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

--------------
"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?

Contact The NetPaper

Milwaukee, WI USA

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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
  

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  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 Lambs") repeats.

  Finally, she says "I don't answer to my Slave name." Hello!

  The shape-shifter and deadly martial artist with the prehensile feet also ominously tells a brutal Brotha security guard who's guarding the mutant detainees as they're being moved around in the secret mobile prisons that "when the time comes --I'm going to kill you myself."

  "Yeah right. Move back from the bars or I'll Mace you again, you blue bitch!"

  But the new X-Men movie has a more modern relevance, and that is the current Illegal Immigration brouhaha. When a large pharmaceutical firm announces an injectable "cure" that permanently suppresses the Mutant X gene it launches the nation into a contentious discussion as processing centers are opened up, and mutants are urged to report to get their free and voluntary treatments.

  "But there's nothing wrong with us!" says Halle Berry's Storm, who gets lot more to do in this movie, including fly, as she does in the comics. I mean "Graphic Novels." There is lots of discussion about ethics in the film, along with Genocide. This aspect made me sit up, because I'm writing a series of articles on the subject.

  
  [Storm and Prof. Xavier question Logan
  about the whereabouts of the Phoenix,
  the transformed Jean Grey ]

  In fact, the Illegal Immigration furor may exacerbate the temptation for Genocide, because while some are saying "there's no way to get 12 million people out" of the country that's not quite true. The Pentagon for years had - and may yet have - an Ethnic Weaponry program in the 1970s and '80s, where they could target an entire group for elimination by their group genetic signature. The Human Genome project only makes it easier.

  So, if it becomes perceived as a problem with projections by some think tanks that by the middle of this century 170 million Central Americans and their descendents will overwhelm this nation there are options, just not humane ones. But if lots of urban Chicanos start getting coughs and colds that won't get away, don't say that you weren't told!

  "How can Democracy survive when one man can move cities with his mind?" the President asks. Prof. X back at his school for Gifted Youngsters leads a discussion by asking "when do we cross the line into tyranny?" by misuse of their powers?

  Eric Lensher's Magneto has been given a very understandable motivation. As a Holocaust survivor he has seen this before, and is driven to make sure Never Again. He shows his concentration camp tattoo to the disunified rabble as he raises his army for the war against Homo Sapiens, and tells them how its going down:

  "While you're planning and holding your meetings they will come in the still of the night. Make no mistake my young friends, this is extermination."

  "Nobody's been talking of extermination!" someone protests.

  "No one ever speaks of extermination, they just do it," Lensher tells them.

  "In the coming fight and the inevitable Genocide, on whose side will you stand? If we want our freedom we must fight for it! And that fight begins now!"

  
  [ Magneto joins forces again with Prof. X
  and the X-Men after the government tries to
  "cure" its Mutant problem ]

  Still, when the renegade Pyro complains about Prof. Xavier, considered a go-along Uncle Tom by the young Turks Magneto brings him up short.

  "Charles Xavier did more for Mutants than you will ever know!"

  Ian McKellen is in two monster hit films at once, to go along with his role as Gandolf in "The Lord of the Rings" movies. His stage skills do him well here, as does Patrick Stewart's, reprising his role as Prof. Charles Xavier, trying to create a world where Mutant and human can live in peace.

  In addition to Magneto, some of the Old School mutants have been recycled and make an appearance in "The Last Stand." There is the Juggernaut who can crash through anything when he gets up momentum; the Angel with his magnificent dove-white wings which he straps under his extra large and extra long trench coat. Colossus is another Marvel re-invention from Giant Man, but who is here a somewhat normal sized Russian with organic steel flesh. I really wanted to see him go against Juggernaut.

  The Old School Giant Man had his own opposite analog as the former Ant Man, therefore going from the smallest superhero to the tallest! In one episode, while down in Mexico Giant Man lost the potion he has to take to return to normal size, sticking him at 12-15 feet. He was hiding in alleyways, and frightening children who saw him behind the market stalls. "Mira! Mira! Un hombre grande!" to their disbelieving parents.

  [Back at Alkali Lake, Jane Grey mysteriously
  returns as the ultra powerful and
  unstoppable Phoenix ]

  Vinnie Jones plays Juggernaut. He appeared as the silent mechanic in "Gone in 60 Seconds," and also in "Swordfish." He thus continues the Hollywood Six Degrees aspect with Halle, who also was in "Swordfish" with Hugh Jackman, playing the henchwoman to John Travolta. Come to think of it, she did do a bit of flying in that film. Sort of.

  The New Jack ones among the mutant villains include Callisto, with super speed and the ability to sense mutant abilities. Dania Ramirez is Callisto. Ramirez' first film was Spike Lee's "The Subway Stories" for HBO. Other Spike Lee projects were "25th Hour" and "She Hate Me." In the latter, she was the Lesbian partner of Kerry Washington who wants to have a baby with her attorney girlfriend, aided by "Serenity" and "Inside Man" actor Cheiwetel Etiofor as their helpful BabyDaddy.

  Other new additions are Jubilee, who can project sonic waves; Arclight; and a fella I just call MultiMan, like from the Saturday morning cartoons that used to come on after the most excellent "Herculoids." He can multiply himself in a flagrant violation of scientific principles such as the Conservation Of Mass. But this is a movie, and some suspension of belief is okay, but sometimes they stretch things a bit much. There has to be some plausible Science in Science Fiction.

  There's also the Porcupine Boy (even when used, their screen names are tossed around fast during "X-Men III: The Last Stand" and couldn't always be written down. Also, the studio Cast List doesn't help because we don't know who's name is who, or even what sex the actor is. Who is Arclight? Male or female? And almost everybody has an alias, except for Kitty Pryde and Jean Grey. The photos help out just a bit.

  
  CAST OF X-MEN III: THE LAST STAND

  Storm -- Halle Berry
  Trask - Bill Duke
  Callisto -- Dania Ramirez
  Jane Grey, The Phoenix - Famke Janssen
  Wolverine -- Hugh Jackman
  Rogue, Marie -- Anna Paquin
  Eric Lensher, Magneto -- Ian McKellen
  Prof. Charles Xavier -- Patrick Stewart
  Scott, Cyclops -- James Marsden
  Iceman, Bobby -- Shawn Ashmore
  Raven Darkholm, Mystique -- Rebecca Romjin
  Jimmy The Leech-- Cameron Bright
  Pyro -- Aaron Stanford
  Warren Worthington III, Angel -- Ben Foster
  Kitty Pryde -- Ellen Page
  
  X-MEN III: THE LAST STAND is directed by Brett Ratner for 20th Century Fox studios. Its rated PG-13 for comic book style violence and mayhem on a massive and continuous scale, but little blood. There's some sexual groping betwixt Logan and Jean Grey, and the skinny Mystique appears pink-skinned and butt-nekkid in one scene. --kjw

  There have been many movies made from video games, and even 1960-70s TV series. But one genre is really coming into its own because there is a built-in audience spanning generations.

  
  MOVIES MADE FROM COMIC BOOKS:

  "Meteor Man" by Robert Townsend is unmistakenly drawn from Green Lantern - at least by the green meteor and the sharp, green cape-less suit, and the story of Hal Jordan, who is part of the Green Lantern Corp of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Townsend wanted to make an African American superhero, which many of us lacked growing up.

  "Meteor Man's" hero, played by director Townsend (who also directed Halle Berry in "B.A.P.S."), is struck by a mysterious meteor and given superpowers, which he uses to clean up his neighborhood of the criminality and drug dealers. The movie was referenced by me for the obituary of the late Luther Vandross because it was his first major screen appearance as the silent hit man and henchman of the golden haired gang. Meteor man also co-stars James Earl Jones, Darth Vader voiceman and Thulsa Doom villain in the first "Conan movie." Bill Cosby plays a pivotal bit part.

  The Green Lanterns are the opposite of the Watchers, those Marvel eternals with powers akin to the "Star Trek: Next Generation" Q, but who have a strict Prime Directive hands off credo. I can remember when for a time all of the Green Lanterns were of colour. There are always a substitute GL, and when Jordan vanished, one was a brotha who the Guardians had to continually tell he couldn't use the rechargeable Power Ring to restructure the slums for instance.

  Can you still remember the ritual rhyme? Don't even try and pretend that you didn't do it back in tha day!

  "In brightest Day, in blackest Night,
  No Evil shall escape my sight.
  To those who worship Evil's might,
  Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"

  Superman Returns -- This will make the fifth movie in the franchise, as in the most excellent "Batman Returns" there was some retooling for out times.

  In the film Superman returns after some years, and just as in the Jesus of Nazareth fable that the Jewish cousins in Cleveland thought up in the 1930s there are questions about his absence and what he was doing. Seeking wisdom? Strengthening his powers for a titanic battle to come?

  Kevin Spacey plays Lex Luthor, using the same sociopathic leer he employed in "Seven." This is a good sign, because you can't have an unknown in this role. Gene Hackman has established a high bar for the villain role in three of the previous four Christopher Reeves versions.

  Nick Cage, who told me once in an interview that he took part of his name from the early Black superhero "Luke Cage Power Man," lost out on the Superman role, but he's the "Ghost Rider" now. They're using Marlon Brando's voice again as the disembodied tutor of the super powered import. In Part Two of the original they had to use Susanna York, the mother of the truly Illegal Alien Kal-El because Brando was talking crazy about money for his few lines. Which he refused to learn, and had to read off cue cards.

  
  The Hulk - This much maligned Marvel movie has a sequel planned, and its about time. This was a fabulously entertaining movie that was bad mouthed all through the Internet by the 30 year-old, high water pants wearing, still live downstairs in they mama's basement, never kissed a real girl bunch, who insisted that strict fidelity be paid to such things as ensuring the Hulk wear purple pants!

  In comics they do that for visual effect, and it also cuts down on redrawing the numerous panels, you sissies! Shut up next time, and push away from the keyboards and go outside and get you some sun.

  "She Hulk" The Movie is reportedly being planned. Good news, bring it on. And this time ignore the NaySayers. They ain't nobody special.

  Wonder Woman -- Speaking of tall, thick women, this DC comic of the first female superhero, a rogue Amazon princess is due for a Hollywood version. There were actually two TV series made from it in the 1970s.

  Unbreakable - This is really a filmed comic book, with a dissertation delivered by a real comic book fan in Samuel Jackson that was incorporated into the film. Reteaming with Bruce Willis from "Pulp Fiction," Jackson plays Mr. Glass, friend to the nearly invulnerable Willis who survived car and train crashes.

  By contrast, Mr. Glass has very weak bones, and when he was born in a tenement his young mother was questioned for child abuse when the constantly crying baby boy was found with every bone in his little body broken!

  M. Night Shyamalan has another film, "Lady In the Water" out this summer. And its nothing like the lightweight but enjoyable girl Mermaid flick "Aquamarine," trust me on this!

  The Crow - This had three theatre feature film releases, and a fourth to TV. Originally based in Detroit, on Devil's night thugs break in and kill a young couple. Brandon Lee, son of Bruce, comes back from the dead to become the unslayable Killer of Killers and dark avenging spirit, still linked to earthly life. Lee died on the set under very mysterious circumstances that have fueled conspiracy theorists ever since.

  Spawn
  Blade
  Catwoman
  Supergirl
  Spider Man
  Elektra
  Fantastic Four
  Batman Returns
  The Mask, Son of

  
  Coming Up:

  Nacho Libre - Jack Black plays a wrestler and sort-of monk/initiate who uses his ring skills to help support a Mexican orphanage in this comical farce.

  Ghost Rider - Nick Cage plays the undead motorcycle rider who avenges his death, ala "The Crow"

  Namor, the Sub Mariner
  Aqua Man
  Iron Man
  She Hulk
  Wonder Woman

  Some of these are often turned into Cable Movies if the studios get skittish where the average action movie is 80 million dollars. That's why they like to cast unknowns in both acting and ddirecting, 'cause they cheaper. Until they blow up, like former unknown actors and independent music video directors.

  Cinema Views with Film Critic Kevin J. Walker
  p.o. box 1324-53201 milwaukee, wis. usa

  Black Web Portal Wire Releases
  Cinema Views on Tripod
  

  Oscars 2006

  Oscar Voters Found a Way to Quit It as "Crash" Upends "Brokeback Mountain's" Hard Ride to Best Film

  
  

  Cinema views By Film Critic Kevin J. Walker

  http://cinemaviews.tripod.com

  http://www.geocities.com/cinemaviews

  
  (Read the full reviews of some of these films on http://blackwebportal.com/wire in the MovieReviews link, or just click my name, Kevin J. Walker in the Media Partners section, on the right. Ignore that old picture and scroll down. I can't update it).

  Denzel once told Will Smith "Don't be kissin' no man" in his movies, but Smith ultimately ignored that wise advice, as did the makers of a batch of Alternative Lifestyle films. But the Oscar voters largely followed the public's lead, avoiding too much identification with quirky films for the big prizes, contributing to the last minute surprise win of "Crash" over the Gay Cowboy movie.

  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.

  This last was called the "Gay Oscars" because of the preponderance of Homosexual themed character and subject matter 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 each night.

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

  "Don't be kissin' no man," the onetime advice by Denzel Washington to Will Smith for his role as a gay hustler in "Six Degrees of Separation" was largely ignored in films from "Alexander" 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.

  The big stunner of the night 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." The problem was all the people who believed their own hype.

  They forgot that media people, and especially foreigners such as those who run 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 get to vote on.

  I always found it odd that the Oscars are always shown on TV rather than in theatres like they sued to do with athletic events like boxing before cable, and how some theaters do with sports events. 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 make it up in concession sales.

  This is much like cable channel MTV whose awards 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 each in her own place. It seems sorta wrong.

  Anne Coulter, conservative columnist, radio talk show guest and author of "How To Speak To A Liberal -- If You Must," said right after the Oscar ceremonies Sunday night "Conservatives should take heart... they still have a great deal of power... ," because their values are still predominate and can reach into even Liberal Hollywood and make them back off of plenty of stuff they don't like, and the country has their back.

  Audiences avoided almost all of the top nominated films like if they went and sat down and watched them they'd get the Avian Flu combined with SARS, with an AIDS chaser.

  During the performance of the winner of Best Original Song "Its Hard Out Here For A Pimp" from "Hustle and Flow" Coulter said "after the performance when [The Three-6 Mafia] were onstage rapping and cussing, one of them thanked Jesus! That's probably the first time that has happened at a Hollywood ceremony," the acerbic Coulter said on the Matthew Drudge Report dot com radio show.

  The daya fter "Hustle And Flow" won Best Song for "Its Hard Out Here For A Pimp," Radio Factor host Bill O'Reilly opined on his show Monday "We should just surrender to Al Qaida right now," and said its winning signaled the unmistakable decline of the onetime guiding light of Western Civilization.

  "Brokeback Mountain" was being talked about so much its vociferous backers just may have talked it right out of an Academy Award. The blatant pro-Gay activism may have spurred a late in the game backlash by Academy voters against the all but crowned Ang Lee film about two Wyoming cowboys who fall in The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name in a story that spanned decades.

  It actually was a good movie as directed by Ang Lee, ("The Hulk", "Ice Storm", "Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger") about unrequited love, frustrated goals and dreams that just happened to have two men in love at its center.

  But its merits as cinema was obscured by all the foofarah surrounding it by those who wanted "Brokeback Mountain" to be a national referendum on the acceptance of the Sodomite lifestyle, which is a tough sell in the best of times.

  Matt Drudge said on his show the win by the underdog "Crash" over "Brokeback Mountain" "could only be interpreted as a snub of the Gays."

  And another thing is, while people may publicly mouth tolerant words for Homosexuality and quickly state "Not that there's anything wrong with that," normal people really don't care for it, and don't particularly want it to spread to the point that they want it to substantially change society. This is especially where bedrock institutions such as marriage are concerned. And even the Academy members have children, and hope to have grandchildren. In the voting booths is where our true feelings come out, whether in the Academy or in normally Blue states.

  "You're lookin' mighty good in them jeans, b'wah" doesn't cut it with the generally artistically conservative Oscar Voters, who eventually found a way to quit the Gay themed "Brokeback Mountain." The world is still in its rightful place. (Not that there's anything wrong with that).

  "Brokeback To The Future" and other short film parodies are all over the Internet and on late-night shows. The controversial comic strip "The Boondocks" by Aaron McGruder has had an extended run on the controversy, using the conservative Grandpa as the foil for the two transplanted to the 'burbs militant 'Hood Rats. The TV version of "The Boondocks" hasn't reflected this yet since they are made in advance, but its coming, fo' sho.'

  Reese Witherspoon won for Best Actress in "Walk the Line." Also Nominated was her co-star Joachim Phoenix for Best Actor. Phoenix of Puerto Rico was nominated for his entertaining portrayal of Johnny Cash, but he like Terrence Howard couldn't get past the Phillip Seymour Hoffman juggernaut for "Capote."

  And if there's one thing Academy voters love its a biopic, preferably a big period one which employs lots of electricians, seamstresses and carpenters. In effect, they are voting themselves more employment!

  That being said, no one could have seen the success of "March of the Penguins." This was another exhibit of the Hollywood structure unable to divine what the public wants. If someone was to go back in time a year ago and tell the studio heads who Green Light movies that audiences would pack theatres to see a nature film about Antarctic Emperor penguins, their mating rituals and arduous travels to find someone to love, they'd kick you out of their offices quicker than an eye blink, and no one would blame them. And I'd have been one of them.

  "March Of The Penguins" narrated by Morgan Freeman won for Best Documentary. Freeman also narrated Steven Spielberg's "War of The Worlds" which was nominated for one of the technical awards.

  With the movies this year so loaded with so many sodomistic characters a few slipped through. "Capote" won Best Actor honours for Philip Seymour Hoffman for his portrayal of the openly Gay Southern boy who went East and became a celebrated novelist after he penned "In Cold Blood," about a time when the killing of an entire family in Kansas by a couple of drifters still shocked Americans.

  King Kong won on a Technicality - that is, awards for visuals effects which is where the big splashy special effects and Science Fiction or Horror films are usually relegated. This is like a "Star Wars 6: Revenge of the Sith" -type of consolation prize.

  "TransAmerica's" Felicity Huffman gave way to Reese Witherspoon for Best Actress for her portrayal of June Carter Cash in the most excellent "Walk The Line," a biopic of Johnny Cash.

  "TA" was premiered at the Milwaukee International Film festival this Autumn, along with international films from Brazil, Senegal in Africa; and more multiplex fare such as "The Matador"; "Mrs. Henderson Presents" and "Nine Lives."

  It was another in the small offbeat films that were elevated to award status, as the Academy voters timidly moved to back activist films that had already been rejected by the moviegoing and ticket buying public, notwithstanding the success of Tyler Perry's "Madea's Family Reunion" and the sniping by elitists such as film critic Leonard Maltin at other popular movies such as "Big Mama's House 2".

  At least people are going to see that movie, which is entertaining. Punk.

  Rachel Wiesz of the most excellent "Mummy" films won for Best Supporting Actress for "The Constant Gardner," about her normally placid diplomat husband's investigation into her mysterious killing in Kenya at the hands of a multinational drug company using African women as guinea pigs for drugs that wouldn't be legal stateside.

  "Okay, so I'm not winning Best Director" George Clooney quipped as he accepted his award for Best Supporting Actor for "Syriana," his starring role that was placed in the Best Supporting category as they often are. Sometimes its for political and strategic reasons, if they think the Best Acting categories may shut them out, or if they want to make room for someone else. He was also up for Best Director for his period political film "Good Night, and Good Luck."

  "Syriana" is about the machinations of the CIA and the entanglement of oil and politics in the Mideast. Clooney plays Barnes, a dependable but burnt-out and just barely tolerated CIA contract agent who comes to question his country's international involvement and its ethics. Basically in "Syriana" he gets tired of being one of the Bad Guys when he stops to think of what it is that he's been doing.

  Clooney has been in this arena before, notably in "Three Kings," a Gulf War I heist caper film with Ice Cube, Mark Wahlberg, and Spike Jonz, normally a filmmaker in the story by scripted by former Milwaukee area resident John Ridley, who wrote the noir-ish "U-Turn" with Jennifer Lopez.

  The whisperings are that Hollywood realizes after the embarrassment of Michael Moore's over the top and vitriolic "Fahrenheit 911" anti-Bush documentary diatribe of last year that they have driven normal people from the theatres with films that are way out of the nation's mainstream, from curse word-laden, ultra-violent film fests with amoral, dysfunctional characters; to gender-twisting polemics which, while they might please the latte-sippers on the Left Coasts, fall flat in the great Midwest and the majority of the country who don't get the appeal.

  They may have made their presence and displeasure known. The once flaming "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy" is keeping a lower profile, and also the "L Word" urban Lesbian series with Jennifer Beals ("Flashdance", "Devil In a Blue Dress.")

  The existing gay-oriented cable series and those already on the books were canceled by backers after the cable companies counted the votes of the 2004 election, the mood of the nation, and the unanimous defeat of Same Sex Marriage referendums in all 11 of the states where they were put forth, even in Liberal bastions such as Oregon where easy passage was predicted.

  I remember when the film BASEketball, inspired by an actual created quasi sport here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, saw its receipts plummet when they needlessly inserted some gay-themed items into their script, acted in by the creators of the "South Park" cartoons. Audiences, disgusted by that aspect and the numerous gross-outs of the movie rejected it.

  This should have been an omen, but all of the film nominees for the top awards were smaller films with plotlines that were rejected by the usual safe non-inventive Hollywood system which is busy making the same movies over and over again from video games, comic books, sequels and TV series.

  These include such as "Doom", "BloodRayne", "Ultraviolet", "X Men", "Batman/Superman," and "Miami Vice." The money people in Tinseltown wisely passed on backing the out there and Out of the Closet movies, but the awards givers still wanted to make their feelings known, that is until they came to their senses just in time.

  Hollywood is all about the money, and with attendance plummeting and ticket sales also heading south, while DVD and Internet using audiences abandoning their offerings they snatched themselves back before they walked off the precipice by giving prominence and their official stamp of approval to a movie about a two Gay cowboys -- sheepherders actually -- engaging in what used to be called "Lust In The Dust" when they did it in the 1940s and '50s.

  I asked my favourite theatre's people at the Milwaukee Marcus Theatres Cinemas if they were going to rebook some of the Oscar-winning films for return engagements, the ones that aren't already out on DVD that is. They've done that before they said, but they have to see what comes down from the ones from On High.

  The makers of the films know they can squeeze about 15 percent more profit from reissuing the films; that's why there are so many Special Editions and Directors Cuts and Anniversary releases of films these days. That's just smart business, and is the gift that keeps on giving as well as a way to recoup their money. Actors and staffers are all for it because they find that they get some cash in their pockets as well, so Its All Good.

  Read the full reviews of these films on http://blackwebportal.com/wire in the MovieReviews link, or just click my name, Kevin J. Walker in the Media Partners section, on the right. Ignore that old picture and scroll down.

  http://cinemaviews.tripod.com

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

  Oscars 2006

  Capsules of Award Winners and Nominated films

  Cinema views By Film Critic Kevin J. Walker

  http://cinemaviews.tripod.com

  http://www.geocities.com/cinemaviews

  
  Some of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences voters found a way to quit it as "Crash" upended the long hard ride of "Brokeback Mountain.”

  Terrence Howard of "Crash" rides tall, and he should find things get easier for an actor since he appears in two Oscar Winning films, and his "Hustle & Flow" won Best Song for "Its Hard Out Here For A Pimp." Here are capsule treatments of some of the winners and nominees of interest are featured in below. Expanded reviews will follow on noteworthy ones such as "Crash" and "Brokeback Mountain."

  You can read the full reviews of some of these films such as Hustle & Flow" on http://blackwebportal.com/wire from the MovieReviews link, or just click my name, "Kevin J. Walker" in the Media Partners section, on the right. (Ignore that old picture and scroll down. I've tried to update it but I can't get into the section).

  • "TSOTSI" is a South African movie from a story by playwright Athol Fugard that won for Best Foreign Language film, in Xhosa. That's the Zulu African language with the tongue "clicks" in it. That should be fun to read in subtitles!

  • "MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA" is period film by the team that did the musical "Chicago" won for Best Cinematography, Art Direction and of course, Costume Design. They'd better be glad that the hauntingly beautiful "House of Flying Daggers" wasn't eligible this year." The movie is remarkable because it was cast with no American or Europeans, and was refreshing to see another culture, its history and ways. This is what many of us go to the movies for.

  • WALLACE AND GROMIT: THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT" -- Best Animated Feature Film is a new category they invented because excellent movies like "The Incredibles" and the "Shreks" were being touted as Best Picture entries. This is also one of the best and wry film titles to come along in years!

  • "MARCH OF THE PENGUINS" narrated by Morgan Freeman won for Best Documentary. Freeman also narrated Steven Spielberg's "War of The Worlds" which was nominated for one of the technical awards.

  • "CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE" won for Best makeup. Disney, whose corporate entity offers Same Sex Partner benefits, and whose theme parks feature "Gay Days," is gambling that they can get in on some of that Christian movie money following the $ucce$$ of films such as Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" and "The Gospel."

  
  We could put Tyler Perry's "Madea" movies in the mix, since for the second year in a row his films have dominated at least the opening weekend. This time his "Family Reunion" is in its second week of domination against multiple new releases.

  Like New Orleans resident (or make that former resident) Master P who once profitably sold his music CDs out of the back of his car on the street, Perry had sold millions of DVDs and videotapes long before the corporate White folks even knew who he was, all legit and yet outside of their system.

  Don't think for a moment that the studio heads ain't trying to rekonize what's going on when little Urban movies with cheaply paid casts and directors such as "G" are turning over such profits, especially in the home sales aftermarket. They want in, and they want it now!

  Still for all the honours, moviegoers avoided the LGBT films like they'd get the Avian Flu combined with SARS, with an AIDS chaser.

  The favourite of those who wanted to push Homosexual acceptance on the American public saw their chosen film wrecked by the dark horse, come-from-behind, hit-and-run win for "Crash" for Best Picture:

  CRASH

  WON:
  Best Picture
  Best Film Editing
  Best Original Screenplay

  
  Last year's nominee Don Cheadle from "Hotel Rwanda" was one of the many top shelf actors in "Crash," which was about two days in the intersecting lives of some Los Angelenos and the conflicting attitudes of race, economics and ethnic issues. The movie featured a Who's Who of present and future Oscar nominees.

  Among the cast of "Crash" was the present Best Actor honoree Terrence Howard for "Hustle and Flow" about a Memphis pimp seeking a career change as a rapper was one of the film's co-stars, along with Australian and Sci Fi Sistah Thandie Newton of "The Chronicles of Riddick" as his Buppie wife; Ryan Phillippe of "Way Of The Gun" and "Cruel Intentions," (and Mr. Reese Witherspoon); and the ripped-off for Best Actor Matt Dillon as a racist LAPD cop who nevertheless has a heroic core.

  In "Crash" I maintain Dillon was the true hero of the complex film, much like Danny Aeillo as Sal the pizzeria owner of Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing," sharing that quality of decent humanity with the late Ossie Davis as Da Mayor of the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.

  Dillon will return to the comedy roles for which he's better known by the public after his spurned suitor in the goofy and profane "There's Something About Mary." In "You, Me and Dupree." Dillon and Kate Hudson are settling in for a comfortable married life when his goofball friend and House Guest from Hell played by Owen Wilson comes to live with the newlyweds and plays havoc with their lives.

  The crowd in "Crash" features revelatory roles for the likes of Ludacris, Larenz Tate, Ryan Phillippe, Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, Don Cheadle, and the thick-a-licious Nona Gaye, who was simultaneously in "xXx II: State of The Union" opposite Ice Cube as one of the rotating agents of Samuel Jackson's covert agency's spymaster. Gaye was also in two "Matrix" movies.

  "This will be easier: Raise you're hand if you were NOT IN Crash" quipped Oscars telecast host Jon Stewart, who helped run a tight ship. The always longish Academy awards this time came in under 3.5 hours, one of the shorter ones in latter years.

  Stewart is known for his fake news cable show but does a movie once in a while, such as the darkly comic "Death To Smoochy" about the maneuverings behind a children's TV show; and as the member of the alien infected teaching staff in the most excellent Sci Fi film "Faculty" and one of my favourites. In the movie he dies.

  Paul Haggis' ensemble film on racial intolerance tackled a difficult subject, and carried it off in a film that held your attention riveted in place. This isn't a film that sells a lot of popcorn and soda.

  I also like that "Crash" doesn't accept the nonsense that "Black people can't be racist," which is pure sugar honeyed ice tea. In fact, its brewed unfiltered, lemon-lime, sugar honey iced tea! And you can quote me

  Cheadle's character, who expresses stereotypes about Latinos to his fellow cop Latina girlfriend's face, and talks bad to his crackhead mother has the opportunity to do the right thing, and he punts. If it was a White man, we'd holler like hell at the injustice.

  Two budding career criminals in the film are full of self-righteousness and self-pity, excusing their antisocial behaviour because of some historical wrongs, and thinking that they're some sort of modern day Robin Hoods by robbing White or Upper Middle Class people.

  "Hey, Osama -- says a clerk in a gun store. "Plan the jihad on your own time." When a small grocery store was trashed by protesters who painted "Arabs Go Home!" on the walls, his confused wife says "Since when are Iranians Arabs?"

  Sandra Bullock is known for the fluffier roles she played in "While You Were Sleeping" and two "Miss Congeniality" movies. In "Crash" in keeping with its Good/Bad Jeckyl/Hyde nature of the unknowability of prejudice and what's truly in a person's heart, her pampered suburban valley housewife has words that come out of her mouth that we almost never hear on a mainstream film.

  After she and her District Attorney husband are carjacked Bullock goes off on her bleeding heart husband:

  "Last night I had a GUN Stuck. In. My. Face!!

  "And the thing is, I KNEW it was about to happen!," when she didn't follow her instincts and was more wary when they were approached by two young Black men.

  "When a White person reacts this way, then they're to blame," she continues, and then orders all the locks changed again when a young Latino male, an entrepreneur and loving father just trying for his piece of the American Dream, arrives and replaces the house locks because her purse along with her keys and credit cards is taken during the 'jacking.

  "Oh, like he's not going to leave here and go sell our keys to his gang-banging friends!"

  "Would you PLEASE keep your voice down!" hisses her husband, played by the "Mummy" movies Brendan Fraser, as the young man, his tattoos visible on his neck and arms, and with his jaws clenched pretends not to hear her rant, along with their Latina housemaid.

  Like Halle Berry, and Meg Ryan, two other of America's Sweethearts Sandra Bullock can do no wrong, not even when she tries to. But this is her chance to finally break out. After Science Fiction action movies such as "The Net", and her futuristic cop in "Demolition Man" opposite Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes, Bullock has played confused low class trollops, rehabilitating inmate or promiscuous tramps as in "Forces of Nature" with Ben Affleck, "28 Days," or "A Time To Kill."

  "Crash" is an uncomfortable film, and that's the point. This is not a cupcake film by any stretch, and don't leave or you will be lost. This isn't "Big mama's House 2."

  What you may think you know of the many people you see in "Crash" isn't it. The signature line is spoken by Matt Dillon's wise veteran cop to his rookie partner.

  "Listen to me, just listen: you may think you know yourself, but you don't. Give it some time."

  Haggis wrote and directed a painful film with punch that delivered what people say they want in their movies, something different, something substantial and relevant for today. The Academy has redeemed itself by its gutsy choice.

  The naysayers however once again criticized a movie that wasn't their choice by leveling the same sort of double standard and illogic they directed at Jamie Foxx at "Ray," saying Foxx was "just imitating" his subject (?!?)

  Oh, like Phillip Seymour Hoffman in "Capote" and "Walk The Line's" Joachim Phoenix or Reese Witherspoon weren't? Besides, ¿when a movie is about someone else, just what would you have them do?

  They likewise said about "Crash" that it was "unlikely" that these people would all be connected in this sort of way. That's funny, I didn't hear them say that about "Magnolia" which had the same sort of Six Degree structure. But then, they liked that movie. Jerks.

  
  HUSTLE & FLOW

  
  WON: Best Song "Hard Out Here For A Pimp" by Three-6 Mafia
  Nominated: Terrence Howard, Best Actor

  
  "We should just surrender to Al Qaida right now" opined Radio Factor host Bill O'Reilly on his show Monday, who said its winning signaled the unmistakable decline of the onetime guiding light of Western Civilization.

  "Hustle and Flow" is placed in Memphis, Tennessee, also home of the movie's writer/director Craig Brewer. Its really about the mid-life crisis of D Jay, a low-level marijuana dealing pimp with business so bad he can't afford to have air conditioning in neither his hooptie car nor his rented home, which he shares with his broken down harem of cheap but earnest 'Hoes who spend a lot of their time back-talking to him, when they're not out making him any money to pay the rent.

  His solution is to go back to the music he loved making, and so he embarks on a career as a rapper. Chris Ludacris Bridges costars as Skinny Black, a local boy made good and whom D Jay plans to pimp to get his way into the rap world.

  Read the full review on http://Blackwebportal.com/wire division, at MovieReviews.

  BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

  WON:
  Best Director -- Ang Lee
  Best Adapted Screenplay
  Best Score
  
  NOMINATED: Heath Ledger for Best Actor

  
  "Brokeback Mountain" was being talked about so much its vociferous backers just may have talked it right out of an Academy Award. The blatant pro-Gay activism may have spurred a late in the game backlash by Academy voters against the all but crowned Ang Lee film about two Wyoming cowboys who fall into The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name in a story that spanned decades.

  It actually was a good movie as directed by Ang Lee, ("The Hulk", "The Ice Storm", "Sense and Sensibility", "Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger") about unrequited love, frustrated goals and dreams that just happened to have two men in love at its center. But its merits as cinema was obscured by all the foofarah surrounding it.

  Heath Ledger was nominated for Best Actor, which was a rip because "Jarhead", "Day After Tomorrow", "October Sky" and "Varsity" star Jake Gyllenhaal was better as Jack Twist, and he didn't mumble through his lines like he had a wad of chewin' tobacco in his mouth. Not even when he told his domineering father to "sit your fat ass down before I kick you into next week! He is MY son, and this is MY house, and you are MY guests!"

  Gyllenhaal would have been much famouser much earlier as the scheduled replacement for "Spiderman 2" if look-alike Tobey McGuire ("Cider House Rules") hadn't been able to make it back, after his injured back in "Seabiscuit." In another Six Degrees of Oscar connection, "Brokeback" director Ang Lee directed McGuire in "The Ice Storm."

  Maybe they gave Ledger some points because the Australian has made so many American movies since "She's All That" and like the "LA Confidential" star, he's practically American now in his film roles. He also had a good brief role in "Monster's Ball" as Billy Bob Thornton's troubled son. (Cinema trivia: Nicole Kidman and Mel Gibson were actually born here in America and raised in Australia).

  
  WALK THE LINE

  
  WON: Reese Witherspoon for Best Actress
  [Also Nominated: Joachim Phoenix, for Best Actor]
  

  Lots and lots of good music are in a very entertaining and long treatment of the courtship of Johnny Cash for June Carter, played winningly by Reese Witherspoon, later to become his wife and artistic soulmate, who wrote the song "Ring of Fire" about their tumultuous attraction. The two died IRL within a year of each other after Cash's new album made another generation of fans for his crossover music.

  "Walk The Line," which some wag said was like "Ray," but with White people," was pleasantly tinged with his earlier Gospel, Country Western, Rockabilly, and Blues that made Cash's music among the favourites in households from urban African Americans to Latinos to Yuppies. My late father Alfred Walker of Carthage, Arkansas always made us kids be quiet on nights when his "Johnny Cash Show" came on.

  Witherspoon, like co-star Joachim Phoenix played their own instruments and sang their own songs to lend a realistic touch to "Walk The Line." She gained critical notice for her turn as the scheming high school senior in "Election." her husband Ryan Phillippe from "Way Of The Gun" was in a critical role in "Crash," so both went home happy on Oscar night.

  Joachim Phoenix of Puerto Rico was nominated for Best Actor for his entertaining portrayal of Johnny Cash, but he like Terrence Howard couldn't get past the Phillip Seymour Hoffman juggernaut for "Capote."

  And if there's one thing Academy voters love its a biopic, preferably a big period one like "Gangs of New York" or Ang Lee's "Sense and Sensibility" which employs lots of electricians, seamstresses and carpenters. In effect, they are wisely voting themselves more employment!

  
  CAPOTE

  
  WON: BEST ACTOR -- PHILLIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN

  
  With the movies this year so loaded with so many sodomistic characters a few were certain to slip through. "Capote" won Best Actor honours for Philip Seymour Hoffman for his portrayal of the openly Gay Southern boy from Louisiana who went East and became a celebrated novelist after he penned "In Cold Blood," about a time when the killing of an entire family by a couple of drifters still shocked Americans.

