girl who aspires to being a beauty contestant gets the chance – if their beat-up Volkswagen bus can make the trip.

AND A LITTLE CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM

Fifth grader, movie star, and Best Actress nominee is some resume for a child actor! Breslin was trying to follow Anna Paquin ("The X-Men's" Rogue) as the youngest actress ever to win an Academy Award, for "The Piano." Although she went home without one for the star "Little Miss Sunshine," Breslin is set to go on to continued acting success.

That's if she can avoid the Curse Of The Child Actor that has claimed many talented. A few who have escaped include yearly film fave Drew Barrymore (one of "Charlie's Angels," and the little girl in "ET"). This ceremony also saw Best Actor nominee Jackie Earle Haley, a child actor ("Bad News Bears", Losing It") who left the business sorta then returned, and received a Best Actor nomination as a child molester seeking redemption in the Kate Winslet film "Little Children," which also had her nominated for Best Actress.

JADEN SMITH was enthusiastic at being in the Oscars and the collection of stars that even other stars want to meet. "He's looking for Sara Michelle Gellar," said his mother Jada Pinkett Smith. (Speaking for most men, as for wanting to meet the lovely star of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," aren't we all?)

Mrs. Will Smith's li'l man almost himself was nominated in a year that saw some of the youngest actors get some notice for their talents instead of their antics. He played the son of Smith's character in "The Pursuit of Happyness," who was remarkable as a father with a child in the homeless shelters. The story is true-based, on the life of a Milwaukee man named Chris Gardner who now has his own stock brokerage firm in Chicago. He comes through here from time to time. He's fairly easy to spot with that cool slate-grey Bentley.

DID "NORBIT" CONTROVERSY DOOM EDDIE MURPHY'S CHANCE FOR GOLD?

There was some late concern that Murphy was done in for Oscar gold for Best Supporting Actor for his James Brown inspired role as James "Thunder" Early in Dreamgirls" when his execrable comedy "Norbit" caused an uproar among some circles for its portrayal of Black women when it was released towards the end of the voting period.

Under the Walker 2 Film Theory it just may have worked against Murphy. I first espoused it on Access Hollywood host SHAUN ROBINSON'S old TV show here in Milwaukee, when she inherited the coveted timeslot after the noon news broadcast. I said during her pre-Oscar show then that the votes were being influenced by the cumulative effect of films released within a calendar year. People have memories, which is why they release the serious egghead films about historical figures, foreign flicks, or with subtitles after September so memories are still fresh and nowadays the DVDs will be in hand when the ballots are passed out so they can refresh their memories. We critics are often sent the DVDs and tapes for smaller films so they won't be lost to the hearts and minds of men. (And I never peddle mines on e-Bay. Besides, they're encoded and tagged).

BEST ACTORS IN CONTENTION

WILL SMITH was being talked up for a statue early out of the gate for "The Pursuit of Happyness." He was up against stiff competition in the Best Actor category for his role as Chris Gardner, the Milwaukee man who went west, but became homeless with his young son and then a millionaire stockbroker in one of the most energetic and enervating Feel Good movies of the season.

PETER O'TOOLE, nominated for "Venus" remains statue-less until and unless Hollywood gives him one for his body of work, much as they have for others who weren't rewarded until late in their lifetime. Then there are those such as the still active in films Sidney Poitier, who added to the African Awards pileup in 2002 when he received an Achievement award after already winning an Oscar decades before in 1963 for "Lillies In The Field."

DJIMON HOUNSOU for Best Actor shared nominations with his Best Supporting nominee co-star DiCaprio in "Blood Diamond," who was also competing against himself in a fashion because he was in two films, the one with Hounsou and Scorses's "The Departed." Hounsou has come far since he was a model and music video Man Candy for Janet Jackson, starring in the anti-slavery legal epic "The Amistad."

WHITAKER HAS VARIED FILMOGRAPHY

FOREST WHITAKER was born in East Texas and raised in South Central LA, although he has honed his East Coast accent with his language facility that he utilized as a pioneering cosmetic surgeon on O'Rourke in "Johnny Handsome"; and as a captured British soldier in "The Crying Game."

The film "Panic room" with Jodie Foster again saw Whitaker as a master criminal as his team is trying to get into a secure home protective vault shielding Jodie Foster and her daughter. Except what they want is in their room!

He has portrayed doctors and other professionals, even a fashion designer in "Prêt a Porter" ["Ready To Wear"]. He has crossed genres such as the empath psi warrior for the government in "Species," an alien with fellow Scientology pal John Travolta in "Battlefield Earth" and again in "Phenomena" where he unknowingly recited a Portuguese love poem; and was a meek accountant drawn into the bullet-flying world of a femme fatale played by Robin Givens in Bill Duke's period piece "A Rage In Harlem."

Whitaker used his South Central persona in "Ghost Dog," the near-cultish crime drama built upon the Code of the Samurai warrior used by a hit man who finds himself being hunted.

In one of his first roles Whitaker was the football player in "Fast Times At Ridgemont High." The alumna from that film have gone on to much success, such as Matt McConaughey, Sean Penn and others.

WHITAKER'S IDI AMIN ESCAPES HISTORICAL HEX THAT MAY HAVE PINCHED DENZEL

Whitaker through his skill and force of will has escaped the hex of playing controversial historical characters. It is a gamble, one that may have cost Denzel a third Oscar for his portrayal of convict Ruben Carter in "The Hurricane." The voting audience seems willing to take out their anger on an actor or director rather than the scriptwriters, but that's like the English taking issue with Mel Gibson's portrayal of Scots hero William Wallace in "Braveheart." To them he was a treasonous rebel and beneath contempt, while our Benedict Arnold the Betrayer of West Point is held up as an enlightened individual who tried to right the wrong of the colonists turning away from their benevolent rule after so much had been provided for them. But I digress.

The increasing levels of people up for awards and the breadth of their work and the ones already in the pipeline augers well for the continued success for years to come. Even the losers, or rather those who didn't take home a bald statuette this time, can take pride and the prospect of a fatter paycheck from the boost that Academy awards bring to all nominated movies. Just look at your newspaper listings and the new ads with Oscar statuettes on them. Some movies will even be brought back out to theatres although several have already been issued on DVD, such as "Babel" the globetrotting multilingual six degrees film with Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt that won for Best Film Score.

BEST DIRECTOR/ BEST FILM:

"The Departed" won four Academy awards in all, and enjoyed critical and commercial success. It was noted for its proper use of new young stars such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Best Supporting Actor nominee MARK WAHLBERG, and Matt Damon; combined with veteran actors such as Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen and Alec Baldwin, in one of his stage polished verbal heavy walk-ons as in "Glengarry GlenRoss"

MARTIN SCORSESE'S win of a Best Director statuette for has long been overdue, and he has been called the "Susan Lucci of Hollywood" for the number of years he has gone without official ratification for his work, after the daytime diva of network soap operas.

He's been nominated for six awards over 26 years of his filmmaking career, although he is a New York based director which isn't looked upon too well on the West Coast. Ask SPIKE LEE about that. Scorsese even made the long Oscar drought a part of his acceptance speech.

"Could you check the envelope again?" he joked, just to make sure it wasn't a mistake. He didn't even get one for "Gangs of New York" with his "Departed" star Leornardo DiCaprio, Nominated for Best Supporting in "Blood Diamond," who by rights should have gotten one a long while back for his mentally retarded little brother of JOHNNY DEPP in the most excellent "What's Eating Gilbert Grape."

CLINT EASTWOOD'S WWII OPUS TWO PACK COULDN'T WIN OVER OSCAR VOTERS

Scorsese beat out reconstituted Hollywood favourite Clint Eastwood for his WWII epic duo "Letters From Iwo Jima" for the Japanese perspective of the battle for the strategic pacific island; and the earlier "Flags of Our Fathers" about the wartime exploitation of those servicemen who were in the iconic picture of the flag raising that revived flagging public support for the pacific war against Imperial Japan.

Eastwood, who was long ago reviled for the spirit of his "Dirty Harry" films for their Right-Wing and Conservative law and order slants found much love in these latter years for the most excellent western "Unforgiven" which is given credit for finally reviving the once lucrative American genre which has been adopted by cultures overseas. (In a demonstration of cultural cross fertilization, the Japanese saga "Seven Samurai" was really inspired by Westerns that famed director Akira Kurosawa loved. It was then remade by Hollywood into "The Magnificent Seven," the Yul Brenner/Steve McQueen/Warren Oates/Robert Vaughn epic and sequels ).

But Clint has also been long known for his behind the camera activism for crafting his own affirmative action program for black actors, for which he received a NAACP award by the Los Angeles branch in the 1980s. Those Black thugs he gunned down were LA area actors and stuntmen he made sure had plenty of work in his movies, although he had to switch some of them into cops and such over the years which was sometimes confusing.

Eastwood placed many Brothas behind the cameras too, in an exposition of true Affirmative Action and as his character said in "Every Which Way But Loose": "A handout is what you get from the Government, a hand up is what you get from a Friend." Clint Eastwood has been a true friend.

BEST DOCUMENTARY:

AL GORE'S "An Inconvenient Truth" is his filmed slideshow on his Globaloney about worldwide climate change caused by Humanity that won the category in the reinvigorated format that an increasing number of propagandists are using to get their point across. Gore's ecological alarum is also being talked up as a possible way for him to reenter the political sphere if the top two Democrat candidates for President fall, as in Obama Hussein Baraka and Hillary Rodham Clinton. He even used this speculation to make a jape while at the podium earlier:

"With a billion people watching its a good a time as any" Gore deadpans, as he reaches inside of his jacket pocket for a folded sheet of paper.