  PSH has toiled in the small indie film wilderness for years. You saw him in little films such as "The Big Lebowski;" as a Canadian bank robber, or rather embezzler; in "Boogie Nights"; "Magnolia;" and in "Happiness," which was about a child molester and the type of film mainstream audiences avoided.

  Hoffman however will lose much of his appeal to the critics and elitist fans when he attains success, (called by them "Selling Out") because they prefer their film heroes poor and largely unseen and unaccepted by the masses, whom they disdain. They can never be satisfied. Remember when they once praised Sylvester Stallone?

  Now that he's able to afford the good life Hoffman can buy a big house for his devoted mom. He thanked her in his acceptance speech for raising four bad-ass kids by herself as a single mother, and who deserved her own award. Go, Phil!! Strong men are almost always Mama's Boys! But I digress.

  Hoffman will be seen in this Spring's "Mission Impossible III," as the evil nemesis of Tom Cruise's IM superagent Ethan Hunt, and the same acting skills that won him the statuette will be in full effect as he taunts:

  "Do you have a wife, or a girlfriend? Do you? Because wherever she is I'll find her. And I'm going to HURT her. And then I'm going to kill YOU in front of her..."

  Oh, Hell To Tha No, its on now!! Ving Rhames returns as the updated Barney McGyver techno geek and the only other one of the crew to be in all three "M:I" movies.

  MUNICH

  NOMINATED: BEST PICTURE

  "Munich," Spielberg's film with "The Hulk's" Eric Bana about the Israeli intelligence agency's retribution against the killers of the 1972 Olympics athletes was in the Best Picture category.

  It was criticized by those who felt Spielberg went too lightly on Middle Eastern terrorists because of the questioning of its tit-for-tat violence, and Bana's character's stressing on his mission to hunt down the planners of the Munich massacre. Like George Clooney "Syriana's" Barnes starts questioning his superiors' wisdom and hidden agenda.

  Zionists immediately jumped all over Spielberg for daring to question the rightness of their cause, which is reflected today by the Israeli governments announced targeted killing of even the newly elected Palestinian leadership if they don't agree with their policies. By the way, ¿isn't that what Terrorists do when they don't like something? I'm just asking!

  "Munich" is a globe trotter from Israel, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, and New York as Avner No Last Name and his team of covert operatives hunts down and eliminates with Extreme Prejudice of all those responsible -- maybe -- for the slaying of Team Israel in the 1972 Munich Olympics, which many of us watched unfold live on TV.

  The movie is tense, with well paced and well placed touches of ordinariness and humanity and a good Cloak And Dagger film with lots of action scenes that unfold with military precision. Mostly.

  KING KONG

  
  Best Visual Effects
  Best Sound Mixing
  Best Sound Editing
  

  King Kong won on a Technicality - that is, awards for

  visual effects which is where the big splashy special effects and Science Fiction or Horror films are usually relegated. This is like a "Star Wars 6: Revenge of the Sith"-type of consolation prize. ¿But what about Kong enactor Andy Serkis? ¿Can you say "Ripoff?"

  It is a continuing crime that Andy Serkis, the go-to guy for blue screen acting wasn't nominated for Best Actor, and the campaign to get his name on the nominations for his work as Smeagle/Golum of "Lord of The Rings" a few years ago fell short. You can see him for real as the transformed girl's boss in "Thirteen Going On Thirty."

  Read the full reviews of both of these films on http://blackwebportal.com/wire in the MovieReviews link, or just click my picture, or my name, Kevin J. Walker in the Media Partners section.

  TRANSAMERICA

  
  NOMINATED: FELICITY HUFFMAN FOR BEST ACTRESS

  
  "TransAmerica" featured the already mannish-looking Felicity Huffman from ABC TV's dark comedy sitcom "Desperate Housewives" as a male to female transsexual about to take the final step when it finds out it has a son. Its a Road Trip film, too, and was part of the ongoing Homosexual and Transgendered campaign for acceptance.

  "TransAmerica's" star gave way to Reese Witherspoon for Best Actress for her portrayal of June Carter Cash in the most excellent "Walk The Line," a biopic of Johnny Cash.

  It was premiered at the Milwaukee International Film festival this Autumn, along with international films from Brazil, Senegal in Africa; and more multiplex fare such as "The Matador"; "Mrs. Henderson Presents" and "Nine Lives."

  
  THE CONSTANT GARDNER

  
  WON: Rachel Wiesz for Best Supporting Actress

  
  Rachel Wiesz co-star with "Crash" co-star Brendan Fraser of the most excellent "Mummy" films won for Best Supporting Actress for "The Constant Gardner," about her normally placid diplomat husband's investigation into her mysterious killing in Kenya at the hands of a multinational drug company using the Africans as guinea pigs for drugs that wouldn't be legal stateside.

  Her husband is Ralph Fiennes, the efficient Nazi in Spielberg's "Schindler's List," and himself a past winner for "The English Patient." He becomes a gun toting man of action as he tries to piece together the politics and personalities that led to his wife's death.

  She is a constant presence, seen in flashbacks as something triggers a memory of her, much like the construction of "Four Brothers" about their murdered foster mother.

  
  SYRIANA

  
  WON: GEORGE CLOONEY FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

  
  "Okay, so I'm not winning Best Director" George Clooney quipped.

  Clooney instead won Best Supporting Actor for "Syriana," his starring role that was placed in the Best Supporting category as they often are, sometimes its for political and strategic reasons, if they think the Best Acting categories may shut them out. He was also up for Best Director for his period political film "Good Night, and Good Luck," with its star David Straithairn up for Best Actor

  "Syriana" is about the machinations of the CIA and the entanglement of oil and politics in the Mideast. Clooney plays Barnes, a dependable but burnt-out and just barely tolerated CIA contract agent who comes to question his country's involvement and its ethics.

  Oil is at the center of the plot, and the efforts to control through proxy the precious black gold that just happens to be under the sands of other sovereign nations. Cooperative would-be foreign leaders are shown to be bought off, while stubborn ones who refuse to sell out their people's future are simply assassinated and taken out of our misery.

  It co-stars Clooney's "Oceans 11" and "Oceans Twelve" pal Matt Damon, who with Boston childhood pal Ben Affleck already have Oscar statuettes on their shelves for co-writing "Good Will Hunting," about a Boston math prodigy, a janitor found pushing a broom at a local college.

  Damon in "Syriana" plays an equally idealistic economist who is the advisor to the Prince who would be King and transform his desert country for the 21st century.

  This is a movie that features lots of Man Stuff, and there aren't any women in central roles. No need. Besides they have plenty of their own "Chick Flick" movies. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

  
  GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK

  
  NOMINATIONS: BEST PICTURE, BEST ACTOR, BEST DIRECTOR

  
  George Clooney, the director of "Good Night, and Good Luck" and who won best Supporting Actor for "Syriana" saw his biopic film about CBS TV anchorman Edward R. Murrow also up for awards for best actor for his star, for Clooney as director, Best Actor for David Straithairn ("River Wild", "Limbo") and for Best Picture about the crusading journalist's battle against Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, the Red-baiting politician who played himself in grainy black and white TV monitors.

  In fact, the entire film is in glorious artistic (and inexpensive) black and white, just like all the TVs once were. Ironically, it was Murrow who coined the phrase "Vast Wasteland" about what the promise of TV had become. Its a smart film for smart people, with dialog and references to match. This isn't one that the devotees of films like "Big Mama's House 2" or "Aquamarine" will find high on their "Must See" list.

  "Good Night, and Good Luck" has a pleasant Jazz vocal soundtrack by songstress Dianne Reeves, easily interwoven because of their shared offices in the same building, and sets the mood with a sort of commentary.

  After coming out against the feared Senator, Reeves is working in the studio on the song "I've Got My Eye On You."

  "I've got my spies on you...

  I know of all you do..."

  Its overlay artistically shows the pressure Morrow and Clooney's producer Ed Friendly are feeling from the Senator, the Military Industrial Complex, and the All Seeing Eye of CEO Paley's CBS Network, with a ripped from the headlines of today with relevancy of Warrantless Wiretapping in the fight against terror.

  I asked my favourite theatre's people at the Milwaukee Marcus Theatres South Shore Cinemas if they were going to rebook some of these Oscar-winning films for return engagements, the ones that aren't already out on DVD that is. They've done that before they said, but they have to see what comes down from the ones from On High.

  The makers of the films know they can squeeze about 15 percent more profit from reissuing the films; that's why there are so many Special Editions and Directors Cuts and Anniversary releases of films these days. That's just smart business, and is the gift that keeps on giving as well as a way to recoup their money. Actors and staffers are all for it because they find that they get some cash in their pockets as well, so Its All Good. --kjw

  
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  -- 30 --

  Cinema Views

  with Film Critic Kevin J. Walker

  
  

  "LAST HOLIDAY"

  "I'd like to be cremated. I've spent my whole life in a box. I don't want to be buried in one." -- Georgia Byrd's Last Will and Testament

  Attitudes of class, conspicuous consumption and having the courage to put into action that old saying about living one's life to the fullest are all ingredients of the winning Dana Owens' film "Last Holiday."

  "Last Holiday" recycles the same idea of a doomed short timer but with a couple of twists, such as "The Honeymooner's"- like substitutions of a primarily African American descended and international main cast.

  Georgia Byrd is a coupon-clipping cookwares clerk in New Orleans just living her life when she finds out that schedule isn't happening anymore. She's diagnosed with a rare and terminal disease. After moping around and wailing "Why me?!" Georgia decides to carry out her heart's desires, as many as she can pile in. BASE jumping, ski boarding, even gourmet cooking, as she head out to an exclusive resort in Europe she's only seen in a brochure she saved and dreamed about.

  This is a Formula film, but there are plenty of those. We already know the score, but there are little touches that can strive within limitations, in the proper hands. Apparently the director has the skills, because the critics and the moviegoers have reached a consensus: go and see this film for a good time at the movies

  The appeal is for everyone, and this can't even be categorized as a Chick Flick, although they are among my "Guilty Film Pleasures," subject of an upcoming article

  Owen's character has a winning personality, and people can identify with her outlook. She dresses down a snobby guest who disrespects a worker at the ritzy hotel she's picked to blow her liquidated 401(k) cash and life stash.

  The look on the worker's face is precious, as she relates another of the growing Georgia Byrd stories to the staff about the mysterious "Rich Americain."

  The movie breaks out a little more and defuses the Race Thing when her sister says she realizes she wants to be a Country Western singer. "There no such thing as a Black country Western singer!" Aside from the fact that even here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin we have Black Country Western singers, this frees the audience from having to pretend to ignore that the film has a African Descended protagonist.

  Now, this is nothing for us as we've had to translate romantic comedies and find identification in Euro-Descended actors and situations that weren't of our milieu. With the broadening of acting roles, and the straying from the anti-life, anti-fertility homosexual propensity for boyish body shapes, movies even when they're recycling old ideas ad infinitum are nevertheless being reinvigorated like "Last Holiday."

  LL Cool J was along with Queen Latifah, one of the first Old Skool Rappers to break into the movie biz back in the 1980s, and has played characters from the expected gang-banger to policemen to pro football players to a toy factory CEO's straitlaced son. "Deep Blue Sea" was his entry as one of the Sci Fi Brothas, and on the list I'm compiling for a series on a genre that was once remarkable for the absence of the African Descended.

  "Cool James" plays Shawn Williams, the meek hardware department salesman at Kragen's department store, one escalator ride down from Georgia Byrd's Cookwares. They circle each other and can't give voice to their obvious mutual attraction. Can this almost relationship be saved in case it ever gets started?!

  The movie is full of the sassy attitude that Owens is known for in films such as "Chicago", "Bringing Down The House." The zingers fly throughout, such as when a hotel clerk at the opulent Le Puppe ["Poop"] Czechoslovakian mountain resort chirpily greets her after a transatlantic flight after she had herself upgraded to a luxurious First Class cocoon after being squeezed in Coach:

  "I'm hungover, jet lagged, and dyin.' Other than that I'm fine!"

  Owens also has become somewhat of an icon for large women and for refusing to fall for the sit down be fat and be quiet attitude. In the movie she wears diaphanous gowns and plunging necklines, and all this adds to the mystery of the staff, who whisper that she's a rich, self-made American entrepreneur. That some people from her native Louisiana are also in the same hotel to make a big deal moves "Last Holiday" to sorta the mistaken identity sort of film, which makes it even better.

  The film displays plenty of luxury and opulence, which is one of the things that people go to the movies for, the gritty and hardcore "Hostel" and "Munich" notwithstanding. Gold leaf ceilings that made me homesick -- or whatever its called-- for Italy's palaces, sumptuous food feasts, dresses, and cars received their due. Even the Dillard's department store that stood in for Kragen's looked good, from a chain that is a fixture nearer the Mason-Dixon Line. Its sorta like a Marshall Fields.

  People in other nations and cultures often ignore the actors in American movies and look past to the things we take for granted. Like the kitchens in the two-storey homes of working class people stocked with food and cooking machines that usually only their wealthy could afford; smart-mouthed adolescents with a room of their own, and teenagers who drive one of the family's two or three cars! But I digress.

  Giancarlo Esposito ("Malcolm X", "Conspiracy Theory") is Senator Clarence Dillings from Louisiana who is getting set for an arrangement with Kragen, played by Timothy Bottoms. Kragen is one of those philosophical CEOs who sells as many of his corporate self-help books as his housewares. He's also a class A-H and jerk, and you know when he meets the opinionated Georgia you just know they're going to bump heads bigtime. And since this is a Formula Film, so it is.

  But the movie "Last Holiday" even manages to bump that up by not making it so ham-handed. The film balances many things just right, This ain't Shakespeare -- nowadays even Shakespeare isn't Shakespeare -- but its a good time at the movies. There are bigger films with bigger stars that can't make that claim, unfortunately.

  I wasn't expecting much in the way of action but "Last Holiday" even managed to include some worthy scenes. During a ski boarding lesson she breaks loose from her instructor, and careens down a roped off area. The camerawork on those scenes were good (I was a cameraman and I look for these things)

  The Class Consciousness isn't forced either. Instead, Working Class people are shown as worthy of respect in thankless jobs, while snobby social climbing Yuppies get their comeuppance in "Last Holiday." Georgia is shown in the posters as dressed in a cloth coat and sensible shoes, looking like a grandmother. she's looking up and away, dreaming. as we all do.

  Jane Adams is the Co-Worker/Girlfriend in a role that often goes to a young Black woman. She's outspoken and bodacious, and hers is akin to the role that Jane Cusack had in "Working Girl" with star Melanie Griffith. Her Rochelle urges Cookwares co-worker Georgia to just go on down the escalator and ask Shawn out or something, jeez! If there's a sequel Adams should be in the film more.

  Alicia Witt is the red haired actress that has had roles in "Mr. Holland's Opus" and others. You know, for a thin woman she's got it going on where it counts. She must have some Sistah in her family line or something. This is one of Witt's larger profile films, as the mistress companion to Kragen. Her interaction with the still-judgmental Georgia is where the film gets more into "Chick Flick" territory in a movie that is quite a few things to many people, which is probably why it is so widely popular.

  "Last Holiday" is international and not just in the cast which includes Marit Choudhoury as Georgia's Doctor Gupta, and one of the more established stars in Gerard Depardieu as the expansive Chef Didier. Also appearing is the TV chef that says "BAM!!" and Motown legend and singer Smokey Robinson.

  Michael Nouri is an international star from way back, and Iiked him when he played Dracula on TV and film, and the Pittsburgh steel factory owner and romancer of Chicagoan Jennifer Beals in "Flashdance." He doesn't have a lot to do here, though, as a businessman in town to make a deal with Kragen and Dillings.

  "LH" even got into some heavier offshoots.

  "She lives on the edge, and does whatever she wants when she wants, heedless of the cost or consequences . She is a true Existentialist... She is easily the most interesting person who has ever come to this hotel!"

  That Georgia Byrd has endeared herself to the staff by treating them like human beings helped in their estimation of her. She was a Working Class person like them two days before she cashed out all her bonds, and retirement savings and jumped on a jumbo jet and came over to Czech Republic in the little time she had left.

  "I'd like to be cremated. Georgia Byrd writes in her Last Will and Testament. "I've spent my whole life in a box. I don't want to be buried in one." The movie makes you think: if I received the news that I only had a short time left, what would I do? I'd go into a South American jungle.

  They are dangerous places (Africa has relatively few real jungles compare to south America and its Amazon River basin). That's a dangerous place, and ordinarily it wouldn't be a destination choice. But circumstances change choices. What about you? Where'd you go? What would you do?

  Looking into a mirror at the confident woman she's become she makes her true statement: "The next time we'll love more, laugh more, and not be so afraid. I wasted too much of my life being quiet!"

  This like many movies in these idea-challenged days is a remake of a film originally starring Alec Guiness (younger moviegoers know him as the original Obi Wan Kenobi in "Star Wars"). I however remember the same sort of plotline in the Dabney Coleman movie "Short Time On Planet Earth," later shortened to "Short Time" much like "Electric Horseman" to just "Electric" starring Jane Fonda and Robert Redford when he was just starting to make his Great Out West movies. But I digress.

  Coleman was a policeman who had been diagnosed with a short term terminal disease. He had arranged for the financial arrangements to be very much in his favour.

  One other thing: the wretched preview for "Last Holiday" is a Revealer, and is shown in sequence so its like a Cliff Notes® of the movie. I hate those! The worst preview of recent times was "The Italian Job." I never saw the 1960s Michael Caine original, and it spoiled it for me. I hope they do better for "The Brazilian Job" caper film follow up.

  
  CAST OF "LAST HOLIDAY"

  Georgia Byrd -- Dana Owens / Queen Latifah
  Shawn Williams -- LL Cool James
  Senator Dillings -- Giancarlo Esposito
  Dr. Gupta -- Marit Chodhouri
  Ms. Burns -- Alicia Witt
  Rochelle -- Jane Adams
  Kragen -- Timothy Bottoms
  -- Michael Nouri
  -- Matt Ross

  
  "LAST HOLIDAY" is rated PG-13 for some brief sex talk by Georgia to a man's mistress to change her ways (and why her neck really hurts).

  -----------

  

  Cinema Views with Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic

  Intelligent Design Seen In "Underworld: Evolution"

  Entertaining Vampire epic continues with stars Kate Beckinsale and Scott Speedman on the run, in right on the heels pickup of the most excellent last movie

  Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic
  Netitor of The Word NetPaper
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  I like it when a sequel does it right. By that I mean they raise the stakes much more, expand the character's attributes and lay the groundwork for many more follow-ups.

  I always liked the first "Underworld" movie and saw it several times in the theatre which is my preferred way of attending movies, especially special effects laden spectaculars such as this.

  It also continues the tradition of having strong female Sheroes in lead roles. The young males who comprise the bulk of the moviegoing audience who attends these films rather prefer to look at the sprayed- on black leather bodysuit of Selen's vampiress than some guy flexing his muscles. I know I would, the backers of "Brokeback Mountain" notwithstanding.

  So you have Elektra from "Daredevil;" Charlize Theron in "Aeon Flux";Trinity from "The Matrix" trilogy; Lara Croft; Elektra; Halle Berry's Catwoman; and the current "BloodRayne" with Kristen Lokken, the "Terminator 3's" villainess. Then there is the emphasis on Naomi Watts' Faye Wray/Ann Darrow in the current remake of "King Kong."

  In one of the best reimaginings and extensions of two series, newest Sci Fi Sistah Sanaa Lathan of the upcoming Salt-and-Pepper romantic comedy "Something New" with Simon Baker of "Land of The Dead" was the new Ripley in the "Aliens Versus Predator" merging, joining forces with the Hunters of Men against the superadaptive Aliens! Lathan was also a femme fatale in "Blade," and opposite Denzel Washington in the noir-ish Florida caper "Out of Time."

  Selene was a vampire Deathdealer, an assassin of the Lycans, or werewolves whose war has been ongoing for several hundred years. In the first movie she falls for Michael Corvin, an ancestor of the Lycans who is being sought for his special blood line for nefarious purposes.

  Kate Beckinsale stars again as Selene and is a Britisher who made small artsy movies such as "54" until she co-starred as the woman in the triangle in the unfairly maligned WWII epic "Pearl Harbour." (I'm a different kind of Film Critic, I'm one that actually likes the kind of movies that normal people who like movies like, and who doesn't dislike the public for liking them).

  Beckinsale is a nice little package who could give Halle Berry a run for the money in the sweet little package department. She still has the skintight black leather fight suit, with holsters for her two automatics and throwing knives, and a long black duster cloak that trails behind her when she leaps off buildings or bridges and lands light as a feather. Trained in the martial arts and many types of weaponry she'd give Trinity and/or Elektra some trouble.

  Len Wiseman directs with a nice frenzied pace during the action but there are quieter moments, particularly when Michael and Selene find an old mine and lay up, so to speak, after they've gotten her out of the sun and he works on the zipper of that skintight leather suit of hers. Their future may have a part of "Underworld: Evolution's" sequels in the series, because transformation and becoming is very much a part of it.

  Like the most excellent series "Blade" also made from a comic book series, there are all sorts of Vampire-centric religious and historical trappings, with archive keepers, stylish vaults with intricate locks hiding forbidden libraries showing a whole hidden civilization that is given plausibility.

  A blood borne vampire message and DNA Internet is when they can pass on memories through their blood when another one bites them. There were some flaws I spotted, as the movie showed some having memories they weren't in a position to see. But they were a good technique for drawing attention to some of the complicated plot trails, or even the obvious that could use a bit of revisiting. Scenes from the first "Underworld" were shown in sepia tones or in surveillance cameras using blood memory and surveillance tapes.

  A powerful new character is that of Markus, the last Vampire Elder who was in hibernation, hanging upside down in the bat heritage he has. Markus is a twin; his brother Michael and he were the two divergent roads of Alternate humanity. One brother was bitten by a wolf, the other a bat. Both as the Originals are very powerful, although William is a wild beast.

  Markus the smarter brother is shown as a very dangerous and crafty villain, flying through the air with his leathery wings and swooping down on prey, or busting down barn loft doors to get in on some delirious with fear penned horses, needing to feed. A lot. And refuges to keep out of the rays of the sun as he hunts down the fugitives Selene and Michael as they race to find out the significance of the medallion, some gaps in Selene's own childhood, and try and convince the vampire leadership they deserve to live.

  Like most of the other actors with excellent speaking ways he was a stage actor, probably Shakespearean. They are good at delivering lines at length, not that an actioner like "Underworld: Evolution" needed to draw on that. In fact, the movie wasn't prescreened by critics. Usually this is taken as a bad sign, but I think its a growing relaxation that the studios don't need the blessing of the Media Gatekeepers to tell the public what to like and to go see. The movie was the top grosser last weekend.

  Right now they're trying to sell the American public on the Sodomite western cowboy love story of the 1960s "Brokeback Mountain" and George Clooney's political works in the 1950s drama "Goodnight and Good Luck" about the McCarthy Era and journalist icon Edward R. Morrow and the politically charged "Syriana" about US intelligence mishaps and oil policy.

  The makers of the "Underworld" movies will have another film (hear, hear!) and this time I would expect them to expand on the role of the Vampire royal line such as Amelia, a powerful Medieval warrior. When the ancestor of the werewolves in a sort of Isaac and Ishmael is too powerful to control they command "send in Amelia!!" Adept with a crossbow and mostly silent except when issuing commands to her forces a flashback on her life's exploits would be welcome indeed.

  We actually saw Amelia's character before in the first "Underworld" in the Sealed Train that was attacked after being betrayed by Kraven's forces. Amelia, silent and delicately decadent looking in a European sort of fashion, wore the elaborate jewelry and greenish diaphanous robes as she was in a procession being led into another train, and was one of the nobles heading to the mansion for the big sit down with Viktor, who also reappears. Of course this is in flashbacks, as the movie recaps in the beginning and throughout other portions of "Underworld: Evolution."

  Viktor is played by Bill Nighy who is a British stage actor who also has had comic turns in last summer's hits "Shaun of the Dead" where like here his gaunt and steely eyed demeanor makes you think he's of the walking dead; and in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

  The movie borrows -- or pays an homage, take your pick -- to conventions such as Romeo and Juliet, and Tristan und Isolde the latter of which gets its own film treatment currently from the old tale of forbidden doomed love across different races or tribes.

  Michael Corvin, played by Scott Speedman from "xXx: State of the Union" is of the Corvinus clan, and the common ancestor to all vampires and Lycans. Just as Ibrahim, or as the Hebrews and their splintered-off Christian sects call him, "Abraham," is the common ancestor of three of the world's top religions, so was Corvinus their common thread.

  Kate Beckinsale's Selene was an assassin who always did what she was told and always grateful to Viktor, of the vampire nobility and ruling Council who saved her after her whole family was slain when their Medieval farmstead was attacked. She starts to question what was commonly accepted, and is led to what her vampire clan has judged to be traitorous actions, the least of which is loving a Lycan!

  But this is a special one, a hybrid like Blade who has all of their powers but none of their weaknesses. But in Michael's case he is a Werewolf with super strength, agility and speed, and like Vampires he has amazing regenerative powers. When he starts to turn his skin goes black like his eyes and fingernails; he grows no hair but can leap like nobody's business. Unlike the vampires but like Wesley Snipe's Blade of that trilogy he is a DayWalker, and the deadly ultraviolet rays of sunlight has no effect on them. But both need blood or serum substitute to feed otherwise you wouldn't want to be around them.

  Still, there are some new rules Michael has to learn and some of them rankle him. He's handed a packet of blood from Selene, like those intravenous ones from a donor. (How and from who they get these things aren't explained in "Underworld: Evolution," and we'd rather not know!).

  "Michael you are unique. There's never been a hybrid like you before" Selene tells Corvin.

  "Your powers may be limitless, we just don't know. But you'll need to feed off blood or you'll grow weaker by the minute. Normal food might even be lethal to you. But unless you learn to anticipate your cravings you would start to attack humans. Believe me, you don't want that on your conscience."

  Michael when he battles has the fury of a Lycan, and prefers blunt force battle, snapping off a large werewolf's snout like King Kong and the T-Rex. Snarling and leaping, with a pair of tight pants like Lon Chaney's 1940s werewolf

  The movie adds a lot to the plate of the franchise, and almost makes we Kate Beckinsale fans forget her atrocious Transylvanian accent in "Van Helsing" which may be a failed franchise that fell down at the gate with "X-Men United's" Wolverine played by Hugh Jackman.

  If New Orleans resident Ann Rice's Vampire cycle continues its spotty film outings (Aliyah's "Queen of the Damned" was a sort of precede/continuation to Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt's "Interview with the Vampire") there may be another franchise to join the "Underworld," "Blade," ["¿Van Helsing?"] and "Highlander" series.

  All these cinema series have in common is the notion that there are Eternals, immortal beings who have been right along us for millennia. They also draw power from others for their sustenance, even the eternals in the Highlander movies.

  What I'd like to see more than a matchup with Elektra; Aeon; Trinity; Lara Croft; Elektra; Catwoman; and BloodRayne would be the merging ( ala "Aliens vs. Predator") of the universes of "Blade" and "Underworld!" If there can be a "Freddy vs. Jason" merging then anything is possible. --kjw