"I want to take this opportunity to…" the stage hook music plays right on cue, although some news people seem not to have gotten the jape. IT WAS A JOKE Y'ALL! Lighten up. Geez.

The increasing use of film as powering agendas was seen a couple of years ago in the most lucrative documentary produced, the vehemently anti-Bush 911 doc by Michigan favourite son MICHAEL MOORE which was unwisely pulled from the Best Documentary category and ran for Best Picture. This decision shut itself out and will become a footnote for political and cinema historians. But this still has a political dimension as Moore has announced he is going to use his fame and fortune to win back the Minnesota senate seat lost with the death of Sen. Wellstone.

Those close to the former Bill Clinton era Vice President and onetime presidential candidate have remarked that if Gore only let his joking nature out more in publicly as he does in private his public persona would only benefit. Instead, we have the popular and false idea of the wooden and boring Al Gore which is not his reality. His Oscar night joke was given credence because the nattering nabobs were trying to say that there might be a "Draft Al Gore For President" Movement by those who don't think Hillary Rodham can win in a stand-up fight because of her high negatives among the American people. But we'll save those for The Word NetPaper Politics articles in this political season.

BEST INSIGHTFUL QUIP:

MELISSA ETHERIDGE won a statuette for her theme song for Al Gore's movie. She came out as a Lesbian years ago and celebrated her low-key self outing with the album titled "Yes I Am" and made one of the best quips. At an after party she said "this is the only time a naked man would be in my bedroom," as the big lezzy admired her bald statuette.

BEST LIFESTYLE AND GRACE:

Hudson is a shining example of what people really want in their public figures and celebrities, even as we watch them self-destruct with the same attitude that makes us slow down around accidents for a peek.

Those who weren't Hudson fans already became so when in the same week of bad news of the antics of Lindsay, Anna, Britney and Paris, the non-drinking and non- club hopping Hudson held a Prayer and Praise Party for similar young people in the midst of other Oscar parties which were more like Bacchanals. For her acceptance speech she thanked God, and has been unapologetic about her faith. There is a message there for the Hollywood Heathens, but they ain't trying to hear her, tho.

When contrasted with the self destruction we're witnessing of the Blonde Brigade and others who can hold neither their liquor nor their panties, Hudson is a breath of fresh air from the foul stench that too often issues forth from the world of Hollywood celebrities.

THE PARTY AFTER THE AFTER PARTY

The post Oscar balls have become legendary. There is the Governor's Ball thrown by onetime Hollywood master Arnold Schwarzenegger; Elton John's lavish soiree; and the Vanity Fair affair by the magazine is well known as among the most coveted balls to have an invite.

Elton John's post Oscar ceremony fete for the fight against AIDS is one of the parties that blend both the music and acting worlds, and since the film scoring is a big part of movies this is a blending pool of people, not to speak of those who go from one genre to the other such as NONA GAYE; DAVID BOWIE; BEYONCÉ; LL COOL J; JENNIFER HUDSON; CHER; FRANK SINATRA; and LUTHER VANDROSS; or EDDIE MURPHY, JENNIFER LOPEZ and JAMIE FOXX

Since the awards show was on ABC the shows aligned with them had a natural inside track with interviews and whatnot. OPRAH WINFREY's syndicated show is carried here in her old hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and she held a pre-Oscar gathering that was carried before the real throw-down Sunday night. BARBARA WALTERS since she left NBC's anchor desk has become a staple on ABC, and her pre- Oscar ceremony interview show has become a tradition without regard to what JOAN RIVERS and her similarly sharp-tongued daughter do outside on the red carpet.

CLOTHING, HAIR BIG CO-STARS ON OSCAR NIGHT; MEN LARGELY IGNORED

The annual Academy Awards show has also been called "the World Cup" by some wags for the low-cut gowns and scooping fronts, and the pre-Oscar fetes are also like a Superbowl for fashion watchers.

JENNIFER LOPEZ, much like perennial fashion faves Jada Pinkett Smith; EVE; DANA OWENS; JESSICA BIEL; REESE WITHERSPOON; HILARY SWANK; NICOLE KIDMAN; GWYNETH PALTROW; SCARLETT JOHANSSON; and even the pregnant NAOMI WATTS could also do no wrong in their ensemble. They seem to have identified a personal style that works for them, and fashioners who know how to exploit their ass- ets.

Cate Blanchette of "Babel" and "Notes On A Scandal" is starting to thicken up nicely for a slim English chick, and the silvery gown she styled in showed off her growing assets nicely. She played a queen herself in "Elizabeth, and a Faerie Queen of the Elves in the epic "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

While flat-butte White celebrities are being carted off to rehab farms to get some meat on their bones along with some perspective, Hudson, Beyoncé, and Dana Owens ("Queen Latifah") are showing the style and people watchers what real world beauty is all about, as opposed to fantasy of the Reel World.

SIMON WHO?! TAKE THAT, JUDGES AND CELL PHONE "AMERICAN IDOL" VOTERS

The "Ming the Merciless" shoulder mantle sported by Hudson on the red carpet walk was derided by about half the observers, although some thought it bold and different. Hudson is a wholesome, bubbly, corn-fed, non-drinking Midwestern girl, but she certainly likes her low-cut gowns, doesn't she? They show off her assets well, but she's in her twenties so this is the time for that sort of thing. That way she won't have to be like the women who took decades to work up the courage and then choose to start showing when they should be covering up.

BEST ACTRESS:

HELEN MIRREN who took the Best Actress statuette for "The Queen" took her clothes off early in her career but across The Pond they don't have nearly the hypocritical response to such things concerning the human body as we do. From the looks of the gown she had on Sunday night even in her 60s she still has maintained a great deal of the shape that electrified the stage when she strode proudly naked across the stage (in her twenties) in plays that scandalized even their senses and sensibilities.

Mirren has one of the most diverse careers in film, British television, and stage. She portrayed the Soviet captain of a companion spaceship in "2010: A Space Odyssey Two," and a tyrannical school teacher who gets her comeuppance in a movie originally titled "Killing Miss Tingle" until the spate of school killings had them change the title to "Teaching Miss Tingle."

PENELOPE CRUZ again could do no wrong as having a figure that can do justice to a gown. Although truth be told the Spanish cutie (she's from Spain, not Mexico, also Antonio Banderas although he starred in all those "Once Upon A Time in Mexico" films) looked pretty good in a low-cut top and jeans in "Sahara," and whatever she was wearing in "Vanilla Sky." That was the strange sci-fi psychological flick with her onetime Boo and co-star (which for Cruz are often the same –ask her co-star and ex-boo Matt McConaghey from "Sahara") TOM CRUISE, as his breakup was happening with wife Nicole Kidman. But I digress.

OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES

Mrs. Will Smith looked her sleek best once again as she walked the red carpet with her young son the actor. When an interviewer complimented her on her ensemble, Jaden piped up and said "she wore that dress for my dad."

The Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences Awards of 2002 were called the "African American Oscars" because three recipients of African Descent won that night. HALLE BERRY took home the little gold guy for Best Actress for her troubled Southern single mother in "Monster's Ball;" DENZEL WASHINGTON got a Best Actor win for his monstrously corrupt LAPD cop in "Training Day," and SIDNEY POITIER for a Lifetime Achievement award.

The 2005 awards had Jamie Foxx winning for Best Actor for "Ray." The next year saw the winner of Best Original Song in 2006 "Its Hard Out Here For A Pimp" from "Hustle and Flow" with a performance of The THREE-6 MAFIA..

The big stunner of the night last year was the Academy choice for Best Picture as the little $6.5 million "Crash" upset what seemed like a relentless drive for the neutered gold statue by "Brokeback Mountain."

2006 was also called "The Gay Oscars" because of the preponderance of Homosexual themed character and subject matter because of the influence of homosexuals in Hollywood and all the talk of "Brokeback Mountain's" Oscar chances and what it would mean. It was a romance about two modern cowboys played by Australian Heath Ledger ("Monster's Ball") and Jake Gyllenhall of "Zodiac" and the lovely Maggie's brother ("Stranger Than Fiction") that for a couple of months was fodder for late-night comedy monologs. This was particularly so for NBC Tonight show host Jay Leno, who was sure to include references to it each night each night, until the Congressional Page and Rev. Ted gay scandals eclipsed them.

The Hollywood Elites thought the fix was in for their main movie, but did they ever get a surprise. It ran smack into "Crash" that was fearless and so not Politically Correct that some of the movie's lines were showing up as cell phone ringtones.

"Don't be kissin' no man," the onetime advice by Denzel Washington to Will Smith for his early role as a gay hustler in "Six Degrees of Separation," was largely ignored in films that year from "Alexander" even to Smith's "Hitch" to "Brokeback Mountain." This may have played a part in the public's and ultimately the Academy's rejection of the Gay Themed movies.

"Enough is enough," they seemed to say. This was picked up by the Academy of Arts and Sciences voters and the Sodomite Invasion was being turned back by the larger public. . –kjw walkernet@gmail.com _______________

Academy Of Arts And Sciences Winners:
• Picture — The Departed
  
  
• Director — Martin Scorsese, The Departed
  
  
• Actor — Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
  
  
• Actress — Helen Mirren, The Queen
  
  
• Film editing — The Departed
  
  
• Original song — I Need to Wake Up, An Inconvenient Truth
  
  
• Original screenplay — Little Miss Sunshine
  
  
• Original score — Babel
  
  
• Documentary feature — An Inconvenient Truth
  
  
• Documentary short subject — The Blood of Yingzhou District
  
  
• Supporting actress — Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
  
  
• Foreign film — The Lives of Others
  
  
• Visual effects — Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  
  
• Cinematography — Pan's Labyrinth
  
  
• Costume design — Marie Antoinette
  
  
• Adapted screenplay — The Departed
  
  
• Animated film — Happy Feet
  
  
• Supporting actor — Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
  
  
• Sound mixing — Dreamgirls
  
  
• Sound editing — Letters from Iwo Jima
  
  
• Animated short film — The Danish Poet
  
  
• Live action short film — West Bank Story
  
  
• Make-up — Pan's Labyrinth
  
  
• Art direction — Pan's Labyrinth

  ______________

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  Milwaukee, WI USA

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  Cinema Views With Film Critic Kevin J. Walker

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  http://cinemaviews.tripod.com

  Godfather Of Soul Passes

  "Soul Brother Number 1", "The Bad Busta from Augusta and "The King Of Soul," Also "The Hardest Working Man In Show Business" Mourned as James Brown Passes at Age 73;

  Spike Lee BioPic film set for 2008

  James Brown "The Godfather of Soul" has passed on, and there are many thoughts on what his legacy is and has meant. His influence in music is well known, but he also had an impact in film, including the present "Dreamgirls" where a character is based on him...

  Kevin J. Walker, Netitor,
  THE WORD NetPaper Online News Service
  Milwaukee, WI USA
  thewordnetpaper @excite dot com
  walkernet@gmail.com

  Milwaukee,Wis USA
  FILM CRITIQUES
  TRAVELS to Kemet, Middle East; Mediterranean: Athens, Greece; Rome
  PHOTOS of Pyramids, Jerusalem, Hawai’i
  WalkerWorld Science

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  thewordnetpaper@excite dot com
  Milwaukee,Wis USA
  

  Brown went to an Atlanta hospital last weekend and was diagnosed with pneumonia where he died from complications of congestive heart failure. Funeral arrangements call for a public viewing at the Apollo theatre in New York's Harlem before internment in Augusta, Georgia where he grew up.

  He was born James Joseph Brown Jr. in North Carolina although raised in Georgia, giving him one of his original nicknames as "The Bad Busta From Augusta" from an early boxing career. James Brown and the Famous Flames traveled the nation, playing in the "Chitlin Circuit" of Black owned and operated clubs throughout the Southland before their fame grew.

  They became one of the many Black groups such as the Temptations, Spinners, Supremes and more with multigenerational crossover appeal, especially with the Nostalgia Music wave when Baby Boomers brought the music to the fore and in so doing brought Brown to more generations of youth.

  He had become so famous that he could become a subject of parody like the late crooner Barry White whose visage appears through Robin Williams in Happy Feet" as the king penguin with the plastic six pack plastic binder around his neck. This only made others more interested in his music and showmanship.

  Handing over the torch or sorts was seen in the joint appearance with Usher Raymond at the 2005 Grammy Awards, where the two danced alternatively. The NBC broadcast showed a clip and has a link at their archives of James Brown film clips.

  Stories were told of his largesse in his many Milwaukee appearances. He carried a shoe shine box in his car when in the late 1950s he pulled up to one Black venue he was scheduled to play and saw a gaggle of young boys on the corner looking for shoes to shine.

  "Here let me show you how to do it right," said Brown.

  He shined THEIR shoes, while impressing messages of entrepreneurship to the young boys.

  Seeing a group of youngsters gathered at the doors at a downtown venue and unable to get in, he ordered that they were to be let in for $1.00. Those who didn't have even that were to be let in for free.

  BUSY SCHEDULE BY NECESSITY NOT CHOICE
  The week he went into the hospital he had three appearances booked for the following week. This active schedule was not of his choosing. He wanted to sit back and enjoy the fruits of a long and successful career; he had millions; a personal jet; and homes in two states. But he also had several wives and many children. Tax bills, child support and wife payment problems called for increasing revenue streams and kept him on the road.

  James Brown's stage antics were renown and imitated, mentioned by White TV anchors who evidently were acquainted with the material. This was such as the "Microphone Tango" he performed, holding the mike cord and tossing the head of the stand forward, then snatching it back, cradling the microphone while dropping to the floor on one knee, sweat pouring down his face.

  There was one that was more dramatic, and even performed by White TV VJs:

  The man kneels onstage, screaming pleadingly into the microphone while the backup singers harmonize:

  "Please, please, please...
  "..Don't go...
  "...I love you so..."

  "

  A friend come out of the wings, and places a glittering cape over his shoulders while he leads him off the stage a broken man bent over in his grief, his hunched shoulders shuddering with his sobs as he and his friend slowly march off to the wing in time to the beat.

  He rebels, throws the cape off, runs to the front of the stage and grabs the mike again, repeating the refrain. He breaks down again.

  Another glittering cape of a different colour, again he is led off. This would be repeated a good four or five times. Everybody who'd seen it knew the routine, but like Shakespeare's plays some things retain their power over time and although we know the plot still enjoy seeing its execution.

  Prince of Minnesota who at one we time worked in the James Brown Revue even incorporated many of the stage mannerisms into his own concert tours. Female vamps strut suggestively about, band members engage in their own antics while in front Prince holds court. He learned this "3 Ring Circus" technique from Brown.

  Spin-off Brown groups from the James Brown Revue included The JBs who produced "Monorail," one of the early "Bus Stop" tunes, sort of Urban Square Dancing done without partners in a large group. The Horny Horns were sort of another spin-off who played with acts such as Bootsy Collins.

  RAP MUSIC INFLUENCE

  Brown's influence was vast, affecting not only his native R&B, but Rock And Roll, and even Rap Music. Estimates are that Brown is the most sampled performer in rap. Eric B and Rakim; Ice Cube; and NY DJ Cool Herc were among those who sampled his tunes.

  His dance moves also had an impact. The Mash Potatoes and Camel Walk, which is sort of a forward Moon Walk was in his repertoire. There is an old audition tape of a young Michael Jackson doing his moves. Usher, MC Hammer and even Mick Jagger's stage moves were aped, along with his general looting of Black music.

  There was a Dancing James Brown Doll, along with those Dancing Santas that one can buy in discount stores. Press a button and a dance tune issues forth, with Brown's 14 inch figurine moving in time to the beat. The rendition is accurate even down to the oversized belt buckles and the processed hair. Charles "Dapp" Wilson, the late Milwaukee community activist and Old School music and R & B booster, purchased a bunch of the dolls and passed them around the community.

  SPOKE LEE JOINT OF BROWNS LIFE IN 2008

  James Brown knew theatre and theatricality well and like many performers went at least partway into film. The death announcements weren't long issued before talk evolved of a film Biopic of Brown. But the producers of Hollywood were ahead and far beyond the talking stage. Spike Lee has been tapped to craft a film on Brown's life. Brian Glazer who produced "A Beautiful Mind" will be producing for Paramount Pictures.

  Black talk radio was rife with who should be the star.

  "It has to be somebody who can sing and dance," offered up one member of a panel on Milwaukee's 1290 WMCS-AM

  "Jamie Foxx would be my choice..."

  "I would think Leon of (Robert Townsend's) "The 5 Heartbeats"

  "The actor has to be dark-skinned, too" concluded another.

  Brown has had an appearance in films, both in presence and in spirit.

  * "BLUES BROTHERS" -- Many people think his first film foray was a small role in this John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd musical road trip of two R & B loving White private detectives trying to save their clients' property. Along the way they encounter Brown as the pastor of a Black church with truly rocking services who sings from the pulpit mike in hand while the choir wails away, and the rotund Joliet Jake turns handsprings down the aisle. The film was partially shot in Milwaukee (the freeway chase scene where the car goes off the unfinished bridge) and featured Aretha Franklin the Queen of Soul to James Brown's King.
  * ROCKY V - Brown performed "Livin' In America" during the 4th of July extravaganza between boxers Apollo Creed (modeled after Muhammed Ali) now Rocky Balboa's friend and trainer after two brutal fights in the first two movies; and Ivan Drago from the old Soviet Union. The Las Vegas spectacle is renown and replayed often, featuring Brown singing and his red, white and blue clad dancers all about as in one of his stage revues
  * "ROBOTS" -- Halle Berry and Ewan McGregor co-starred which had a recurring joke where a broken robot lost his voice box and encountered various other voice units along the way, including James Earl Jones' Darth Vader from "Star Wars." In the film's big dance finale after they'd won their freedom, the little robot leads off the big party with "Get Up Off Offa That Thing" and bending over the microphone stand James Brown-style, while all around his dancers and background singers cavort. To one side another robot dances the Robot!
  * "DREAMGIRLS" has Eddie Murphy's character James "Thunder" Early who is patterned after James brown during the era of his early stage revues with the singing style and processed hair. It is he who gives the Dreamgirls their first big break as backup singers

  In fact it was this sort of three ring action onstage that Brown honed in the "Chitlin Circuit" that was later incorporated by Prince, who worked in Brown's operation. Rap groups have used the technique as well, with a stage full of sexy dancers and poseurs prancing about in and endless display of visual and auditory treats.