  ---------------
  Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic
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  CINEMA VIEWS with Film Critic Kevin J. Walker KING KONG Its Great To Be The King In Peter Jackson's Remake Of The Towering Adventure Story http://cinemaviews.tripod.com http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000 Richard Pryor's Passing BlackWebPortal.com Wire Story Cinema Views with Film Critic Kevin J. Walker WalkerWorld by Kevin J. Walker thewordnetpaper @excite dotcom He'll take Manhattan, as the doomed surrogate symbol of Enslaved Africans is dragged in chains to America after he pursues the Golden Woman and loses everything including his kingdom, his freedom, and eventually his life. This is so NOT your parents and grandparent's Kong. Here he is dangerous and cruel, fast, agile, devious and deadly. Director Peter Jackson has crafted a thrilling (but long) adventure story that for the first time includes a real brotha in Evan Parke as First Mate Hayes, the major character replacing Jack Driscoll's original. Its a first for the various "King Kong" movies in a film where except for Kong all the other Black characters are in the background. You read that right, more on that aspect later. Nobody was clamoring for remakes of some of these other recent films. But even after almost 75 years filmgoers never seem to tire of the King Kong cultural phenomena. This time Hollywood gets it right with an epic that has plenty of thrills along with its heart. Don't you remember when you first saw the original "King Kong?" When that large dark Something came crashing through the trees of the mysterious island, bending and snapping them like balsa wood! Even watching it on a small black and white screen I remember my young wide-eyed amazement! So did Peter Jackson, the ten year old boy who later grew up to be the director of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. At the Oriental revival and art house theatre here in Milwaukee they had the practice of featuring films that had long been on television in their natural environment, such as the "Wizard of Oz." When the farmhouse door is opened onto the colourful land of Oz people in the theatre forgot to breathe. Similar is the shock and awe that those in 1933 felt seeing a forty-foot screen filled with the gaping mouth of a 30 foot Kong chewing down on a hapless villager (in the uncensored version) after he has broken down their gates seeking the Golden woman he has been given, stolen by the little pink men with their bang sticks who will and must slowly die at his hands! There are few better than Jackson to entrust with bringing to life the story of a doomed creature who couldn't adapt in the face of changing circumstances, and fell to the scurrying little creatures he once terrorized after he was taken from his kingdom to Civilization and their concrete canyons, noise, and machines. Some of their machines even flew in the air, like birds! Don't worry, I'm not going to reveal the ending of "King Kong." That would be too much like telling the end of "Titanic." (The big boat sinks, and a lot of people drown. Oops!, I sorry). The problem of dealing with a respected money-making director with a big project is that the studio is afraid to tell them "Enough, already!" This is often seen in the multi-tasking works of Spike Lee. Jackson's often shot-by-shot recreation of "King Kong" is three hours long, which is a good half hour past what it should be. There are too many atmospheric shots of Depression-era New York City; too many long takes aboard the Venture, the tramp steamer that leaves in the dead of night when the idealistically driven but crooked impresario and director Carl Denham tries to stay a step ahead of a pack of creditors fast on his heels. "Psycho" was roundly criticized for its identical but in colour camera work and scenes. I grew aggravated when I could mouth the words for Denham ahead of him. This is not very far removed from Ted Turner's Colourization of classics It is in the arrival to Skull Island that the bulk of the action in "King Kong" happens, and Jackson makes it count, with frightened rampaging brontosauri racing past puny humans, with some of them getting smooshed in the jumble. One thing they got right this time was not making a swamp Brontosaurus as a meat eating predator, which even as a child made me wince. Everybody knows they're vegetarians, even before "Jurassic Park." This aspect also was a welcome updating from "King Kong's" recycled footage from the unmade "Lost World," a legendary silent movie in film circles whose structure and title was used for part of "Jurassic Park 2" This was to correct the historical wrong, also hinted at during a cigar smoke-filled dissection of Denham's latest nature film Naomi Watts is more widely known to the public from "The Ring" horror movies. She is the newest addition to the top-heavy ranks of female action adventure stars. The Driscoll character is played by the lanky unathletic Adrian Brody, more known for his artistic films such as the Academy Award he got for "The Pianist." The sad-eyed actor became known as the "Kissing Bandit" after he laid an exuberant juicy one on Oscar presenter Halle Berry. Jack Black again gets a lead role that shows his skills, and as the unscrupulous Denham this is the first dramatic role he's had in a big budget film. He's starred in "School of Rock" and "Shallow Hal" and had bit parts on "The Jackal" and "Enemy of the State." Kong will take Manhattan, as the doomed surrogate symbol of Enslaved Africans is dragged in chains to America after he pursues the Golden Woman and loses everything including his kingdom, his freedom, and eventually his life. This is not your parents and grandparent's Kong. Here he is dangerous and cruel, fast, agile, devious and deadly. Peter Jackson has crafted a thrilling but long adventure story that for the first time includes a real brotha. Evan Dexter Parke ironically had a part in “Planet of the Apes.” He also appeared in the soaps “As The World Turns” and “All my Children,” as well as “Alias” and “CSI.” The Jamaican born Parke is the major character First Mate Hayes, replacing Jack Driscoll's 1933 original in one of many recast characters in “King Kong.” Hayes was a soldier during World War I, and his battle skills and sense for danger pull the band of freebooters and unwilling explorers out of the jaws of death several times. His number one concern is his surrogate shipboard son Jimmy. A foundling/stowaway onboard the Venture about 12 years before, his origins are unknown. In a sort of literary homage that "King Kong" is rife with, you could say that Jimmy is Huck Finn to Haye's N-Jim. Jimmy furthermore is seen reading and trying to decipher Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," the allegorical tale of adventurers in a savage upriver trip on a tramp steamer in colonial Belgian Congo in central Africa. Question: what are these minor diversions even doing in a Monster Action Adventure movie? Just this: it is what makes for a good film. The Human Condition and all that. The long windup in New York city even plays a part. When Anne is being eyed by Kong in his cliff top lair and her fate is being weighed, it is her Vaudeville, slapstick and juggling skills that help save her from Kong's wrath. "I make people laugh. I'm good at it" she tells the playwright. She puts extra work into her performance when she sees the teeth and feels the hot breath of a hollering Kong! Similarly, we know his motivation when Driscoll creeps into the lair of the beast to steal Anne back when we sit in our seats, clenching and inwardly whispering "No! Go back!," but alternating with "Quiet, now... get her and just go!" The action and adventure isn't being shortchanged, and Jackson's movie spends a great of good time on skull Island. Here is where most of the movie's diversion and augmentation from the original occurs. Characters are swapped out and their attributes are changed, but it makes for a better movie although a lengthy one as stated before. The three Matrix and two volumes of "Kill Bill" movies came in multiple parts because the filmmakers had a story to tell that couldn't be told in one sitting. This happens. Biblical epics have been like that since the 1950s. This is not your parents and grandparent's Kong. Here he is dangerous and cruel, fast, agile and deadly. You will know why he is the ruler of skull island, and when he beats his chest it is entirely justified! Those of who are steeped in science know that the Cube Root Law would limit the size of such a creature on land, not to mention its movement. But we also know of the fossils of Gigantopithicus, the 8 foot giant ape/humanoid. Movies and plays are all about the suspension of belief. Okay, we'll suspend it long enough to allow a giant ape whose size varies from 25 feet in the jungles of skull Island to over 35 when he's tossing streetcars around when he runs amuck in Manhattan. If Andy Serkis doesn't get at least an Oscar nomination this time out after being cheated for his fine work as Gollum in two "Lord of the Rings" it will show the Academy Awards for the fraud they are! Serkis gets even more onscreen time as the slop-slinging ships cook Lumpy, whose masterpieces are not looked toward for more than basic sustenance. The story of Kong, whose crown lies heavy on his head as ruler of the prehistoric Skull Island has held a grip on the American imagination for three quarters of a century. There are reasons for this, having to do with the vicarious attraction of faraway lands untouched by civilization, and the possibility of adventure in a world that has been tamed and dammed and manicured and sprawled The forgettable Dino Delaurentis "King Kong" production of 1976 had the battle of Kong vs. technology take place atop the World Trade Center's twin towers. He leaps from one to another as he battles attack helicopters, and the Jack Driscoll character is also an ally, played by an idealistic ecology activist in Jeff Bridges ("Starman", "Tucker"). It actually spawned a sequel! It picks up after Kong falls from atop the World Trade Center. But he's not quite dead. In the previous version, Kong's heart is still beating, vibrating the asphalt as he lay dying in the street: "Boom-BOOM! Boom-BOOM! boom boom... booooom... " Like that. They revitalize his heart with a giant shock-thingee. Hey, if the Japanese can make "King Kong" and "Godzilla" movies by the dozens why not over here? Peter Jackson also directed "The Frighteners" which was a movie I like and favourably reviewed. Jackson's smaller movies are receiving renewed attention. His style is a throwback to the visionary Auteur Hollywood Director, one who like Jack Black's Carl Denham is driven by a vision and project that she or he loves. This attitude has collapsed in the last generation because of some spectacular film FUBARs by tunnel-vision directors who think studios should be made to pay and people should be made to watch, multimillion dollar expositions of their inflated egos. Think director David Fincher who redeemed himself well after the studio shuttered and shut-down his fiasco that was "Aliens III" with "Fight Club", "The Game" and "Seven." This is why many directors come from the ranks of music video and Independent Cinema, who know a thing or two about film economy. But here in "Kong" Jackson has backed it up. When I first heard he was shooting one of the best Monster Movies ever made I just thought it was interesting. I wasn't particularly optimistic, after all I winced with many others when I remember the hit and miss mess that was "King Kong 1976." The film made a star of Minnesotan Jessica Lange of “The Postman Always Rings Twice” , “Blue Skies,” and a Patsy Kline biopic. Along with Sigourney Weaver's portrayal of Ripley in "Alien" for which Weaver received an Academy Award nomination, Lange’s role in the “King Kong” of 1976 went a long ways in getting top name stars to accept Action Adventure, Science Fiction and Fantasy film roles, thus reinvigorating the genres and improving their quality and marketability with stars like Wesley Snipes, Eddie Murphy, Rosario Dawson, Kevin Costner, Kate Beckinsale; and Oscar winners such as Mel Gibson and Charlize Theron of "Mighty Joe Young." One thing that the 1976 version got right was the willingness of its Anne Darrow-type character to be with Kong. There is a tender scene in that version where Baker's Kong gives her a bath in a waterfall, and blow-dries her with his super breath. Faye Wray in 1933 just screamed and ran away from the big, black brute. Jackson's Anne Darrow, understandably malleable under the threat of constant death on an unbelievably lethal prehistoric Skull island brimming with vicious predators, logically sees in Kong not only salvation but eventually a Friend. After Kong saves her from becoming a snack for some roving dinosaurs when she ran off into the jungle he walks away in a pique. Listening to the growls of the wildlife -- not to speak of the giant-size mosquitoes! -- she screams after him "Wait! WAIT!" She knows the deal. Presented the way it is after she eludes snapping V-Rexes (the toothy ancestors of T-Rex) it is understandable, in much the same way that the book version of Clarice Starling's conversion towards Hannibal Lecter is conceivable in "Hannibal." After all, Hannibal the Cannibal is a formidable psychiatrist. Call it Stockholm Syndrome or whatever you want, its real. Besides, don't women admire and gravitate toward strength? So too is the conversion of the brooding Works Progress Administration writer Jack Driscoll into an unlikely action hero, willing to push on after the creature. All he wants to do is get Anne back after she's made the star of a sacrificial ceremony to Kong. Like a cruel cat he plays with his captives, who he eventually rips apart for his sick pleasure while listening to their terrified and pitiful screams before he tosses the pieces to join with the pile of bones that so alarms Anne. The character of Jack Driscoll like several others in King Kong underwent some much needed alteration from 72 years ago. Instead of an action-oriented ships First Mate he is a playwright hired by the federal WPA during the Depression, and whose work the near-starving Vaudevillian Darrow adores as she dreams of acting in real plays on stage downtown instead of rows of guffawing jokers in Tin Pan Alley. Driscoll has found love, and he finds within himself the ability to face down death. I can speak from experience that this part is pure fiction! Writers like sitting behind a desk, in buildings with air conditioning and electricity, in a nice, quiet, safe zone. My activities as "Wisconsin Walker" and the Chronicles and Adventures of the Travel Griot notwithstanding. Just like we can still enjoy Shakespeare's plays even after knowing the plotlines after four hundred years so too can we enjoy seeing how other perspectives are reflected on a popular and eternal work. There have been Gangster and All-Black versions of Shakespeare's "MacBeth" and "Richard III," to be explored in a future article on Brother Shakespeare's enduring appeal, although to be sure his works are much better understood in the original Swahili. There are lots of undertones to the story of Kong. They incorporate Racialism; Colonialism; Man vs. Machine; Primitivism versus Industrialism; Jungle Fever; and the righteous revolt and vengeance of the Downtrodden on their persecutors once they are unleashed. Oh, you think I'm reading way too much into what is a simple Monster Movie? Then why is the Anne Darrow/Faye Wray character always played by a European Descended blonde, and is the sole female? Why does the action always take place on a South Sea island populated from the African Descended? Once Kong gazed into the eyes of the Golden Woman who he should not want and cannot have, his fate was sealed. His strength vanishes along with his resolve and he is a beaten-down captive. The primal creature Kong is brought to America in chains, shackled for their amusement. But once free he now terrorizes them, finally taking his vengeance upon his tormentors. If not for his unnatural attraction to the Blond Woman, he might have still lived out his years on Skull Island instead of dying at their hands, aided by their strange machines. This just isn't the flight of fancy of a Great Lakes Midwestern writer. In an essay by X.J. Kennedy of the 1950s he makes many of the same points, even noting how in the segregated theatres of the South Black audiences cheered for "Brother Kong!" They knew. There will continue to be versions of the saga of Kong. The basics of the story are too alluring, too rife with potential. After all, if they can take the macho icon of the Western cowboy and turn him into a rump wrangler then anything is possible. I just had a very disturbing thought: Someday someone's going to make a movie about a Gay Kong, falling for his paramour and enduring all to pursue his love which Dare Not Speak Its Name. They might call it "Brokeback Island" or something. CAST OF KING KONG: Evan Park -- First Mate Hayes Naomi Watts -- Anne Darrow Andy Serkis -- Kong; Lumpy The Cook Adrian Brody -- Jack Driscoll Jack Black -- Carl Denham Jamie Bell -- Jimmy Kyle Chandler – Bruce Baxter Colin Hanks -- Preston Thomas Kretschmann -- Capt. Englehorn Director: Peter Jackson kevin j. walker, Netitor The Word NetPaper WalkerWorld walkernet@excite.com p.o. box 1324-53201 Milwaukee WI USA 53201-1324 -- 30 -- CINEMA VIEWS with Film Critic Kevin J. Walker An Obituary: Richard Pryor's Life Showed Skills Way Beyond Comedy Groundbreaking Social Commentator From Peoria, Ill. Used Film, TV, Stage, Concert Albums, Feature Films In His Dissection of Society BlackWebPortal.com Wire Story by Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic Cinema Views with Film Critic Kevin J. Walker WalkerWorld The passing of Richard Franklin Lennox Pryor following a heart attack at a Los Angeles based assisted living center was the cause of a flurry of noting the impact of one of American society's most incisive observers. Peoria, Illinois is the town where Pryor was raised after being born in St. Louis 65 years ago. Pryor suffered from health complications of the degenerative nerve disease of Multiple Sclerosis that had been plaguing Pryor since his diagnosis more than a decade ago. He kept a low profile over the years since, shelving his standup comic career and giving few interviews. But he appeared in Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall's period film "Harlem Nights," a gathering of other comic giants such as the late Redd Foxx and Robin Harris. Pryor was married six times, and had several children whom he was close to from his various wives and paramours. One daughter, Rain Pryor is an actress. In her series "Chicago Hope" in 1995, her stricken father guest-starred as a MS patient. In his live shows Pryor took his life experiences that would have turned a lesser person into dysfunction and used then as raw material for his observations disguised as comedy. Although he renounced the word after visiting Zimbabwe, two of Pryor's award-winning comedy albums were titled "That Nigger's Crazy" in 1974 and 1976's "Bicentennial Nigger." His autobiography book title was even witty and funny. "Pryor Convictions And Other Life Sentences" was his tell-all treatise on his unorthodox upbringing, which included a mother who was a whore and a grandmother who was a brothel's Madam. "Live On The Sunset Strip" was a comedy album that won an award, as his "Richard Pryor Live In Concert." One of the golden moments of TV is the Saturday Night Live skit of word association where Chase as the analyst slips in increasingly racial tags, as Pryor makes his [right?] eye nervously twitch and answers with racially tinged answers of his own. He portrayed a panoply of bounds-stretching characters. They included Mudbone, an old Black man dispensing his worldly wisdom; the Junkie character, talking loud and directing street traffic; Dracula in the Ghetto; a gentle deer in the woods being sighted by a hunter; an overly critical woman during sex; White Racist college boys; a gang of Homeboys who jack a spaceship after Aliens land in the 'Hood; and the First Black President. Pryor's role as an Exorcist on Saturday Night Live was turned into a skit that was one of their most favourite and included on their look-back SNL specials. Pryor's exorcist assistant loses his religion and starts choking the bound but devilish little girl after she not only tosses her bowl of pea soup in his face, then talks about his mama! Pryor was an enthusiastic smoker of Freebase as they called it in the pre-Crack days. During one interlude with his drug of choice, the fumes ignited and set him afire, burning over half his body. The incident was even made into the "Ignited Negro College Fund" joke at the time, pairing Pryor with Michael Jackson after his own fiery Pepsi commercial blowup. Pryor even joked about that, talking about beating the 100 yard dash speed of the current Olympians as he raced down the street afire, crackling and popping as he went. Pryor even courted controversy such as when he was with one of many a White woman paramour at an event passing through a hallway. Seeing the cameras, Pryor put a wide open grin on his face, shuckin' and jivin' for the shutterbugs while he was parading around with his Snowflake. This was around the time of the infamous comment by Wilt Chamberlain about the shortcomings of African Descended women. The photo made its way in the Jet magazine weekly and launched a vigourous negative response, primarily by Black woman at yet another successful Black man who went over the fence for a White woman and throwing it in their face! If illness had not felled him early with the new avenues and technology of today, who knows what he would have crafted, considering his past incisive works. "Jo Jo Dancer Your Life Is Calling" of 1987 was his semi-autobiographical story that he directed, and was gently reviewed by a early incarnation of the PBS syndicated "Siskel and Ebert" film review show, then operating out of Chicago from Tribune Broadcasting. Pryor's many films included lightweight comedies such as "Bustin 'Loose" but also dramas that were critically noticed such as "Jo Jo Dancer " and his nearly forty other films. He was nominated early on as his role as the Piano Man opposite a young and strung-out newcomer to film Diana Ross playing Billy Holiday in the biopic "Lady Sings The Blues." That auspicious beginning wasn't continued in his subsequent film roles where Pryor was re teamed with both its leads Billie Dee Williams and Ross. Other movies of Richard Pryor's included "The Mack", "Uptown Saturday Night", "Car Wash," and "Bingo Long and the Traveling All Stars and Motor Kings." Pryor also co-wrote Mel Brook's" Blazing Saddles" co-starring his later cinematic pal Gene Wilder of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the popular and commercially successful movies "Silver Streak" and "Stir Crazy"; "Another You," and "Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil" about a pair of handicapped heisters. Pryor often was included as a bit part or cameo actor in movies such as "Car Wash" where he was a white on white-on-white wearing Pimpin' Preacher whose license plate read "TITHE" while his multiethnic band of a half-dozen heavenly 'Hoes attended him. In "The Wiz" he played the title character helping the over-age spinsterish Dorothy return to New York's Harlem, played by his co-star in "Lady Sings The Blues." This casting of Pryor, although popular at the time –- and unexpected because his role was unbilled dearly on -- was a travesty because one of the most rousing songs "So, You Wanted To Meet The Wizard?" had to be dropped because singing wasn't among Pryor's many talents. In addition to the many movies where he made at least an appearance was the featured commentator in the "WattStax" concert movie and documentary of the gigantic arts, culture and music celebration of the Los Angeles Black enclave taken over after Pearl Harbour when the American born Japanese Nisei were expelled and interned in Utah and Arizona. "The Toy" with Ned Beatty and Jackie Gleason featured the Great One in one of his last feature films as a racist manipulative billionaire who purchased his spoiled brat son Pryor as his plaything. Gleason was an early TV pioneer and the comic produced his own shows. Featuring Pryor in the film was in the unwritten but clearly understood pact among many comics where if one of them Makes It, he/she pulls the others in. That's why you have Jim Carrey and several pals in the comic-packed "The Mask," or in "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective II" with former "In Living" co-star Tommy Davidson; and Louie Anderson with Arsenio Hall and Eddie Murphy in "Coming To America." In "Which Way Is Up?" Pryor starred in the remake of an Italian movie about a union organizer and husband with two families and many misadventures with women where he played multiple roles a generation before "The Klumps." Chris Rock is another such as was Pryor who is more of a socio-political commentator who uses comedy to pierce through people's outward defenses. If a different person said the things they did it would be considered a militant rant, and rejected instinctively. Many young Black people of the time considered a still active George Carlin "the White Richard Pryor." "Harlem Nights" paired Pryor and one of his idols. Redd Foxx of St. Louis was the godfather of Black comedians. His raunchy Blue Albums (of which TV dad Bill Cosby of NBC made a few) opened the way for ones like Pryor and Cosby's later success. Foxx also became a G-rated screen dad in his sitcom which was itself another of a long line of American reincarnations of British sitcoms, this one called "Steptoe and Son." Lenny Bruce was himself a preceder in the 1950s, whose social commentary and drug use made him a target for the authorities. He is often recalled with Pryor because of their parallel lives. "A White racist system created Richard Pryor. He wasn't the only brilliant Black person, he was just one that got through!" said Dick Gregory during a call-in on radio station WMCS 1290 AM of Milwaukee during Morning Show co-host Keith Murphy's tribute to Pryor broadcast on Monday following the announcement of Pryor's passing. "It was Richard Pryor who opened the way for Saturday Night Live" Gregory observed. Gregory, who came to Milwaukee this summer during the annual NAACP convention, was also once well known as a standup comic before his activities as a social activist, philanthropist of the Civil Rights Movement and diet guru made him the consort of those such as MLK and Harry Belafonte. Eddie Griffin, much like Eddie Murphy paid homage to his elders, even if it was a scene in the semi-autobiographical "Foolish" where before a stage performance he sought communion with the shades of departed comics in the lavatory, with only their feet visible beneath the stalls as they dispensed their comic wisdom. Pryor, decades before musicians and rappers made the N-Word into astrange love/hate sobriquet, renounced its use after a lengthy life-altering visit to Africa of the sort that recently also affected groundbreaking TV show producer David Chappelle that may have caused him to reevaluate his comedic stance and imperiling his cable TV career. He said he observed that while he walked the streets of big cities in Zimbabwe in the Motherland, he saw people shopping, cops on the beat rousting drunks, winos sleeping against buildings, and the normal interplay of life. He said he saw pretty much all the types of humanity possible in Africa. But he was visited with a revelation while removed from America. "I said to myself, I see some of everybody here but I don't see any Niggas.' And that's why I will NEVER use that word again!" he said. And Pryor kept his word, banishing it from his comical repertoire. Again, he was years ahead of society. Armchair psychology might speculate that being born in a brothel, and with one's dear old mom a prostitute and a grandmother the owner of cathouse would influence your outlook on marriage, and child rearing. Of course this found its way into his routines. In one of his comedy albums he portrayed a sweet girlfriend transformed into a Nazi after he's made her a wife, pacing back and forth, holding an imaginary cigarette with the palm up, speaking crisp German accented English. "Szo, ve vil zee how you vill ..." Like a lot of Pryor's best humour, there was the sort of uneasy laughter from the audience, and nervous glances to ones attending mate or spouse. With several wives and living in a state with community property the travails of alimony also made it in Pryor's routine. "Half!?!" he said he exclaimed to his wife. "You ain't told nair one joke!" "Well, perhaps you'll think THIS is funny," as he mimicked her serving him with notice of her divorce proceedings. In one of popular comedy tour concert films Pryor once posed as a little child who broke a window, blaming it on "a Stranger" who ran into the house, unseen by anybody else but him. Speaking haltingly and intertwining his fingers, he made viewers see the small child. Pryor said he didn't believe in whupping kids, that parental disappointment seemed to be enough to correct them. Dick Gregory cautioned Pryor about the travails of network televsion. "I told him 'Richard, when you on TV you have to act like you in Gooseneck, Tenn.' It was Evolution, like with Malcolm X. The thing she was saying didn't make no sense back then, either. How could I teach your 5 year old about advanced math until he can grow into it? Like Lenny Bruce, America had to grow into the knowledge. Mark Twain made observations that were controversial as well, and the two were linked when Pryor was the first recipient of the award named after the social commentator of his time of America's halfway point, by way of the very first Life Achievement award named after a man who was also controversial for his use of the N-word and portrayal of those of Enslavement. Chris Rock, Chris Tucker, Jim Carrey, Robin Williams, Bill Cosby, Eddie Griffin, George Wallace, Redd Foxx, Lenny Bruce, Godfrey Cambridge, and other comics paid homage to Pryor in helping their careers or comic structure and approach. Watching Eddie Griffin's semi-autobiographical pair of movies "Foolish" and "DysFunktional Family" shows the clear influences of Pryor on Griffin. "Lily," an award-winning telefilm about comedienne and actress Lily Tomlin featured Pryor as one of the team of writers. His own TV series on NBC featured 2 young and unproven but promising comics Robin Williams and Sandra Bernhardt. Tyrone Dumas is the infrastructure manager for Milwaukee Public Schools and formerly a standup comic who later turned to architecture. He recalled Monday morning for 1290 WMCS-AM radio listeners when he and some others picketed the local NBC affiliate which is on the northern edge of the Milwaukee Black community when they pulled the other showings of the Richard Pryor Show that even the national network had allowed! The station manager said it was offensive according to prevailing community mores and sensibilities. "Well then we want you to show the shows to us," Dumas said of a private screening. WTMJ said that on a Saturday people could see it then without commercial interruption. The Pryor TV hourly show was an old fashioned variety show much like the later SNL and late--nite talk shows, with musical interludes from jazz people, and with comic sketches interspersed. Dumas continued: "When you look at it was amazing how ground breaking it was." Host Keith Murphy suggested that the new Black-owned and oriented cable channel TV One could use Pryor's landmark TV show for its material. The Richard Pryor Show in 1977 was advanced for its time on TV. NBC canceled it after only a half-dozen episodes, also co-written by actress Maya Angelou who appeared in the skits. The humour was poignant, as was their skit about a blustering alcoholic beaten down by the world, yet turning his stress inward and against his woman. The world renown poet also had a pioneering producer's contract with NBC as a female. She was on a stage bare except for those two ,and explained why she still loved him despite everything as he snores away in a drunken stupor, occasionally twitching and saying something blustery. Her soliloquy was delivered while a single spot light illuminated his sleeping form. It was visually poetic, and unlike anything seen much on television. "This was 1977 when he was talking about African history," said Dumas, who like many were aghast when NBC yanked the Richard Pryor show after just 5 outings. Witnesses to the public screenings didn't understand the network concerns. "This isn't anything controversial!" several exclaimed; "he's just telling it like it is" was some of the most repeated remarks. "We sent the petitions to NBC and Pryor, and they were coming in from all around the country" Dumas said. People didn't know what quite to make of this new TV show, which pushed right the boundaries of the formulaic TV show. It wasn't the language, Pryor made sure about that. It was the ideas, the unabashed statements on race relations, and personal male female interaction. It wasn't nasty; it was just ... different. Therefore Pryor's TV show was inherently controversial in a time when the three member private club Network TV didn't have threat from competitors such as home media stations, video and DVD rentals, game consoles, PayTV and OnDemand cable offerings, and the Internet. People who only knew Pryor from his middling movies and brief appearances on variety shows such as "The Ed Sullivan Show," which once owned Sunday nights, saw another side of what tuned out to be someone who had a philosophy, and lots more talent than was known before. The controversy also helped propel Pryor further into the stratosphere of multiple threat entertainers, and he had careers now in standup tours, the spin-off movies made from the tours (there was no video then for the masses) and LP comic albums made from the same. The cover for the concert LP "Was it Something I Said?" featured a tied-up perplexed looking Richard Pryor, against a tree lit by a circle of torches out in the woods surrounded by angry white-robed Ku Klux Klansmen. Pryor knew the effect of his comical observations on American society, much like the rap group Public Enemy, whose emblem was the silhouette of a young Black man in a bowler hat, arms crossed defiantly and non-chalantly, but superimposed in the cross-hairs of a sniper rifle. NBC also was the risk-taking network that made a bold play putting on the Richard Pryor Show, then backed off after they made their move. They were called the Peacock Network because they were the first to broadcast "in living colour," and put the ground breaking formula breaking Science Fiction series "Star Trek" on the air which featured the first interracial kiss between Capt Kirk and Lt. Uhuru. They later canceled the controversial show as they later did Pryor's. NBC is often forth in the ratings of the now 6 or so free TV networks Pryor's hometown of Peoria a year or so ago passed on erecting a monument or publicly acknowledging their native son after local boosters broached the idea. RICHARD PRYOR MOVIES: Lady Sings The Blues -- Pryor was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor in this period biopic of Billie Holiday for his role as her pal the Piano Man. Bingo Long and the Traveling all Stars and Motor Kings --a sprawling historical period film about the early years of the barnstorming Negro Leagues re-teaming Pryor with "Lady Sings" the Blues'" Billy Dee Williams Greased Lightning -- Much like "Bingo Long" this was a biopic about an early Black stock car driver. Superman III -- Pryor is a rogue computer programmer who pilfers his defense contactor's funds. After discovery he uses him and his skills to entrap Superman. A comic-bookish third of fou rexisting Superman films with the late Christopher Reeves, co-staring Robert Vaughn ("Magnificent Seven", "Battle Beyond The Stars." WattStax -- Pryor was the running colour commentator in the documentary about the Los Angeles community's arts, culture and entertainment festival. Some Kind Of Hero -- Pryor is a Vietnam war vet who drives a busload of children to a new group foster home while pursuedby the authorities. Co-starring Cicely Tyson. Blazing Saddles -- Pryor was a co-writer of Mel Brook's iconoclastic Western which featured the Black sheriff of the town ofRock Ridge taking on a criminal cowboy gang and Railroad Baron Hedley Lamarr . Uptown Saturday Nite -- Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor in a bit role as two working class guys head to New Orleans for some fun away from their wives, losing a winning lotteryticket. Blue Collar -- A dramatic role for Pryor where he, Harvey Kietel and Yaphet Kotto fight union corruption in their Detroit automaker's union. Brewsters Millions -- Remake of the 1940s movie where Pryor's character has to spend millions within a set time to gain a fortune. Critical Condition -- Fact-based movie about a walk-inimposter who assumed control of a large city hospital for weeks before being discovered. Adios, Amigo -- Almost unwatchable movie directed by Fred Williamson about a Westward movement after Emancipation. Another You -- The fourth pairing with Gene Wilder with Hollywood capitalizing on the popular screen pairings. Car Wash -- Pryor had one of many screen cameos throughout his career here as a white on white-on-white wearing Pimpin' Preacher whose license plate read "TITHE" while his multiethnic band of a half-dozen Heavenly 'Hoes attended him as he was one of many characters who parade through a day in the lives of those attending a California car wash. Co stars included Franklin Ajaye. Hit! -- Pryor reteams with Billy Dee Williams' rogue covert agent to take down a high placed drug lord The Wiz -- Pryor played the title character helping the overage spinsterish Dorothy return to New York's Harlem, played by his co-star Diana Ross in "Lady Sings The Blues." The Toy -- A racist manipulative billionaire purchases Pryor for his spoiled brat son as his personal plaything. Pryor turns the tables as he tutors the boy in life. Co-stars Jackie Gleason and Ned Beatty. Which Way Is Up -- Pryor starred in remake of an Italian film about a union organizer and husband with two families and many misadventures with women where he played multiple roles a generation before "The Klumps." Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling -- Pryor directed this semi-autobiographical film. See No, Evil Speak No Evil -- Pryor and multiple film pal Gene Wilder star as a pair of handicapped heisters. The Mack -- A Pimp named Goldie builds his empire of womenses who give him their money. Pryor is a local entrepreneur in their underworld. Moving -- In this kinder, gentler family film Pryor is a beseiged dad relocating in a long cross-country trip filled with misadventures and slapstick. Bustin' Loose Television: • Saturday Night Live -- Pryor was one of the very first Host Performers of the show, and a notable guest whose skits are included in the SNL and NBC network retrospectives. • The Richard Pryor Show -- The weekly show was a old fashioned variety program much like the later SNL and late-nite talk shows, with musical interludes from jazz people, and with comic sketches interspersed. Sandra Bernhardt and Robin Williams were featured on the limited show, which was cancelled amid controversy after only five showings. (Milwaukee's jumpy NBC affiliate didn't even show that many of them) Concert Films: • "Live On The Sunset Strip" • "Richard Pryor Live In Concert." Pryor As Director: Jo Jo Dancer Your Life Is Calling -- (1987) his semi-autobiographical story that Pryor directed. Writing Credits: Blazing Saddles -- Pryor was a co-writer of Mel Brook's iconoclastic Western which featured the Black sheriff of the town of Rock Ridge taking on a criminal cowboy gang and Railroad Baron Hedley Lamarr. Lily -- An award-winning telefilm about Lily Tomlin featured Pryor as one of the team of writers. His own TV series on NBC featured a young and unproven but promising Robin Williams and Sandra Bernhard. ---------- kevin j. walker, Netitor The Word NetPaper WalkerWorld walkernet@excite.com p.o. box 1324-53201 Milwaukee WI USA 53201-1324 -- 30 – “SERENITY” “4 Brothers” Villain Chiwetel Ejiofor Is Chilling As The Operative In Resurrected TV Hit By Film Critic Kevin J. Walker http://cinemaviews.tripod.com The TV phenomenom "Firefly" like "Star Trek" refuses to pass away just because a short-sighted TV network killed their golden goose. Gina Torres, a bona-fide Sci Fi Sistah joins Chiewtal Etiofor as the cold hearted Alliance assassin The Operative and film vet Ron Glass in the futuristic flick. “Serenity” is an impressive Science Fiction/Western hybrid built around the aftermath of the losing side of a galactic civil war. It is also a mystery when a band of ex-soldiers take on a brother and sister on the run who turn out to be lot more heat than they realized. Its building up into a creative cultural phenomenon much like the Star Trek generation before them. After having seen the film earlier in the week I’m starting to understand what the fuss is all about. I came to the film cold; I was not a fan and had never seen the “Firefly” series on television on which it is based. Still, I sensed the buzz surrounding the release of the spun-off film as the release approached. Then when I started seeing advance ticket sales signs and notices of midnight screenings at 12:01 am opening day I knew something was up! I remembered two thirds of the way through the movie saying to myself “they should make some more of these!” That’s the mark of a good movie going experience for me; that and forgetting that there was a time limit and the film would have to end. This means you are engaged and involved, and the makers haven’t bored you. That’s pretty much it. All the rest of critiquing movies is minutiae. Fans of movies who like there to be intellectual dialog have something to celebrate in “Serenity.” When Malcolm wants to make sure his crew can make it he asks Zoe for her report on their battered ship Serenity, named after the final battle their Independents lost. But Mal's asking about more than the metal ship. “She’s been pretty beaten up, but she can make it.” “Will she hold together? “She’ll make it, Sir. She'll fly true.” Some of the talk is cleverly hidden in double entendres, as when the ship’s engineer Kaylee complains about not having better creature comforts than in the one-horse towns they’ve been ducking in and out of. “In a year I haven’t had nuthin’ twixt my nethers that wasn’t battery operated!” The cannibalistic Reavers reminded me of the alien eaters in “Andromeda” who also prefer their meat still living. Like in the old Westerns when the maurading Injuns are attacking the farmstead, when you see the Reavers are getting the upper hand make sure you saved at least the bullet for yourself! Still, one thing about “Serenity” is that it carries the marks of its TV heritage. I don’t mean the production values; in that it is motion picture first rate. I mean the pretty-boy clean shaven look. Not having them shave for a day or two won’t get it, these guys especially seem like they came out of Central Casting, and are a bit too TV Pretty. Mal is supposed to be this fearsome leader and fighter, but I didn’t get that right away until he busts out. Like “Bannerman” in the books about the retired suburban Connecticut assassins, its hard to make someone cold hearted just because someone says they are. Mal kills the wounded alliance soldiers (called “Purple Bellies” for their uniforms); like outlaw pilot Han Solo who operates on the galaxy’s and society’s edge he’s an Agnostic, which is always good for making a person a villain, I guess. The women fare a little better with the large-eyed River Tam, the winsome troubled alliance fugitive; played by dancer Summer Glau (who looks like a little sister to Christina Ricci) she and Inara the Ship’s Companion have exotic looks. Then of course the tall, strappin,’ big-eyed, juicy-lipped Gina Torres with her thickness has it going on. But the main female star is River Tam, the haunted psi-powered fugitive who has aspects of the same heritage of adolescent heroines from Alice in Wonderland to Dorothy in Oz, to the warrior princess in training in “Elektra.” River and the whitebread brother who busted her out are being pursued by the Alliance. The reasons why are peeled back gradually, and I was glad to see that this time they got it right. Then I should have known that the scripter of "Alien Resurrection" would know how to set it off in true SF fashion. The world of “Serenity” takes place 500 years into the future, not a measly 200 years like Star Trek. Still, because we have problems even projecting 20 years into the future (think of all those 1960 views of what 2000 would be like, with flying cars and cities on the Moon!) the world of “Star Trek” and “Serenity” and even Asimov’s literary “Foundation” opus frequently employ a tried and true technique for slowing things down in an expanding future society. A system wide war between the Alliance and the Independents has wrecked things, and many stellar communities are digging themselves out and reestablishing their societies. The Alliance has won, and they’re like the Collectivist ideal, or Thomas Sowell's Unconstrained Vision, always trying to shoehorn humanity into their narrow concept of what we should be. The Operative is the personification of this idea. He is a True Believer in their system of human perfectibility. “I believe in a world without sin” he states matter of factly in a broadcast to Malcolm. The problem is that he is willing to slaughter as many villages, settlements and even worlds it takes to ensure his Utopia comes to pass! And he knows it. As villains go, Darth Vader is somebody you could spot a mile away as a Bad Dude. As played by Chiewtal Etiofor [“Chewee-Tel Edge - uh - Fore”] A Britisher by way of Africa, he’s a very bad man, but he doesn’t look it. He dresses well, speaks well, and is charming, soft spoken and cultured. You’d invite him in, not run away in fright. But it would be a mistake, and not one you’d be able to repeat. If The Operative looks familiar but hard to place, its because he changes body shapes, and his facial hair, in addition to playing Nice Guys, victims, executives, and lately villains. Etiofor in the current “Four Brothers” is Victor Sweet, the Detroit crime kingpin. In Spike Lee’s jumbled and over busy “She Hate Me” of last year he was Frank Wills, a fired executive who started a side business as an impregnator of Lesbians wishing to start a family. (How come my school counselor never told me there were job categories like that?!!) “Dirty Pretty Things” saw Etiofor as an African immigrant in Europe who is trying to extricate he and roommate Aimee Tatou from the clutches of illegal organ-leggers preying on them. “If your quarry goes to ground, leave him no ground to go to,” the operative says in a simple recitation of one of the articles of the Art of War. “Malcolm, I am an evil man... I know that I’m a monster. But I will do whatever I have to, to achieve my goals” he says in explaining why he had to kill off an entire society who posed no threat to him or the Alliance. "You and I, we are alike" the operative tells Malcolm. "I don't kill children!" Malcolm angrily retorts. "I do. If I have to" the OPerative says calmly. "So me and mines, we have to lay down and die so that you can live in this perfect society?" "No... There is no place for me there. Or for you." The Operative assassin is based on an Asian Buddhist martial artist archetype. Like much of the Serenity” there is a cultural blend, with Indian, Asian, Native American and what have you making expression. Talk about diversity! If you had a cosmos to choose from, pretty much every cult and belief could have their own planet, if not star system. You don’t like being around other races? Come to the Aryan System, White Humanoids Only! In the most excellent “Pitch Black” and its sequel starring Vin Diesel as the antihero there are whole planets of Muslims, who still have to make the Haaj, which in space would involve some difficulty. Ron Glass is a veteran actor from back in tha day and here is Shepherd Perria Book, a religious man now, but he has a past that he wants to leave there. He is part of a settlement that is like home for the weary travelers, more out on the edge where the Alliance doesn’t have much of a commanding presence. Like the Outer Rim systems in the Star Wars universe, such as Yoda's refuge on the jungle planet of Dagobah, and city manager Lando Calrissian’s levitating City In The Clouds on the gas giant of Bespin. Book’s multicultural multiracial community is etching out a life, and this is where the Western aspects of Serenity come to the fore. There are plenty of "ma’ams," and “well, I reckons” and such, the leather clothing, and even the anti-gravity cargo sleds are called Mules. This one was used in an evasive maneuver called “barn swallown” that capped off a particularly thrilling chase scene. “Serenity” has plenty of action including space battles, shoot-outs, chases, heists -- even a Western style face-off in keeping with the show’s heritage. I mean the movie. But like the best SF the human element must be the focus. Even the standard Siege scenes; a hopeless Horatio at the bridge, “Dawn of the Dead”, “Ghosts of Mars,” and Zulu Dawn” style throw down is given a new face. We all know the formula: the heroes are with their backs to the wall, and the Bad Guys are coming through. There is no way out, and the Center must hold, otherwise their efforts and the lives already sacrificed for the Cause would be for naught. Torres’ Zoe cynically says to someone who makes a remark about an “afterwards.” “Do you think any of are going to live through this?” she sneers as she loads old style ammunition into her trusty riot shotgun, tricked out with modern (for them) laser sightings and the like. Zoe served with Mal during the rebellion wars they lost, and still refers to him as “Sir.” Torres is a multiple threat Sci Fi Sistah, and is a familiar face from syndicated genre fare such as “Cleopatra 2525” and notable guest-starring as in the most excellent “Le Femme Nikita” on cable’s USA channel. Torres also appeared in a bit role as a Zionist along with Nona Gaye in “The Matrix” which also featured Torres' husband Laurence Fishburne who played Morpheus. It is ironic and a bit disturbing that Fox TV was so narrow minded and heavy handed in their rejection of the TV series. I saw this syndrome before, where a large TV enterprise who initially showed some iconoclastic promise rolled the dice and bet on the intelligence of their audience and on the future, ending up with a genre changing win on its hands. They then later fell prey to their bureaucratic inertia and bean-counting pressure and shot itself in the foot: It was NBC, the Peacock station that green lighted a daring new TV series called “Star Trek” by a TV veteran better known for his crime and western dramas than Science Fiction. Gene Roddenberry told us of his battles with the Paramount studio and the TV executives at NBC when I was a student at Marquette University. As we sat in the packed ballroom at the student union we knew we were hearing about an item of cultural history from a person who had tipped the creative balance and caused to come into existence forces that would keep rolling and rolling along. “Battlestar: Galactica” the original version had the same problem early on with their casting, which is why they switched from having the Cylons be organic and made them robotic, to make them less appealing after their market research and focus group analysis showed that people were being drawn to the villains, instead of the California blow-dried surfer types with the faux edginess that were being peddled at them. Now, in the new series they have gone back to its original heritage, and made the Cylon race organic, appealing, and sometimes seductive. They have also gone deeply into the religious aspect of Galactica, which had started life as a combo Western “Wagon Train” in Space, and a retelling of the Hebrew Exodus story. Which would make the original Cylons the Palestinians and Arabs, I guess. This sort of thing is done a lot in TV. Gene Roddenberry was a scripter of TV westerns, and fashioned his “Star Trek” that way. Captain Kirk was like the Marshall, going about the Territories settling disputes, and gunning down rogues, outlaws and the robber baron’s henchmen who were oppressing the little settler folk. A racial subtext was also operating in Star Trek, for all its surface messaging of brotherhood and solidarity with alien races. As pointed out on the Tom Snyder “Tomorrow” show on NBC by turbocharged SF writer and the one who scripted the favourite “City On The Edge of Forever,” White Male Anglo Saxons such as Kirk, Scotty and McCoy gave orders to people of colour and Eastern European White Ethnics such as Uhuru, Sulu and Chekov. This will be explored further in the Sci Fi Brothers and Sistahs articles that examines the proliferation of African Descended actors in a genre that was once notable for their exclusion. My how times have changed! The fans of the aborted “Firefly” series have some of the same characteristics and the same fervor of the OG Trekkies. One of the things that doomed TV’s star trek in the eyes of the suits was that those attracted weren’t the usual television audience. How do you sell feminine deodorant spray and Viagra to these people, whose intelligence quotient was a mite bit higher than the age 14 - 45 demographics? This is why it doesn’t really matter how many people watch a show, it goes beyond eyeballs pointed at the screen. They have to be the right kind of audience, those who can be sold things, much of what they don’t even need. What doomed “Star Trek” is the audience that would gather every Sunday night to watch a series that optimistically projected Humanity would not only survive but thrive, and make itself homes on dozens of far flung star systems hundreds of planets was deemed “too cerebral.” Gene Roddenberry ended his talk to us at Marquette University with the line he would use often, that American TV wouldn’t prosper until it “discovered that there was intelligent life on the other side of the television screen.” "SERENITY" CAST CREDITS: Gina Torres -- Zoe Chiwetel Ejiofor -- The Operative Ron Glass -- Shepherd Book Summer Glau -- River Tam Nathan Fillion -- Malcolm Alan Tudyk -- Wash Morena Baccarin -- Inara Adam Baldwin -- Jayne Jewel Staite -- Kaylee David Krumholtz -- Mr. Universe Sean Maher -- Simon "SERENITY" is rated “PG-13” and is from Universal pictures, and not Fox studios, who blew it, big time. --kjw CINEMA VIEWS by Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic "Get Rich Or Die Tryin'" 50 Cent Biopic Is Violent, Profane But Beguiling Film CINEMA VIEWS ON WALKERWORLD http://www.GeoCities.com/walkerworld_2000/cinema_views http://cinemaviews.tripod.com http://www.milwaukeeblackonline.com/walkerworld.htm by Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic thewordnetpaper@excite.com http://cinemaviews.tripod.com Kevin J. Walker, Netitor-in-Chief, The Word NetPaper -- Web-based News Service p.o. box 1324-53201 milwaukee, wis. usa 53201-1324 FILM CRITIQUES: http://cinemaviews.tripod.com http://www.geocities.com/cinemaviews http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/cinema_views MOVIE REVIEW PAGES ON BLACK WEB PORTAL WIRE SERVICES: http://www.thebwp.com/wire/DisplaySectionArticles.cfm?articleType=MovieReview http://blackwebportal.com/wire [click on "MovieReviews" at left]; MILWAUKEE EVENTS CALENDAR: http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/the_511 http://www.TheMBO.com/walkerworld at "Features" COMMUNITY PHOTOS: http://community.webshots.com/user/kevinjwalker1 GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN Curtis Jackson Expands His Growing Empire Into Realm Of Film 50 Cent's sorta Biopic of his transition from a drug dealer to a rapper is at its heart a rather tender film that at its core is really about the strong draw and redemptive power of family, and Rap music Although much of the media attention of the new 50 cent movie will be focused on the subject matter of drug dealing, Rap music and the associated violence of the onetime gang banger and dope dealer, they'd miss the core of what's truly happening in director Jim Sheridan's "Get Rich Or Die Tryin'." A much as any of the other ingredients the movie is also a love story with a sweet core that's inside the prison fights, group sex parties, and gun battles that are primarily the recaps of the detoured rap career of Curtis Jackson, or 50 Cent. The two hour plus long movie is also about the misguided entrepreneurial spirit that saw many young men and women in the nation's cities turn to an outlaw thug life and made their way with an alternative economy. Talk of "Employes of the Month" of the drug enterprises they run and increasing their yield and product supply lines offers an overall technical view of the outlaw drug trade that hasn't much been seen since Nino Brown's NYC city block fortress operation in "New Jack City" with Wesley Snipes and Chris Rock in his first film. They're back to talking about yet another play at making a sequel to that movie. Drug dealing isn't presented as a glorious occupation, but the hedonistic lifestyles are depicted. "Gettin' paid and gettin' laid" is what they're into, Marcus says, narrating throughout the film. "After figuring the hours spent outside selling, it came to minimum wage" Marcus muses for us. "If you figure in going to prison it was less than that," he states, which is what fuels his interest in becoming a rapper. The kingpin of their underworld empire is Cahill, played by director and onetime action star Bill Duke from "Predator" and "Commando." Duke had a small role as a corrupt detective in the Hughes' twins excellent but heartbreaking "Menace II Society." "Violence only begets more violence. It does not beget more money. Which is what I thought we were all in this for" Cahill says, after Marcus and his crew breaks the negotiated peace treaty with the Colombians. With his low growling whisper and bowler hat, it makes one think of Marlon Brando's Don Corleone in "The Godfather," which had to be intentional because it could have been easily avoided. Joy Bryant was a model before she burst on the scene as the love interest in Denzel Washington's "Antwone Fisher" opposite Derek Luke of "Spartan." She, just as since broken out actresses such as Kerry Washington and Sonaa Lathan, usually plays the Girlfriend role these days as she did in Jessica Alba's "Honey." Bryant is way too scrawny to be featured as an object of male adoration, but as Charlene, a blast from Marcus' past she has a sweet and smart demeanor about herself. After a reenactment in the film of the infamous near-assassination where 50 cent was shot nine times but survived, Charlene is worried about Marcus' deteriorating mental state and spirit. "I'm afraid I'm losing him" she confides to one of their mutual friends, as Marcus mopes around the house in his house robe and slippers, watching TV, his drive to make music all but gone. "This place, this life, is this it for us?” Charlene says as she reads Marcus out when she sees his ambition drained. "All I see in you now is a weak person. Your son is just another little Black boy without a father to look up to." "Get Rich Or Die Tryin" is notable for a few reasons, aside from the fact that the director is an Irishman known for Academy Award-winning films such as "My Left Foot" and the prison film "In The Name of the Father." That movie was also fact-based about a wrongly imprisoned father and son who became cellmates in prison. There are many parallels between the Irish in the United Kingdom and Africans in America, which they know more so than we. Rent "The Commitments" sometime, which is about a group that breaks into the Dublin music scene by reaching into and drawing from their Black Irish souls. Except none of them are of African Descent! So having a director from Ireland made as much sense as it did when having one of the Hughes' twins make the period film "From Hell" about Jack the Ripper starring Johnny Depp as an investigator of one of history's most mysterious serial killers. Hughes said it was just another type of ghetto, although an older one. And he was right, and "From Hell" was critically praised but more importantly it made the studio some money! "Get Rich Or Die Tryin'" holds up dark-skinned Black women as objects of beauty in a variety of roles, whether its his young unwed mother Katrina, played by Serena Reeder, her saintly mother who often receives the dropped-off Marcus, or just the hanging-around girls. The Video Hoes and other eye candy with the light skin and long hair have been largely banished from the film, with the exception of Bryant. The young actor who plays the young Marcus Grier is excellent, and better than his adult version played woodenly in spoken scenes by Jackson. Often slurring his lines, Jackson was more in the mode of behaving, which was said of Ice Cube in his early film roles. What makes "Get Rich Or Die Tryin'" a success is that it has such a wide range of characters and situations to help 50 Cent out so he doesn't have to carry the weight of the film on his less than capable shoulders. There is the romantic and Rap career subplots, but there is the brief prison portion, and the flashbacks to Marcus' youth with a beautiful and popular drug dealing mother and his fruitless search for a father. For action and suspense the battle for drug territory against the NYC Colombians, with jealous backstabbers watching and waiting to strike. Terrence Howard is back in thug form again after his Oscar-buzz worthy role as a West Memphis pimp and aspiring rapper in "Hustle And Flow," also reviewed in this column. "Hustle And Flow," Here he is 'Bama, Marcus' agent and Ghetto Consiglieri. "Is that where you from, Alabama?" Marcus asks him. "Naw, I'm from North Carolina. But I didn't want people calling me 'Lina!" With such a sprawling film with a cast of dozens Howard's screen time was limited but he always makes the best of it, as he did in "Dead Presidents" and "Crash." Howard has played nerdy high school students in films like "Sunset Park" and "Mr. Holland's Opus." Most recently Howard furthered demonstrated his versatility by playing a Detroit detective in "Four Brothers" and a second-generation thug lifer in the upcoming "Animal" with co-star and producer Ving Rhames. Professor Griff from the group Public Enemy screened that film in the mode of "South Central" and "Menace II Society" at the Rave in a recent visit to Milwaukee and a Cinema View of it is coming soon. Rappers transitioning from music to acting is nothing new, in fact its a proven career upgrade path. Some of the bigger names are Queen Latifah, moving more to using her real name of Dana Owens; Will Smith, formerly the Fresh Prince; LL Cool J; Ice T, or Tracey Morrow from "Johnny Mnemonic" and "Surviving The Game," and now playing a cop on series TV; Treach ("Jason's Lyric") and both Xibit and Rza in the current suspense film "Derailed." A companion video for showing after viewing "Get Rich" would be the most excellent "In Too Deep," the fact based story of a undercover officer portrayed by Omar Epps who rises to the upper reaches of a drug empire led by LL Cool J. There is a romantic angle with co-star Nia Long with Epps. Those who thought they'd be treated to a movie with lots of concerts and rap will be struck by how little of that aspect there is in "Get Rich Or Die Tryin'." But they won't feel or be cheated by what they will see in a movie that although it deals with unpleasant subject matter and unwholesome realities of our cities and the Underclass, nevertheless is a well crafted and executed film by a director who has proven that he has what it takes, and is backed up by a capable cast. GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN' is rated a well deserved "R" for violence including shootings and torture, drug use and dealing, male frontal nudity, and old style sexual throw-downs with mutual... whatever. -- kevin j. walker p.o. box 1324-53201> milwaukee wis. usa 53201> < thewordnetpaper@excite.com > < http://www.geocities.com/cinemaviews > --30-- ----------------------------- HUSTLE & FLOW" Terrance Howard Goes With The Flow As He Portrays A Memphis Pimp In An Oscar-Nominated Worthy Performance http://BlackWebPortal.com/wire Review: http://www.BlackWebportal.com/wire Pimpin’s Back! But It Ain’t Easy As Terrence Howard Breaks Into The Hustle Of The Rap Business Terrence Dashon Howard is setting the world on fire with his understated sense of menace to society. But what makes him such a versatile actor is that he can and has easily turn and play a cop, a teenager, or a suave and debonair Renaissance man. In that regard, Howard has the same professional quality as Larentz Tate, that of being able to switch smoothly from paying a criminal thug gang-banger to being and executive in a suit, or a nervous nerdy youth. In fact, http://Eurweb.com reported that Howard tried to push off his star-making role on Tate, in an excerpt further down in this review. The Pimpin’ game ain’t easy. For one thing, like men in any Polygamous setup, their women and lots of times the 'Hoes are a lot smarter than they are, and they automatically outnumber Pimps. Many of these women figure out that they can do badly by themselves. His White prostitute, the braided blond played by Taryn Manning from "Singles," brings this to the front. "I’m tryin’ to figure out just what it is that you do?," the White chick says, who figures herself to be a businesswoman and who has lots more ambition than her present station shows. Indeed, that is the heart of "Hustle And Flow", the dreams beyond what you are. That’s it, not much more. It has become popular through the years of the World’s Oldest Profession to regard sex workers as oppressed and exploited. The harsh reality that they know full well what they’re doing and indeed, may like it and never want to change is something we don’t want to address. But this doesn’t describe Manning’s character. We will see her in the discussed sequel to "Hustle And Flow," I sincerely hope. I often play around with Hollywood Six Degrees, a spin-off of the game that was demonstrated with Kevin Bacon to show the linkages between the actors. As with Ludacris, Howard plays a successful rapper called Skinny Black. Ludacris Bridges and Larenz Tate also co-starred in "Crash." In the heist film "Dead Presidents," Tate played a nerdy high school student then drafted into the Vietnam War as a Marine grunt opposite Howard’s slang-talking criminal named Cowboy in the film. Ironically, Tate was Howard’s choice to take a look at the script, according to this posting on Black Webportal.com from fellow BWP media partner and contributor < http://eurweb.com > : Howard tells EUR’s Lee Bailey about his conversation with writer Stephanie Allain after she made her pitch after running into him at a Four Season’s hotel: "I was like, ‘I’m all into it, what’s he about?’ And she says, ‘He’s a pimp that wants to be a rapper.’ And I was like, ‘You need to go see somebody else. Go talk to Ice Cube about it.’ You know, that’s not what I wanna do. That’s not where I wanna be at. And she said, ‘It’s not what you think,’ but I still told her no." Three months later, Allain still hadn’t taken no for an answer. "She was so persistent and believed in me," he says. "And I finally took the time to read the script after meeting with [director] Craig Brewer and meeting with Allain a couple of times. I read the script after not talking with her for about three weeks and I fell in love with it. "And immediately, I called her to make sure that the role was still available. Because I told her, ‘You need to go get Larenz Tate. Larenz will probably be able to kill this, because I can’t find the mindset for this character, because it’s not in my heart." The film was singled out at the annual Sundance Film Festival in Park City Utah and was immediately snapped up by Paramount pictures, in a collaboration with MTV films division, which also distributed the 50 cent movie and sort of biopic of Curtis Jackson "Get Rich Or Die Tryin’." In addition to the teen basketball player in "Sunset Park" he played a bit role as a rhythmically deprived teen in Richard Dreyfuss’ "Mr. Holland’s Opus." Howard was shown as a clumsy with women lawyer on TV’s "Sparks," and a philandering husband in HBO cable movie "Lackawanna Blues." "Crash" was the first pairing of Ludacris and Howard, where ‘Chris was a carjacker who had the tables turned on him by Los Angeles television producer Howard, who had enough of being punked by the police, his mouthy wife, and the job, and now this carjacking punk! Maybe Cris Bridges will get the chance to smack Howard around for a change after these last two movies! But at least we got a chance to see what slammin’ sistah Paula Jai Parker in another role, and she’s always a teat to see. I mean a treat. (That was a Freudian slip). She’s Lexus, the most prolific of D Jay’s hoes, and she lets him know it, too. "Its MY coochie that pays for the rent around here!" Lex tells him, since his skinny White chick isn’t bringing in the dough, and his other one is laid up being pregnant. Paula Jai Parker is so gorgeous its hard for casting people to see past her intelligence and focus on the booty. I meant to say her beauty. See what I mean? Parker also would have been more believable in the role of the vivacious siren Darlene "Woo" Bates for which she was the original lead in that film, because the diminutive Jada Pinkett Smith is so narrow in the kiester that she had to have a booty-double for her part in the nude scene in "Jason’s Lyric." Its true, she said so herself. But at least director Spike Lee sees Paula Jai’s versatility, and included her as one of the few females in his insta-movie "Get On The Bus" with the late great Ossie Davis, a veteran of a few Spike Lee joints. Jai and another sistah played cheerleaders who ran into the crew on their way to the Million Man March at a wayside. She played opposite Joe Torry as a couple of scheming mis-matchmakers in "Sprung." Lee the producer also included Parker as a single mother in "Tales From The ‘Hood," who was being beat down by a brutal boyfriend in an uncharacteristically cast David Allen Grier from "In Living Colour." Parker also played a hoe in "Phone Booth" opposite Colin Ferrell. Now lets see, what are we up to? In "Woo" she played a Chicken Hoe for screen hubby Dave Chappelle as they were engaging in some husband-wife bedroom role playing; she played a woman of the streets in "Phone Booth;" and now Parker’s playing another one in "Hustle And Flow." Let’s hope this isn’t a trend as she has lots more talent. Taraj P. Henson is a real find as Suge, the scary and not real bright member of the clan. She doesn’t have a glamorous scene in the movie at all, and spends a lot of the time looking scared, dim, and sweaty in the non-a/c household and car. When she belts out "you know its hard out here for a pimp" for the demo its one of the transformative parts of "Hustle and Flow," which like Variations on the "Mo’ Better Blues" and "Amadeus" shows the collaborative process of creating music, which takes up quite a bit of the movie, and not the Pimping angle. Anthony Anderson gets a chance to show his dramatic skills after a healthy body of work in comedies and action adventure, including with Jet Li in "Romeo Must Die." Anderson is a church musician and hopeful producer who like D Jay sees this as his last remaining chance to do something big with his life, and go for his big break. His not quite understanding wife is played by the ever-radiant Elise Neal, and her dragging on her husband causes some strife in the musical undertaking. The Memphis pimp tells him that if his surly attitude of late is based on him not getting enough sex at home, that’s something that can easily be taken care of. "‘Cause I got some p----- sitting right over there on the couch," D Jay says, and that he can hook him up right properly! "I’m tellin’ you man, keep my wife’s name out of your mouth!" the angry Anderson tells D Jay. Speaking of, another breakthrough who is headed for better things is the fireball White hoe with quite a head on her. For business, as it turns out. The people in "Hustle And Flow" all have their dreams and aspirations, and her role points this out. "Do you know what it is that I do in the back seats of them cars?!" she asks her pimp when the life is starting to get to her as well, and she wants a life change, too. "I don’t need you to be effen with my head right now, D Jay. Sometimes I don’t mind because I need my mind messed with, but not right now, okay?" she says after a rough nite on the job. "Do you know what happens to me in the back of those cars? How I feel? Huh? Do you?!" The range of emotions that play across D Jay’s face as he hears but maybe doesn’t understand is just one of the many things that make "Hustle And Flow" and enjoyable film, even though its about a subject that many would find unpalatable. But seeing masters of the game do their thing is something to behold, whether its playing a game of golf, an NBA final quarter, or championship chess. DJ Qualls is likewise adding to his film repertoire, especially with Black oriented films. The Southern boy’s breakthrough was in the raunchy "Road Trip," where he made out as a celebrity at a Southern Black fraternity house, and ended up making out with a healthy sized Sistah as his First One! Qualls also played Rat, a hacker/cracker par excellence in the most excellent Sci Fi end-of-the-world flick "The Core" with two time Academy Award winner and former trailer park rat Hilary Swank who was the female "Karate Kid 3." With his scrawny looks and off-putting demeanor, Qualls sneaks under the radar but quickly becomes an audience favourite with his roles. Here he’s a co-producer from the same church as Anderson, and is a beat layer-downer and pianist/keyboarder in their low-tech recording studio on the cheap, with egg crate foam packing as their soundproofing in the back bedroom they’ve taken over in D Jay’s row house in town. Just as in the over praised "Boogie Nights" with Burt Reynolds, "Four Brothers" co-star Mark Wahlberg, and Julianne Moore where they were a dysfunctional family of pornographers, likewise here D Jay’s family is he and his hoes, and their trick children. In a similar fashion in "Hustle And Flow" they have a family of sorts, and although it strains the concept its the same thing. When D Jay remarks about Taraj P. Henson’s child -to-be he offhandedly says "its a shame we won’t know who his daddy is," we see the fleeting look of hurt on her face, as well as the perplexed look of a dawning realization on her part. It is little things like this that makes one see why this was a Sundance exhibition favourite. Henson is a busy girl onscreen these days. She’ll be seen in the gripping "Animal" opposite Howard and Ving Rhames. Its a storyline familiar to those who’ve seen "South Central" and "In The Name Of The Father," that last directed by "Get Rich Or Die Tryin’" director Jim Sheridan. Henson’s still stuck in the sweet Girlfriend and Babymama Mode these days, but she’ll break out of that soon, just like Vivica Fox, Kerry Washington, Sonaa Lathan, and Halle Berry all did, just you watch. "The Best Man" was invigorated by Terence Dashon Howard’s presence. The predominately Black romantic comedy was a reincarnation of the 1940s films, where Howard played the part of the meddling guest who amuses himself by setting up the various others based on their past histories and personalities. Howard is also is an accomplished guitarist, if the credits of the film are accurate. That was him doing own playing of the Spanish song in the scene at the club, That Howard would eventually get his own lead role was just a matter of time because it is the nature of cream to rise higher. Now all he has to do is make a Science Fiction movie and his conquest of the known cinema worlds will be complete. Except for a musical with a singing part. Howard didn’t just show up, get dressed and started to play a pimp, he researched the role extensively, the Eurweb article showed. "I went to Cleveland first of all and talked to some guys that I saw when I was growing up in certain areas, you know, 55th and Huff; 30th and Central; downtown Cleveland," Howard says. "I had to understand the pimps from my own environment first. "I talked to this guy named Tweety Bird. He was very open in telling me the Pimpology and the things necessary in order to help someone to accomplish something that they think they can’t do; to swallow their conscience." After researching the town that raised him, Howard spent about four months checking out the Memphis pimp scene. "I stayed inside a motel for about a month-and-a-half that was right on the track in Memphis, and just watched everything going on, videotaped people, talked to them," he said. "I used to pay some of the prostitutes a hundred dollars just to come and talk to me for an hour, tell me about their lives. I’d pay the pimps to come and inform me, you know, talk to some of the mothers of the children. "I had a year-and-a-half to prepare this guy. You give an actor that much time, he’s gonna come up with something really, really good." Howard’s work paid off in the role, and he may have even struck future Oscar gold with his dedication. Next February during the Academy Awards we’ll see. On Pimpology I’m from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and since this was the home of Iceberg Slim, the first pimp to write his life story, we like to think we know a little bit about that sort of thing. Its not something the local Chamber of Commerce puts in the tourist brochures but this is also the home of Pimpin’ Ken, and the infamous Player’s Ball that was featured in the HBO cable movie "Pimps Up, Hoes Down." Ken has his own video series on DVD he’s distributing, a sort of documentary and reality series. Pimp movies aren’t exactly even a sub genre in Hollywood. In "Night Shift" which was the breakout movie for future "Batman" and "Mr. Mom" star Michael Keaton and Henry Winkler, the former Fonz of "Happy Days" and the coach from "The Waterboy," the two graveyard shift morgue attendants run a side business managing their womenses, including a pre-"Cheers" Shelley Long as a street hoe! Morgan Freeman showed a couple of decades ago as Fast Black in the late Christopher Reeve’s "Street Smart" with Kathy Baker. Then there was "Willie Dynamite," Diana Sands last movie as an anti-prostitute crusader, made as she was even then dying of cancer. The Hansberry-Sands Theatre company in Milwaukee was so named, after she Chicagoan playwright Lorraine Hansberry who attended school at the University of Wisconsin, and famous for "A Raisin In The Sun." Sands played her Atheistic college student character in the movie. "Hustle and Flow" demonstrates it doesn’t take a lot to make a big movie, just a good idea and the right people. Millions of dollars and big name stars might be nice, but attractive concepts and drive can go a long ways. In Milwaukee we continue to see this in the works of Cecil Woodson III and his "Straight Hustl’n," formerly called "The HittMaker" co-starring Terry "Hollywood Love" of the smooth jazz radio station WJZI 93.3 FM; local chanteuse Theresa Brown; with model and former Hooter’s Girl and lead actress Keisha Ingram. Many people have noticed the parallels between Cecil’s story that was filmed way back around 2001 and the premise of "Hustle And Flow." In the locally produced and shot movie, a young man named Quik makes a bad decision and ends up in the county lockup. He gets another chance after coming out, becoming a producer of rap music and has lots going for him. But just like Michael Corleone’s "The Godfather," just when Quik tries to get out and go legit they reach out and pull him back in! The DVD of "Straight Hustl'n" is at Blockbuster Video if you want to see the comparisons for yourself. --kjw Terrence D. Howard Films: Animal Four Brothers Crash The Best Man Sunset Park Dead Presidents Mr. Holland’s Opus Howard’s TV Shows, TV Movies: Sparks Lackawanna Blues Their Eyes Were Watching God HUSTLE AND FLOW is rated R primarily for rough language and vague depictions of oral sex, with some drug use of the smoking variety. Directed by Craig Brewster, its from Paramount/MTV Films. Please send your comments or observations to: Kevin J. Walker, film critic The Word NetPaper < thewordnetpaper@excite.com > http://cinemaviews.tripod.com http://www.thebwp.com/wire http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/cinema_views/videoviews/blacklove p.o. box 1324-53201 Milwaukee, WI USA 53201 ----------- Cinema Views With Film Critic Kevin J. Walker IN MEMORIAM: Star Trek Universe Loses Two: 1) Brock Peters Passes, Was Sci Fi Bro. ‘Adm. Cartwright;’ Radio’s Darth Vader 2) Doohan “Scotty” & Uhuru’s Screen Boo In “ST 3” Succumbs http://cinemaviews.tripod.com http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/cinema_views The "Star Trek" Universe has now lost two warriors, with Sci Fi Brotha Brock Peters, a noted actor of stage and screen, and the radio voice of Darth Vader. Also recently passed was "Scotty" Doohan, the Starship Enterprise engineer, and the on-screen Boo of Nichelle Nichols' Lt. Kevin J. Walker, Netitor < walkerworld_2000@yahoo.com > The Word Netpaper http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000 p.o. box 1324-53201 milwaukee, wis usa Brock Peters, age 78 and a noted actor of stage and screen died earlier this week from pancreatic cancer at his home in Los Angeles. He was diagnosed with the disease earlier this year. He was originally named George Fisher, and was born in NYC’s Harlem in 1927, and had his own star dedicated on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame in 1992. In “To Kill A Mockingbird” with Gregory Peck he played a Black man falsely accused of rape, and defended by Peck’s principled and gentlemanly Southern lawyer. It was not shown in the movie, but Brock’s character was caught and lynched while he was being moved to a safer location during the legal proceedings. Two years ago Peters eulogized fellow “To Kill A Mockingbird” co star Peck at his funeral. The movie was named as one of the top American films by the American Film Institute in one of their periodic lists just before Peck died. Peters was a stage and screen star, and first appeared onstage majorly in 1954 in “Carmen Jones” as Sgt. Brown, from the modern remake with an all-Black cast of Bizet’s play “Carmen.” He followed that with “Porgy” from the play “Porgy and Bess,” and “10,000 Black Men Named George.” With his deep rumbling voice, dark skin and tall commanding presence, Peters found among his variety of roles those of authority figures, even when he was a villain. In “The Liberation of L.B. Jones” in the 1970s Peters was the silent train traveler heading back Down South to settle an old score and kill a racist. Peters also co-starred in Whoopi Goldberg and Alec Baldwin’s “Ghosts of Mississippi” about the prosecution of the killer of civil rights leader Medger Evers. But in later years he was known by another generation of fans for being part of the most widely seen movie franchises ever created from one of the most daring TV shows. Brock portrayed United Federation of Planets Admiral Cartwright and appeared in two “Star Trek” films, “ST5: The Voyage Home,“ and Part Six “The Undiscovered Country.” Brock as Admiral Cartwright starred in his two big screen Star Trek movies with original series members before it was handed off to the “ST: Next Generation” cast. He was a supporter of once fellow Admiral James Tiberius Kirk, and a high level plotter of treason against the Federation’s peace treaty with the Klingon Empire. Peters was also the radio voice of Darth Vader in the second film of the series “The Empire Strikes Back.” It was serialized on National Public Radio in the early 1980s when originator and Fellow Sci Fi Brotha James Earl Jones (“Conan The Barbarian”) passed on the opportunity that had most of the original cast recreating their lines, including fellow SCB&S member Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian, mayor of Cloud City and reluctant freedom fighter for the Rebellion. The Sci Fi brothas and Sistahs is a list I composed of actors of African Descent who reversed the onetime virtual non-appearance in futuristic films. Star Trek as a TV series in its multiple formats as the original series, “Next Generation”, “Deep Space Nine”, “Voyager,” and the temporary end with “Enterprise” almost single-handedly started the trend of featuring African Descended actors, who went on to populate other series on cable TV and feature films such “FarScape,” and the new “BattleStar: Galactica” series; as well as syndicated TV fare such as “Babylon 5” and “Andromeda.” There is a much longer SFB&S article coming, which will feature the OGs of the Science Fiction genre such as Paul Winfield, Peters, Star Trek episode co-star William Marshall; and the new Turks such as Tyr, Worf (who started the recent trend of Africans portraying aliens); and the worthy replacement for Spock in Star Trek: Voyager. (A Star Trek Filmography follows these obituaries). Admiral Cartwright, also known as Brock Peters, will live forever in reruns and in the hearts and minds of others yet unborn. One to beam up. IN MEMORIAM II: One More To Beam Up: Doohan, Uhuru’s Boo Scotty The Enterprise Engineer Passes http://cinemaviews.tripod.com http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/cinema_views Kevin J. Walker, Netitor < walkerworld_2000@yahoo.com > The Word Netpaper Also recently passed after a long illness was Doohan, Lt. Uhuru’s boo Scotty, or Commander Montgomery Scott who played the beleaguered starship Engineer who kept the Enterprise running during its original Five year Mission. His signature complaints “The engines can’t take much morrre of this poundin’ Cap’n!,” when Kirk called for greater Warp Speed to get them out of a fix; and “but we don’t have the powerrrr!” in his rolling Scottish brogue have been integrated into the culture, as well as the line that was apparently never spoken: “Beam me up, Scotty.” Doohan was a frequent guest at the many Star Trek and Science Fiction and Fantasy conventions until his health would no longer permit his appearances. When Milwaukee had the huge GenCon conventions Doohan and other SF stars made their way to the city, also home to George (“Sulu”) Takei’s parents, and the writer Peter Straub of “Black House,” based on his upbringing in Lacrosse, Wisconsin. The romance between Scotty and the original Sci Fi Sistah Uhuru was only portrayed in one “Star Trek” movie, the third one “The Search For Spock.” It was one of the lesser films, but was notable for a few things that stretched the boundaries, a thing that ST was known for before they featured the first interracial kiss between an alien-controlled Lt. Uhuru and William Shatner’s Captain Kirk. The command crew of the derelict and scheduled for scuttling Enterprise follows Admiral Kirk and hijacks their mothballed Starship from orbital space dock when they learned there was still a chance to save the spirit of Spock, apparently killed in the second Star Trek movie “The Wrath of Khan.” Michelle Nichols’ Uhuru’s job was to stay behind and monitor, mislead and jam their communications as the Federation tried to catch the mutinous crew. Their antics laid the framework for the next three of four movies, where the Klingon Bird of Prey scout craft they hijacked made them interstellar criminals, wanted now by the Klingon Empire as well as their own Federation! Don’t ask, just rent the DVD. There was some cooing and huggin,’ with Uhuru caressing Scotty’s face and telling him to be careful while they’re jacking the Enterprise, and “my darlins’” in his thick brogue, and we in the audience were at first pleasantly perplexed and surprised. And why shouldn’t these colleagues have gotten together, as long as they’ve worked together? Two hundred years from now people will still be people. A co-worker who once irritated you starts to look OK, then darn good after awhile. Aside from the fact that this was 2 centuries into the future when interracial romance isn’t/won’t be such a big issue when entirely different species are exploring getting busy, as well as they could anyway with the tentacles and such. Bear in mind that Michelle Nichols’ Uhuru wasn’t bad on the eyes even then, after three decades of reruns every day, and two or three times a day on different cable channels. Doohan also will be missed as a member of the Star Trek family, and his tangential connection to the Sci Fi brothers and sister through Michelle Nichols’ Uhuru, his big screen boo. To both of these Sci Fi fallen who will be remembered and not just in reruns forever, Requiescat In Pace, Ad Infinitem. Make that two to beam up. --kjw STAR TREK FILMOGRAPHY • 1 -- “STAR TREK” -- The original big screen movie, with V’ger threatening the home system. Co-starred the late Persis Khambata, onetime Miss India • 2 -- “WRATH OF KHAN” -- Exiled 20th century warlord from the TV episode escapes his prison planet and plots revenge on Admiral Kirk • 3 -- “SEARCH FOR SPOCK” -- Spock can be saved, as Kirk and a skeleton crew rips off the mothballed Enterprise and return to the Genesis planet • 4 -- “VOYAGE HOME” -- Kirk and Co. must time travel back to our San Fransisco to save Earth’s future by gathering a pair of humpbacked whales; Madge Sinclair, the British Sci Fi Sistah portrays a resourceful Starship Captain • 5 -- “WHERE NO ONE HAS GONE BEFORE” Spock’s reunites with his misfit and emotional full-Vulcan brother as his band of renegades steal the new Enterprise D to search for God. Directed by William Shatner • 6 -- “UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY” -- Adm. Cartwright plots with hawkish Federation and Klingon elements in film with a Shakespeare flava based on “MacBeth;” Kirk and Doc McCoy are captured at last and put on trial by the Kilingons • 7 -- “GENERATIONS” -- Cast originals hand over to Pickard and crew as Kirk meets his end in battle trying to stop a madman from destroying a star system to reenter paradise. Sci Fi Sistah Whoopi Goldberg co-stars, recreating her role as Guinan, the long-lifed and wise barkeep in the TV show • 8 -- “FIRST CONTACT” -- Alfre Woodard the Sci Fi Sistah is the woman of Warp Drive creator Ephraim Cochran who is targeted by the Borg. Jonathan Frakes, Cmdr. Riker on TVs ST: Next Generation” directed. Best of the STNG“ films, and one of the top SF films, period • 9 -- “INSURRECTION” -- Rogue Federation commercial elements oppress a peaceful people; Picard picks a side after a forced removal by the criminals • 10 -- “NEMESIS” -- Picard has to battle his clone/son to save a star system; Data makes an awful choice ------------ Kevin J. Walker, Netitor The Word Netpaper http://cinemaviews.tripod.com http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/cinema_views p.o. box 1324-53201 milwaukee, wis. usa -------------- "WAR OF THE WORLDS" "War Of The Worlds" Cinema Views with Film Critic Kevin J. Walker "This is a test of the emergency broadcast system. If this had been an actual emergency you would have been instructed to turn to…" -- (Useless car radio after invasion already underway) Without so much as a "Take us to your leader" they just came out blasting! "War of the Worlds" is a fast-paced film with layers of tension that reach for the essence of what really scares us. The Welles' story has been done several times in different modes, but the one most of us remember was the George Pal in the 1953 and shown on many a late-night TV show. Gene Barry, who some oldsters claim to have seen in a bit role in this version, was a scientist on the run with a screaming female scientist while the floating saucers with street lamp-like necks zapped their way across the landscape. I didn't remember if she had on high heels; not unusual in an era when small-screen mom Donna Reed vacuumed her suburban floors while wearing high heels and pearls! Spielberg keeps it real, and human here. The special effects are made to serve the story of joint custodial father Ray played by Tom Cruise, who has his two kids on the very weekend the planet's being invaded. He's far from the perfect or an even just past adequate dad. There's no food in the fridge, and there's a car motor sitting on the kitchen table. Many of us could identify with the scene of the drop off, the Babymama Drama and tension between the New Daddy -- who incidentally has lots more money -- and the inquisitive Joint Custodial mommy who uses the pretext of carrying in her 10 year old daughter's bag just so she can scope out how he's been living. Nosily looking about, opening the fridge, sniffing the inch-worth of milk left in the plastic container to see if its spoiled. Its not, but if the kids want to eat salad dressing sandwiches they're set for the weekend! Miranda Otto is the mom, and you'll remember her as the warrior princess from "Lord of the Rings" Part 3, "Return of the King." She also played the lone female in the remake of "Flight of the Phoenix." Ray is not the most intelligent man around, but he has good survival instincts. When he sees giant walking machines blasting people on sight he knows enough to get the hell away, far away in one of the few cars that work after electrical impulses fry the sensitive electronics in modern cars. Lots of people who didn't have to died in the tsunami disasters of last Christmastime because they were standing on the acres of weird new beach instead of running like hell for the hills! The audience at the advance preview showing Monday night at the Marcus Westown were saying out loud "RUN!!" to the curious idiots watching the sinkholes in the street as the machines start to dig themselves out. The tension in "War of the Worlds" comes from simple things: people who can't keep it together under pressure, as we just know they're about to lose it dooming those around them; bureaucracy and mob rule, and the most horrific thought of all: that we cannot keep our loved ones safe from harm in a world gone mad and where the regular rules no longer apply. "I'm takin' the van. Hear me? I'm takin' it!!" says a man with a nine millimeter with lots more bullets than Ray's six-shooter. They'd been avoiding people by taking the back roads because, as Ray tells his surly and hard-headed teen-aged son Bobby "when people see we have a car that works they're going to try and take it from us." This is some serious carjacking when the machines are stomping about in the countryside. Grown men were jumping and exclaiming out loud when the oh-so silent when they want to be killing machines are on the prowl. Stephen Spielberg's glowing mist, used so well in the "Flesh Fair" scenes in the woods in "A.I.," came into play when in a scene when the American military make a stand-up fight against the Tripods as they come to be called. Harlan Oglevie, a countryside resident played by Tim Robbins lays it out. "This isn't a war anymore, no more than it is between Men and maggots. Its an extermination now… "he says to the truncated family he's given refuge. This is like in "Independence Day" when the President tries to make peace. "What... what do you want from us?" he asks one they took captive. "Die…" the soldier beamed back telepathically. Now they know how the Plains Indians felt in the 1880s when European hordes came to take what they couldn't hold onto. Spielberg's techniques of Delayed Scarification, not showing the full measure of the terror just the effects as he did so well in "Jaws" are employed here. Airliners are lying crashed in neighborhoods, flaming Amtrak trains speed by with phantom passengers, vaporized. If they'd realized what this meant they could have saved themselves some trouble, and quite a few lives. Just say that you'll never take the news accounts of ferry disasters quite the same again. Spielberg's experience as a father has certainly been incorporated into his latest science fiction saga, following his futuristic police drama "Minority Report" also starring Tom Cruise; and his assumption of "AI: Artificial Intelligence." Those films also involve parenting, and with a touch and attention that wasn't evident in his earlier big-budget fare. He once again has a father who falls short, and who has some growing up to do. In "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" Roy Neary the electrician was a dad of three or so, who became involved in an alien visitation cover-up. At the conclusion of one of the signature films of the 20th Century Roy, played by Richard Dreyfuss boards the massive Mothership called Sky Harbour and goes off with the aliens to the stars. Spielberg says today as a father he'd never have Neary do something like that. Completely forgotten are the family he left behind while he indulges his fantasy of space exploration. Contrast with the fatherhood aspect of "the remake of H.G. Wells and Wisconsinite Orson Wells "War of the Worlds" which is at the core of the film. Amidst the alien tripod machines trampling cities and zapping are as basic story of a father trying to protect his children. A guy who doesn't do much right has to not make any mistakes lest they all die. As a parent how far would you go in a world where all bets were off? Where the rule of law is no more, and Might Makes Right? What if you had to choose between your children, how would you make that awful choice, and how could you live afterward? "Now you think of a plan that doesn't involve your ten year little sister joining the Army!!" he tells his impetuous son who wants to go off and fight. But Ray's heart swells with pride when he see his son taking the lead and saving others, even after he foolishly wants to indulge his desire to smash the metal em-effs right back without a thought. Aided by Morgan Freeman's narration of the actual H.G. Wells' text from the 1898 work, it sets the stage for the still gripping story of alien invasion. Gone are the Martians however, that won't fly in the days when we still have scientific scooters darting about and digging into rocks of the desiccated planet. These aliens were of indeterminate origin, and TMI isn't one of the problems in this movie. The lack of information or official contact is one of the things that heighten the tension. There is turmoil, there are millions of refugees from the besieged cities walking to what they hope are safe places; and nobody knows anything. And if they are, they aren't telling. What I like about "Land of the Dead" and "War of the Worlds" is they show the true terror that underlies these types of films, which is the breakdown of order. Which means the loss of safety, let alone comfort. It means the Strong opress the Weak, and the Devil will take the hindmost. Wrong choices are punishable by death, and the stupid leave out early. The meek inherit a quick death if they're lucky, which is hard to come by now. As Dennis Hopper says in "Land of The Dead", "Trouble? The word loses much of its meaning in a time when the Dead get back up and walk." "No fate but what you make," said Reese in "The Terminator" which is another sort of invasion type movie series. Unfortunately in disaster invasion movies, the fate of many is to become victims, and dead. Onscreen when you see people violating the basic things you'd do when hiding out such as keeping yours and everybody else's mouth shut when there are Monsters about who want your blood, and your childrens'. Those who cooperate or conversely and perversely strong-arm will survive, at least for awhile. The Law of the Jungle reasserts itself, big-time. This is what makes these movies such as this one and the new "Land of the Dead" horrible to me and anyone else who loves law and order, peace and quiet, and comfortable stability. Spielberg and Romero understand this, and reach into our psyches and exploit our deepest fears as citizens and parents. Italian filmmaker Roberto Benigni made an Academy Award-winning film in the foreign category a few years ago, where tried to preserve his child's innocence while in a WWII concentration camp by pretending they were involved in a big game with their Nazi keepers. Just as here, it wasn't enough just to keep them alive, the innocence of the children also had to be preserved. When Ray is moving his kids out of their latest sanctuary -- it seems nowhere is safe for long -- he tells her not to look about. "You're gonna want to look, but you're not going, to are you? That's a good girl," as he gingerly steps around horrific scenes of devastation. Then there were some times when I really wanted the screaming, spastic brat played by Dakota Fanning to get snatched up by the aliens. Here she is in a disaster situation where their lives hang by a thread, and she goes into a claustrophobic fit. We already didn't like Rachael when she remarks after she gets settled in Ray's humble blue collar working class house in the shadow of the New Jersey highway bridge "you should get TiVo. Tim got me one for my room" speaking of the other man she calls Daddy. But she was more polite than her moody older brother Bobby played by Justin Chatwin, who openly says "I hate having to come here!" to his father's face. But Ray puts him in check. "Listen: no more of that 'Ray' crap anymore, you hear me? From now its Dad, Father, or even Mr." This is an integral part of the film because his children have to trust in his judgement, sometimes without question and we know that's just not going to happen. Dakota Fanning is one of the finest young actresses today, as people know now after seeing her opposite Robert DeNiro in the thriller "Hide and Seek." She is truly Tom Cruise's co-star in "War of the Worlds," with lots of deserved screen time. In the 1950s version which some credit with ushering in the era of big-budget Sci Fi films that were profitable the plot wasn't as complex. The aliens were Martians, since we thought the planet might harbour life. The first forays into space wouldn't be for another four years. As in the radio program on Halloween night in the 1930s, Orson Wells and his Mercury Theatre Players electrified the Eastern Seaboard with the fake "news" of the invasion which started in New Jersey and obviously heading to New York City. There were vignettes where there were some opportunists who plan to profit by the New World Order, figuring out they'd have to make it as best they could, as did the Human Elite in the most excellent "They Live." Wrestling star Rowdy Roddy Piper starred in that invasion with Keith David, a Sci Fi Brother of good standing with Armageddon, and his role opposite Kurt Russell in John Carpenter's "The Thing." See the list of Invasion Films that follow this review. "This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. If this had been an actual emergency you would have been instructed to turn to…" But it didn't even have a chance to even be used, while TV news anchors such as Roz Abrams playing herself remarked on the strange goings-on around the world. This is the same sort of regular mundane item made ridiculous as in "Jurassic Park" when the car is heading away from the rampaging T-Rex and the rear-view mirror says "Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear!" The action and warfare aspect in "War Of The Worlds" is very well done, and actually made me reminiscent of the fight-back against another kind of invasion, this time domestic by the same director of Flight of the Intruder." "Red Dawn" was in the near future and placed in the American West as Cuban foreign fighters led by the Russians came up through the still porous Mexican-American border, with the Cubans camouflaged as Mexican illegals. US Jets pounded the Russian tanks as they prepared to lay siege to cities like Tucson and Denver, and an underground fighter movement was born called the Wolverines after the local High school football team, led by Patrick Swayze and C. Thomas Howell of "Soulman." "War Of The Worlds" has military jets zoom past with ear-splitting sonic booms, and anti-tank bazookas are fired into the towering machines. To no effect; as in "Independence Day" the bad guys have a force field that protects them from our pop-guns. This sort of action is doled out sparsely as the travails of the refugees are the continued focus under Spielberg's guiding hand. One big flaw that I can't get much into is there should have been some needed changeover from the one of the main tenets of Welle's work. Aliens who had been watching our planet "with envious eyes" as stated in Morgan Freeman's narration would have learned how to Terraform one of their own by then if they were a space-faring race, which they were. Then again, robbers, home invaders and carjackers could get jobs too, but they'd rather that you worked and then they'd just rip you off after you've bought nice stuff. Some aliens might be like that, too. Spielberg became known for Nice Aliens after films such as "ET" and CE3K, so in a way this is a real departure for him. Steven Spielberg's films are remembered as cutesy, but they forget this is the man who made "Schindler's List" so he knows palpable evil, and can depict it. These aren't the cute aliens of "ET" or Close Encounters," they don't want to hear anything from us but our agonizing screams while take what they want from people who cannot stop them from doing it. But there are plenty of scientists who have raised the point that we may be suicidally naïve to think that just because an alien race is more intelligent and can traverse space they must be Good. Not! The Germans of the 1930s were one of the most scientifically and culturally advanced nations on the planet, but they became Nazi mass murderers on a huge scale and soon were building concentration camps and ovens for half of Europe's Jews in less than 5 years. (Read my review of Angela Bassette's "Supernova" for more on the chilling "Assassin Theory" on why there might not be any other races in our neck of the woods, because something might be killing them off as soon as they are on the verge of assuming space flight, and competing for other planets! And they're helping by leading the planet-bursting killers right to their doorstep by sending out engraved probes with their home addresses, when they haven't been beaming out "come and get it!" messages). Many creative people use their live experiences as a template to give depth to their characters. That's why you have so many heroes who are writers or journalists, and male. "War of the worlds" is very scary, very tense, and very well done. Like the bet science fiction the human dimension is the main point, with the death rays and One thing that reappears is the blatting sound of the tubas used in CE3K, as the signature sound of the giant mothership. In "Worlds" every time you hear it after the invasion starts the hairs stand up on the back of your neck because you know something bad is about to jump off! CAST OF WAR OF THE WORLDS: Ray -- Tom Cruise Rachel -- Dakota Fanning Bobby -- Justin Chatwin Harlan Ogelvie -- Tim Robbins WAR OF THE WORLDS is from DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures, and directed by Stephen Spielberg. Rated PG-13 for depictions of destruction and death. May be too intense for the wee ones, as it deals with family loss, and separation, which terrifies them to the core. --kjw INVASION FILMS YOU MIGHT WISH TO CHECK OUT: Original "War of the Worlds" -- From 1953 by SF director George Pal. I like this for lots of reasons but it also showed the Grumman Flying Wing, which lost out to the Boeing B-52 as the lead nuclear bomber. More religious and political content than the remake, which is more frenetic. The Arrival -- Charlie Sheen and "TimeCop" villain Ron Silver in Mexican-based story about Earth being terraformed by aliens, which is the true reason why we have Global Warming Battlefield Earth -- Fellow Scientologists John Travolta, and Forest Whittaker who also co-starred in the scientologist film "Phenomenon," with wifey Kelly Preston of "Sky High School" are aliens oppressing humanity for hundreds of years until a rebellion is led by Barry Pepper ("Saving Private Ryan", "Enemy of the State.") They get in plenty of digs at psychiatry, which everybody knows by now Scientologists have a real bug up their buttes about, as well as their psychotropic drugs. Just ask Tom Cruise, and ten stand back!. Dreamcatcher -- Stephen King did it again with this story brought to film about a war set into motion long ago with earth as a future battlefield, where three childhood friends are given special superpowers when an alien Gray set on conquest makes his move. Morgan Freeman is in this one too, as a wily covert ops commander with gray bushy eyebrows that make him look like the gatekeeper in "The Wizard of Oz." Evolution -- A farcical invasion film with "Time Machine" co-star Orlando Jones, "X-Files Movies'" David Duchovny, and Julianne Moore from "The Forgotten" Earth vs. The Flying Saucers -- Old School Roy Harryhausen effects-laden film with giant saucers laying siege to Washington DC! Lots of people's RH Stop-Action favourites after "Twenty Million Miles to Earth" or maybe the original "Mighty Joe Young." Independence Day -- Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Viveca Fox fight back against an extermination move by some very bad aliens who devastate over 50 of the largest cities in the world with a single stroke from city-sized ships. Invasion of the Body Snatchers -- Three versions so far, about aliens who take over humans when they fall asleep, losing their essence to an alien host. Some say it was a commentary on McCarthyism of the 1950s. The Commies said no, it was really about creeping Capitalism turning workers of the world into zombies, so go figure. Whatever, it's a good time at the movies as San Francisco natives notice people not acting like they were, and a small band decides to get to the bottom of things and fight back. The endings of both original versions (I didn't see the third one, sorry) are not happy ones. This is what happens if you wait for them to come here first! Think about that the next budget rounds when NASA asks for more money! "The Forgotten" -- Not a real Invasion flick either as these ones have also been here for awhile, using the Earth as a test bed for whatever pleases them, such as seeing if parents could be made to have amnesia where their children are concerned. The government knows, and has known, and tried to keep a lid on things. But when her child is snatched and everybody tries to make her think she's crazy because she's the only one who remembers, Julianne Moore from "Evolution" teams with a father who likewise can't forget his loss, despite the alien's brain wiping. Not as action-y, but an interesting movie and premise. Alfre Woodard from "Star Trek: First Contact" co-stars in her second Sci Fi role, with Gary Sinise as Moore's psychiatrist. The dad from "Batman Begins" plays the mysterious alien. "Predator" -- Also not a real "invasion" film, despite the wretched twisting of the rules in the Alien Vs. Predator film. Although I like the film because it had Sonaa Lathan the femme fatale opposite Denzel Washington in the Noir-ish "Out of Time" as the new Ripley! The aliens, based on a lizard-insect hybrid, use our Earth as a sort of game preserve, with us as the prey they chase down and kill! Three films so far, with Danny Glover succeeding Arnold Schwarzenegger's Central American jungle fighter in part two as a future LAPD cop doing battle with a loose Predator alien who is hunting gang members on the streets of Los Angeles. Puppet Masters -- In "The Faculty" it is mentioned that the "Body Snatchers" was a rip-off of this Robert Heinlein story, where people are also taken over. But here they do a much better job of blending in, except for that mass of controlling alien flesh that has inserted its tendrils into the brain stem and spinal column! The Faculty -- Most excellent invasion film, merged with a teen film by "Sin City" director Robert Rodriguez. Starring pre-"Lord of the Rings" but post-"Ice Storm" Elijah wood; Usher, Josh Harnett from "Pearl Harbour." Mars Attacks! -- About the only film in existence inspired by a pack of chewing gum. Big-brained aliens invade in a satire that skewers liberals, peaceniks, naïve scientists who think space-faring aliens are inherently Good, and Eco-freaks. Co-starring Pierce Brosnan, Danny Devito, and Tom Jones! Jim Brown engages the aliens in hand-to-hand combat, and whose 2 sons with estranged wife Pam Grier protect the White House and the first daughter. You have to see it or you just won't get it. They Live-- In John Carpenter's visionary invasion/exploitation tale, Roddy Rowdy Piper and Keith David two guys just trying to get by as day laborours in a devastated economy. They stumble onto a planet-wide and beyond conspiracy where the aliens have been sucking Earth dry for at least decades -- maybe even centuries -- and are using the Earth as rich European nations have been using Africa, Latin America and Asia, after which the husk of our planet will be discarded. They join the Underground of others who have discovered that our real rulers have been subliminally hypnotizing and placating us with the falsehood of political freedom, while elevating certain members of the Human Elite, the ultimate Uncle Toms of the race in true Colonial fashion. A devastating satire on social class and politics, wrapped in a SF package. Signs -- Despite the spiritual trappings, this was an old-fashioned invasion flick, as Mel Gibson in a pre-"Passion of the Christ" is a former Episcopalian priest who has lost his faith and gone past being an Atheist into being an Anti-Theist, which is risky as Hell. Their Pennsylvania farmstead is encircled by aliens after their cornfield is made into a landing zone by one of those mysterious crop circle designs, so now we know what they're for. But the Lord works in mysterious ways is all I'm saying. Rent, no go out and buy this DVD outright, you won't be disappointed. The thrills and suspense that director M. Night Shyamalan ("Sixth Sense", "Unbreakable") is known for won't disappoint. Trust me on this! The Thing -- Remake of the 1950s tale of a shape-shifter alien thawed out of the Antarctic ice after a millennia long sleep, and who must be stopped before he can make it to another, warmer continent The Hidden -- Another alien mental takeover-type film, but really not an Invasion flick as an escaped convict alien who switches bodies is pursued by another who is a lawman from their world or system. Or federation. Whatever. Very violent movie, with lots of shooting and killing from the almost invulnerable alien, and with lots of different role playing as the various actors are taken over by the rude alien on the run who hates Country Western, loves speed-metal music and red sports cars. (The sequel went straight to video. I bought the LaserDisk. It's aw'ight). X-Files: The Movies -- From the Fox TV show, there were two movies made with the elements of there being Uncle Tom humans who made a separate peace with the Invaders to spare their families and class after the inevitable takeover. The Lone Gunmen are an underground fighting force helping the two FBI agents fight back against the conspiracy. TV SHOWS The Invaders -- Another Roy, this time Thinness the actor tries to fight what was a lone battle in Season One of the mid-1960s hit show as he stumbles upon a cabal of six-fingered left-handed aliens trying to take over the planet by stealth instead of a straight-on battle. They should make this into a movie. Wait-- they already did, at least twice. Dark Skies -- As in "Dreamcatcher" from the Stephen King novel, the government is fighting a covert and continuing war against alien invaders which must be kept from the public. This series, which I'm buying on DVD, places the occurrences of world history of the 1960s in the context of this background war, such as the assassination of JFK, the Watts riots, Vietnam, even the disappearance of the three civil rights workers! The Tommyknockers -- Stephen King showed all that he is a top-notch Sci Fi author as well as horror writer in his book which was turned into a two-parter miniseries about a delayed alien invasion with an ancient buried ship that comes back to life after it's partially excavated after a pre-Human era crash landing, and its mysterious essence takes over the local population. Except for one man, whose metal plate in his head makes him immune and is humanity's only hope. "V" the Miniseries -- This is really a retelling of the Nazi occupation of World War II, with lizardous aliens with city-sized saucer ships mask their true selves and motives come to Earth bearing gifts. Just like the ones in the Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Mankind," or in the Parliament-Funkadelaphonics "Cosmic Slop" anthology where miracle metal, inexhaustible fuel sources and a cure for cancer is given to the USA in exchange for all those of African American Descent, no questions asked. Rent this one too. --kjw --30-- "LAND OF THE DEAD" The Master of Disaster is back, with a vengeance! Algernon Charles Swinburne the poet once wrote "dead men rise up never" but he lived before the era of the Romero series! "Land Of The Living Dead" is director George Romero's return to the modern Zombie Film genre he practically created in 1967. He has tweaked his formula of having Black men play the moral and effective leaders of a beseiged band of humans by having one played by Eugene Garner lead an Army of The Dead against a walled city with the few live humans left! George Romero has been sitting back and watching his Disciples of the Dead do their thing over the years in a genre he practically invented, but now has roused himself to show his latest version of the genre he began with "Night of the Living Dead." Zombie movies had been a staple of B-Horror flicks late-night reruns and drive-ins for years. But in 1967, Romero released a black and white film that had social commentary of the times, with a Black male hero which became part of his formula and which even his copiers maintained. The "Living Dead" films of Romero were three in number: Night, Dawn, and "Day of the Living Dead" his last from 1985 and the first not placed in the Pittsburgh environs. Long before M. Night Shyamalan placed his movies in Pennsylvania Romero was using the people of the Three Rivers area as ghoulish extras. In "Dawn" Romero used the local mall where a small band of people and a SWAT team are holed up. The movie was recently remade starring Ving Rhames and Sarah Polley and based near Milwaukee, Wisconsin! In "Land of the Dead" society evolves anew, where the larger cities have been secured with electric fences, razor wire and even moats to keep the marauding and never sleeping living dead from overrunning the city. It seems the "Stenches," as the walking dead are called are undergoing some changes too, such as being able to communicate, and plan. But some other things never change. The rich and privileged have a condominium tower called Fiddler's Green (a historical play on words, such as the myth of Roman emperor Nero, oblivious to the danger all about him?) ruled by Dennis Hopper's Kaufman. He buys the allegiance of the lower classes with the classic techniques of divide and conquer, surveillance, corruption, and bread and circuses. In George Romero's new continuation of the Living Dead series, the action takes place some years later as people have leaned to carve a place for themselves in a world gone mad, where the dead get up and walk, killing the living and adding to their army of corpses. It's not explained just how this happens, although in the first one a radioactive satellite in orbit was blamed for reactivating the motor centers of the newly unburied dead. In subsequent films by Romero and others there isn't even an effort to explain, nobody knows, just that everything is going to hell. And that may be a factor in the tension. Another Romero formula item was tossed out, that of using the media to explain what's going on. The fact that this takes place some few years later probably explains the absence of cable networks and the like, when people are just trying to keep the electricity running. In our understandable wish to know more we are kept as ignorant as the film's subjects, which adds to the tension. Romero continued to tweak his own formula a li'l bit. The leader of sorts is still a Black man, but now he leads a legion of the Dead. The hordes are evolving, as we saw in "Day Of The Dead" where the scientist said we have to learn to coexist, after he estimated the ration of dead-to-living is 250,000-to-one, and they inherited the Earth. Likewise here there seem to be mutants, Dead Enders who can reason, albeit slowly. Their new leader, played by Eugene Clark is called "Big Daddy" in the credits. But he isn't referred by a name in the film at all, and his garage mechanic name tag cannot legibly be seen. I saw the movie twice so far, and I know. But he knows how to operate machinery, and he can teach others of his kind. Such as how to pull a trigger of a looted M-16 machine gun from a dead soldier, and show others of his army as they prepare to lay siege to the redoubt of Fiddlers Green, attracted by their bright lights as they stagger along but purposefully now, tens of thousands strong. The city outside the condominium zone mans the defenses with cobbled together machinery, such as the massive monster SUV called Dead Reckoning that has missile launchers and machine gun emplacement, like the two armoured travelers in a blasted America's post-WW III landscape in Robert Heinlein's filmed SF epic "Damnation Alley" with Paul Winfield, George Peppard and Jan Michel-Vincent. Meanwhile, inside the condo tower the once-wealthy living still listen to piped-in Muzak as they continue to dine and shop. They even use paper money, when in such a world canned goods would be more valuable than gold! They sip wine and smoke cigars gleaned from nearby towns by the scavenging lower classes who insulate them from danger, in a perverse modern version of the Liege Lords of the European medieval era, sitting secure in their castles while bands of marauders pick them off outside the protective walls. One of them who do their dirty work is Cholo, lieutenant of the security forces played by John Leguizamo, seen currently in "The Honeymooners" who has a wide range of film work. He played a transvestite with other movie tough guys Wesley Snipes and Patrick Swayze in "To Wong Fu," and was the Clown in "Spawn" as well as a commando in the Kurt Russell action film "Executive Action." Cholo has ambitions, but class discrimination is back with a vengeance, and his saved-up scam money from selling booze and contraband on the side from raids on nearby towns can't buy him into the upper classes. His superior is Riley, played by Simon Baker, who is heading out of the city and up to Canada. "But there's nothing up there." "That's the idea" Riley answers. He's figured out to go to a place where there are no dead, such as the Northwest Territories, which just hardly had live people. There are the usual gory jokes, such as a "finger food" incident, and another scene I can only partially describe as "make a wish." There are decapitations, and gut-gobblings galore. Also, the gratifying dispatch of stupid people getting slain, such as a young punk on lookout wearing stereo headphones while the silent dead creep up on him. There's some pleasing editorial comment among many in the movie, such as when two Lesbians are going at it, trying their best to gobble each other's face off. The Deaders reach through their tent and separate them as they are gobbled up for real. The audience cheered, and laughed! On an international basis, among those oriented to these movies, this won't be counted against it. Dennis Hopper plays Kaufman with a certain world-weariness, as he is basically the mayor of an oasis of luxury within a walled-off city surrounded by legions of walking corpses. He fully believes what he does is right, from the dispatching of likely competitors or troublemakers, to oppressing the lower classes who they use as support staff for their families while they live a life of relative ease. ", "Trouble? The word loses much of its meaning in a time when the Dead get back up and walk." Hopper has done the Apocalyptic thing before, as the leader of a band of sea-borne bandits on an oil tanker in Kevin Costner's engaging "Waterworld." He brings an elan to the role of Kaufman, as well as a legacy of villainy from movies such as "Boiling Point" and "River's Edge." "Land of The Dead" has an international and multicultural cast, with the main character played by Australian actor Simon Baker. His female lead is the daughter of a Italian horror film maker. Some of the people in the city speak with an Irish brogue; the city commandos include a man named after a bullfighter, who affects a glittery red patch on his right arm; and a huge Samoan they call "Pillsbury." So when the film is peddled internationally they have the bases pretty well covered. What I like about "Land of the Dead" and "War of the Worlds" as disaster movies is that they show the true terror that underlies these types of films, which is the breakdown of Order, and therefore safety and security. The early 1985 "Day of the Dead" in keeping with modern times and most films these days, had Lori Cardille as the White female protagonist, a researcher who was protected by a fellow scientist of Caribbean extraction played by Terry Alexander. They were research scientists on the Florida military base who became cohabitants when the world went up, so there was a clash of cultures right there. While the soldiers and the other scientists lived tensely in their hovels, Alexander and another civilized scientist made a faux Caribbean beach from their RV trailer, complete with tropical drinks, plastic palms, lighting and trucked-in sand. Alexander was clearly her protector from the increasingly brutish soldiers in the bunker, although their mutual attraction wasn't explored onscreen. Romero usually had African American men as the leaders or moral center of his Dead movies, and so it is here in "Land Of The Dead." As in the late Paul Winfield's film from the Robert Heinlein sci-fi novel "Damnation Alley," military structure sometimes doesn't survive the end of the world, although Charleton Heston's colonel held it down in "The Omega Man," itself set for a remake, originally with Arnold before he decided to become the Governator of California. In the most excellent 2004 remake of Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" (the one in the mall) directed by Zack Snyder the posters say "When there's no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the earth." It is more overtly religious in its implications, and is unrelentingly grim. Snyder is a worthy Disciple of the Dead indeed. Another is Danny Boyle, who did the stunning British import "28 Days Later." While not strictly a living dead movie, because the infected subjects are living but enraged zombies, this is a minor point. The same ingredients are all there: most of the population transformed into murdering marauding hordes, a siege of the cities, social dislocation, and a band of refugees trying to find a safe place in a world turned topsy-turvy, with mutiny just below the surface. Cillian Murphy of "Batman Begins" plays the Scarecrow in that film, but he was a comatose hospital patient who wakes up in a devastated world. Double-decker buses lay overturned in the London square, and ominously the bodies of citizens and olive drab suited military choke the streets and hallways. Even more troubling are the bullet holes in the walls and the people. Romero, and such as Stephen King's "The Mist" slated to be made by Romero have the same attributes: the breakdown of normality, and the dawning of a new reality. Spielberg's "War of the Worlds" although like "Independence Day" the disaster lasts just a few days, is a big wake-up call to the human race, and childhood's end. As in "Fallen," when Denzel Washington's character speaks of things that define us, and we'll refer to "before this and after this," the day after is more than just another day. CAST OF LAND OF THE DEAD: Eugene Clark -- Big Daddy Simon Baker -- Riley Robert Joy -- Charlie Dennis Hopper -- Kaufman John Leguizamo -- Cholo > CINEMA VIEWS by Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic “THE INTERPRETER” Kidman, Penn In Political Thriller About Plot Against African Head Of State At United Nations -- Review by Kevin J. Walker, Movie Critic -- RECENT FILM REVIEWS: http://www.geocities.com/cinemaviews/ http://cinemaviews.tripod.com/ http://www.blackwebportal.com/wire Current embattled United Nations ambassador-designate John Bolton once remarked that the loss of the top ten floors of the UN building wouldn’t be felt at all. There are some people in “The Interpreter” who are scheming to remove a lot more than that! Two people caught up in some international intrigue centered on their jobs with the United Nations is the plotline for “The Interpreter.” Sylvia Broom is a multilingual translator and one quiet night she hears something through an open mic and the headphone hookup she uses to translate UN speechifying. A controversial African leader is coming to address the General Assembly, and an assassination is planned on United Nations soil, in front of the whole world. The film starts out from this thread and it weaves an entertaining intellectually stimulating suspense film that manages to squeeze in real world events of importance and relevance, including the corruption of once idealistic African leaders who turned their countries into killing grounds and their once hopeful people into paupers. Michael Wright, the trained stage thespian who has made a career of playing thuggish individuals such as in “Sugar Hill”, “The Principal,” and is a Science Fiction Brotha for his role as a resistance leader in the miniseries “V” is an embassy attaché in “The Interpreter” which has substantial roles for several Black actors. Especially potent is that is the country’s leader Edmond Zuwannie, played by Earl Cameron. In the still pictures of the briefings he’s shown as vital and strong, with idealistic visions of his country. In person his posture is stooped, his hands shake and his eyes are rheumy. He asks the escorted limo convoy to take a turn down Second Avenue as he reminisces about the time 20 years ago when he was hailed as a liberator when he last visited the UN. “They decorated the bridges with flowers... along the avenue it was a snowstorm of confetti...” Now there is nothing, until they reach the United Nations building, where the shouts of protesters builds up and up, and signs are held aloft denouncing his brutal reign. Zuwannie tries to hide his discomfort at the change, but his darting eyes betray him. “This is Second Avenue, sir” says his US issued bodyguard without inflection, but we know exactly what’s on her mind. “The Interpreter” manages to include topical things such as child killers holding AK-47s almost as big as they are, ethnic tribal cleansing, and even AIDS. I was surprised they didn’t manage to stuff in Debt Forgiveness and the International Monetary Fund. Also ignored is the recent UN trials and tribulations that have certainly been going on long enough to have influenced the film. The billion dollar scandals of the Iraqi Oil for Food program that entangled the son of UN leader Kofi Annan, and their reprehensible ineffectiveness when a million corpses were being created in Rwanda were nowhere to be seen, not their wasteful bureaucracy. But the idea that this would be a commercial for the United Nations didn’t happen either. There was some Talk Radio chatter that this film was going to be a commercial for the United Nations, especially with famous lefty Sean Penn in the mix. Nope, nada, nihil. Even though Penn visited Baghdad while America was loading up Shock and Awe bombs for delivery to Saddam Hussein Iraq “The Interpreter” isn’t particularly complimentary of the UN. It doesn’t slam the institution either, which is touted by UN interpreter Sylvia Broome as the only real legitimate choice for change in a wicked world. It was the only film that has been allowed to be staged in and on the UN grounds. It was gratifying to see that African descended actors can play wily implacable killers as in “Sahara.” Here that role is in “John Gamba.” He’s a suave and elusive killer, suit wearing and silencer equipped. But who does he really work for? The Mataban delegation is shown painstakingly making their case while their words are being repeated with translation by Kidman’s Sylvia Broome. At the conclusion of the meeting the Africans stand up and their leader states his final point in mellifluous African accented English! Which was his point, like the crooked Senator in “Godfather Two.” In most movies the Africans don’t have real identities, they’re just a Type. “The Interpreter” shows them as real people, even in brief scenes such as the peacemaker Xola, the Mataban version of Steven Biko. The wasted opportunities of African political life are addressed, and its a shame that it took European descended filmmakers to bring this to the fore. As shown in “Sahara,” usurping Europeans have found out they can just install brutal and greedy African “leaders” who can deliver the nation’s riches to them almost as surely as if they were still running and looting the countries under Colonialism. Reviewing the life of the targeted African nation’s president it is explained that they all started out as idealistic liberators, embodying the hopes and dreams of a beleaguered populace after they’ve ousted the old Bad Guys. “And then they go just as bad.” “The Interpreter” differs from other films including the praised “Hotel Rwanda” in that it shows the tragedy of leaders who were once called liberators and saviours and who degenerated into thuggery and Ethnic Cleansing’s mass murder. The tyrants in the movie are charming and cultured, well read, urbane and witty. They are able to defend with the zeal of True Believers why it acceptable and even necessary for so many people to die for the good of the State. Director Sidney Pollack, who appears a few times in the movie as Jay, Penn and Keener’s supervisor in the diplomacy protective services, has done a tremendous service by crafting the movie as he did. Its not heavy handed, and has moments of intensity that don’t wait until the wrap up when everything comes down to split seconds and right or wrong decisions as various agendas collide. As the movie unwinds the interpreter for the United Nations becomes a very interesting person indeed, and her characterisation is brought out superbly by Nicole Kidman. “Revenge is the lazy way ... I came to the UN because I found I could use words to change things, even if they were slower than a gun. Wars have been started because people didn’t understand what the other was really saying... I left Africa with no lover, no family, no brother and I came here. I loved Xola, until the colour of my skin became a problem. Politics, you know.” Kidman delivers her lines simply but with practiced power, and it was a joy whenever she goes off on one of her monologues. Penn doesn’t trust her or her story, when he finds out that Sylvia doesn’t tell him pertinent things about her background. She doesn’t cotton much to him either. “I’m an interpreter. I don’t play with words,” she says. “You’re playing with them now ... do you think that not telling a lie is the same as telling the truth?” Kidman, although raised in Australia went there from America as a young child, just like Mel Gibson, also an American. Her accent is modified to the soft made-up South African one that was used in “Lethal Weapon 2” because a genuine South African accent would be too thick for our ears. “Blik pipple” means Black People, for instance. Sylivia’s African-ness is easy and unforced. Her African artifacts on the wall, her playing of the flute shows her connection. Her portrayal brought to mind that of blonde South African beauty Charlize Theron in “Mighty Joe Young” who was carrying a load on her head, sashaying down the dusty street of a African village with her African dress and bracelets jangling. When some whites come visiting she tells her other villagers “we can’t trust them. They’re not our people.” One must remember that Africa is a big place, and it has Asians, and European Descended such as Portuguese and Spanish-Descended who are loyal sons and daughters of Africa. Mahatma Gandhi was a South African., and this influenced his civil disobedience at how he saw social classes being pit against each other by the ruling powers. There’s a good chance that in about a decade the next Pope might be another African, either the Nigerian or the South African candidate. Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa has said he wouldn’t be overly concerned if the next Pope wasn’t Black African if he was anything like the late JP2. Sylvia still doesn’t fit in America, with no stateside friends. She demonstrates her beliefs by African stories and folk tales, and halts Penn when he’s about to utter the name of a murdered person. “Shhh...” she says, placing her fingers on his lips. “We don’t name our dead...” and calls herself by one of the Mataban tribes, explaining that carrying the names in the heart has been found to be better. She also explained the Old Ways to resolving family and tribal vendettas where the offended family can choose to save the condemned person by diving in after them when they’ve been bound and tossed into a river to die. “They can choose to dive in after him, cutting his ropes and letting him live, and then they can be free of mourning eternally by granting this forgiveness. If not they have to continue to live with their pain and loss.” “Omo pe fu wa-lo” she says in sympathy to Keller, after he relates his own life story of loss. “What’s that mean, ‘Rest In Peace?’” he asks. “Close enough.” “The Interpreter” is a suspense film that isn’t a romantic romp, but more like the Cinematic Interruptus between Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington in “The Pelican Brief.” If they had the chance and the time then they’d take it. But they can’t, so they don’t. Got that? My sister Avis Walker is a polyglot, and people who have the capacity as she does to learn languages gravitate to the diplomatic corps or similar circles. I watched my sister learn the Poona region’s Indian dialect in five weeks, to add to her Spanish, French and some other ones as she pursued her studies at the Institute for International Studies in Brattleboro, Vermont. Avis lived in Western Africa nations such as Cameroon and Nigeria, and then back to her base in London. Such is the life for those with a facility in languages in a shrinking world. I can’t even remember my Italian, and the Greek Tourist Speak has long faded. After watching “The Interpreter” after all the televised news scenes from St. Peter’s Square in Rome I realized it was time for another Travel Griot trip! Kidman was at the UN once before, sort of when she co-starred in “The Peacemaker” with George Clooney, the startup Dreamworks SKG studio’s first movie. She was a nuclear weapons expert trying to prevent a disaffected Bosnian Muslim from detonating a backpack nuke at the buildings of the United Nations which had failed his ethnic cleansed country and allowed his family to be slaughtered. My girl Catherine Keener is in the mix as the tough guy partner to Sean Penn’s Keller. Her usual dourness and plain looks comes in good stead here, and she gets some of the best lines, stretching even her well-honed delivery of irony. She lays down the rules for the upcoming visit by the Mataban head of state. “Straight in from the airport, no shopping, no meet and greets, no ‘Lion King’... ” When the impressive qualifications and achievements of Sylvia Broome are rattled off Keener remarks “But can she cook?” Keener isn’t usually in big movies like this; she was in “Your Friends and Neighbors” and “Death To Smoochy.” She also was in “The Mind of John Malkovich,” the weird movie written by Charlie Kaufman who is on a tear in Hollywood after writing that movie, the film of “The Orchid Thief,” and the Academy Award nominated “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” The Interpreter” is an intellectually stimulating movie, very talky in a good way but not without the need for some trimming. There are long scenes of conversation between Penn and Kidman which could have easily been cut in length. The long pauses from Penn especially aren’t needed. I know these are Oscar heavy hitters, but even they could use from being reined in from the strong hand of a director. Failing that there is always the editor’s scissors and a big wide floor. They can put the indulgent stuff back in the DVD Director’s Cut. But I still had a good time at The Interpreter. The pacing was good, and the tension was exploited at every opportunity. You don’t need spooky houses, werewolves and possessed people to get scared in the movies. A dysfunctional government where neighbors turn on each other and death is the reality is very scary to me! That’s an underlying fear for many who live in stable societies, and why films such as “28 Days Later,” the “Resident Evils,” and “Dawn of the Dead” are so horrific. There is almost a scene replication from “Star Trek Six: The Undiscovered Country” with the assassination setup in the UN, even with the circular piece of glass cut out of the window for the sniper as Kirk and his outlaw crew trace to the Klingon treaty planet to foil the plot. I didn’t know that Pollack was a Trekkie! I was looking for any indication of irony when Kidman made the remark about the difficulties of having a Black lover, keeping in mind her recent dalliance with Lenny Kravitz before he started messing up. What’s with these stupid men like Sean P. Diddy Combs, Sean Penn and Eric Benet that they can have the kind of women men dream of, then let them slip away by doping dumb stuff? Putting together Academy Award nominated favourites is an old ploy that makers of movies pull; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Somebody thought it was a good idea to put James Caan and Bette Midler in a WWII musical called “For The Boys.” Caan had just come off “Misery” while Midler scored big with “Beaches.” It didn’t work as well as it did on paper, apparently. This time it does, with the team of Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman in an adult thriller with real world as opposed to Reel World connections. SOME NICOLE KIDMAN MOVIES: • Malice -- The end of Kidman’s goody-goody film roles with Alec Baldwin • Stepford Wives -- Remake of iconic 70s film • Dead Calm -- Australian made sailing and piracy movie, with Sam Neill and nutso killer Billy Zane • Batman 3 -- Kidman plays Psychiatrist who falls for Bruce Wayne, the altar ego of Batman played by one-timer Val Kilmer, with a manic Jim Carrey as the Riddler • Moulin Rouge -- song and dance movie musical about turn of the century Paris district with Obi Wan Ewan McGregor • The Peacemaker -- George Clooney as an anti-nuclear operative; she’s a weapon’s specialist trying to prevent the backpack nuking of lower Manhattan by a Bosnian targeting the United Nations • The Hours -- Nicole wore a prosthetic nose to portray a writer in a time when beautiful women disfiguring themselves for film roles was the thing, as African American actress Charlize Theron in “Monster.” • The Others -- Intriguing haunted house story of WWI. • Bewitched -- Kidman plays Samantha in the upcoming summer film of the ‘60s TV show that was inspired by a book that inspired a broadway play that inspired the late ‘50s movie “Bell, Book and Candle.” NICOLE’S FILMS WITH THEN-HUSBAND TOM CRUISE: • Far And Away -- Oklahoma land rush and escape from Irish poverty • Days Of Thunder -- race car driving saga with Robert Duval SOME SEAN PENN MOVIES: • Carlito’s Way • Falcon and the Snowman • Mystic River • Fast Times at Ridgemont High CAST OF “THE INTERPRETER” Earl Cameron -- Edmond Zuwani, Pres. of Mataba Michael Wright -- Marcus, Mataban embassy attaché Nicole Kidman -- Sylvia Broome Sean Penn -- Keller Sidney Pollack -- Jay, diplomat protection supervisor Yvan Attal, Evan Welch, George Harris, Tsai Chin, Clyde Kusatsu, Peter Zayas THE INTERPRETER is directed by Sidney Pollack, is rated “PG--13” for warfare depictions, stacked bodies from tribal ethnic cleansing, and surreptitious killings. --kjw -- 30 -- Did we miss any connections? Or do you have your own cinema views? Write, email or call thewordnetpaper@excite.com , or write P.O. Box 1324-53201, and be sure and visit the film websites at http://cinemaviews.tripod.com, http://www.blackwebportal.com/wire ; http://www.theMBO.com/walkerworld.htm , and http://cinemaviews,tripod,com.blacklove . --kjw --30-- ----------------------------------------------------- CINEMA VIEWS by Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic Six Degrees Of Oscar, Connelly's Thick No More, Getting The Red Carpet Treatment In Brewtown RECENT FILM REVIEWS: DENZEL, HALLE TAKE HOME THE GOLD http://www.blackwebportal.com/wire SIX DEGREES OF OSCAR http://www.geocities.com/cinemaviews/6degsoscar.html http://cinemaviews.tripod.com/6degsoscar.html HALLE BERRY'S MONSTERS BALL http://www.blackwebportal.com/wire/DisplayArticle.cfm?ArticleID=623 WESLEY SNIPE'S BLADE 2 http://cinemaviews.tripod.com/blade2.html BLADE ORIGINAL http://cinemaviews.tripod.com/blade.htm EDDIE MURPHY'S "SHOWTIME" on www.blackwebportal.com/wire http://www.blackwebportal.com/wire/DisplayArticle.cfm?ArticleID=638 ICE CUBE, MIKE EPPS IN "ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS" http://www.blackwebportal.com/wire/DisplayArticle.cfm?ArticleID=624   JENNIFER CONNELLY: THICK NO MORE Did we miss any connections? Or do you have your own cinema views? Write, email or call thewordnetpaper@excite.com , or write P.O. Box 1324-53201, and be sure and visit the film websites at http://cinemaviews.tripod.com, http://www.blackwebportal.com/wire ; http://www.theMBO.com/walkerworld.htm , and http://cinemaviews,tripod,com.blacklove . --kjw --30-- “SAHARA” Review by Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic Matthew McConaughey, Penelope Cruz, and Steve Zahn star in (take your pick) : An updated version of the National Geographic like “Road to” films of Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour; another version of the Indiana Jones series; or the 1940s adventure films such as “King Solomon’s Mines” or all of the above. Clive Cussler the adventure novelist wrote “Raise The Titanic!” which was made into a movie back in the 1980s. His Dirk Pitt character is a Man’s Man, educated and cultured, but quick with his wits and pretty good in a fight owing to his Naval career with sidekick Al Giordino. “Sahara” is made from one of the Cussler novels, which basically feature an ancient or old mystery of lost treasure with a few tantalizing clues that indicate that it just cannot be true, it flies in the face of orthodoxy, blah blah, yada yada. The adventurers inevitably go after the treasure anyway in their own devil-may-care fashion, encountering different cultures and dangers along the way. That’s pretty much it, but you can hang a two hour movie on that easily, and the producers of “Sahara” have done just that. The mystery treasure trove here is a lost cache of Confederate States of America gold coins that were being transported by an ironclad ship near the close of the Civil War to finance their losing campaign against the North. The Johnny Rebs made CSA dollars but they never had a chance to make coins, or so history has it. And what about the legends of a strange gray ship, going upriver without sails in an old African river way, long since sanded over by the unceasing winds of the Sahara Desert, as big as the continental United States? While enjoyable as an action Adventure Buddy Romance Flick with Comedy, it still is a logical jumbled mess. Like a lot of avid filmgoers I already give a large part of suspension of belief to the shenanigans of Action Adventure movies, but the cord that connects us to them can only be stretched too far before it snaps. I hate it when loose ends dangle off an already fantastic plotline, but I can’t even tell you what those are. But you’ll see it, blatant as they are. The ecological message in “Sahara” wasn’t as heavy handed as some films are, certainly not as bad as the nonsense seen in “Day After Tomorrow.” There is a medical emergency that is starting to affect both the village and nomadic peoples of the Mali and Chad region of the Sahara. World Health Organization Doctor Eva is investigating and is the damsel in distress because evidently there are some forces who don’t want the authorities poking their noses around. One of those authorities is the private oceangoing NUMA crew led by William Macy’s Admiral who bankrolls the activities of the National Underwater Marine Agency. Among his crew of hotshot researchers is Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino who are like reverse Raiders of Underwater Lost Arks. Instead of tomb robbers they return the ancient treasures to the affected lands. This is unlike England which keeps the elegant so-called Elgin marbles of the Parthenon from the Acropolis in Greece; or the massive beard/chin stone from the face of the Sphinx of the Egyptian Gizeh plateau that if it was put back would keep the 10,000 plus year-old monument’s head and shoulders from cracking under its own weight. But I digress. The intention is to make this a franchise for McConaughey, who is a producer for the film. He has been enthusiastically hitting the talk shows and even public events such as ball games and NASCAR, talking up his film and creating a buzz and landing him on Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood. This in itself is refreshing, as I am also just so tired of these big-headed so-called movie stars who have gotten rich off beloved film roles, and then they go and act like its the last thing they want to do, and have to be begged and lured back to make sequels for popular films. McConaughey has long been known in Hollywood as a Nice Guy, and is pretty cool for a Good Ol’ Boy. He was in such Southern based films as “A Time To Kill” with avenging daddy Samuel L. Jackson as one of John Grisham’s struggling lawyers against larger forces. In fact, Matt has done pretty well in movies with Black people. He played another lawyer in “Amistad” based on the true court case of a shipload of escaped kidnapped Africans who tried to sail back home after taking control of the Spanish vessel. Matt was a man of the cloth as the spiritual conscience of Humankind against the worldview of a female Atheist scientist in “Contact.” Before Reality TV there was “EdTV” with McC as a man who signed away his privacy to be filmed 24 hours a day. One major departure for McConaughey was a role as a demon hunter in the very unusual “Frailty” by first time director Bill Paxton who also played the dad who raised his boys to be Demon Knights for God. Don’t ask, but by all means go and see!! If the surroundings in “Sahara” seem a little familiar its because the “Star Wars” movies were made in the same region of Northwest Africa, but down the coast in Tunisia. “Sahara” was filmed mostly in Morocco and a bit in Spain. Morocco does multiple duty as Nigeria, Chad, and Mali since its on the Atlantic and we wouldn’t know any better unless we’ve been there. “Titanic” was filmed in Mexico for instance, and most Vietnam, World War II Pacific theatre or Asian war movies are filmed in Hawaii, when they’re not in Puerto Rico. There are scenes in the movie purporting to be in Lagos, Nigeria; Mali and Chad, and plenty of other places in the fast moving movie. There were shots of bustling harbours with busy vendors and merchants haggling for goods and local cash, while dock workers carry and ferry goods to and fro. Although as my movie date Dee Dee said, “It could be in Haiti, and we wouldn’t know!” She’s a world traveler herself, and I have to call and find out if Dee’s even in the same hemisphere or not when I call to ask her out. But they stay pretty much centered in the Sahara region of central Africa. This is a good thing. I am so tired of Los Angeles and New York placed stories; and I’m starting to get sick of Chicago, too. Among other reasons I liked “The Longest Yard’s” Burt Reynold’s and Bernie Casey’s “Sharky’s Machine” made from the novel was because it was based in Atlanta. There’s a whole world out there and its good that filmmakers are letting us see it. “Sahara” doesn’t list the African stars’ names on the posters or mainstream publicity materials, which is a shame. They do a good job of getting their characters’ motivations across and shine in the action scenes, such as the tribal leader in Mali trying to protect his people. There is one fellow who I refer to as one of the Darth Vader types, he’s the silent killer, implacable and almost unkillable, who bedevils our Dirk by popping up from time to time, much like the African wrestler in “The Mummy Returns.” Whenever he show up things start to get on a poppin’! Whether its a rooftop knife fight or toe-to-toe standup fisticuffs. From his profile he looked like Morgan Freeman in Kevin Costner’s “Robin Hood,” with those same little decorative tattooed tribal bumps around his eyes. Glynn Turman is Doctor Fred also of WHO and Eva Rojas’ boss. He took a hiatus from theatrical film for awhile after being busy in the Seventies and Eighties such as in “River Niger” with James Earl Jones and Cicily Tyson of “Diary of a MAd Black Woman,” but Turman stayed in theatre and did a few TV and cable movies. Lambert Wilson may seem familiar too. You saw him as the Epicurean Merovingian in the final two “Matrix” movies. He portrays the sort of European business people who use Africa as their playground, or more properly their toilet; whether its raping the land, impoverishing the people, or destroying their birthright and heritage and thereby keeping them poor so they will not rise and be in a position to challenge Europe or America. But even he has pangs of conscience because of the scale of what they’re about to do. “Don’t worry about it” his European creature comfort loving African warlord henchman and partner in crime against humanity tells him. “Its only Africa. Nobody will care.” This echoes the message said by UN blue helmet Nick Nolte in “Hotel Rwanda” to Academy Award nominee Don Cheadle’s heroic saviour of over a thousand hunted tribes people, explaining the United Nations is only going to get the White people out of the country turned genocidal killing ground, and let it go to hell as over a million corpses piled up. Did you know they have actually chased down garbage scows from Northern Europe off the Indian Ocean part of the African coast, trying to dump their toxic waste there instead of discarding it back in their native Norway, Finland, or Belgium? There are suspicions that even highly toxic and carcinogenic nuclear waste is being dumped on the continent which will imperil the health of generations of the Eastern Africa Indian Ocean region for perhaps thousands of years. But again I digress. When I saw Delroy Lindo’s name in the credits I was heartened, and in “Sahara” he’s somebody like the ubiquitive CIA operative Felix in the “James Bond, 007” series played by David Hedison, Bernie Casey, and Bo Svenson of the original “Walking Tall.” Lindo has a small role here in “Sahara” as a Felix the Fixer type while he’s in country as a company asset, but it was good to see he and Macy interact even briefly as they are among my new favourite actors. “I knew you were going to bring that up” says Lindo, as Macy put an old obligation upon him to get a line back to his lost researchers. “If I do this for you we’re straight, alright? The debt’s paid, the slate is clean?” “Slate’s wiped clean” the Admiral says. Lindo, a stage prepared actor who got better known in Spike Lee movies such as “Malcolm X” where he played the genius Numbers Runner West Indian Archie opposite Denzel Washington, and Lee’s “Clockers” with Mekhi Phifer, Isaiah Washington, and Harvey Keitel where he played a neighborhood gangster who is corrupting the young males through his nefarious enterprises. Lindo gets the small but juicy parts in his movies, as an FBI investigator in Mel Gibson’s “Ransom,” or a fellow con man opposite Gene Hackman in the most excellent “Heist.” Lindo’s been in Action Adventure too, as in John Woo’s “Broken Arrow” as an Army general trying with Christian Slater and Frank Whalley to stop John Travolta from carrying out his plan for nuclear blackmail against Western America with a couple of stolen nukes from his B-3 Stealth Bomber. Macy is one of the most versatile actors around and is known for his smaller quirky movies like “Magnolia” and “Fargo” but he does big action flicks too from time to time, such as his US military man in Harrison Ford’s “Air Force One.” Although he doesn’t get into the action here as the trio of McConaughey, Zahn and just one of the boys Cruz pretty much takes care of that. Steve Zahn is starting to come into his own, The talented movie sidekick who co-starred in “Paris, Texas” and with perennial scammer Martin Lawrence in “National Security” gets to break out in some action adventure himself, shooting, and blowing things up, while still cracking jokes and being the foil for McConaughey, who gets the girl. Cruz’s multi-ethnic looks are put to good use, much as Welsh-born Catherine Zeta-Jones of “Chicago” who has played Latinos from Mexico; and Nuyorican Jennifer Lopez who also has played Italians, Mexicans, in fact almost everything but her native Puerto Rican Descended, except for movies early on such as “Money Train” with Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson. Talk about throwing yourself into a role! She and Matthew ended up as boyfriend/girlfriend during the movie. What a surprise. If I was Penelope Cruz’s man, I’d always be ready to cut her loose by whatever movie she’s next in, as the fine little big-eyed Spanish-born cutie who starred in several Pedro Almovodar films seems to have a thing for hooking up in relationships with her male co-stars. Like Nick Cage from the Italy-based “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin,” and co-star Tom Cruise from “Vanilla Sky” while he was married to “Bewitched” star Nicole Kidman, his Babymama who in turn rebounded into the arms of the ex-husband of Janet Jackson until he had fulfilled Kidman’s purpose, and filled in something else along the way. In fact, “The Black Man’s Kryptonite” using Brothas seems to be the thing to establish notoriety and get their names back in the tabloids at least. Witness the Odd Couple of the Amazonian Briget Nielson and Flavour Fave, or back in the 1980s with Kim Basinger moving into Prince Rogers Nelson’s mansion in Minnesota for weeks after he wrote part of the score for the first “Batman” movie she co-starred in with Michael Keaton. Do you wanna bet that Denise Richards, one of the “Wild Things” and also one of the “Starship Troopers,” if she’s in a sequel to the hilarious “Undercover Brother” as the Black Man’s Kryptonite opposite Eddie Griffin will go for a love scene this time around instead of just teasing, now that she cut loose her randy and soon to be ex-hubby Charlie Sheen? Can you say “payback?” I’m talking about a little “Monster’s Ball” type action that had both Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton’s spouses, namely Eric Benet of Milwaukee and Angelina Jolie bolting for the door. Jolie has been doing some homewrecking of her own it seems, with her impact on “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” co-star Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston’s busted marriage, but now we’re straying way off course. “Sahara” is an enjoyable diversion, and it might even sell a buncha DVDs in a few more months. But be aware that you have to suspend your belief a great deal, and ignore plot holes big enough to drive a truck through although they work well enough onscreen as eye candy. CAST OF “SAHARA” : Delroy Lindo -- CIA liaison Glynn Turman -- Doctor Fred -- Mali Tribal Leader -- Warlord -- Villain Killer -- Matthew McConaughey -- Dirk Pitt Penelope Cruz -- Dr. Eva Steve Zahn -- Al Giordino William Macy -- Admiral Lambert Wilson -- Businessman SAHARA is directed by Breck Eisner and from the studios of Paramount Pictures. It is rated PG-13 for explosions, shooting, and depictions of diseased people as they lay dying by the score. --kjw --30-- Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith “Sith” Happens Cinema Views by Film Critic Kevin J Walker http://cinemaviews.tripod.com email: mailto:thewordnetpaper@excite.com by Kevin J. skyWalker “Once you give up integrity, the rest is a piece of cake.” -- J.R. Ewing of “Dallas” to a hapless victim’s question on how he came to be. The new Star Wars movie is coming out just after Midnight Wednesday, but I have foreseen it! Here is the review that accompanies the Mace Windu focus of last week as all over the nation, the "Revenge of The Sith" hits the fans… I have foreseen it! The new Sith movie that is. LeJaynes Harris, originally from Charlotte, North Carolina then St. Louis after Milwaukee, Wisconsin was the person who introduced me to “Star Wars.” We were buddies in college at Marquette University, and she said “there’s a movie that you have to see. I’m taking you this weekend.“ It was at the Mill Road theatre, and after the scroll-up I was amazed. There was rusting and broken machinery tossed in a corner that would be gotten to, someday. There was grime, not the pristine white plastic domes which was more wish fulfillment of a clean and prosperous future. This was a genuine, old, lived-in world! But they had universal themes: the fight against tyranny, Spirituality as opposed to Religion, the desire to be a part of something larger than yourself. There was nothing like this before, at least not done right like this. There had been what they called “Space Operas” before. In some of those others you could almost expect the actors to burst out into laughter at the hammy dialog and plots. But this “Star Wars” was a world that had no connection to our planet or time, hence there was no baggage, or insulting of anyone’s history or heritage. It was a clean slate that Lucas could use to exposit his well-developed ideas about descent on a personal and civilizational scale. May 19th is an august date for the release of the newest Star Wars episode “Revenge of the Sith,” its the same date as the other two episodes. Although I don’t think Lucas had this in mind, it's usually known among Africentric African Americans as Malcolm X's birthday, launching a month-long celebration of events culminating on Juneteenth Day, June 19th. The political angle gets more exploration, as the Republic prepares to kill itself off to save itself as the separatist wars come to the skies above Coruscant. “Have you ever considered that we’re on the wrong side?” asks a tentative Padme as she sees the machinations of her fellow Nabooian Palpatine “Now you’re talking like a Separatist!” says Anakin. Later during a Senate session Sen. Padme Amidala watches with a cynical eye as she sees the bleating assembly of star systems hand over more power to the ambitious Palpatine, promising Peace In Their Time! “So this is how Democracy dies” she says to herself. “To thunderous applause...” This fulfills the desire and intent of Lucas to have more of a political edge, although the action sequences are very satisfactory. The battles on several planets such as the hell-hole Mustafaar keep “Revenge Of The Sith” busy, and the attention of audiences glued. Get your concessions early, because you won’t want to leave lest you miss something. I have foreseen it! Like James Earl Jones, Ian McDiarmid who has played the Emperor Darth Sidious and Senator Palpatine in four movies is a stage actor, and they are particularly skilled at extended verbal delivery, and getting their lines right, and for effect. The Sith are the enemies of the Jedi, but they have positive aspects too, says Chancellor Palpatine. “From a certain point of view,” says the still hidden Darth Sidious, using the persuasion and convenience of Situational Ethics to sway a weakening Anakin, emotionally vulnerable and still looking for a male anchor growing up without a father. “Those who have power hate to lose it, including the Jedi...” Chancellor Palpatine says. “The Sith rely on their passions for their power, they look only inwards,” says Anakin. “The Jedi use their powers to help others” says the still idealistic young Jedi Knight. But he says it by rote because that’s what he’s been taught. “The Sith and the Jedi are alike in almost every way, including their desire for more power,” opines Sidious. “But the Sith only care for themselves.” “And the Jedi don’t?” “Don’t allow yourself to be used by the Jedi Council. They know of your contributions” yet he is not properly rewarded, insinuates Darth Sidious as he works on the emotions of Anakin, especially his fears. He knows he shouldn’t, but Anakin still wants more. Especially more power to keep people off him, since he was unable to prevent his enslaved mother and he from being oppressed back home on Tattoine. This talk of power politics was one of the high points of the movie for me. Especially since my motto at the end of these articles and my home pages are from former Congressman William Gray from Philadelphia: “In this society you must have either money or power. If you have either you are respected, if you have both you are feared, but if you have neither then you are oppressed.” “Revenge of the Sith” is about loss on several levels. Personally, the tragedy is when Anakin who is to bring balance to the Force, is revealed at the start of “Episode 3” to have put aside his anger and become truly appreciative of the teachings of Obi-Wan Kenobi. “I’ve learned so much from you...” he tells his onetime teacher. Sadness it is that Anakin has changed from the often angry and arrogant young man of Episode Two into a gracious and appreciative man, who loves and has someone who loves him, and is somewhat respected by the Jedi council. But he has not purged his heart of desires he ought not to have. Ambition, covetousness, jealousy, and still much anger in him the young one has. Anakin loses his personal struggle to be a Better Man when he goes against his Jedi training and creed with emotional attachments and the illegal marriage to Padme seen in “Attack of the Clones.” He already has a family of sorts but doesn’t accept the Jedis as his. He didn’t have a father, and his substitute daddy was killed in Episode One. The wily Palpatine is only too happy to step into the vacuum. The look on Anakin’s face is striking when a beaming Padme tells him “I’m pregnant!” He, like a lot of men is stunned by the news, and not as giddy with delight as women are because it means different things to us. The perplexed look and how he tries to hold his face straight was precious, and the guys in the small gathering of preview attendees made knowing sounds in the subdued theatre light. It is little human touches like this that make the Star Wars series beloved of the people, its intimate portrayal of human nature even while its setting up the next tremendous battle. “The Empire Strikes Back” is Episode 5, the second movie and to many the favourite one because it was so far and away different, dark and uncompromising. People were killed, some strangled by remote control by an unforgiving Darth Vader when they failed to deliver Skywalker and his friends. Here in Episode III when a spacecraft blows up we see the bodies of the hapless star troops blasted out into space, to take their place with the floating wreckage. Some people complained about “Return of the Jedi” because nobody major died. Not even Han Solo, who even sorta predicted his own passing. Which couldn’t happen because then who’d be the BabyDaddy to Leia’s Jedi Twins in the next three films? But we’re getting ahead. If its death you want then this is the movie for you, because there’s plenty of it. Heads roll, limbs are severed with alacrity. and those Lightsabres get used a lot, against a lot of people. There are ambushes, back shootings, betrayals. Unlike the wimpy off-screen references to massive deaths in the kid-oriented “Phantom Menace” of Episode One as then-Queen Padme Amidala’s people tried to repulse the invaders of the Trade Federation, here they show people getting sliced and diced, even if its by a brief replay of a security cam. This is why “Sith” as it will come to be known is so dark; it looks inside people much as the surprise over the pedestrian looks and former occupations of those pulled into Nazi Germany. The Nuremberg Trials showed how accountants, office managers, bakery shoppe owners and advertising executives became enthusiastic killers on a mass scale, like something Dark was inside them and just waiting for expression. This is why I and others cut George Lucas some major slack for what he has attempted and accomplished. For all their pontificating about the Human Condition, those mouthy, pouty art house directors whose opaque impenetrable movies are much beloved of critics but couldn’t begin to make a movie that people would pay to see, or even watch on TV for free. Yet Lucas has managed to pack more philosophy and musings on Moral Relativism, liberty, revolution, history, and cosmology than most people will ever see outside of a college class or lecture, while entertaining moviegoers and turning a handsome profit, so cut him some slack. The fighting in “Revenge of the Sith” is shoveled in from start to finish, and there is no dissension on this part. There are the warnings that grade schoolers will find this a bit upsetting, but not as upsetting as their real fear, which is loss of family and separation, which strikes terror in their little hearts. This is why the little ones will get upset when they see their parents arguing, and try and push their hands together. They’ve noticed that when you hold hands, smile and kiss their vulnerable world is stable, and therefore safe. Seeing a pregnant stressed-out, flinching Padme being hollered at by a scowling, fuming and confused Anakin was like putting a knife into me, and I’m no kin to either of them! Ever the master, Lucas has tapped into a rich vein here, and the movie exploits it. Loss, disappointment, betrayal, and the descent of a once sweet boy into the depths of pure evil, and all that implies. “Not letting go -- the shadow of greed that is. Train yourself to let go of everything you care for” advises Yoda to Anakin. But he can’t do it. Can’t, and won’t! The Lightsabre battles are even pushed up a notch, with techniques that go beyond anything seen before. Lightsabres only have the handle, and since they’re not a long metal blade they can be used speedily and lightly, with deadly effect. Behind-the-back parries and spinning swipes and techniques go much further than the double-bladed Lightsabres of people such as the departed Darth Maul from “Episode 1: The Phantom Menace,” or that film’s two-handed Asiatic style fighting between Count Dooku and Anakin, where they get a rematch! Mace Windu gets into it with a Sith, and this time we see his sword fighting technique. Samuel Jackson plays Mace Windu, and he has been a fan of the series and adventure movies his entire life, and to him his role as a Jedi Master and sword fighter was a dream come true: “I’ve been waiting for a scene like that my entire life, ever since I was a young man pretending to be an Errol Flynn like swashbuckler, fighting with sticks. Its amazing!” You could have gotten a preview of Jackson’s training in his small film “Formula 51” where he used a golf club as a sword against the Bad Guys, but he spun it like a Lightsabre while he was wearing a kilt. (Don’t worry, I didn’t see the film either, and I’m a film critic). I’m like a lot of fairly normal people who are fans of the genre, just not as Out There as some of the fan-atics, the original form of the word. I don’t dress up for the movies in costumes of characters, not even the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” we have here, and Milwaukee has the world’s longest continuing showings -- for real!; I don’t have a dark brown cloak nor personal Lightsabre with custom crystals; nor do I feel the need to stand in a three hour movie line, let alone a three day one! People have been camping out for the last four weeks in some parts of the country just to get in line when the tickets went on sale! They have tents, lights, little Porta-Potties and everything, the weirdoes. Then the news was announced that credit card buyers of advanced ticket sales would be skipped ahead of them on the first day. Now don't they feel silly! And cold. And wet. That’s another reason I’m glad I’m a film critic. I saw the movie two weeks ago, in a 500 seat theatre with about 50 of us in it. I had a row almost to myself. But you-all have fun in those lines! Lucas, who named the idealistic young Luke Skywalker after himself, returned to directing for these final three of the originally planned nine parts of the “Star Wars” epics, at least his versions, believes in the Roman theatrical credo of in media res, from the Latin for “in the midst of things.” The opening scenes are reminiscent of “Episode 4: A New Hope” which we came to call “Star Wars,” with a tremendous battle between gigantic triangular star ships. What is different is that instead of a Space Battle this one takes place in the air, the upper atmosphere of Coruscant, the capital planet of the Galactic Republic as the Clone Wars against the Separatist systems and their Trade Federation allies are raging though the inhabited systems. Moving the battle to the upper air like this means they can use smoke and gravity, and the special effects people went all out this time, fo’ sho’! Add the political angle and you have a well-pleased critic who is trying to decide if this is better than “The Empire Strikes Back” or “Return of the Jedi?” Which one? because its up there as one of the best of the six. The first three Episodes were about Loss, personal with the fated yet avoidable loss of a little boy’s soul, how a grand republic loses its freedom, and the Jedis lose their heritage and sacred duties. Placing their trust in the wrong thing, values and people is the cautionary message of Lucas who has been tagged with hiding modern, by which I mean current, inferences to the Iraqi war and the George W. Bush presidency. Lucas says that he didn’t, that the Vietnam War and World War II and the fall of the Weimar Republic to the fascism of German Chancellor Adolph Hitler was his inspiration on how democracies fall by choice, when they decide to give up their freedoms for security and gain neither. But when Chancellor Palpatine says of the undecided on the Separatist war against the secessionists “Those who are not with us are against us,” I heard mutterings in the dark and they meant the same thing: this is what Dubya said at the buildup to the war in Afghanistan. I have noted before that the Ewoks were analogous to the Vietnamese, when they made a stand on their own land against an Imperial invader, defeating them by using guerrilla tactics and using their enemy as their weapons supplier. It seemed pretty clear to me! James Earl Jones, the famous actor, thespian and verbalizer of Darth Vader in all six films (as well as the voice of CNN!) injected the right amount of malicious undertone as the voice of Vader, which is no small feat. Jones is a stutterer, as am I. I looked to people such as him when growing up with the embarrassing speech impediment because he was a stage actor, which is the last place even a stammerer wants to be, let alone a full-fledged stutterer! I saw him in his one-man show on the life of Paul Robeson, the famous actor, athlete and activist who was hounded out of the country. We stutterers are members of an august group, a membership that includes Thomas Jefferson; the Greek philosopher Demosthenes, who put pebbles in his mouth to train his unruly tongue!; and Moses, which is why he had his brother Aaron speak for him in public. (Exodus: “But why me, Lord? For I am confused of speech...”). Stuttering overwhelmingly affects men -- stuttering is rare in females such as singer Carly Simon. Also, researchers are intrigued by the fact that people don’t stutter when they sing, such as Country-Western star Mel Tillis. We found ways around it, public speaking, performing, and even I found myself doing live TV and radio broadcasts. So James Earl Jones’ achievement as the voice of Vader and CNN is remarkable. The story is that he did his lines for the first film in one three hour afternoon session. So distinctive was his “Star Wars” vocal contribution that Jones wanted to add to the mystery, so he went Uncredited in the first two films. People eventually found out of course, but his ploy worked and now he is an integral part of the Star Wars legend. Vader is an iconic figure who has been played and portrayed by at least seven different people: James Earl Jones for voice; the tall British actor David Prowse overall; two sword fighters of different styles in Episodes 5 and 6; stunt men; the late Sebastian Shaw as Vader Unmasked in “return of the Jedi;” and now Hayden Christensen as the black metallic wheezing Evil One at his creation. When he breathes his first and speaks for the first time with the vocalizer Darth Vader/Anakin needs, since a lot of his thoracic cavity was destroyed in the battle with Kenobi along with much of his lower body, people are going to make the final connection and the series will be melded into a harmonious whole. The sprawling movie series’ wrap-up that were old as films before “Lord of the Rings” were made, or a single page of “Harry Potter “ was writ carried the weight well of melding into the next three which we already know, so there is a strict path it has to follow. There are still some flaws I spotted, such as Darth Vader’s seeming amnesia where his homemade robot C3PO and home planet of Tatooine is concerned. In the book and movie Palpatine tries to get Luke to reveal who was his Jedi teacher since they were all supposed to be dead. When Skywalker can’t clamp down on his mind quick enough from the Emperor’s mental probing, Darth Sidious asks “This Yoda -- is he still alive? Gooood...” when he had to have known him from the Senate’s dealings with the Jedi Council. They fixed the part about how the two robots got together, referred to in “A New Hope,” which we still call “Star Wars.” People are introduced from the first movie we saw, such as Captain Antilles of the rebel blockade runner who inherits the two robots R2D2 and C3PO. Some observers -- I can’t call them “Critics” or even “Reviewers,” have been asking or stating that this version may be better than the first original “Star wars I.” Say what? Well of course, even the second film was better than the first one! I’m not talking about just the jerky graphics and the misregistered mattes and blue screens. Even with the re digitized “Star Wars: A New Hope” that was re-released a few years ago it can’t get past the hamminess of a 1977 outlook almost 30 years old. Although still a thrilling movie to watch, it can’t stand against “The Empire Strikes Back” or “Return of The Jedi,” which to me is the best but only by a whisker over “Empire” and was directed by Lucas’ film school teacher Irwin Kershner. “Empire” left the original in the dust in several ways. The SPFX were more advanced since the studio put proper backing behind Lucas. The writing and acting was also superior, with new directors for the Episodes of the next two films. Lucas wouldn’t return to the director’s chair until he launched the first trilogy. He also collaborated with Steven Spielberg in creating the “Indiana Jones” films, of which three of a planned four have been completed. There was actually a time when people denigrated the cultural thrust of the films after the lily-white appearance of the first one, “Episode 4: A New Hope.” This merits an article all its own, and so it shall be next week. Shot in England and Africa it was top-heavy with clean-shaven Whites, although the costumed aliens hid many a Tunisian since all of the movies were partly filmed there, since it stands in for Tatooine the desert planet, baked by having two suns where water farming is a thriving enterprise. This is what Luke, the hidden boy twin of Padme and Anakin does as he chafes at his chores of his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru’s moisture recovery operation, when he is pulled into the Rebellion against the Empire. Ambassador Leia Organa’s Blockade Runner ship makes a desperate race with Imperial Star Destroyers hot on their trail to Ben Kenobi’s haven on Tatooine to contact the exiled Obi Wan with plans of the dreaded Death Star. By so doing they are reunited, although they don’t yet know it. Luke himself was in danger of going over to the Dark Side as seen in the Vision in the Cave in “Empire Strikes Back” induced by the exiled Yoda, who twenty years before like Obi-Wan escaped the slaughter of the Jedis at the hands of the Sith, their ancient foes but brothers in their use of the Force. After Yoda, Master Jedi Mace Windu is the