  RACE-PROUD BROWN BOUGHT AND BANNED OWN MOVIE; PENNED "SAY IT LOUD -- BLACK & PROUD" BUT MARRIED WHITE WOMEN

  While many people think Browns' first film foray was a small role in "Blues Brothers" that was about his second film. The first was such an embarrassment that Brown did what the family of The man played by Orson Wells' movie "Citizen Kane" weren't able to do.

  In the late 1960s film, Brown played one of the millions of former Enslaved in the chaos of the Civil War and Emancipation. He was searching for his former master because he was unused and uncomfortable with this frightening new thing called "Freedom."

  The racially proud Brown who would go on to record "Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud" bought the film work prints and negatives so it would not be shown. Brown later went on to sample the Other White Meat, marrying White women and having court battles with several other women to join those of the government.

  The woman who identified herself as Mrs. Brown was locked out of the mansion thereby providing fodder for the likes of Entertainment tonight and inside edition for weeks to come, alternating her with Anna Nicole Smith's battles for her own piece of a dead husband's estate.

  ACTIVELY POLITICAL, SPENT ENTIRE WEEK ON MIKE DOUGLAS SHOW

  James Brown was political, and in an unorthodox way. He was a Republican who visited the Nixon White House and worked to bring other African Descended into the GOP. He started the Black And Brown Trading Stamps in the late 1960s and brought them to Black communities all across the nation.

  With the B&B stamp program as the sponsor, Brown bankrolled his own national radio show for Black stations which featured ground breaking subjects with incendiary hosts, who one time were unceremoniously flipped off the air when they discussed the Black Mafia and explored their legitimacy and acceptability. The microphone however was left on for a few seconds while the host and station management argued.

  Brown spent a week on the Mike Douglas Show in the late 1960s. It was over a weeklong school holiday like Easter of Christmas so many of us were able to see it. He spoke of politics, having ownership of land, political and economic empowerment. To young people this was something new, and for a week we were schooled by an African Descended millionaire who stayed close to his people. It coloured our views of his movement and life passages.

  James Brown made many songs, but below are some particular ones of note. If you think we omitted one or two that should have been listed, drop us a message at thewordnetpaper @excite dot com, or walkernet @ gmail.com

  JAMES BROWN SONG LIST:

  Please, Please, Please
  Try Me
  Prisoner of Love
  Papa Got A Brand New Bag
  Man's World (This Is A)
  Sex Machine
  Super Bad
  Mother Popcorn
  I Feel Good (I Got You)
  Living In America
  Black And Proud (Say It Loud)
  Santa Go Straight To The Ghetto
  I Don't Want Nobody To Give Me Nothin'
  King Heroin
  
  

  Kevin J. Walker, Netitor,
  THE WORD NetPaper Online News Service
  Milwaukee, WI USA
  thewordnetpaper @excite dot com
  walkernet@gmail.com

  Milwaukee,Wis USA
  FILM CRITIQUES
  TRAVELS to Kemet, Middle East; Mediterranean: Athens, Greece; Rome
  PHOTOS of Pyramids, Jerusalem, Hawai’i
  WalkerWorld Science

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  Local Milwaukee Politics

  thewordnetpaper@excite dot com
  Milwaukee,Wis USA
  

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

  Stage Views by Critic Kevin J. Walker

  walkernet@gmail dot com

  "Dreamgirls" The Original Stage Play is Fondly Remembered 25 Years Later

  CONTACT INFO, LINKS>

  Kevin J. Walker, Netitor,

  THE WORD NetPaper Online News Service
  Milwaukee, WI USA

  walkernet@gmail dotcom or at
  walkerworld_2000@ yahoo dot com

  FILM CRITIQUES
  TRAVELS to Kemet, Middle East; Mediterranean: Athens, Greece; Rome
  PHOTOS of Pyramids, Jerusalem, Hawai’i
  WalkerWorld Science

  WalkerWorld Politics Analysis Column
  Local Milwaukee Politics

  thewordnetpaper@excite dot com
  Milwaukee,Wis USA
  

  "Dreamgirls" The Movie is finally on its way out, after a long tortuous road almost a quarter century when the hit play first astounded audiences and made stars of people like the original Deena Jones and Effie White.

  The song "One Night Only" is a rousing production piece that is in the film, after the "Dreamgirls" success starts to take hold. It’s a toe-tapper and the editing of the scenes draws you in in a way that plays cannot their being in the present with an immediacy that cannot be matched by the detachment of film or video.

  The troubles early Black audio entrepreneurs had in marketing their music outside of their traditional audience; getting played and paid; managing personal and interpersonal lives; touring; and having the right look such as Dark versus Light-Skinnedness are just a few more of the subjects covered in the play "Dreamgirls" some of which are sure to surface in the film version if it is to have any relevancy as well as entertaining.

  Effie White, whose signature song with its mixture of rejection and stubborn/determined profound self-deception that brought normally reserved theatre audiences to their feet in a helpless outburst of joyful noise.

  There are reports that in preview screenings the same thing is happening when the song is performed in the movie version which co-stars Jennifer Hudson, Beyoncé Knowles, Jamie Foxx, and Eddie Murphy.

  I can still feel the electricity that went through the crowd as people were shushed by seatmates in the know when the rotund backup singer asks "Where's my dress? What happened to my locker?" and nobody will look her in the eyes…

  And I am telling you, I am going to the movie when it comes out next week. How can I not, since I was one of the few, the so very very few who actually saw the original touring play back in its heyday?

  I well remember the time I saw the touring stage show of "Dreamgirls" when it came to Chicago. Buses were full as we trekked down the 150 kilometres to the Windy City as part of the late Minnie Townsend's Travel Agency lunch/shopping/dinner theatre packages. My girlfriend Laura and I went on one of her trips.

  We walked the streets of America's Second City we shopped – more like window peeked– along the Magnificent Mile, and dined at Shauer's restaurant, a Black-owned establishment with impeccable service that was formed from a building that once housed an old auto repair business. It was a testament to what was to later become the revitalization and recycling boom now taking place there and other rising Downtowns of Rustbelt cities that are being condo-ed from the docks to where the Black and Brown used to live.

  This was all a buildup to the main show of course, the "Dreamgirls" stage play musical. It covered such topics as ambitious backstabbing friends and the cutthroat business of show business; the practice of palatable White acts "covering" Black tunes as they rode them onto commercial success, and more. Laura was impressed, as was I.

  When the DVDs come out I can envision a "Ray", "What's Love Got To Do With It?," and "Deamgirls" triple bill for those home Movie Nights with the widescreen TVs. They cover similar territory and some of the time periods. I just hope the Process doesn't come back! Its bad enough seeing the Rev. Al Sharpton still running around with his antiquated 'Do, which is as bad as some of his political positions. But I digress.

  The play by its nature had to compress time and hint at things, and it will be interesting to see how a movie with its different abilities and lesser limitations can expand and extend the original concept. One particularly striking special effect in the play was to illustrate Effie's commercial success.

  She sings a song alone in a joint, dressed plainly. There is a small spotlight on her face, the rest of the stage is dark. When it widens she is now dressed in a spectacularly expensive sequined dress –courtesy of the quick black-garbed stagehands– and we infer Effie's now in a large venue such as the one we were in, back in the game, large and in charge. The audience responded as expected, and in so doing completed the effect for Effie.

  It was a splendid use of theatre and psychology, for who among us doesn't root for the underdog, and those who succeed despite overwhelming odds, especially if they've been laid low by the machinations of others they once called friends?

  Plays because of their immediacy have these limits on physical acts, but movies don't. Flashbacks, simultaneous acts and quick editing can greatly enhance a film version of a work, which is why so many films first started life as books. Lots more people have read the "Harry Potter" books, and sometimes creative juices flow the other way, with plays being made from movies and cartoons. This cross fertilization is all good.

  "Dreamgirls" the Play tore up New York, shredded audiences and staid critics, and helped the idea that there were Black historical themes that didn't have to be watered down to reach a wide audience, i.e., ticket paying White Folks. Book authors, playwrights, and even talk show stars would eventually all benefit from the breakthrough.

  The play was packed with music from start to finish, made easy because they were performers and recording people. This gets around that strange reaction from some of actors "breaking into song." As opposed to say, shooting energy beams out of their hands and eyeballs, or flying around busting concrete buildings in half or something?

  Even in "Chicago" which broke the curse against modern musicals they had to have Roxie the Mankiller have her daydreams while in the women's lockup to excuse the musical numbers. "Idlewild" the rousing rappish period film about a Southern speakeasy starring Paula Patton from "Déjà Vu" and the Outkast duo used the dream or imaginary sequences when outside of the club. These are movies, people; the suspension of belief is central to the creative arts. Get over it, and just let them sing for the Goddesses' sakes.

  The movie "Dreamgirls" might not have as much music because it goes necessarily in other directions, and they need to because of the many people who know of the original. Even in play form when the audience is in the hundreds of thousands even for a successful touring play.

  From the clips the movie "Dreamgirls" covers more ground between the eager Diva/Starlet in training but reluctant to hurt her onetime singing pals; and the Dreamgirls' ambitious and duplicitous manager played by Eddie Murphy, who is being spoken of for an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a few months.

  I wrote back when he did the cop drama "Metro" that Murphy showed his dramatic strengths when he played an alcoholic cop opposite the always good Michael Rappaport ("True Romance", "Higher Learning") as the straight-laced by the book Rookie paired with Murphy's hostage negotiator in the San Francisco PD.

  But Hollywood as did the general movie going public seemed to prefer Murphy better in familiar comedic roles, so back he went to the "Nutty Professor", "Daddy Day Care" and "Haunted Mansion" movies that put buttes in the seats and bring home the bucks for the studios. Maybe its time for another "Another 48 Hours." Or "Beverly Hills Cop," or a combination of the two. I mean, now that there is a "Rocky 6" anything can happen, especially for a sequel preferring public.

  Ross lived her life as a dream girl to be sure, and like Deena in the film rode into superstardom and went on to solo success and a star in films. Some roles were well received such as her first as the tragic Billy Holiday in "Lady Sings The Blues," with an equally acclaimed Richard Pryor in his first role. Both racked up later lesser roles in forgettable movies. But for Ross one was particularly ill-advised as the protagonist, and she had Pryor again as a co-star.

  In a monumental miscasting Ross played a regrettable role as a grown school-marmish Harlem-dwelling Dorothy in the travesty of the movie made from "The Wiz" stage musical. It was instead notable for its other supporting characters such as Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow; Nipsey Russell as the Tin Man; and chock full of stars such as Pryor as the Wizard; and Quincy Jones as the player of a 100 foot long super-grand piano (with a transformed and then still fairly new World Trade Center with a inspiring semicircular multi storey bridge joining the two towers!).

  But the true Golden Rule is Those Who Have The Gold Make The Rules. Berry Gordy the producer of The Wiz wanted his honey to be the lead, and that was that. But what else would we think of someone who would make sure his name would be listed first in film titles as in "Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon?"

  It was crafted from the tale of the rise – and some would say fall – of the Supremes, one of the original Girl Groups who arose from the projects of Detroit and became part of the powerhouse that would become Berry Gordy's Motown records. Although the producers laughably made noises that it wasn't, everyone knew it was largely the story of what would become Diana Ross and the Supremes, and the ouster of Florence Ballard from the group, to be replaced by Cindy Birdsong.

  I had the thinnest of connections to the Supremes/Dreamgirls story: In college my sister Cheryl Anita Walker of Oakland went out with Cindy Birdsong's brother when the two attended Howard University.

  This is about as thin a connection as me being apparently the only one in Milwaukee who never saw Halle Berry when she came here with ex-husband the singer Eric Benet. If I shopped in the area malls more I probably would have seen Halle at least once, since reports are she was an enthusiastic high-end shopper. As for her philandering husband there's a picture of Eric Benet in dictionaries as the definition of "Stupid," and for "Guys Who Messed Up, Big Time." But I digress.

  Sadly, Flo's personal story didn't reflect Effie's triumphant arc. She died as a single mother on welfare in the same Detroit projects the girls once escaped, traveling and giving concerts in Paris, London, and Rome. Diana Ross after much criticism paid for a college fund for Ballard's children. The nagging question is why didn't she throw a bone or two to her old chum while she was traipsing around European castles and jet-setting with her beaus? A few concert dates from a couple of phone calls would have meant the world to Ballard. This is why for many Ross is an ace villainess and without redemption, with a hot furnace waiting for her all her own.

  Just in time to capitalize on "Dreamgirls" here comes Ross ready to drop another album, I mean CD, her first in years. Of course her daughter Traci Ellis Ross of TVs "Girlfriends" has gone onto her own success on the show by producer Kelsey Grammer's ("Frasier" ).

  Mary Wells is still around, and she has her own story to tell of the Supremes era, but she has tried to cast her ownself in the public eye as the Effie character. This is so since unlike Flo Ballard, Wells actually had a longtime solo singing career along with the dozens of others riding the Nostalgia music wave of the 1960s and '70s, as aging baby boomers and Buppies relive the music of their teenage years.

  Of course there were plans launched immediately during its theatrical run to make a Dreamgirls movie, and the failure should be an abject lesson in the perils of hubris and greed. None of the principals could agree and so nothing was done, and the years turned into decades. Creative teams dissolved, stars aged, musical tastes changed as even the venerable Movie Musical genre went into a generational hiatus.

  Now they finally made a "Dreamgirls" film, with lovely songstress Beyoncé as the named star. Her historical connection to the Supremes/Dreamgirls story as being the powerhouse behind Destiny's Child before she herself jettisoned them for a more lucrative solo career springs immediately to mind.

  Although Knowles is supposedly the star of the movie, as with the Doc Holliday character in the various incarnations of the Wyatt Earp movies, everybody knows that the second banana is the real star of those shows. Effie White and how she deals with the backstabbing of her show business compadres is what people remember even to this day. Beyoncé demonstrating a wisdom beyond her years knows this and has wisely and graciously gone with the flow.

  "People would always ask me 'who is playing Effie, who's going to sing her song?'" and praising Hudson's performance.

  When the Golden Globe nominations were announced ousted American Idol star Jennifer Hudson was one of the lucky ones; the movie received 5 in all.

  The ever smiling, pleasant Chicago Homegirl and her positive family life is a welcome relief indeed from the 'Hood Rat attitude of actual Idol winner Fantasia Barrino. The semi-literate, dark-skinned proud Babymomma has now gone Blonde – as so many other Black female stars who go off the track in a discouraging display of racial self hatred.

  There is of course a forum on the subject of fake Black blonde women such as Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige and even Lauryn Hill, who some once thought as someone somehow Deep and Intellectual; to demonstrate that the one time private school Buppie Preppie's miseducation of herself and others is ongoing. But I digress.

  Sheryl Lee Ralph was the original Deena Jones, and she has gone on to appear in feature films and a couple of television shows. She was the estranged wife of island lawman Denzel Washington in "The Mighty Quinn," and in the film "To Sleep With Anger." On TV Ralph was on a New Age "Charlie's Angels"-ish techno spy operative action adventure show on NBC in the 1980s, scuba diving and blowing up things. Now she's on one of the innumerable crime investigative shows on network TV.

  Jennifer Holliday was the original Effie, and was launched into a recording contract, but although she has become legendary as a singing diva from her performances did not parlay her fame into success as much as her compadres of the play. She has become largely forgotten to the point she doesn't even have a bit role or a cameo in the film, as by contrast Loretta Divine.

  Divine was the third Dreamgirl who has had the most wide ranging success, especially her role in movies. Divine's size – not apparent in the original play as the posters can attest – has since become one of her several strengths, and the "Waiting to Exhale" star has gone on to make over a dozen films with a few playing sassy cops as in "Crash;" and from action dramas such as her Pig Feet Mary in Laurence Fishburne's "Hoodlum," to horror Teen Slasher films.

  One reason there was early on an interest in making a film from the play is it had a positive theme, unlike "The Five Heartbeats" which hurt it.

  "Why would I want to go see a movie about some Brothers makin' it then failing?" asked a Brotha about why despite his age group and interests he avoided the most excellent period film modeled after The Dells and directed by Robert Townsend ("Meteor Man").

  He has a point. Why spend $8.00 and up per movie ticket, not counting concessions, parking and babysitting fees, to leave the house and voluntarily pay to see something over two hours that will bring you down? Some of us only have to stick our heads out of the window and look down the block to see negative stories.

  Or as one youth succinctly said about a well-meaning Ghetto Film in the 1980s, "who wants to go to the movies and see Black people bein' Poor?"

  Plays survive even today hundreds of thousands of years later because there is still nothing like a live production even in an era of multimedia; streaming foreign concerts over the global mind that is the evolving Internet, even into cellular phones and Hand-Helds. Plays can't be TiVo'd or rewound, there are no Do-Overs. And of course, what you see is what you get!

  But plays harken back to our primeval and communitarian impulses, and is related to the reason why we still go and pay good money to sit outside in the cold or with sometimes boorish strangers to watch athletic games or movies when we could do so comfortably at home on large screen TVs.

  – KJW

  Kevin J. Walker, Netitor,
  THE WORD NetPaper
  Online News Service
  Milwaukee, WI USA
  walkernet@gmail.com

  FILM CRITIQUES

  TRAVELS to Kemet, Middle East; Mediterranean: Athens, Greece; Rome

  PHOTOS of Pyramids, Jerusalem, Hawai’i

  WalkerWorld Science

  WalkerWorld Politics Analysis Column

  Local Milwaukee Politics

  thewordnetpaper@excite dot com
  Milwaukee,Wis USA
  

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

  Cinema Views With Film Critic Kevin J. Walker

  Mel Gibson's Apocalypto Offers a Thrilling History Lesson And Adventure Tale

  Mel Gibson's towering "Apocalypto" is a gripping adventure story in the tradition of "Predator" and "Rambo: First Blood Part II" with plenty of chase scenes and hand to hand combat, with the last days of the mighty Mayan empire as a backdrop. It doesn't matter that it is presented entirely in the Yucatan Mayan dialect

  I knew we were in for something different when the movie opens with a quote from historian Will Durant: "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has fallen from within."

  Gibson's Eurocentric and pro Christian bias is very apparent here after awhile. This is not particularly a problem as creators are supposed to have a point of view, and the stronger the better for their works.

  The people depicted are Pagans and Heathens, considered by many to be outside of Christianity and Grace. This attitude lurks beneath the surface of "Apocalypto" and is to be considered while watching the fast moving film, because Gibson who directed and co-wrote the film has an agenda that is every bit as central as his brutal depiction of the trials of Yeshua in "The Passion of the Christ."