spiritual center of the Jedi Council that oversees the thousands of years old Jedi Order, which is sorta like being monks with a vow of poverty and no spouses. Anakin says later for that! Purists and Sci Fi adepts know that George Lucas lifted, pardon me I mean made an homage -- to George Herbert’s “Dune” future history epic, about the Spice Wars of the house of Atreides that took place on the barren planet Arrakkis, nicknamed Dune because it was parched and sandy. Just like Anakin’s Tatooine, which even has an area called “the Dune Sea,” where the fight with Jabba the Hutt’s forces over the devouring Sarlacc occurred. The female priests of the Bene Gesserit order were the original inspiration of the Jedi Knights, and they even have the same soft brown coverings. You can see them on the old paperback versions which Lucas surely read, as did we all back in tha day. In fact, in an article I wrote when the original second Star Wars “The Empire Strikes Back” premiered I accidentally slipped and revealed the ending of the entire 9 episode series, which now if Lucas has his way won’t be filmed. You know that yellow scroll-up with the heraldic music that starts every “Star Wars” chapter/ episode? That is the recitation of C-3PO, who is a digital Golden Griot. But what he’s doing is telling the story to a giant computer trying to recreate the history of the carbon-based lifeforms who created their mechanical life, which is the only sentient kind that remains after we have passed on. That’s part of the larger Lucas message about the ultimate fate of Humanity which we can’t get into now. It goes onto the pile of future stories which is getting bigger and bigger! This is a well done wrap-up of the first trio of prequels, at least by Lucas that is, because if he thinks this is The End he’s nuts; he can’t control what he’s started and shouldn’t. The copyright laws are going to sag beneath the weight of pirated concepts. (Remember when Luther Campbell of Florida tried to use the moniker “Luke SkyWalker“ when the soft porn-ish 2 Live Crew jumped off real big? He was sued by LucasFilms quicker than one of his video hoes could pull off her top!) There are already minifilms that people have cut on their home computers, and to hear it some of them aren’t half bad. They’ve adopted bit characters and expanded on it, with their own story lines and SPFX aided by powerful Apple Macintosh personal computers and iMovie, iCreate and Quicktime software. Since they legally can’t make any money off their creations they’ve been giving the movies away on download, at least up to May 19 when the Sith finally hits the fans. I wish I had created that clever saying and its permutations, but I heard it from a correspondent on Entertainment Tonight. Or it may have been ex-Milwaukeean by way of Detroit TV Shaun Robinson from Access Hollywood. She’s a nice person in person, and pretty down to earth, but Shaun really needs to eat more. But I digress. The impact of the cultural icons of the modern fable continues. The “Science of Star Wars” TV special is coming on this week, on the non-broadcast Discovery Channel. R2D2 and C3PO will host the show on how close or not the things depicted on the so far six part “Star Wars” saga are to becoming real. Lightsabres have come under analysis in science magazines before, but more pedestrian things such as robotic life and prosthetics come under discussion this time. Many businesses for “Attack of the Clones, Episode II” declared what has been called "St. Lucas Day," so their employes could avoid some long lines. Many are planning on going after 12:01 am midnight Wednesday. The same is happening this time out with many theatres starting the films on Thursday May 19 as they are contractually bound. It’ll be just after Midnight, or the end of Wednesday night. Then after the staff goes home for some R&R, the managers can order some more popcorn and soda syrup, get some sleep, and then prepare for near-marathon showings through the weekend. CAST OF “REVENGE OF THE SITH” : Samuel L. Jackson -- Mace Windu Keisha Castle-Hughes -- Queen Of Naboo James Earl Jones -- Voice Of Vader Ahmed Best -- Jar-Jar Binks Rebecca Jackson Mendoza -- Queen Of Alderaan; Mrs. Bail Organa Temuera Morrison -- Commander Cody Jimmy Smits -- Sen. Bail Organa Christopher Lee -- Count Dooku, Darth Tyrannus Peter Mayhew -- Chewbacca Anthony Daniels -- C3PO Kenny Baker -- R2D2 Frank Oz -- Yoda Natalie Portman -- Padme Amidala Hayden Christensen -- Annakin Skywalker Ian McDiarmid -- Chancellor Palpatine, Darth Sidious EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH is rated an unusual PG-13 for a Star Wars sequel or prequel because of the intense although bloodless slaughter scenes, and family themes that may upset younglings with their implications of loss. And implied child slaughter. NEXT WEEK: More history of the “Star Wars” saga, including their increasing multiculturalism after being so lily white-bread in the original “Star Wars.” IN PASSING: Frank Gorshin has died at the age of 71 years from complications of several diseases. Older people knew him as a master impressionist who appeared on the Ed Sullivan and other shows, but some of us knew him better as the original Riddler who vexed Batman in the old TV series. Gorshin also was in one of the bestest of the many original “Star Trek” episodes on NBC, as the alien lawman who was black on the left side of his face pursuing a refugee activist leader whose oppressed people were black on the right hand side. Or vice versa. Anyway, their conflict was a societal reference to the still ongoing Civil Rights struggles in the 1960s. Frank Gorshin, you will be missed. Requiesat In Pace. --30-- “xXx :State of The Union” Delivered By Samuel Jackson, Ice Cube by Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic Cinema Views of the Word NetPaper “Look at it this way: maybe someday you’ll get your own holiday.” --Seditious Sec. of Defense to President during coup > ICE CUBE, MIKE EPPS IN "ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS" http://www.blackwebportal.com/wire/DisplayArticle.cfm?ArticleID=624   Actors come and go, but the film franchise stays eternal! Vin Diesel decided to bail on continuing as the star agent of the “Triple XXX” series in order to pursue his own projects. It didn’t turn out bad for him, with two successful and divergent movies such as the Sci-Fantasy spacer “The Chronicles of Riddick” sequel to “Pitch Black,” and the family action comedy “The Pacifier.” The makers of this sequel movie of a secret government agency who uses unconventional outlaws as covert operatives weren’t going to just lie down, and they retooled rather well by installing Ice Cube, or O’Shea Jackson as “the new Triple X,” an agent with unconventional skills, usually an outlaw and who is unknown to other agencies, both Ours and Theirs. After a well coordinated and devastating hit on their secret HQ, Augustus Gibbons the xXx Agency head played by a returning Samuel Jackson (no relation to Cube), plugged in another of a list of operatives he has spread out. When he realizes their HQ could have only been attacked and destroyed from somebody high up and on the inside, he tells his own version of 007s Q “we have to go off the grid” for someone with the skills they need to take down the traitors who are planning no less than a coup against the government of the United States. Cube’s insouciant attitude is well used here, much as John Singleton did in his “Boyz N The Hood” and “Higher Learning.” Stone’s been imprisoned for 9 years of a 20 year term in military prison when he’s approached by Gibbons, who was called “Scarface” by Vin Diesel’s xXx as the skateboarding water skiing extreme sports operative. Stone also digs him about his war wounds. “Oh, Gibbons -- I like what you did with your face.” “You should have seen it before I got it fixed.” If they up the ante as they did in this second “Triple X” they can keep on making them. They have stuff blowing up, lots of military ordinance, even a Bullet Train! The film did what “Die Hard 3” punked out on, they teased us with all those soldiers locked and loaded, all that armament, then didn’t even have a battle! Not so here, as Xhibit leads his street generals against tanks and armored HumVees on the streets of Washington DC! Now that’s how you make an Action Adventure film: with lots of shooting, lots of explosions, helicopters darting about firing heat-seeking missiles, night vision goggles, surveillance, all that stuff. They could have had some more romance, even for we male filmgoers, because Nona Gaye has got it going on! There’s a bit of a tease with a Blondie-Blonde played by Sunny Mabrey as a deep cover operative Darius goes to for assistance in ferreting out the General’s plan, and takes him home for some R&R. “If you need anything, I’m right down the hall... “ she hints broadly. X3: State Of The Union” has a “Seven Days In May” and “Murder At 1600” quality about it, with its central plot of a coup plotted by a former general turned cabinet member to take out the idealistic peace preaching President played by Peter Strauss. He wants to cut back on military bases and new weapons systems to launch his Peace Initiative. “Maybe then we can start turning some of these enemies into allies,” he says, so we won’t need such a big military in the first place. Except that Secretary of Defense Deckert ain’t trying to hear all that, and he decides that he has to install himself as the new President after he plans to have the entire cabinet as well as a good amount of the joint session of Congress slain by his rogue regiment during the State of the Union speech, which would leave him next in line for succession! For the good of the nation you understand. Willem Dafoe is a former Milwaukee Repertory Theatre actor who plays the seditious Sec. Gen. Deckert. He’s been as many Good Guys as he has villains, and had his first comedic role in “The Life Aquatic” with Bill Murray. He’s done action before, as when he burst onto the scene as the counterfeiter in the brutal “8 Million Ways To Die” with CSI’s William Petersen. Dafoe played the sensitive warrior Sgt. Elias in “Platoon,” and his first true Action Adventure role in “Speed 2” with Sandra Bullock. He’s also played such unconventional roles as Jesus in the controversial film “the Last Temptation of Christ.” I liked “xXx: State Of The Union” which is possible, because its a requirement to grant a generous dollop of suspension of belief for the action adventure genre, but they took license with their allowance, more on that in a bit. Ice Cube the rapper has become the latest film star to make the transition to action adventure films, which includes the likes of such artsy actors and actresses as Meryl Streep (“River Wild”). I already knew the NWA Gangsta Rapper persona was just a put on for the Middle Class raised O'Shea Jackson, who doesn’t have more than parking and traffic violations. Cube is a businessman with multi-million dollar development deals with several film and recording studios. He speaks well, shakes your hand with a mixture of a two-handed Corporate Grip and a 'how ya doin' brotha" clasp between old buds. He's easy to smile, and spoke with knowledge of what it takes to get a deal past studios when mucho dinero is on the line. "You're dealing with millions of dollars just for an idea that's in your head," he said of approaching the studio execs with film treatments. "A music video is like a 100 yard dash, a movie is more like a marathon." Cube has done science fiction as well as in the Walter Hill produced John Carpenter directed Alamo/ Zulu/ Westerner in space called “Ghosts of Mars.” He was quick to tell me “I didn’t like that one.” That makes two of us! Not even with “Species’” star Natasha Henstridge and “She’s All That” and "The Faculty's" Clea Duvall. With the “Barber Shop” and Friday” film franchises already in his pocket his Cube Vision enterprises is sitting pretty, allowing him the latitude to pursue the deals he wants. This coup business is daring ground for any motion picture, and few have tried it because its lined with land mines. The movie negotiates them well, because it doesn’t delve too deeply into the politics but stays to the action. For something deeper rent, if you can locate it, Mark Lane’s “Executive Action” which is a feature film about the November 22 1963 Kennedy assassination and the subsequent coup. Oh, by the way, 2039 will be here in 34 more years. That’s when the CIA’s and other classified files will be opened on Lee Harvey Oswald. Like its a big secret what they’ll say! So you see the appeal for me of this movie, which could have picked any other topic to have a firefight onscreen but stretched a bit, so they get some Cool Points. But another film in this vein I like is the little seen “Most Wanted” with Keenan Ivory Wayans as a jailed then sprung military operative where the entire film is about the buildup for an assassination, and setting the Brotha up to take the fall. There are elements of that in “Triple X” which you will see, including the idea for what an imprisoned man really has on his mind when he gets to the outside! Lee Tamahori also directed the James Bond 007 film “Die Another Day” which launched the spin-off of the Jinx character of Halle Berry’s assassin/agent, so he knows how to carry off the big Throwdown stuff. He also knows a thing or two about car chases and aerial battles, and “State of The Union” has quite a few. In addition to quoting Tupac as a military strategist, this has to be the first movie with street hustlers carjacking a military tank . Or as Xhibit the strike leader says “If it has wheels we can jack it.” This blending of the action adventure and urban flick added a dimension to “xXx” that added to its appeal. Not many movies would quote Tupac Shakur as if he was a general, or mention the late Johnnie Cochran. Since they daren’t go to the authorities they have to rely on Stone’s old friends back in the ‘Hood. “Why can’t y’all go to the police?” asks Xhbit's chop shop owning character when asked for his troops. “We don’t trust the police” “I heard that!” he says. Toby aka “College Boy” plays the role that actors like Judge [“Beverly Hills Cop”] Rheinhold and lately Eugene Levy get, that of the Straight-Laced White Fella who gets infected with street attitude from being around too many Black people. Levy who set it off in “Bringing Down the House” with Queen Latifah, will join Samuel Jackson will be in the forthcoming “The Man.” It’s a comedy Cop/Buddy action flick about a street-smart urban detective who drafts a square salesman to help him crack a case because he won’t ever be made by the Bad Guys, with tinges of “Analyze This.” You’ll see what I mean. “C’mon, Steele, get crunk with us!” Toby says as he breaks his neck to the beat to a once skeptical Fed played by “Underworld’s” Scott Speedman, as Darius turns on a rap CD in the car as they’re about to make a strike. Michael Roof plays the winning sidekick character to both Jackson and Cube, who is akin to the bodyguard butler in the “Lara Croft “ franchise as he gentlemanly wields a riot shotgun and dispatches Bad Guys with crisp efficiency. Toby is a computer whiz, weaponeer and MacGyver inventor on-the-fly. When he meets gearhead and luxury car owner Nona Gay’s Lulu as she talks about manifold pressure and RPMs he’s sprung. “I love this woman...” Toby says, struck dumb by this combination of beauty, mechanical skill and love of technology. I know the feeling. Still, it was disheartening to hear some retards who have been indoctrinated with the idea that we should celebrate, as too many music videos do, those who have more evidence of the Slavemaster Bastards’ blood in them. When the camera makes a soft focus close-up of Nona Gaye’s gorgeous face and those juicy lips, males with maturity and sense went “Umm!” At a weekend showing of “xXx State of The Union” some male -- must have been a real “boy” -- said “ugh!” This is like those outrageous pictures on the Internet where somebody spliced 50 Cent’s head on Serena Williams’ body, echoing the utterings of too many Whites who say that the two attractive, chocolaty and talented sexy sisters “look mannish.” I could expect it from them, because their hatred of us may be in their very DNA, as is their contradictory confusing love for everything about us, such as browning themselves in the cancer-causing sun. But what is the excuse for those kids whose own mothers and they themselves may be just as dark, and with African Motherland features like these stars they diss because they don’t look like Mariah Carey or Alicia Keys? But I digress. There’ll be a feature on the Eurocentric versus Africentric standards of beauty, and the appeal of Forbidden Fruit after the “Other Fat Actresses” article that is being prepped, about Real World and not Reel World women and the size that men really prefer, not those picked for their Homo-Erotic, skinny “boyish with breasts” looks. Samuel Jackson has been dubbed “the Hardest Working Man In The Movie Business” for good reason. He’s been in more films than any other actor, and has made the most money, or been in films that did. That’s mostly because of the two Star Wars episodes he’s been in as Jedi Master Mace Windu. Jackson’s in this latest and third prequel where like the series he meets his end, which is not giving away any surprises such as when he angered some of those weird die-hard SW fans. Its long been known, like since 1977, that almost all Jedis die off in Episode 3 after being hunted down by the Sith. And Jackson has promised to go out spectacularly! It’ll be cooler than when he decapitated the villain in the last one, without even having to look at what he was doing. More next week on what is supposed to be the last “Star Wars” episode in my precede, since the good people at Twentieth Century Fox sent me this nice media kit, with a CD-ROM packed fulla pictures and other stuff. And I’m NOT going to put these up on eBay, unlike some other so-called critics not worthy of the name who don’t get published anywhere. But Jackson has two films out in theatres, including the artistic “In My Country” about an American journalist who hooks up with “The English Patient,” Juliette Binoche’s South African reporter as another interested person in the aftermath of the Truth and Reconciliation commission after the fall of Apartheid. Jackson actually had to argue down that his “xXx: State of The Union“ character shouldn’t be killed off. What did they think? This isn’t the first time that Jackson has put his imprint on a film he was in; his extensive knowledge of comic books was put in his “Unbreakable” with Bruce Willis, a film mate from their “Die Hard 3: Simon Says” and from Quarentino’s “Pulp Fiction,” although they didn’t really have any scenes together. Jackson studied Marine Biology in college, which probably came in handy when he co-starred for a bit in “The Deep Blue Sea.” I criticized Cube when he made one of his first solo starring roles in “Dangerous Ground,” a South African saga that required him to portray a California graduate student. He looked and acted like he was still in character from “Boyz In The Hood” or “Trespass,” chewing on a toothpick and talking in slang. Now, there are some people -- and you’ve seen them -- pursuing a Master’s degree who try their best to act as if they still have plenty Street in them; but acting should be trying to reach beyond your experience and people’s expectations. If not then you’re Behaving, and not Acting. But when he started directing and did “Player’s Club” lots of critics realized that it was rather well-done. When he put himself into the background for the good of the “Barber Shop” film it was better for it. When I interviewed he and co-star Michael Epps in Chicago for their “All About The Benjamins” and “Friday” films, I found him to be quite the businessman; direct, firm handshaking, with a wide vocabulary he knew he could use around we mostly Print Journalists. This wasn’t surprising as I knew as many did that the rap world early on was almost entirely populated by the children of the Middle class, whose family had access to the entertainment industry’s executives. It was later when they were concerned about their “Street Cred” that the music producers and record label execs went out and got themselves some genuine thugs and gang bangers with true criminal records that all the mess started, such as fights backstage and recording studio shootings. One thing I cannot take is glaring logical flaws. I’m not talking about the kind of derring-do in action adventure where people are outrunning explosions and a hail of machine gun bullets. Those are actually part of the wiling suspension of belief for action films. I’m even willing to overlook that it isn’t possible to leap onto a helicopter from above. Just a little matter of the blades turning you into a puree! No, I mean when people do stupid things they wouldn’t do in real life, considering what their expertise is supposed to be, or just good common sense from being an adult on the planet earth. For instance we are given to understand that Gibbons was a top notch operative, but he makes colossal errors when he goes to his home to retrieve a needed computer disk. You don’t even have to be an operative to know you NEVER GO HOME WHEN YOU’RE BEING HUNTED! In fact, the police know when they’re hunting someone like a dumb gang banger that all they have to do is go sit by the target mother’s house, because they always limp back home to see M’Deah. And then get scooped up and cuffed. Another is when Jackson uses a flashlight to go through his darkened house. This is a problem on a couple of levels. First, you WOULDN’T NEED A LIGHT to see around your own house; you know what’s there. Second, crooks know that a flashlight in a dark place is like a neon sign saying “People are running around in here doing something wrong!!” Burglars, the professional kind, use red plastic filters over the flashlight, like the kind that people put over their broken tail lights on a Hooptie. (By the way, I used to be a Crime Reporter not a burglar, and that’s what the ex-crooks have told the authorities. And I’m an amateur astronomer, and we often use red lights when looking at star charts outside so as not to mess up our night vision). Another is in spy craft or basic soldiering, which Jackson’s Gibbons would know as a Special Ops: You don’t hold a flashlight in front of you because the Bad Guys would shoot at it; you’re supposed to hold it off to the side so as to escape mortal injury. This is Kindergarten stuff. They should have used some of the big bucks that made this movie’s explosions and paid for an advisor. But the things I listed wouldn’t have cost that much more money, just some common sense from living, or having watched some other movies! Its clear the franchise’s producers are going to continue this technique of switching in different agents, as well they should. And why not -- four different actors have played “Batman.” There have been how many, about 22 James Bond 007 movies played by five actors, including a planned remake of “Casino Royale” which many people miss on the list because it was a comedy with Woody Allen! And four or five “Aliens” and two or three “Predators” -- this is because they’re combining movie franchises, such as “Freddy vs. Jason,” which is something like a video game matchup, ala “Ballistic: Ecks Vs. Sever.” There are political conspiratorial films that come to mind in addition to those mentioned. There is of course “The Parallax View” with Warren Beatty as a Seattle investigative reporter trying to get to the bottom of an assassination network that is removing progressive politicians, while substituting hapless patsies to keep alive the “Lone Gunman” concept, in an obvious reference to Lee Harvey Oswald an agent insider who may even have tried to stop the killing of the President. Last year’s “Manchurian Candidate” remake with Denzel Washington, and Mel Gibson’s “Conspiracy Theory” could be put on the list as well. In a Six Degrees Of Hollywood Connection, there’s an actor in the “xXx: State of The Union” cast named John G. Connolly. Texas Gov. Connolly was in the car and hit by one of the bullets during the cross-fire that took out President Kennedy in Dallas’ Dealey Plaza in November 22 of 1963. The reason many of we Conspiracy Theorists count that as a coup is several of the measures and Executive Orders JFK issued were rolled back after his death, including keeping America out of the Vietnam War. (Nixon’s resignation might have been another, but that is outside the scope of this article). When JFK’s brother Robert looked like he would win the Democratic nomination after winning the crucial California primary, they took care of him in advance before he would have the reins of power to stop or alter the plan for their version of a New World Order. This was after they removed Martin Luther King two months before in accordance with the J. Edgar Hover FBI COINTELPRO directive to “prevent the rise of a Black Messiah” that would unify and perhaps ignite the Africans in America in opposition to the government, so they wouldn’t have to use the concentration camps set aside for us in regional parts of the nation. CAST OF “XXX: STATE OF THE UNION” O’Shea Jackson -- Darius Stone Samuel L. Jackson -- Augustus Gibbons Nona Gaye -- Lulu Xhibit -- Chop Shop owner, street soldier Sunny Mabrey -- Charlie Willem Dafoe -- Sec. Gen. George Deckert Scott Speedman -- Agent Kyle Steel Michael Roof -- Toby Peter Strauss -- President John Connolly -- operative XXX: STATE OF THE UNION is directed by Lee Tamnahori and released through Columbia/Sony Pictures, and is rated PG-13 almost entirely for action adventure style explosions, come cussing and multiple deaths but without plenty of blood. --kjw -- 30 -- --- “SIN CITY” Review by Kevin J. Walker, Movie Critic The makers of “Sin City” knew that there was a hard core audience of comic books, called by some “Graphic Novels” to make it seem more acceptable, that they’d respond to movies based on them. These include such as “Spawn”, “The Mask”, and the upcoming “Batman Returns” (the Frank Miller “Dark Knight” version) that were all alternative, harder edged, and adult-oriented. In fact “The Matrix” saga of the Chicago Wachowski brothers was based on the appeal of comic books. The world of the Sin City denizens is a hard one, even when its the genteel environs of upper class people. Everybody in the movie is steeped in something corrupt, even though it doesn’t touch them. One of the few who are “pure” even though she’s a shake dancer is Jessica Alba’s character of the virginal Nancy Callahan. The women who are pure in “Sin City” are shown to have more consistent colour in a movie that is basically black and white, with bold accents of colour such as red lipstick, or a scarf. The movie is also very heavy on computer generation, much like “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” with Jude Law , Giovanni Ribisi, and Gwenneth Paltrow where there’s no there there, its just digital data in a computer. This is a boon to flexibility because this allowed people to be in scenes with elaborate backgrounds and sometimes with over a dozen actors and they were the only real person there! “Sin City” isn’t a date movie, not unless you know some strange people, or someone with strange tastes. But it doesn’t require a lot of brain cells to process either. It is more than a bit overpraised, but then that happens when people who don’t usually watch these types of films get one from someone they like, until they decide to kick them to the curb as they have Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steven Seagal, and makers of Men Movies such as Walter Hill of “48 HRS” and even Clint Eastwood for a couple of decades. Women play a large and central part of what goes on in “Sin City.” Like the abused prostitutes in Clint Eastwood’s Academy Award winning Western “Unforgiven” that almost single handedly reinvigorated the genre, the women in the film are almost universally what society would consider Bad Girls. Those that aren’t straight up Hoes are strippers or grifters trying to beat somebody out of their cash, or on the run for doing so. But these women are tough, as seen in one of the four segments - or is it three? that make up the enormously entertaining and engrossing “Sin City,” which is a hybrid black and white special effects crime noir film about the dealings, double crossings and schemes of the underground economy of a crooked city. Michael Clarke Duncan makes an appearance in the film, but it’s of cameo length and he’s the only African descended male of any consequence in the film as a crooked constable or something, with a funny hat. Its hard to tell because of all the shadows, and they don’t make reference to him. Men are the protectors and the abusers in the film. Clive Owens is a sorta hero in Dwight, whose lack of muggish looks may be because as one of the ladies says he has a nerve coming back to Sin City, even with his new face. He’s a hard one, too. When some corpses have to be disposed of he asks for “a car with a big engine, and a large trunk.” But be advised that this is a very hard film for the weak. Hard Movies like “Sin City” and Quarentino’s “Kill Bill” movies have won a growing audience, and even better they’ve made plenty of money. Hollywood has used and rescued the same formula over and over again, and so tired out moviegoers that there is now a hunger for movies with an edge. There is already a plan for a third installment of “Kill Bill” focusing on the seed planted in Viveca Fox’s little girl’s mind as she stood over the body of her slain mother. “If you can’t get this out of your mind and you want revenge you can come and see me in a few years,” said Uma Thurman’s character. Quentin Tarantino, who I have renamed Quarentino for short, has received enough interest that he is going to continue the thread of motherhood, revenge, into the next generation. Remember, the “Yellow Haired Warrior” played by Thurman (like Clint Eastwood’s characters in the Italian made “Spaghetti Westerns” of the 70s, they have no name) she has a daughter too! “Kill Bill I” was also partially shot in black and white in extended scenes. The cast of “Sin City” also makes use of Quarentino veterans such as Michael Madsen of “Reservoir Dogs,” and Bruce Willis from “Pulp Fiction.” Enter Frank Miller, since his “Sin City” comics already seemed like they were littler movies, with lots of visual appeal. It is he who is one of the main people who brought artistry and respectability to the comic book, excuse me -- “graphic novels” -- that many of us grew up on, such as this summer’s “Fantastic Four” and “Green Lantern” that is going to be made into a movie. (Will somebody tell them that Robert Townsend already beat them to it with his “Meteor Man” co-starring Bill Cosby, and Luther Vandross). Enter also Roberto Rodriguez, who was made a convert to digital filmmaking to the extent he made his own studio in Austin, Texas for his “Spy Kids” franchise and “Desperado /El Mariachi” saga. He brought in Miller and essentially made him a co-director, much like the Hughes Twins of “Menace II Society” and Wachowski brothers, who work interchangeably and seamlessly. Then, to up the ante the selfless but success-oriented Rodriguez brought in Quentin Tarantino, whose time-shifting hard core movies are structured like chapters and movies within movies that hop skip and jump about, shattering freely the narrative conventions we have come to know. It was refreshing to see a movie like “Sin City” that much like Ice Cube’s “Players Club” has a veritable parade of the kind of luscious real-world and not Reel World women that men find attractive, and the various body types they exhibit. The luscious Rosario Dawson from “Alexander” is Gail the leader of the independent women of their own section of the city. After a move is made on their freedom she mobilizes her girls for conflict . “We’ll take on the police and the mob! We’ll go to war!!” Gail takes a little too much delight in gunning down people, smiling and licking her thick red lips as their bodies jump from the bullets thudding into them. That’s one of several reasons why the film has a hard “R” rating. Gail’s get up looks like she could be Darth Vader’s women on the side, with black leather strips making up her minimal costume and dominatrix stiletto Hoe Heels. In particular Rodriguez made use of his “Spy Kids” mom Carla Gugino, who is revealed in almost all her glory as Lucille. She is splendid in her thickness, and it is a rare treat to see a woman with her body type displayed as an object of obvious beauty. A con observes about Lucille his probation officer “she’s a dyke. God knows why. With a body like hers she could have any man she wanted,” articulating the male thoughts of the audience exactly! Gugino, the wholesome mom in “Spy Kids” who plays Lucille was also in Jet Li’s “The One.” This topic of beauty standards will be further explored at length in an article in formation called “The Other ‘Fat Actresses’,” about how popular culture is at odds with reality in their curious Homo-Erotic standards of beauty that emphasizes a skinny boy’s body type over that of women whose body type exemplifies human reproduction; with ample hips that are wider than their shoulders, and breastesses fit for feeding a neonate as Mother Nature intended. My movie ladyfriend Dee Dee has put me on notice that she doesn’t like “scary movies” or ultraviolent flicks. “Sin City” is kinda both, but by scary she meant things like the remade “Amityville Horror”, “The Grudge”, “The Ring Two” and the like. Dee Dee’s cool with Science Fiction, though, which differentiates her from many women, and that’s why I like going out to flicks with her. We’re gonna be all up in the next “Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith!” But I knew not to try and get Dee Dee into this movie, because she’d just spend the balance of it with her hands in her face, or glaring at me during scenes such as when a vengeful ex-con goes on a single-minded rampage against the killers of a young girl who sought him out for protection because he was big, ugly, strong and brutish. Just what she needed. “I’ve killed three men tonight” mused Mickey Rourke’s character Marv. “You might say I’ve been working my way up the food chain.” Marv’s a rough character with a basic code. One of them is that he feels he must protect the weak against people like, well, pretty much like him. Against those in his pool he deals out no mercy, whether they’re crooked cops who protect the real Bad Guys or even members of the clergy who are up to their cossacks and rosary beads in crookery. Rourke used a prosthetic mask in “Johnny Handsome” where his prisoner gets a radical makeover from do-gooder scientist Forest Whittaker. Rourke is mugged up here with an identity hiding mask, and his voice is not apparent, even though he’s long lost his thick Irish brogue from his boxing days, heard only in the haunting “A Prayer For The Dying” with Bob Hoskins as his old neighborhood’s parish priest who used to be a gangbanger gone Good. The movie’s title comes from how some wags defaced the sign outside the city borders of Basin City, a working class port city of indeterminate location that would aid the movie’s acceptance worldwide. I immediately got it, because my beloved Midwestern state once had a promotional campaign that read “Escape To Wisconsin.” The bumper stickers weren’t out for a good week before some jokesters with too much time on their hands found out you could take two of them and with some scissors create counter-culture sayings like “Escape Wisconsin” or “I Escape To Sin.” That’s not as clever as the wags who once redid the slogan “Virginia Is For Lovers” and restated it to mention a woman’s body part that was once mentioned on an episode of “Seinfeld.” “Sin City’s” director Roberto Rodriguez is the same who made the “Spy Kids” trilogy. Like Jorge Lucas of the six-part “Star Wars” saga, he did it so his kids would have something to watch at the movies. Its a safe bet that they won’t be watching his “Sin City” any time soon unless they sneak and do it! CAST OF “SIN CITY” Rosario Dawson -- Gail Jessica Alba -- Nancy Callahan Devon Aoki -- Myo Carla Gugino -- Lucille Jaime King -- Goldie and twin Brittany Murphy -- Shelly Powers Booth -- Michael Clarke Duncan -- Benecio Del Toro -- Jackie Bruce Willis -- Det. Hartigan Clive Owen -- Dwight Mickey Rourke -- Marv Rutger Hauer -- The Cardinal Elijah Wood -- Zen like killer cannibal Josh Hartnett -- Hit man Michael Madsen -- Hartigan’s Det. Partner Nick Stahl -- Sen. Son, Yellow Bastard Alexa B. -- Becky Directed by Frank Miller, Roberto Rodriguez, and Quentin Tarantino, released through Dimension Pictures SIN CITY is rated a well deserved “R” for parades of butte nekkid women; thick prostitutes in fishnet stockings, and assorted T&A; depictions of torture and amputations without benefit of anesthesia; stuff blowing up; martial arts action and street type cussing. -- 30 -- "BEAUTY SHOP" --REVIEW OF THE WORD NETPAPER QUEEN LATIFAH, DIVERSE CAST OF LADIES CUT UP IN “BEAUTY SHOPPE” SPINOFF Ice Cube’s production company’s spinoff of his successful “Barber Shop” series is cutting through the competition and has a winner on its hands in “Barber Shop.” Dana Owens (you-all know her as onetime rapstress Queen Latifah) is the personable star of the new franchise that has been moved to Atlanta, with only a photograph and a few references to connect it to the original. This is as it should be, a fairly clean break so they can go off on some tangents of their own, and these were some good ones. “Beauty Shoppe” is superior fun to both of the previous “Barber Shop” parent films. Its something about the intricacies of female interaction or something that adds more to what is a simple “Car Wash” type of plot, with most of the movie happening in the parlour, where there is lots of catty conversation along with the cutting and sniping with the snipping. Owens is Gina, who walks out of Kevin Bacon’s fancy parlour in a huff, and decides to open up her own shop and doing it her way. “Its time I owned something” declared the single mother of a young daughter, who spends her extra money to buy piano lessons for her child. This was also an opening so some music could be injected into the movie, and it was done in a tender way that slowed the movie down when it needed, giving us a break from the comedy of the shop. Becoming a Ghettopreneur was a nice touch, and we see some of the trials and travails of being a small business owner, from equipment breakdowns, canning negative employes and hiring positive ones, and dealing with the bureaucracy who always seems to have their hand in your pocket before you even open the door and gain your first dollar. Like “Barber Shop”, “Beauty shop” is an ensemble acting film, and unlike the parent movies Owens carries much of the weight. Ice Cube was happy to let the others do the heavy lifting, but then he’s the producer of these two franchises that join his popular “Friday.” The Southern accents was a nice thing to hear, and it was filmed down South. One of the periodic characters was Hotlanta Helen, the Mouth of the South, whose radio show features homegirlisms about her personal and love life which the parlour ladies play whilst they work. “I’m going to tell you what to do: I had trouble getting rid of this one crazy dude. Followed me all over, showing up at my job. He just wouldn’t leave me alone! I guess ‘It’ was too good to him. “Anyway, I finally figured out how to get rid of him: I lied and told him that I was pregnant. He took off and I haven’t seen that n----a since! And that was ten years ago. This is Helen, I’ll hollah!” Woodard is presently doing a rare comical turn in “Beauty Shop” as a poetry spouting hair stylist who has seemingly memorized all of Maya Angelou’s most popular poems, especially “Phenomenal Woman.” If someone gives her an opening she’s off, as when new salon owner Gina tells the envelope pushing former owner that her adaptations of her smock is a bit too provocative. Some of her veterans that Gina hired back know what’s coming and they start to smile in anticipation. “Does my sexiness offend you?” Angelina recites. “... I’m not cut to fit a fashion models size ... ... Like I have diamonds on my thighs.... But when I start to tell them They always seemed surprised ... “Phenomenal Woman, that’s me!” The increasingly busy Alfre Woodard, the pride of Oklahoma, makes her Science Fiction debut in “The Forgotten” as an investigating detective who detects something fishy about the woman’s story, especially after she starts seeing some strange things herself. I saw the advanced preview of “Beauty Shop” a couple of weeks ago, and didn’t have a media kit as this was written so I can’t give credit where credits are due to the many actors and actresses. I immediately recognized LisaRaye from “Player’s Club” -- most men would! The interview with LisaRaye that was conducted at Dasha and Kendall Kelly’s Mecca nightclub, when she came to Milwaukee as her spokeswoman duties for Hennessey Brandy, and to push her new show “The Two Of Us” on Fox TV. We also talked about the opening she received from Ice Cube’s directorial debut of “Players Club,” where she acted opposite Jamie Foxx when he was still doing small roles. After his shiny new statue for Best Actor for “Ray” those days are over for awhile. “Beauty Shoppe” was very much a group effort. Darnell is Gina’s “stupid and lazy” sister in law with awful taste in men; Shenille is a familiar face as the legal office home girl in “Girlfriends;” and there are the rows of stylists who seem to have been culled from the ranks of standup comediennes and rap videos. The fellas get some play in the movie. James is a stylist fresh out of jail who seems to have a little something something and hair skills that makes the ladies come into the shoppe. But there are some of his co-workers who think he identifies a little too much with the womenfolk. The little homeboy who comes to the shop selling his candy who even at his young age has a thing for the ladies with the nice plump rumpasaurus; and the overactive building inspector who makes a beeline to Gina’s parlour and writes her up a blizzard of costly tickets. Kevin Bacon doesn’t do comedy very often, but the Oscar nominee for “JFK” was hilarious as the fey Nordic haughty hairstylist who tells his former employe “eef not for me, you’d zill be washzing ze hair in your mother’s kitchen, yah hokay, ‘bye ‘bye...” Djimon Hounsou of “Amistad”, “Gladiator” and the present “Constantine” as Papa Midnite, the Witch Doctor turned bar owner, is Gina’s love interest, on-call electrician and upstairs neighbor. His fluent French mixed with his African accent seemed to get to the ladies in the audience, as did his piano playing which makes him a fave of her daughter. Of course, it seems to be a given that when you have a bunch of Black women for some reason that escapes me you just have to have the semi-obligatory Black Fag. Snapping his fingers and lisping away, the sorry spectacle made me nostalgic for RuPaul. Thankfully, the abomination was only onscreen for less than a minute, but that was still way, way too long. I lost my appetite for my popcorn after that scene. “Clueless” star Alicia Witherspoon has a forward part in the supporting cast of Lynn, an eager Appalachian White girl who tries her best to fit in with the cadre of Black women where even an African American woman would find it hard to be accepted by that bunch. When they arrange to go out to lunch they don’t ask her along, and her ostracism is painful to see until we realize that there is always The Formula. This was seen in “Barber Shop” when the lone White cutman had to constantly prove that he could cut Black hair, and his chair was often empty. Then there is the Redemptive Moment. It seems that Lynn has a talent for dancing, and when she breaks out on the dance floor of an Atlanta club where the salon goes out to celebrate a rare victory, she goes all out. She’s backin’ it up, pokin’ it out. Like a dancing machine the Snowflake had the brothers in shock and awe, shaking it like a salt shaker. She made me think of Kelly, who is a Snowflake who comes to down Savoy’s in Milwaukee on Friday nights with her crew. Kelly can really dance, probably working off all that office stress from her corporate job downtown, so there are White chicks with skills like that. Mena Suvari is a haughty patron who like Andie’s Terry, is a defect from Latifah’s former employer. A running joke in the movie is how she got her teeny mosquito-bite breasts plumped up, and is the subject of some of the quite ribald talk by the ladies, about Chinese Balls, “crooked ones” and more interspersed. This is not a movie that you’d want your young daughters to attend, although they and their friends will find their way there, to be sure. It sometimes seem as if a microphone had been dropped into a real beauty shop and we are treated to what some of what they must be talking about up in there. Men problems, employers, gossip, marital strife, who’s doing what with who, more gossip. The addition of popular White females to the cast “Beauty Shoppe” was a master stroke, and as marketing alone it was a positive move. That they were given something useful to do that was pivotal to the loose plot was mo’ better. Andie McDonnell is a beautiful actress, probably because she’s