  Indeed, this film also shows Gibson's fondness for showing torture and pain from the inhumanity of others, as in "Payback" and "Braveheart" when he himself was shown in his own versions of being crucified. He even had a bit part in "Passion" - that is Gibson's right hand nailing James Cavezial ("Deja Vu") to the rough hewn cross on the Jerusalem hillside, to symbolize that we all had a hand in the Lord's demise.

  When people described "Apocalypto" as bloody, violent and gory this shows the pitfalls of letting effete Girly Men and Wimpettes cover films. They can't have been serious; it certainly wasn't bloodier than Stephen Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" with its realistic depictions of warfare; or "Kill Bill Part I," with people sliding around on blood smeared floors and severed heads spouting their arterial fountains on white walls.

  Claudia Puig, the relentlessly clueless USA Today critic who should never be allowed to review manly films, or any with action called it "...an essay in blood lust and gratuitous violence." Just below it she reviewed the Chick Flick "The Holiday," a movie she even calls sappy, but nevertheless gives it three out of four stars! It was in part because of people like Puig that I became a film critic in the first place. But I digress.

  A youthful oriented attitude of "Apocalypto" is established early into the film as Punking episodes are pulled upon one of the hunters, - briefly called "Ball Breath" for one of their practical jokes - who calls his manhood into question when his wife fails to conceive. He complains that it isn't his wife its her mother who rides him. Back in the village Mother In Law derides him.

  "Get busy!" she yells to the Punk'd hunter. "I want grandchildren. Get a move on!" as the rest of the villagers within earshot laugh.

  As in a small town everybody knows your history, and scenes such as this lets us know better of their placid hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Which is all about to end.

  "Apocalypto" is really just an adventure tale when our protagonist Jaguar Paw, played winningly by Rudy Youngblood, decides he just has to live for the sake of his family whom he has stashed away when their village was pillaged by warlike urban Mayans. We see their society and civilization, its mighty works which amaze the slave caravan as they are trotted through the streets and marketplace. These are more people in one place than they have ever seen!

  A fellow captive from another tribe tells Jaguar Paw "we tell stories of a place where people build with stone..."

  But their curiosity and amazement turns to building terror as they see the towering pyramids and the strange purplish smear on the long stone steps up to the central altar. The wall carvings ominously show a priest holding a severed head in one hand and a long knife in the other as red drips. The murmuring crowd leers at them expectantly. The men were separated out and painted bright blue; and as it is they already stand out. This is not good, and we don't need subtitles or dialog of any sort to tell us that!

  I was moved by the scenes of the slave auction, which hit me on an ancestral level. The merchants screaming out their bids, people plucking at their muscles, looking into their mouths as the enslaved worry about their fate. Cook? Attendant? Sex slave? Sacrifice?

  James Cameron, was profiled on CBS' "60 minutes" as the only known survivor of a lynching episode in Marion, Indiana. With his experiences and a visit to Israel's museum, the late curator and creator of America's Black Holocaust Museum had a genuine slave auction setup here in Milwaukee during the exhibit of the sunken slave ship the Marie Claire.

  Attendees were free to go up on the stand, place their hands in the crude handcuffs, and imagine the faces and shouts. I did it, and it sent chills up me to imagine the millions of times the scene was repeated over the half-millennium of the Western slave trade. This was history brought home. The slave ship exhibit is gone, but the auction setup is still there.

  The Mayan city scenes were amazing in their complexity and you can see where the money went. Vendors hawk their wares; children play in the streets and engage in childish mischief. Disabled are shown with ingenious contrivances to help them get along; while some scenes have no explanations. Are the standing people being punished; demonstrating some strange point; or are they religious acolytes of some sort?

  The captives don't know and neither do we which adds to the tension, like the bewildered Pilot in medieval Japan in TV's "Shogun."

  There were questions as to whether Gibson's anti-Jewish (just what is a "Semite" anyway?) ranting would hurt the film. Uh, no. This shows the East Coast and Hollywood-centric worldview, which means less than nothing to someone from the Midwest. The pundits and critics need to get out more and then they'd know more, because there's a whole world between Los Angeles, New York and Washington. DC. This is aside from the unfortunate fact that many people just aren't upset with what he said, and there are some who inwardly say "good for you Mel, tell 'em!!"

  Gibson's rant is far apart from what Russell Crowe did which is to assault a hotel desk clerk with a phone. We can see ourselves behind that counter, with a wealthy powerful high-falutin' customer snidely asserting their power to the point of physical abuse, that's something we can identify with, and it hurt Crowe's "Cinderella Man." Who wants to spend their money on someone like that? What else is at the mall metroplex that we can all go and see?

  "Apocalypto's" subtext of is that South American civilizations such as the Mayans and further south the Aztecs like Africa destroyed themselves through their barbarism and disunity. African tribes let the palefaces take their people away in the holds of ships, and gave them safe passage across the vast interior - for awhile anyway until it was too late to see what had been done and they'd sealed their fate. Or destiny. They have been paying for it ever since, and will continue because that continent has been truly cursed by the forced removal of millions of their best fruit, and with their willingness.

  Like the North, Central and South Americans they should have attacked and burnt every ship that tried to land, but hindsight is always 20/20. But we can dream, and plan. In fact, I have a time travel story I'm working on based on that very premise, of technocratic and wealthy African Descended and Latin Americans trying to change the past.

  Gibson's interest in religious history and culture has performed a tremendous service for popular interest in history and will help preserve ancient languages, such as Aramaic, and even Latin which the Romans spoke in his Passion of the Christ. We former Latin scholars delighted in this, and uncovered our Wheelocks, the venerable text for millions. Well, hundreds of thousands. Okay, tens of thousands, maybe. This is as welcome a development as TVs adorable "Dora the Explorer" which is presented partly in Spanish.

  Incidentally, the Yucatan Pyramids were seen before in George Lucas' first Star Wars film "A New Hope" as the Rebel Alliance's Yavin moon retreat to shield their fleet from the Death Star above. Lucas needed something with an otherworldly look, and found them in places such as Tunisia in North Africa for Tattoine, and the gladiator-like battle in SW number two, "Attack Of The Clones."

  One thing they got wrong astronomically is a diddling point, but "Apocalypto" depicts a Solar Eclipse one day then that night a Full Moon. Nope, impossible! As any stargazer worth her telescope can tell you, Solar Eclipsi are only possible when the moon is in the new phase, which is the opposite of a Full Moon. Now I know Gibson wanted the artistic look of the moonlight through the leaves in the forest, but this was glaringly inaccurate. Especially if you're an amateur astronomer.

  Mayans knew this, as the Egyptians did with their own pyramids which made use of these things astronomical. Of all people they would know the intersecting phases, as does the sly high priest as he looks over at the elderly king after wowing the crowd below. He, knowing that in a few minutes of Totality the Moon would move on after he begs their Gods to look with favour upon his humble servants!

  Its important in a film like this with its subtitles to acquaint us with the various relationships, and "Apocalypto" does this. There isn't a lot of dialogue being an action film; in fact one critic observed it as "a Meso American Rambo." As Jaguar Paw - renamed "Almost" by the brutal and ambitious Hanging Moss (Gerardo Taracena) because he almost slew him - tries to get back to his family his facial expressions tell everything. Many times we don't need the subtitles which are not plentiful.

  Apparently the success of the film shows once again that people aren't turned off by having to read subtitles, which was demonstrated several years ago with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Maybe now they'll release foreign versions of films instead of remaking them, as the French originals of "3 Men And A Baby," and "Le Femme Nikita."

  The violence and blood were appropriate for a Mayan society built upon blood sacrifice, where the still beating hearts cut out of a sacrifice were lofted high to a cheering crowd. There are little human touches: the bored Mayan queen rolls her eyes as her high priest orates about how their gods must be sated with blood, blah, blah, yada yada. As she stands for a ceremony, her bratty chubby spoiled princeling tugs at her robes. She reaches behind her and swats him away.

  The actors of "Apocalypto" look like regular people for a reason. Most have never been in front of a camera and had a fresh attitude and look, with the nicks and creases of a real working life lived outside of fitness gyms, high colonics, fake breasts, Botox injections and tanning salons. For the role of the High Priest Mel Gibson said on the Jay Leno's "Tonight" show the casting people kept coming back with buff locals with chiseled looks like they just came out of a Southern California Body by Jakes.

  "This won't do" they were told, and to keep looking.

  They finally came back with a dockworker, with a genuine look of a priest who'd spent his life being catered to, but with a cruelty and cunning streak in him. The camera close-ups show the emotions of the actors' faces, and draw us into their world of awe and wonder, fear, loving, community, bewilderment and growing horror.

  This is an adventure movie, and there is plenty of Man Stuff to be sure with warriors running with panthers (or jaguars) through the forest; and arrows whizzing past, just missing. Jaguar Paw/Almost's lovely and very pregnant wife is shown in welcome interludes as she tries to make her hidden lair safe for her and her son. Dalia Hernandez portrays her as creative and resourceful, and the humanity of their people is shown through her travails.

  The round faces and slanted eyes of those from the Yucatan peninsula region with their tattooed faces and hands are as genuine and refreshing as anything you'll see in film these days, and demonstrate the advantages of location shooting although it sends costs of a film way upwards. This is why if you're a producer doing a desert film, even one whose storyline is in the Middle East then Arizona or Mexico will do! Many jungle, Vietnam or Pacific theatre World War II films, or even TV shows such as "Lost" are shot in Hawaii.

  Milwaukee for its part has been a stand-in for baseball movies such as for the home stadium of the Cleveland Indians in "Major League" and as New Orleans for Bernie Mac's "Mr. 3000," which I was in as a Featured Extra. (Look in the background during the Milwaukee Brewer vs. Houston Astros game scenes for one of the light-skinned photographers, the one with a light hat or beret).

  Many films are located in Canada to get away from American labour unions and their featherbedding rules, they just have to truck in some Black and Latino people to stand around in the background scenes. Chicago is so often used because Hollywood wanted to have real people with flat accents, not the fitness and vegetarian diet, anorexia-crazed southern California actor wannabees.

  "Apocalypto" directed by Mel Gibson is from Touchstone Pictures, and Disney's Buena Vista film distribution arm and is rated "R" for knifings; spearings for sport; beheadings; jungle big cat face chewing; and heartbreaking depictions of rape and pillaging. -kjw

  Cast:

  Jungle Paw/Almost - Rudy Youngblood Wife of Jungle Paw - Dalia Hernendez Hanging Moss- Gerardo Taracena Also Starring:

  Jonathan Brewer ,Raoul Trujjllo, Isabel Diaz, Espiridion Acosta Cache, Carlos Emilio Baez

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

  Cinema Views With Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic

  "Idlewild" launches OutKast Duo into Upper Level of Performer/Actors;

  Musical Genre Invigorated With Modern Touches

  

  "Idlewild" is a rousing, toe tapping and emotionally draining period film that follows the successful musical formula of "Let's Put On A Show!" combined with the message of Following Your Dream. Any reports of the demise of the musical in these days of "Chicago" others have been greatly exaggerated.

  The movie was inspired by the real life Idlewild, Michigan enclave which was an island of creativity during the early years of the 20th century, although this one is transported from the Great Lakes Midwest to Georgia.

  The northwest Michigan enclave, near Grand Rapids and Traverse City, wants you to kjow more about the place that inspired the film: The Real Idlewild

  The film also broke the self-conscious prohibition of people breaking into song, which is no more ridiculous than gun battles with six shooters that fired off rounds like modern Niners, which the film also features.

  The mortuary aspect was similar to the film "A Rage in Harlem" with Gregory Hines as the street savvy one and the bookish Forest Whitaker as a funeral parlor accountant who falls in with femme fatale Robin Givens and her luggage bag of pilfered gold.

  "Cotton Comes to Harlem" of the Gravedigger Ed and Coffin Jones film series had production scenes that were akin to the energy and creativity of a people finally free to create, dance, write, or just enjoy life. The Harlem Renaissance was part of this freeing-up of formerly restricted energies.

  [ Percy breaks out with his talent for a wider audience]

  I became conscious of the acting skills of Antwan Patton, or Big Boi of the OutKast duo from the movie "ATL." I wasn't aware he was even in it, it being packed with so many other rapper-performer-actors. In that coming of age film of neighborhood skaters, their loves, and their last year of high school before going out into the world, Patton played a ghetto Thugpreneur whose illegal business threatens the future of the lead character's li'l brother.

  He had an effortless style, and like many actors find playing villains more to their liking. Isaiah Washington before he became a medical heartthrob in TVs "Grey's Anatomy," was a notable villain in several movies; Christopher Walken too at one time actually was a cinema Good Guy. That was a long, long time ago!

  Patton plays Rooster, a man with a foot in both sides of the law. He's a family man with a wife and four daughters who deals with bootleggers and gangsters as a regular pert of his business as a club owner of a nightclub cynically named Church.

  [The flamboyant Rooster is played by Big Boi Antwon Patton of OutKast]

  He is featured as the entertainer and club owner, but its fellow OutKast member Andre Benjamin who is the primary focus of the movie, and his romance with the chanteuse Angel Davenport, portrayed by the luminous Paula Patton.

  Andre 3000 cut his teeth on the films "Four Brothers," and earlier as a trigger happy henchman for Cedric The Entertainer in the dreadful John Travolta "Get Shorty" sequel "Be Cool.

  The Church is only a couple of levels above a Southern juke joint, with sawdust on the floor and patrons who aren't averse to throwing their bottles onstage as a form of expression. Percy moonlights at his childhood friend's club as the Piano Man, with almost crippling bouts of stage fright unless he's face down in his piano keys.

  [The thuggish Trumpy puts the squeeze on Rooster's club operation]

  "Get out there and play something!" says Sunshine Ace when Rooster is late for the nightly gig, declaring "ain't nobody getting' they money back!" Ving Rhames plays Spats, the benevolent dictator and crime kingpin. Paula Jai Parker again uses her booty --I mean beauty-- as the salacious and cheating girlfriend of the bar owner Sunshine Ace. Her scenes will be largely cut from the broadcast version!

  Patton's resemblance to singer/songwriter and pianist Alicia Keys need not be overly remarked upon but it is there nevertheless. At first, I thought it was indeed the Grammy-winning artiste as they're readying Keys for a film career, now that they've got that nonsense out of her head about wanting to be known for her art and not her considerable good looks. She was going around wearing baggy clothes onstage, but even they couldn't hide all her goodies.

  Keyes is going to play a world class hit woman in an upcoming film, inheriting roles that as in "The Matrix" sequels would be going to the late Aliyah. But I digress

  "Idlewild" is packed with loads of actors. Ben Vereen is Percy's stifling dad, but he has no performing scenes. As a onetime toast of Broadway this was unusual. And why have Pattie Labelle, the once outrageous stage diva and 1990s Superbowl halftime performer in a movie if she isn't going to sing? Use an unknown for those bit parts and save the cash!

  Malinda Williams has made a successful transition from playing the teenage girls she's portrayed in films such as her hilarious comic turn in "High School High" with Mekhi Phifer, directed by "Airplane!" and "BASEketball" co-creator and Milwaukeean David Zucker, and co-starring Jon Lovitz. Williams plays Zora, the beleaguered wife of the philandering Rooster and mother to his children, But she's no dummy, as she makes quite plain.

  The sprawling film has a cast of dozens of speaking roles, and many more dancing ones. And these women have real world looks and figures; even the thin ones have womanly hips and shapes, instead of those otherworldly Reel World boyish shaped looking ones, who have been unduly thrust forth before us by an overly Homosexual influenced Hollywood who prefer their women to resemble long, thin and boyish looking.

  The leaps and lifts of dancers are augmented by some interesting camera work as the Jitterbuggin and Lindy-Hopping dancers are frozen and slowed down, then speeded up; with the camera darting between their legs, then shooting the dancers from above as they are leaping and being tossed and flipped.

  Such exuberance and energy hasn't been seen since the dance antics in the enjoyable "You Got Served," also starring rap performers who are populating films these days. Not even the musical based on the Maryland High School of The Arts – that's Tupac Shakur's alma mater-- "Step Up" had such an infectious feel.

  The music and lyrics were composed and recomposed to have a modern feel, but placed in the period of the Depression mid 1930s. the effect at first threw Jean.

  "Don't the music and songs seem a bit – out of place?" Jean said sideways to me. We saw "Idlewild" at the invitational preview screening Tuesday night at the Marcus Ridge cinemas in New Berlin, hosted by the Milwaukee Community Journal, the state's largest Black newspaper which carried the print column of Cinema Views. The preview was also co-sponsored by Fox TV Channel Six and radio station V-100.

  Indeed, the record scratching barely minutes into the film alerts you right off that there is going to be some tampering with the musical formula, although they'd have to go a long ways farther to beat out Baz Luhrman's "Moulin Rouge."

  That movie starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor was one of the few I almost walked out on, but I'm glad I stayed. As a musical it was daring and effective, melding modern songs to old styles such as a Country Western song to a Tango; using Jazz and Waltz, even the Can-Can, but placed in early 20th century Bohemian Paris.

  "Idlewild" likewise has rap lyrics that actually fit well into the stage performances of Rooster and his nightclub and after a bit you don't notice. In fact, you can see how there is a thread that ties together Rap, Dance, music and the Southern culture that was transplanted North from the Chitlin' Circuit of clubs to the new Black communities in the first couple of generations after Emancipation.

  When the chanteuse tells the audience to "…taste my Bitch's Brew…" we recognize that this is an ode to Miles Davis and his album of the same name with the cover artistry that had many college students unfolding it and attaching it to their dormitory walls. The soundtrack was released a week ago and I hope the titles, which are often taken from scene descriptions don't give away too much of the minimal plot.

  "Afterparty" is one of the purely verbal songs, and at a welcome slower pace as Angel sings at her club debut, with onstage jitters that recall Anita Baker's music video "No One In The World" staged at the Apollo theatre's amateur night in post-world war II Harlem.

  "I sing best when I sing for you" says the fun-loving beauty, who laid herself out in one of his coffins to the churchy mortuary attendant.

  [Angel and Percy ponder their future as their attraction grows]

  Macy Gray portrays Taffy, the veteran singer who gets put to the curb when Angel arrives. Gray is a HBO vet from "Lackawanna Blues," and had a nice short role as the neighborhood drug mama in Denzel Washington's "Training Day," although she's had other short roles.

  In the Katrina aftermath in New Orleans Gray was spotted anonymously serving food to evacuees in the Superdome, just doing what she could. There were reports of several others of her stature doing the same, just there with no press agents, but Macy's hard to miss with that height, hair and thickness!

  Jean, my movie date, was bothered by the lack of law enforcement seen throughout "Idelwild," with bullets flying and bodies piling up all over the place.

  "Where were the police?" Jean asked. "There wasn't any retribution, or justice seen in the movie," she said.

  You know, she's right. It seemed particularly lawless, even for a 1930s backwoods Georgia community. Like those Martial Arts films where all these people are fighting and revenge killing over a period of days and there are no authorities around to stop it. Only a newspaper article seemed to signal any official connection. Even in a time of Segregation this would be unusual.

  That notable observation aside, this is why I like seeing movies with intelligent people such as Jean; they point things out that would escape me. I would have granted "Idlewild" that bit of license as part of the normal suspension of belief. After all, there were already talking whiskey flask crests and an animated wall of Cuckoo clocks. And rappers.

  HBO, which also exposited other African American oriented features such as "Lackawanna Blues", "Tuskegee Airmen" and "Miss Evers Boys" also is involved in Spike Lee's four hour film about flooded New Orleans and post-Hurricane Katrina "When The Levees Broke" which premiered last Monday and Tuesday nights.

  "IDLEWILD" directed and written by Bryan Barber is from Universal Pictures in conjunction with HBO, and is rated a well deserved "R" for adults because of depictions of automobile sexual encounters, YMCA dining, ceiling shots of bedplay, et cetera. Leave the little ones at home for this one! Get a sitter, spend the cash.

  Cast:

  Andre Benjamin -- Percy
  Antwan Patton -- Rooster
  Paula Patton – Angel Davenport
  Terrence Dashon Howard -- Trumpy
  Malinda Williams -- Zora
  Paula Jai Parker – Rose
  Ving Rhames – Spats
  Macy Gray -- Taffy
  Ben Vereen – Percy Senior
  Cicely Tyson – Mother Hopkins Faizon Love – Sunshine Ace
  Jackie Long -- Monk
  Patti LaBelle -- entertainer
  

  Cinema Views on Tripod
  

  "X-MEN 3: THE LAST STAND"

  
  by Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic

  Black Web Portal Wire Releases

  Contact The Word NetPaper
  

  "I don't answer to my Slave Name anymore."

  - Mystique, once called Raven Darkholm

  This is a most satisfying conclusion to the original X-Men series. I say that because there is the option for more, and as much as these films have made this is as much a possibility as the four "Alien" movies. Or the twenty two James Bond 007s. Just stay for ALL of the credits, that's all I can say. (Hint: Remember after the credits in "DareDevil?")

  Sci Fi Brothas and Sistahs are making their presence felt in big budget films. In the latest and third X-Men venture "The Last Stand" Halle Berry gets her wish and flies; Genocide of a class of people as government policy is devised and discussed; and the Holocaust, the Illegal Immigration problem, and African American Slave Revolts are used as templates for the confrontation of Humans and Homo superior.

  [Storm battles Callisto in X-Men 3]

  When I heard Halle Berry as Storm was displeased at her character being screen dressing and might not be returning for the second sequel I wasn't thrown by it. Even in the comic book she was not one of my favourite characters. Control the weather? Big deal. All she did in the movies was stand around and talk.

  But the lightening bolts she can shoot are cool, and her eyes go all white to match her hair, which is given a new 'do here. Also she lost that weird Eastern European accent from the first film, although she's supposed to be from the Caribbean. In "The Last Stand" she now talks like a regular suburban girl, or like her native Ohio.

  "I felt like a real part of the movie this time" she said in an interview for the Extra TV magazine in France after the Cannes film festival.

  "Storm can do all the things she does in the comic book," gushed the onetime Milwaukeean.

  We won't be seeing her in these parts now that she and onetime hubby Eric Benet are divorced. When they went to the movies they didn't go to the fancy theatres, they sat with everybody else, even in theatres I wouldn't go to! She liked shopping the malls, too from what I hear.

  Halle sightings were numerous back then. Its not that we don't have some celebrities here. I mean, Coo Coo Cal made "My Projects about his experiences at Westlawn. But I digress.

  Halle Berry is really laid back, and a regular person with a well-developed sense of humour, as seen in her appearances to pick up her Harvard Hasty Pudding award. (She had to stand at a blackboard and write "I will not make Catwoman 2" five times).

  Bill Duke is Trask, a government operative who put into motion the plan to convert - forcibly if need be - the millions of mutants who roam free. Duke has done more directing than acting of late, although he had memorable roles in two Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, "Commando and "Predator."

  Almost alone among mainstream movies the X-Men saga has escaped the dreaded Sequelitis affliction with strong storylines and identifiable characters. Instead of a weak follow-up to cash in, the Marvel movies division and their gifted writers have continually upped the ante, and this time out they threw down mightily. They also weren't afraid to kill off a few people here and there. Actually lots of people.

  There is lots of blood spilt, both Mutant and human. This is a rough film, but mostly bloodless. Still there are many deaths, and when cars are compacted into disks and cubes with screaming passengers inside you don't have to see the squishiness, or the deep red running out from over the floorboards.

  
  [There is lots of mayhem in "X-Men 3: The Last Stand" ]

  Having strong directors who know what people want helps. The first two were helmed by Bryan Singer who wasn't at all a comic book fan of the Marvel strip. He was known for the thrilling and bloody crime drama "The Usual Suspects." Brett Ratner from the "Rush Hour" movies handles things this time.

  Action adventure movie makers discovered they could get women to come buy by focusing on relationships. Rogue has the ability to temporarily draw out the powers of other mutants, and if she holds on, she can kill anyone. When she hears there is a cure for Mutancy she's all for it, and is packing her bags to leave the mansion and stand in the long lines at the treatment centers.

  "All I want is to be able to touch someone, to hug them and give them a kiss..."

  And that someone is Bobby the Iceman. But Kitty Pryde, or The Girl Who Walks Through Walls, has her own designs. She's grown up a bit, and has some impressive scenes. I just wish Colossus did too.

  [Iceman, Kitty Pryde and Storm in the lead
  must work as a team to defeat Magneto's
  Brotherhood of mutants]

  What did super beings do for powers before Quantum Physics? Pryde - they'll make up a name for her someday, its like a rule - can "phase through matter,", and by touch can affect others the same way. I also like the consistency of the X-Men universe. Most Mutants have increased mind reading ability; some can pass on their attributes by holding onto someone, as Colossus does to protect another from flying debris.

  Singer brought the same Male Stuff bravado and conflict to the X-Men movies, particularly through the rivals for Jean Grey's affection. Scott's Cyclops is her boyfriend and Wolverine, or Logan the Canadian, was the new Bad Boy and has been the centerpiece of the series. Hugh Jackman the current stage darling has played Wolverine in all three movies.

  Thrown into a leadership role against his natural wandering nature, the indestructible, instant healing Wolverine becomes an elder big brother to the School for Gifted youngsters, partnering with the sexless Storm in helping run the school.

  
  [Hugh Jackman's Wolverine with Storm
  get ready for action on a supposedly quiet
  and peaceful subdivision]

  His origins were explained in the second film, and where he got his skeleton and retractable claws made of the indestructible alloy Adamantium. And his amnesia. I bought that DVD, which featured the attack on the White House and the drawing of first blood by the increasingly reactionary humans led by Brian Cox's agents when they attacked Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.

  This was the crucial middle part of the nearly seamless series leading up to this colossal throw-down and battle royal where it's the military with plastic weaponry going against Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants, with the depleted ranks of the X-Men having to choose which side they're going to be on, the scheming, discriminatory and fearful Humans, or the Brotherhood?

  Indeed, many have to make their choice. TVs Kelsey ("Frasier") Grammar is Dr. Hank McCoy, aka the blue-haired and brainy Beast, and in the comics he was one of the five original X-Men. Here he is a member of the president's cabinet, and the secretary of the department of Mutant affairs.

  Hank McCoy is trying to work from within the system, but there comes a point where he tells the president as he's resigning that decisions are being made without his input, such as weaponising the Mutant Cure into pistols and aerosols, and where participation is no longer going to be "voluntary." A Final Solution for the mutant problem is being implemented.

  "In a time like this, I have to be with my people" McCoy tells the President. This is like when Wisconsinite Tony Shalhoub of Green Bay (cable TVs "Monk") an Arab American FBI agent assigned with Denzel Washington in "Under Seige" elects to stay behind the barbed wire in the stadium prison when his cop friends come to get him out. All Middle Eastern men in the city were rounded up by Bruce Willis' occupying Marine general after terrorist attacks on New York, and he was swept up with them.

  "Tell them I won't be their 'Sand Nigger' anymore. This is where I belong, here with them..." Shalhoub says, as he backs away from the fence, and is lost in the shuffling crowd of detainees.

  
  [ Storm played by Halle Berry prepares to blast
  a member of the Brotherhood of Mutants in
  "X-Men III: The Last Stand" ]

  The X-Men have always used current events and cultural attitudes as a template for their stories. This time there are two. Much like "Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes" used the Enslaved Revolts in 1700s and 1800s America as their backdrop, "The Last Stand" also uses the Slave Insurrections where Magneto, the Jewish Holocaust of WWII still fresh in his mind, plots in secret in the forest like Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey. The also had their Uncle Toms and Thomasinas as well who fought against them and their cause, and they wanted to see the enemy coming.

  There are also further cultural references. Under interrogation, the captured Mystique is referred to as "Raven." She sits there silent and sullen as the warden (the same jerk as in "Silence of the