mixed with a tincture or two of Latina and/or Native American. She’s known for her glorious auburn tresses, and is still featured in top magazines as a hair model. They grow them like that in Texas, I’m told. McDonnell is the trophy wife of an unseen husband to whom she has lost her lustre. She, after initially refusing the peddled goods of Catfish Rita, the “Monkey Bread Lady” who brings her lunch wagon right into the parlour, becomes a devotee. The women tell her she needs to grow herself some behind anyway, and maybe her wandering husband would stay home for a change. Behinds and their importance to a woman’s appearance is a part of “Beauty Shoppe” and I for one was glad to see it. Oh, for what I wouldn’t have given to be in on that casting call, where they scoured from all around the Hotlanta area for beautiful and booty-ful women. When the DVD comes out I won’t be the only brotha who is using his remote to freeze frame! Thick women were celebrated onscreen as they are in the real world, no matter what those homosexually polluted culture of studio executives in Hollywood feel, as they push boney actresses who are little more than long boys with teeny breastesses. Most men turn their noses up at these female impostors, and “Beauty Shop” from the first few minutes puts forth the opposing, naturalistic view. Getting ready to go out and start her day, Gina asks her adolescent daughter “Do these pants make my butte look big?” “Yeah, they do.” “Perfect!” she says, heading out the door. Hotlanta Helen proclaims “I got hips and thighs, and I don’t discriminate against pies!!” This attitude about healthy sized women is being expressed more and more. In “Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous” one of my favourite new actresses Regina King from “Ray” tells Sandra Bullock’s fellow federal agent she needs to get her skinny self out of her face. Bullock retorts “First of all, thank you for calling me skinny....: This cultural chasm of beauty standards between the races and the classes is something that pops up again and again. Jackee Harry of NBC’s “227” thrilled millions of we normal men with her glorious and sexy thickness. Actresses such as Academy Award winner Kate Winslet and Alicia Silverstone, at their height in Hollywood told the forces telling them they “need to lose weight” to get out of their faces, and bring them back some Krispy Kremes. Silverstone, who nobody with sense would think was fat although she has somewhat plump cheeks, said she wasn’t playing that mess about losing weight and looking like a skeleton and she looked just fine. Ditto for “Titanic” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” star Winslet who said “I’m a normal sized female!” and what was the big fuss? Of course this is in a environment when a big fuss is made of Angelina Jolie’s supposedly big lips (?) and Jennifer Lopez’s big Nuyorican butte. Unfortunately, the unnatural culture of dysfunctional Eurocentric homo-erotic beauty standards that de-emphasizes women’s natural beauty continues to catch a few. Jessica Simpson was a thickish Southern country girl, and so because of her appeal she was picked for the film version of Daisy Mae in “The Dukes of Hazzard.” But they got to her, like the “A Beautiful Mind’s” Jennifer Connelly, who was once described as a human version of Jessica Rabbit after her busty outfits as a vamp and lover of Nick Nolte’s 1940s cop in “Mulholland Falls.” The National Enquirer periodically publishes pictures of Way Too Skinny actresses, and there was one of Simpson from the “Dukes” shooting location. She wasn’t filling out those Daisy Dukes very well. That’s where the name for the high-cut shorts came from, by the way. Salma Hayek, the Mexicana whose thickness was seen in Rodriguez’s “From Dusk ‘Til Dawn” and “El Mariachi 2” got skinny and then got forgotten, with a big ol’ Oprah head from too rapid a weight loss. Now she’s going to plump up to oversize to play the part of a true life serial killer, proving that there is justice in this world. “Beauty Shoppe” has a lot of issues going on in its almost two hours, and its a good cinematic ride even though it follows a popular formula. But this is no shame, that’s how they came to be successful formulas anyway. --kjw --30-- CAST OF “BEAUTY SHOPPE” Dana Owens / Queen Latifah -- Gina Alicia Silverstone -- Lynn Djimon Hounsou -- Joe Kevin Bacon -- Jorge Andie McDonnell -- Terry Alfre Woodard -- Miss Angelina Sherel Givens -- Hotlanta Helen Menu Suvari LisaRaye --30-- --30-- SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> Send a note to Cinemaviews at P. O. Box 1324-53201, or email walkernet@excite dot com, or walkerworld_2000@yahoo dot com --kjw websites: http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/the_511/outnabout Movies: http://cinemaviews.tripod.com http://www.blackwebportal.com/wire http://www.geocities.com/cinemaviews http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/cinema_views Travel: http://travelgriot.tripod.com http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/ Politics: http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/ Science: http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/ --30-- CINEMA VIEWS with Film Critic Kevin J. Walker OSCAR 2005 WINNERS AND LOSERS Brothas are starting to slam dunk them on the cinema screen just like on the basketball courts and track fields! This year has seen an awards setup that hasn’t occurred in some time, where an actor was in two separate categories. Former “In Living Colour” actor Jamie Foxx was up for best Actor for “Ray” and as Best Supporting Actor opposite Tom Cruise in “Collateral.” The 2005 Academy Awards are history, and they’ve made history. Although they weren’t as first time irreverent host Chris Rock said “the Academy awards Def Jam” they were nevertheless trying to skew for a younger hipper audience. Estimates were that while only a quarter of the population was planning to watch the show, more than 40m percent of African Descended Americans were planning to see multiple winners on Oscar night. They weren’t disappointed. Success of some kind was assured, because there already were nominations all the way from Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Actress; and parts in some of the highest placed films. Following is a capsulized breakdown of the Oscar winners and losers. In the days following some of these films will be singled out for fuller treatment. --kjw HOTEL RWANDA MILLION DOLLAR BABY THE AVIATOR COLLATERAL SIDEWAYS PASSION OF THE CHRIST RAY PHANTOM OF THE OPERA TROY HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERSSHREK 2 THE INCREDIBLES TUPAC: RESURRECTION I, ROBOT ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND THE VILLAGE SIDEWAYS RAY -- No surprises here as Jamie Foxx rolled over everybody to win the Best Actor Academy Award. His competition was Leonardo DiCaprio for “The Aviator,” Don Cheadle for “The African Schindler” in “Hotel Rwanda;“ Johnny Depp in the biopic of the creator of Peter Pan in “Finding Neverland;” and Clint Eastwood for “Million Dollar Baby.” The biopic on the life of Ray Charles is packed with music, but it also shows how the music was conceived and produced. This puts it in such company as “Amadeus” and Spike Lee’s “Variations On The Mo’ Better Blues” which also showed the creative process, which Lee having a father who was a musician was in a position to see everyday. There were some howls as Regina King was omitted from the list, but since the onetime actress from two Ice Cube movies (“Friday” and “Boyz N The Hood”) still building on her body of work and was noticed for her work in “Jerry Maguire” its only a matter of time. COLLATERAL -- Jamie Foxx co-starred with producer Tom Cruise as a Los Angeles cab driver forced to drive hit man Cruise around while his fare kills off his targets before a major trial, and knows he will be the last one killed as they engage in cat and mouse psychological games and strategy throughout the night. The marketing of the film by Michael Mann also featured both the actors’ names above the title, so there was already some buzz about Foxx’s appeal. Indeed, the film was evenly split between the two, and garnered much critical and commercial success. Foxx could have made history for being the first to win in two categories in the same year, but it was not to be. The Best Supporting Actor award went to Morgan Freeman for “Million Dollar Baby.” Foxx has been steadily building his acting resume, even with films as wide ranging from Players Club and Booty Call to co-starring with Al Pacino in the football saga “Any Given Sunday.” HOTEL RWANDA -- This film about the slaughter in southeast Africa had triple nominations for Best Actor, Screenplay. A nomination for best Supporting Actress for Sophie Okenodo who plays his put upon wife as they struggle to save over a thousand refugees from the murderous hordes outside their Belgian-owned hotel demanding their delivery and deaths. It pulled a zero Sunday night, but this does not diminish any of the impact of this impressive film. Don Cheadle has long been seen as inevitable as a Oscar contender. He stole the screen from Denzel in "Devil In A Blue Dress," and that's not easy to do. As Mouse, the murderous Southerner who comes to help Easy Rawlins in 1940s Los Angeles he added an extra oomph to the film about race relations, a missing person, and high society crimes. MILLION DOLLAR BABY -- This was the big winner of the night, with four awards, almost all of them the bigger ones. Hilary Swank again took home the gold statue for her portrayal of the feisty fighter who wants to battle her way out of poverty in the ring, and convincing the crusty gym owner to take her on. Swank from "The Next Karate Kid" -- which the articles about her hardly mention, despite it showed her early athleticism --starred in the true tragic story of a slightly built girl who passed as a guy and who almost fooled everyone, except the guys who found out, raped and murdered her. Swank won Best Actress for the little $2 million dollar film which was passed on by lots of studios who were kicking themselves then. She's from Nebraska which is where this all took place, and readily acknowledges she was a trailer park brat who can identify with the blue collar roles she chooses. Clint Eastwood as the gym’s owner again won for Best Director, duplicating his win for “Unforgiven.” That movie also co-starred his pal Morgan Freeman, who won his first Academy Award for best Supporting Actor after nominations for “Glory” where he was in competition with Denzel Washington as members of the Civil War Massachusetts’ regiment during the Civil War. Freeman was also nominated for his role as a pimp in Christopher Reeve’s mid-1980s film about a magazine writer who gets entangled in his sordid world; and as the chauffeur in “Driving Miss Daisy.” He played the President of the United States in the science fiction epic “Deep Impact” and even God himself opposite Jim Carrey in “Bruce Almighty.” Eastwood has been directing movies since the early 1970s. His first movies “Play Misty For Me” and “Dirty Harry” came out the same year in 1972. He also directed some of the westerns he was in such as “Outlaw Josey Wales.” Although he was denounced as a fascist for his conservative mindset, he was given an NAACP Image Award 20 years ago for his record of putting African Americans in front of and behind the camera lens. Indeed, Eastwood gave work to people he knew if he could only cast them as street hoodlums, so they could keep their credits up. To use a line from his underground street fighter in “Any Which Way You Can” or possibly the other one with the orangutan “Any Which Way But Loose”: “A handout is what you get from the government. A hand up is what you get from a friend.” Clint’s brand of conservatism is the real kind, and a lot better than the philosophy of the phony Liberal Racists in Hollywood that was also mentioned but in a more subdued fashion by Halle Berry when she accepted her Best Actress Oscar for “Monster’s Ball.” But I digress. TUPAC: RESURRECTION -- The documentary of the life of the controversial slain rapper was justly nominated. Packed with information, and spoken in his own words it is a masterpiece in construction and a mind-changing multimedia experience. I, ROBOT -- Will Smith who already was nominated for “Ali” which featured Jamie Foxx as Bundini Brown, the lapsed Muslim corner man before he played another of his “Summer Saviour” roles. Here in the great Isaac Asimov’s filmed version of his short stories he’s a lawman in a future where robots are Humanity’s servants, but they have plans to change all that! The film was up for technical categories such as Best Visual Effects, as was “Spiderman 2” THE AVIATOR -- The movie had the most nominations of all films this year. A bit of Oscar history was made when British actress Cate Blanchett won Best supporting Actress for portraying multiple Oscar Winner Katherine Hepburn, the first time someone won for playing a previous winner. Blanchett has been down the award nominations road before, as the queen of England in “Elizabeth” the same year as “Shakespeare in Love.” Leonardo DiCaprio lost out in the Best Actor category as the billionaire White Supremacist eccentric Howard Hughes. DiCaprio is on a roller coaster ride with Hollywood who ignored him in “Titanic” and “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” where he played the retard brother of Johnny Depp. He was so good that people asked if he was really retarded? He garnered critical acclaim early on by me and others for his early role in “This Boys Life” where he held his own with Robert DeNiro playing his abusive stepfather. SIDEWAYS -- The little film that bogarted its way into the ranks of the big boys had multiple nominations but was shut out. Virginia Madsen, (who almost none of the stories about her mentioned she was the lead in the horror flick “Candyman” opposite Tony Todd of the “Final Destination” movies) PASSION OF THE CHRIST -- Up for best Original Score, the global blockbuster was shut out of the nominations for the bigger categories much as paganistic Hollywood ignored and then denounced the film before it was even completed. John Caveziel should’ve been nominated for Best Actor, some protested because of the physical privations he had to go through. Producer/Director Mel Gibson had to bankroll the film’s distribution on his own after not being able to find a major distributor as Jewish-controlled Hollywood tried to block his Biblical epic about the last days of Yeshua (which we have renamed “Jesus” much as He called Saul, Peter) which went onto make over a third of a billion dollars. There were claims that Jews would be targeted as the killers of Christ, and the English subtext of the line “his blood be on our heads!” was excised, although not the spoken words which like most of the film is Aramaic, the language that the people spoke in the region. There are passages in classical Latin (much to the delight of those of us who studied the language, and kept their Wheelock texts) of the Roman Empire as Pontius Pilate washes his hands of the whole affair. Gibson is releasing a kinder, gentler re-cut version for theatres next week to cash in on those scared away by the horrific depictions of scourging and extended crucifixion scenes in time for the Easter holidays. This is wise. I only saw the original one time, which was plenty! PHANTOM OF THE OPERA -- The lush opera adapted from the stage play was up for a few minor awards such as Best Original Score, Song, and Art Direction. On the recommendations of a friend I went to see it, and was thoroughly pleased despite a tendency for the film to drag a bit in the past-midpoint until the plot of the Phantom, a man who haunts the opera house in 1870 Paris, kicks into high gear. Minnie Driver, the Trinidadian beauty with the lush raven hair who played “The Governess” a few years back, is a Prima Dona who isn’t much liked by the Phantom, who plans to place the innocent Christine in the lead of Diva. Much good music, and even some impressive swordplay and action, as the limits of the stage are given free rein. Gerard Butler of “Timeline” plays the Phantom; Emily Rossum is the brown-eyed beauty who plays Christine. Somehow, it wasn’t nominated for Best Costume. Wassup with that? TROY -- This was up for Best Costume, for the way-cool tailored leatherette suits and helmets for Brad Pitt as the legendary Achilles and “The Hulk’s” Eric Bana as Hector. Historical dramas were supposed to be big because of “Gladiator,” but this is proving to be as big a bust as the fizzled Lambada film genre. It’s hard to plan these things. HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS -- This impressive and artistic Asian import justifiably was up for Best Cinematography. The battle action, water walking and flying about was toned down from such others as “Crouching Dragon, Hidden Dragon” and Jet Li’s “Hero” which should have been nominated whenever it was released. There is more emphasis on intrigue and a love triangle as insurgents carry out a plot against the oppressive throne of Medieval China. There is even a major dance production scene. SHREK 2 -- Hilarious for adults and enjoyable for kids, the original “Shrek” was the impetus behind establishing a category for animated films as they were starting to edge into the bigger categories outside the technical ones. Indeed, “The Incredibles was being touted for a nomination for Best Picture! This follow-up features the gentle green giant and his bride Fiona, once a princess as they enact their own version of Meet The Parents and travel from the swamp to her fabled land and castle. Of course Donkey, voiced by Eddie Murphy is along. There are send ups of too many things to mention, including the OJ Freeway chase and many aspects of popular culture. THE INCREDIBLES -- The political tones are there as a anti-terrorism film that takes swipes at political correctness as a family of super powered suburbanites who have been banished along with all other one-time heroes as the legal costs became too much and they were given new identities. Dad and mom come out of retirement and the kids come along for the ride to halt a dastardly plot for world domination! Voices are Samuel L. Jackson, chilly as an iceman and a friend of the family; “Coach” Craig Nelson from “Action Jackson” and “Living Out Loud” actress Holly Hunter are the mom and dad. The kids will enjoy it as a cartoon, while the adults who bring them, or rent/buy the DVD will see the layers of meaning of this substantial film. ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND -- One of my favourites of the year, and quite a few critics as well. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet are a couple who decide to have their memories of each other erased after their breakup. In mid-procedure Carrey regrets his decision and tries to preserve some vestige of her. Artistic and funny, with impressive scenes that only a very hyperactive imagination could dream up, as a big bed on the shores of a chilly ocean as Carrey and Winslet try and evade the relentless mind probes. THE VILLAGE -- Horror master M. Night Shayamalan who chilled us all with “The Sixth Sense” and “Signs” goes back in time during Colonial days to an isolated village where the inhabitants have made a deal with the creatures of the forest to stay in their little enclave, or be torn apart. Until someone has to break the covenant after the village desperately needs help from the Outside. The colour red plays a part again, which is the directors own favourite sign. It was up for best Original Score. Cinema views by Film Critic Kevin J. Walker < thewordnetpaper@excite dotcom > Send a note to Cinemaviews at P. O. Box 1324-53201, or email walkernet@excite dot com, or walkerworld_2000@yahoo dot com --kjw websites: http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/the_511/outnabout Movies: http://cinemaviews.tripod.com http://www.blackwebportal.com/wire http://www.geocities.com/cinemaviews http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/cinema_views Travel: http://travelgriot.tripod.com http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/ Politics: http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/ Science: http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/ --30-- “Hitch” -- A Word NetPaper Film Review by Film Critic Kevin J. Walker Cinema Views by Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic http://cinemaviews.tripod.com/hitch.htm “Hitch” Is A Hoot With Will Smith Conquering World Of Romantic Comedies by Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic "> Have a party you want crashed? Send a note to Out and About at P. O. Box 1324-53201, or email walkernet@excite dot com, or walkerworld_2000@yahoo.com --kjw websites: http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/the_511/outnabout Movies: http://cinemaviews.tripod.com http://www.blackwebportal.com/wire http://www.geocities.com/cinemaviews http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/cinema_views Travel: http://travelgriot.tripod.com http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/ Politics: http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/ Science: http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/ --30-- email us at: walkernet@excite dot com “Any man can sweep any woman off her feet. All he needs is the right broom. That’s where I come in.” “A man with no game and no guile gets no girl” -- Words of wisdom from Alex Hitchins, aka “the Date Doctor” This is a much better date movie than what she’d picked for us the week before. I mean, “Hotel Rwanda” is a bit of a downer. “This is going to affect me for a whole month!” she hissed, passing me the bucket of popcorn she’d lost her interest in. I guess that a Siege Movie about Tutsi-Hutu genocide by machete based on real world events isn’t a Valentine boost, even if it up for multiple Academy Awards. The actor who once starred as “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” on NBC after a successful career of Rap Lite for suburbanites with songs such as “Parents Just Don’t Understand” with partner DJ Jazzy Jeff is now referred to as “Mr. 4th of July” after his very lucrative films that open during the cherished holiday weekend since “Independence Day.” The bad news about Big Willie’s streak was released a day or two afterwards: Will Smith’s string of consecutive $45 million film debuts was broken. Due to misreporting errors by Columbia Pictures, “Hitch” did not in fact top $45,000,000. It only made a tad bit over $43 mil. Well, Boo-Hoo! Smith has transmuted himself from teen films and even a starring role as a gay hustler that foreshadowed his dramatic skills and even plays a part in this film -- more on this later-- into one of the newest members of the Action Adventure genre inhabited by a very few such as the grand ol man Ar-nold and newer ones such as The Rock, former “XXX” star Vin Diesel, and now his successor in that role Ice Cube in the sequel “XXX: State of the Union.” “Hitch” is about a man they call “the Date Doctor,” Alex Hitchins, who has taken the message of the made for TV film “How To Pick Up Girls,” which was an actual bestselling book in the 1970s about a loveless guy who discovers the formula for getting through to the infuriatingly complex (and too often illogical and contradictory) female species. But I digress. The movie starts off with Hitch narrating straight to us beyond the theatrical Fourth Wall, much like Viveca Fox in “Two Can Play That Game” but unlike that hilarious film co-starring Morris Chestnut, the man Hollywood women have dubbed “the Black Clark Gable,” this is not carried throughout the film. But for getting us started it’s a good way in getting us up to speed and keeping the movie moving although it’s longer than most comedies, romantic or otherwise, which often wear their welcome out after 90 minutes. The movie is sweet in its inexorability, and the formula that these movies are based on doesn’t detract from its appeal in the least. That’s how they became formulas and genres in the first place because nothing succeeds like success. “Hitch” has several knee-slapping, laugh-out-loud moments, and the crowd reaction is something that aids viewing. Certainly the couple, especially the lady who sat one row up and a little over at the Marcus Northtown Cinemas in Milwaukee were enjoying themselves, and her laughter and reactions was infectious! “A man with no game and no guile gets no girl” says Hitch in his narration, sounding much like another consultant played by LL Cool J in “Deliver Us From Eva” with Gabrielle Union, herself a staple of the Romantic Comedy genre as the modern incarnation of Kate Hepburn. (A list of similar films, and some dissimilar ones follows this review). This narration helps to capsulize his philosophy for us, combined with a one-time flashback to the naive young man he was, and the incident that launched him into his career. This makes it cinematic kin to Bruce Willis’ film about a former fat, stuttering outcast with a pronounced overbite, who becomes a remake specialist with a comfortable life until his past self shows up on his front step. Both men remake themselves into sophisticated, suave men of the world; wiser but more cynical, with the idealism of their youth tempered by a harsh reality. It is this quality that makes “Hitch” more than the Date Film that its being sold as, coming out as it did in time for the Valentine observance. Hitch makes opportunities for the clumsy and loveless, to give Cupid some help in his freelance consultancy business. A delightful subplot is one of his special cases, a smitten man played by Kevin James who is hopelessly in love with an unreachable woman. “Allegra Cole?! The socialite, the one always in the news? Boy, you really shoot for the Moon, don’t you?” Hitch asks the short, clumsy, rotund and not especially well-off Albert Brennerman. Still, as a personal challenge he takes the case as a way of demonstrating just to himself that his credo is strong and his skills genuine. “Any man can sweep any woman off her feet. All he needs is the right broom. That’s where I come in” says Alex Hitchins, aka “the Date Doctor.” Some people have criticized the movie as being unrealistic. These are mostly women unwilling to admit that they are so pliable and we have to resort to schemes to get past their defenses, as pointed out by Hitch to a detractor. “I give guys a chance. I give hope to the hope-less. Would you have even noticed he was alive otherwise?” I know from personal experience that unlikely pairings can happen. The women of my dreams from high school and college became reality; later, women that I only watched on TV screens became my girls. One TV anchor had a millionaire boyfriend who treated her with disdain; she ended up with me after he dissed her one time too many. So I know for a fact that the lessons of “Hitch” are true. Us guys know the deal. As Hitch says “life isn’t how many breaths you take, It’s the moments that take your breath away.” Alex Hitchins employs sensible real world psychological observations in his work, and you could see the nods around the theatre. His hunting grounds are the clubs and dating environs of Manhattan, NYC. These club scenes and the rituals we see dissected and presented are like scientists looking at an ant farm, where the Sheeple go about their pre-ordained roles. It helps that “Hitch” has the lovely and appealing and also familiar Eva Mendes from two Denzel movies “Training Day” and “Out of Time;” and with Michael Epps in “All About The Benjamins.” Mendes also played an undercover agent opposite Tyrese Gibson and Walker in “2 Fast 2 Furious.” She has that enviable quality that eludes many stars; that she is liked by both sexes, is sexy and smart. Because she’s seen as a Smart Cookie, Black women don’t hate that she has starred mostly opposite Black men, although perhaps she’ll one day co-star with a Latino man. Mendes is Sara Melas, a go-getter and cynical about love gossip columnist much like Kate Hudson in “How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days,” who stumbles onto the world of the Date Doctor while falling for Hitch, whom she doesn’t realize is one and the same. “Sometimes you can’t see the forest for the sleaze” she tells a still hopeful pal, Casey, a hopeless romantic. This sets up the formulaic Confused/Hidden Identities Plotline that Brother Will Shakespeare used in some of his most popular comedies, although his plays are much more enjoyable when presented in their original Swahili. Albert is Hitch’s Sistine Chapel ceiling, his masterpiece. Using his case and spreading it throughout the film gives us a break from the story of Hitch and Sara, and helps the movie move along even though it’s longer than most comedies. Appealing and showing every bit the professionalism from years in the business is Sara’s editor Max, played by Elliot Gould. His effortless skill in an unsubstantial role added another of the little touches that made the film so enjoyable. From the Screwball Comedies of the 1940s with Cary Grant, Kate Hepburn, Spencer Tracy and others, comedies combined with romance have been a cinematic staple that never goes out of style, it just adjusts and morphs into new forms. Witness the planned big screen film “The Honeymooners” out next year that will star Gabrielle Union and St. Louis’ Cedric the Entertainer as Ralph and Alice Cramden. This one will go straight to the moon! “HITCH” is being shown at the Northtown theatres where you can enjoy a safe and enjoyable filmgoing experience, and is my primary theatre because of the stadium seating, an efficient no-nonsense management, security, and several screens with the latest hits as well as family fare so the Little Ones can be down the hall watching “Pooh’s Heffalump Adventure” and “Are We There Yet?” while you and your wifey or sweety can watch your mature-minded films. -- kjw CAST OF “HITCH” Andy Tennant directed the film from Columbia Pictures. It is rated PG-13 for some light sexual banter and situations, and an unnecessary yet easily excised use of the shortened form of the medieval order of Fornication Under Consent of the King. Alex Hitchins -- Will Smith Sara Melas -- Eva Mendes Albert Brennerman -- Kevin James Allegra Cole -- Casey -- Julianne Max -- Elliot Gould FILMS BY WILL SMITH, AND OTHERROMANTIC COMEDIES YOU MAY ENJOY: < http://www.thebwp.com/wire > [hit “MovieReviews” link on the left hand side for some of these films] “I, Robot” “Independence Day” “Ali” “Made In America“ “Six Degrees Of Separation“ “Bad Boys“1 And 2 ROMANTIC COMEDIES: “Made In America “Cruel Intentions “Kissing A Fool “Best Man“ “The Brothers“ “How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days“ -- Kate Hudson is a magazine writer opposite Matt McConaughey in the old formula of a bet combined with confused identities. TEEN ROMANTIC COMEDIES: “10 Things I Hate About You “She’s All That” “American Pie” LATINO FLAVOURED LOVE: “The Wedding Planner“ -- Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey “Meet The Fockers“ -- Robert DeNiro, Tea Leoni and Ben Stiller come back for this sequel with his Hippie parents played by Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand SORTA, KINDA QUALIFIES AS ROMANTIC FILMS: “28 Days Later” -- this horrific apocalyptic film about a disease devastated England features Naomie Harris and “Bend It Like Beckham” co-star as they try to survive with their made-up family of fellow refugees in a Hellish land infested with enraged ghouls, and not the slow, shambling type in the old “Night of the Living Dead” films. Their coming together under duress is believable, and rather sweet in a film that has little decent moments. “Are We There Yet?” with Ice Cube and his four-time co-star Nia Long from “Friday” and “Boyz N The Hood.” Cube transports her two brats from Portland to Vancouver, and has misadventures all the way. “Malibu’s Most Wanted“ -- This Salt and Pepper and rap flavored romantic comedy co-stars “Son of the Mask’s” Jamie Kennedy as a suburban who identifies too strongly with lower strata African Americans, which imperils the prospects of his politically ambitious dad. A duo is charged with “Deprogramming” him, and the superbly talented “Scary Movie” actress as his love interest. “After The Sunset“ -- Pierce Brosnan and Woody Harrelson star in a strange sort of Buddy/Heist/Salt and Pepper romantic film which co-stars the gorgeous scenery of the Bahamas. A retired jewel thief and the weary FBI agent who never caught him tangle in the islands. Also co-stars luscious Latina Salma Hayek, who’s thickened back up a little bit from her debut as the Snake Vampiress in “From Dusk ‘Til Dawn” (she’s Arab-Mexican -- yes, they have those, thank the Gods!) and Oscar nominated Don Cheadle as the villain. Naomie Harris, the machete-wielding heroine from “28 Days Later” [itself another strange romance film, see above] is a police officer pursued by the amorous Harrelson. “After The Sunset” features the Gay subtext that is featured in so many of these, such as the antics seen not only in “Hitch” but the “Lethal Weapons” series that will see many DVD owning Sodomites freeze-framing and replaying certain scenes. As a matter of fact, let’s segue into a few of those, shall we? I don’t particularly care for homos, but the films are certainly funny: “Three Of Hearts“ -- this is a true gay-themed romantic film with Kelly Lynch as a Lesbian being challenged by a man for the attentions of her girl, a bisexual honey-pie. “The Birdcage” -- Robin Williams and Nathan Lane star with Gene Hackman and Callista Flockhart that is an Americanized remake of the French farce of the 1980s. Williams and Lane are partners who have to pass as regular guys when their “son” has to meet the parents. Lane plays the girl part. Hackman is one of the homeliest drag queens that ever existed in a hilarious scene in a movie that has lots of them. “Chasing Amy“ -- a qualifying Gay themed romantic comedy about a smitten straight guy chasing Amy, who’s a Lesbian. Good luck! (Don’t ask me why). OLD SCHOOL ROMANTIC COMEDIES “Bringing Up Baby” “Woman Of The Year” The Front Page Champagne For Caesar From the Screwball Comedies of the 1940s with Cary Grant, Kate Hepburn, Spencer Tracy and others, comedies combined with romance have been a cinematic staple that never goes out of style, it just adjusts and morphs into new forms. Witness the planned big screen film “The Honeymooners” out next year that will star Gabrielle Union and St. Louis’ Cedric the Entertainer as Ralph and Alice Cramden. This one will go straight to the moon! Cinema Views by Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic From The Word NetPaper, Online News Service < http://cinemaviews.tripod.com > email us at: walkernet@ excite dot com or Snail Mail to: P.O. Box 1324-53201 Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA ------ LINKS FOR PAST REVIEWS OF: “GOTHIKA” -- HALLE BERRY SEES DEAD GIRLS; “HAUNTED MANSION” --EDDY MURPHY SEES LOTS MORE; "MATRIX: REVOLUTIONS;" "KILL BILL VOL. 1" PRE- "MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE" PREP PAST DENZEL FILMS: "JOHN Q" "TRAINING DAY" "HE GOT GAME" "ANTWON FISHER" “OUT OF TIME” http://cinemaviews.tripod.com/outoftime.html VIDEOS, INCLUDING THE "BLACK LOVE COLLECTION""> Send a note to P. O. Box 1324-53201, or email walkernet@excite dot com, or walkerworld_2000@yahoo dot com --kjw websites: http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/the_511/outnabout Movies: http://cinemaviews.tripod.com http://www.blackwebportal.com/wire http://www.geocities.com/cinemaviews http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/cinema_views Travel: http://travelgriot.tripod.com http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/ Politics: http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/ Science: http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/ --30-- “CATWOMAN” CINEMA VIEWS With Film Critic Kevin J. Walker kevin j. walker p.o. box 1324-53201 milwaukee, wisconsin usa emails: thewordnetpaper@excite thewordnetpaper@excite "CATWOMAN” Grrrl Power is at the center of a sometimes heavy-handed, not to speak of ham handed. "Catwoman," which despite other critics raking their claws over it is an enjoyable movie, although much less than purrrfect, and it used up a few of a nine lives getting to the point. Like a cat it takes its time getting around to a predicable plotline, and the next installment in what the makers hope is a franchise had better get on the stick, else they'll ends up like Van Diesel's aborted "XXX" series, which is going to another African Descended star while Diesel builds up "The Chronicles of Riddick" Sci Fi series he executive produces. Oscar winner Halle Berry almost made a "Monsters Hair Ball" of a film because High Camp is hard to sustain even when done properly. The exaggerated switching by Berry in her sprayed-on catsuit looked about to dislocate her hips as she sashayed across the rooftops of the unnamed metropolis. Her character, much like Michelle Pfeiffer's in "Batman Returns" gets a feline persona after a near-death experience. Pfeiffer's Catwoman lay in an alley getting licked and nuzzled by strays, while Berry, much like Jack Nicholson in "Batman," lay immersed in putrid toxic wastes and emerged more than a little unhinged. Both are mousy corporate types, being put upon by their male superiors. Pfeiffer was abused by Christopher Walken, Berry here is verbally and emotionally abused by her boss. If he looks familiar but you just can't place him, he was the epicurean Merovingian rogue program in the last two "Matrix" films. Berry's character is Patience Phillips, a graphics artist for a top cosmetics firm in their art department, much like her role in "Boomerang" with Eddie Murphy and bad girl and ex-Mike Tyson wife Robin Givens. "Catwoman" has a mixture of the psychological and the sorcery mumbo-jumbo about it, with explanations of the Egyptian goddess Bast, apparently one of the early cat fanciers whose spirit oozes into Berry’s character, making her one of a series of Catwomen over the years. Now those are ideas for prequels, like The Mummy” films, going back to the beginning and so forth, or a Depression-era Catwoman, or one fighting against the Nazis. Maybe it’s the dog in me, but I found "Catwoman" a little heavy on the feminine side. This is aided in no small part by Sharon stone, who is one of the modern icons of feminine sexual power. She's an older woman who is still undeniably sexy, and she's having a great time as one of the villains of the movie. As a baddie Stone gets some of the best lines, as when she responds to Detective Tom Lone, played by Benjamin Bratt who tells her "you don't want to do that." "I'm a woman. I'm used to doing all sorts of things I don't want to do." Bratt and Berry engage in the same sort of playground battle courtship seen between Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner between their characters of Daredevil and Electra. After the timid Patience takes him to the hoop a few times during recess at his moonlighting as a volunteer at an urban tutoring program, he becomes enamoured and intrigued by the change in this woman, and her new Nnena Phelon hairdo. Her new attitude starts to assert itself as when she tells off her supervisor after first apologizing profusely when she drags into work after an eventful night. "OK, here's the remix" she says, her pleasant Patience demeanor now gone and a snarling vixen in her place. "I'm sorry -- for every second I wasted working for an untalented egotistical ingrate like you!!," she hissed. "Catwoman" is like Spiderman or Daredevil, that is, not quite a hero in the minds of the greater public or the authorities. But at least those Anti-Superheroes didn't rip off a jewelry store. "Time to accessorize" she tells her familiar Midnight, a rare Egyptian Mau cat, as she races off on a stolen expensive motorcycle. The larger plot entails corporate malfeasance and potentially dangerous products from the cosmetic industry where she works in the art department. The danger in some reviewers -- as opposed to we bona fide film critics-- trying to capsulate a movie with scant facts is when some reported that Berry's quest was to free/avenge animals, especially cats, being used in research by corporate labs. No such drama here. This is mostly a simple tale about revenge, and fulfilling a legacy by accepting and adopting one's fate. The action sequences are adequate, and Berry's skills as a former Broadway dancer are like Catherine Zeta Jones in "Entrapment," well used as she perches on her furniture, or walks along the back of her sofa as her feline qualities come to the fore. She has mutant powers like Spider Man, but unlike Batman who only has a twisted rage against the criminals who killed his parents before his eyes. Catwoman has superfast reflexes, and eerie senses of balance, sight and hearing. She gets in some licks too -- Bratt's cop character knows that fo' sho after they do battle much like Pfeiffer and OG Batman Michael Keaton. And she has some snappy comebacks and quips of her own. "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" as she uses her diamond encrusted claws to yank on the tongue of a villain whose chest she perches on. (She fashioned the claws from some of the loot from the jewelry heist). In a noisy thumping singles bar where no one looks particularly askance at her leatherette Dominatrix getup, complete with whip and five inch Hoe-Heels, she tells the bartender her order. "White Russian. Hold the vodka, hold the water." "Here ya go -- milk, straight up" as he serves her. She does a number on several cans of tuna as well, and rolls a ball of catnip around her face, which is sorta like marijuana for cats. These things while amusing aren't enough for today's action adventure fan, who is used to Big Things happening. Or they can be small things intelligently and creatively presented, like many foreign films. These shortcomings don't doom movie, but it used up valuable time instead of getting to the point and the action! Berry's skills as an Academy Award Winner are evident in "Catwoman," especially when combined in scenes with Stone, a nominee for "Casino." There are echoes seen of Berry's "Gothika" when her Catwoman alter ego comes to the fore replacing the timid Patience Phillips. Her features change, even her voice pattern. Playing psychologically challenged characters has always been a great way for masters of the acting game to show what they're workin' with, such as Cliff Robertson in "Charly" or Joan Crawford in "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?" Berry has been a Bad Girl before, but the American public has its choices as American Sweethearts such as Sandra Bullock and Renee Zelwegger, who can do no wrong. Berry was even a crack hoe paired with Samuel Jackson's 'Gator in Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever." She was killed outright in " The Last Boy Scout" after hiring Bruce Willis to protect her, after she run afoul of a wealthy NFL owner she was trying to game while going with one of the Wayans. Stone is at her most diabolical since the feminine intrigue French remade "Diabolique," and her star as a schemer was set when she appeared as the lone woman in a roomful of interrogating policemen in "Basic Instinct," which is being set for a sequel as we speak. Or read. She tells her wimpy creeping husband "Stop taking Viagra like they're vitamins, and dating youngsters who were born when they invented the cell phone. In short, George, be a man!!" There are echoes of "Death Becomes Her," the Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn science fantasy vehicle about the search for timeless beauty. Here it’s a skin cream, in that weird movie about looks and immortality it was an ancient Egyptian preparation that rolled back the clock. --kjw -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/the_511/MOVIES http://geocities.com/cinemaviews http://geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/cinema_views ----------------- Remember to patronize the Northtown Cinemas at 7440 North 76th street, two blocks north of Good Hope road in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Most major film releases can be seen there in comfort with their new stadium style seating, and now with the thuggish elements banished to other area theatres, wholesome family films are back, such as "Are We There Yet?" and others. --kjw The Word NetPaper http://geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/cinema_views kevin j. walker p.o. box 1324-53201 milwaukee, wisconsin usa emails: kevinwalker2005@lycos.com thewordnetpaper@excite.com --30-- "In this society you must have either money or power. If you have either you are respected, if you have both you are feared, but if you have neither then you are oppressed." --Former Phila. Rep. William Gray, past head of the UNCF CINEMA VIEWS With Film Critic Kevin J. Walker kevin j. walker p.o. box 1324-53201 milwaukee, wisconsin usa (414) 454-9673 thewordnetpaper@excite “I, ROBOT” "I, ROBOT" BLACK WEB PORTAL REVIEWS: http://www.theBWP.com/wire,[CLICK ON "MOVIEREVIEWS"] QUARANTINO’S “KILL BILL, VOL. I” http://www.geocities.com/walkerworld_2000/the_511/MOVIES/killbill.html KILL BILL VOL. 2 "NEVER DIE ALONE" WITH DMX AND DAVID ARQUETTE "> Send a note to P. O. Box 1324-53201, or email walkernet@excite dot com, or walkerworld_2000@yahoo dot com --kjw websites: