Needed something quick and easy to throw up because I’ve been busy lately what with work, parties and getting caught in floods at 3 o’clock in the morning so here’s another tribute to the G.I. Joe film.

“Charlamagne The God” may have just met his match when it comes to talking wreckless. He recently attacked Marlon Wayans on Twitter stating that he wasn’t funny and by suggesting that Marlon Wayans brother Shawn is a homosexual. And, boy let me tell you… Marlon Wayans wasn’t having none of it. None of it at all.

***Update*** Marlon Wayans Twitter page is back in effect.
***Update*** At 10:40PM EST ** Marlon Wayans Twitter Account has been suspended.
Marlon Wayans immediately shot back and sent out a flee of attacks via Twitter aimed at Charlamagne The God. Check out his tweets below:

@cthagod your were breast fed from a Ding-Ding
@cthagod You sweet ass n*gga your PACIFIER had BALLS on it!
@cthagod YOU CAN’T EVEN HATE RIGHT! it’s a sad day my nig.
@cthagod call wendy maybe she can do some segments on talkin’ monkeys and you can go perform. Bum ass hater.
@cthagod you said some smart shit to my brother on the show and my sister. I’ll tell u what u lil’ Chimpanzee I ain’t havin’ it. BUBBLES!!
@cthagod LOCAL N@GGA!!! I just came from london paris japan and korean. U ain’t even known in brooklyn. You a rock turd
@cthagod Go watch one my classics nigga, steal a line from don’t be a menace and use it on some defenseless r&b chick. I ain’t them
@cthagod don’t come my way nigga. I DO THIS! stick to radio! Nobody quoting you for 20 years. not a classic to your name. FUCK OUTTA HERE!!

Boyz N The Hood was the debut film by writer/director John Singleton.  The semi-autobiographical tale revolves around three young black men, Tre, Ricky, and Doughboy, and their daily lives growing up in South Central Los Angeles.

On to the tale of the tape…

Relevance:  While the phrase ‘black film’ can take on many different meanings (as this countdown hopefully illustrates), Boyz N The Hood is the type of film that is universally agreed to represent the ultimate prototype.  Black director, black writer, black cast, black soundtrack, black setting, black story.  Spike had already proven there was a modern audience for black film; in mimicking the rise of West Coast hip hop, John opened America’s eyes to a very real ’street’ sensibility that was getting louder and prouder.

Legacy:     So many careers and trends can be traced to this film.  John Singleton obviously, but also Ice Cube, Morris Chestnut, Nia Long, and Cuba Gooding Jr. started their rise with this film.  The good and bad ‘hood’ films (Menace II Society, and countless others) wouldn’t have gotten made without Boyz.  While Spike was the clear pioneer, John’s success told both Hollywood and future filmmakers that there was room for more than one black storyteller at a time.  That might be the greatest legacy.

Craft:  Rewatching it years later, there are points where the film is undeniably ‘preachy’.  (And the Wayans absolutely slaughtered this point to death in their parody, Don’t Be a Menace).  That aside, the film’s structure is fairly classical.  Three brothers, one undeniably good (Tre), one undeniably bad (Doughboy), and one good who has some ties to the bad (Ricky).  The presence of the father figure (Furious) is somewhat on the nose, but no one can take away from the great performance of Laurence Fishburne.

Crossover:  Without a doubt.  Boyz N The Hood was on its own regard a crossover phenomenon.  John Singleton became the first African-American, and the youngest person of any color to be nominated for Best Director.  As referenced in the Legacy section, Ice Cube has gone from Doughboy to the star of Are We There Yet?  Anyone who saw that coming is a bold faced liar.

Apollo:  Ricky’s slow motion demise is still incredibly powerful.  If I may, I’d like to use this space for something more personal.  I was still a kid when this film came out.  Spike’s films had already planted the seed in my head, and I heard about all this new black kid out of USC doing it, so of course I wanted to see the film.  Now I might be slightly off with this number, but the number of times I personally remember my father going out to the movie theater has to be around…5?  He has movies he likes now, but they’re not his thing, they’re my thing.  So there we were one Saturday afternoon (in Oak Park Mall for you Kansas City people) watching Boyz.  My Pops taking me to something I was interested in wasn’t a big deal to me; it’s what I’ve always known.  So when Furious made his speech to Tre about listening to him (and watching what happens to Ricky and Doughboy who didn’t have that male influence), it was just part of the movie to me. 

Anyway, now that I’m on the other side of the table, I have so much appreciation for what I had.  Obviously having a man in the house doesn’t mean automatically mean a boy grows up into a good brotha, not having a man doesn’t mean a boy won’t turn out well.  But it’s a conversation I’ve had over and over again with some of my closest friends: having a good man involved in the life of a boy can go a long, long way in creating a good man.  (I’m deliberately avoiding the father-daughter influence; go listen to some old John Mayer for that.)  As a wrap I’ll say for its various flaws, Boyz N The Hood is one of the better, three-dimensional black films ever made.

The countdown will continue with another landmark film.  Until next time…

One of the shows that legitimized Fox as ‘the fourth network’, In Living Color was the brainchild of Keenen Ivory Wayans and his brother Damon.  Forever referred to as the black Saturday Night Live, In Living Color was a primetime sketch/variety show with a much more pronounced African-American slant.  I pity those of you who didn’t live through it when it aired live.  On to the tale of the tape…

Relevance:  As the name implies, the sketches, the musical guests, the Fly Girls were all much more representative of the booming hip hop culture that was taking over young black America.  While SNL and many other comedy troupes usually have one token actor on staff when the need arises to have a black character, ILC could in many ways tackle deeper issues simply because they had so many black actors (look no further than the Star Trek: the Wrath of Farrahkhan sketch).

Legacy:  Pick one from the following list of people, movies, and shows that can be traced back to In Living Color  - one of the biggest comedic A-list actors of the 90s (Jim Carrey), an Academy Award winning black actor (Jamie Foxx), the first person to have a number one movie and album at the same time (Jennifer Lopez), The Wayans Brothers (TV Show), Scary Movie and the rebirth of the slapstick genre that followed the original movies’ success…the list goes on. 

Craft:  Still some of the best comedy seen on television (in my humble opinion).  Let me take you back to the first episode:  there was the ‘Love Connection’ episode featuring a dead-on Chuck Woolery (Carrey) interviewing Robin Givens (Kim Coles) about her ‘date’ with Iron Mike Tyson (Keenen under great makeup).  The first episode also featured the first ‘Men on Film’, where Blaine Edwards (Damon) and Antoine Merriweather (David Alan Grier) reviewed films from ‘a male point of view’.  I still remember vividly going to middle school the next day (Monday) and seeing kids doing the ‘two snaps up’ during lunch.  This show was as close to an instant comedy classic as it gets.

Crossover:  In the same way that SNL crossed over, not necessarily; but in terms of sheer popularity there’s no question it was huge.  Fox asked for (and got) an In Living Color halftime show during one of its Super Bowl years.  By that point the sight gag of whatever little hat Damon was wearing in his ‘Men On…’ sketches was hilarious enough.  Keenen walked out during the show’s run not because of ratings failures but because of a contract dispute (isn’t that how it always goes). 

Apollo:  The nature of any sketch comedy show is everyone will have a different favorite recurring character/sketch.  I’ve written 400 words and still haven’t mentioned Homey the Clown, Fire Marshal Bill, or Cephus and Reecie.  Personal favorites for me – Sketch: when Hammer was at his peak, they dressed up Tommy Davidson in the balloon pants and had him do ‘Can’t Touch This’.  That visual always busts me up.  Character: slightly under the radar, but Damon did this character named Oswald Bates, an ex-con who loves to use big words but never uses them in the right context (“You see, we must EVACUATE, excuse me, EJACULATE my fluid penetration!”) The militant in me always cracks up at that.

(And yes, every sketch I referenced in this review is on YouTube somewhere.)

Next on the TV countdown is a show that had an even shorter run but also became an instant classic.  Until next time.

-Nigga, I’ve heard ya leavin’

-Yeah

-Nigga, be well and don’t be a menace to the South-central while drinking your juice in the hood

Αυτή είναι η συμβουλή όταν ένας νεαρός μαύρος φεύγει από το γκέττο, στο “Don’t be a menace to the south central while drinking your juice in the hood” τουλάχιστον. Η οποία είναι μία κάφρικη αμερικάνικη ταινία scαry-movie-κού χιούμορ που σατιρίζει τις ταινίες που ασχολούνται με τα γκέττο όπως οι “Boyz N the Hood”, “South Central”, “Menace II Society”, “Higher Learning” και “Juice”, και προφανώς ο τίτλος της ταινίας αποτελεί ένα σουρεάλ κολάζ των παραπάνω τίτλων.

Πρωταγωνιστές είναι ο Shawn Wayans και ο αδερφός του Marlon Wayans, γνωστοί στους περισσότερους από το Scary Movie 1, όπου έπαιζαν τον gay και τον μπαφικλή αντίστοιχα. Οι ερμηνείες δεν λένε και πολλά αλλά οι ατάκες προκαλούν γέλιο. Το σενάριο όπως συμβαίνει σε όλες τις ταινίες αυτού του είδους είναι ανύπαρκτο, το ίδιο και η σκηνοθεσία, για φωτογραφία δε ας μην μιλήσω καλύτερα. Αλλά όλα αυτά δεν έχουν καμία σημασία, καθώς τέτοιες παραγωγές δεν θέλουν να δείξουν την art πλευρά τους ούτε να θέσουν υποψηφιότητα για τα oscar, θέλουν να σε κάνουν να γελάς μέσα από το πιο άκυρο χιούμορ  που υπήρξε ποτέ, το οποίο παραμένει επίκαιρο ακόμα και 13 χρόνια μετά το έτος παραγωγής της ταινίας.

Μεγάλο κεφάλαιο σε αυτή την ταινία αποτελεί το soundtrack το οποίο περιέχει μόνο αράπικες rap-εριές (yar in da hood, rememba?) σε style “wu tang clan” και “snoop dogg”, μουσική άκρως ενοχλητική (τις ώρες που δεν βλέπω την ταινία) που όμως σε τέτοια ταινία δεν θα μπορούσε να είναι διαφορετική.

To celebrate the recent release of G.I. Joe on DVD, I threw this together. Enjoy.

Je vais le voir ou pas ?

Il est de retour ! Dany Boon ? Non, non, voyons… Je veux bien entendu parler du magicien Jean-Pierre Jeunet. A 56 ans, le réalisateur de Delicatessen,  La Cité des Enfants Perdus, Alien, la résurrection ou encore Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain refait surface après cinq ans d’absence avec Micmacs à tire-larigot.

Micmacs à tire-larigot, c’est l’histoire de Bazil, orphelin vivant avec une épée de Damoclès au-dessus de la tête à cause d’une balle logée dans son cerveau. Recueilli par une bande de chiffonniers, il décide de se venger en retrouvant les fabricants d’armes qui ont ruiné sa vie.

Alors que Jeunet avait réservé le rôle-titre à Jamel Debbouze, séduit par leur collaboration sur Amélie Poulain et allant jusqu’à adapter le scénario au handicap de l’acteur, ce dernier a malheureusement décliné l’offre deux mois avant le tournage. Coup dur pour Jean-Pierre Jeunet qui a alors insisté pour faire passer des essais à Dany Boon, avec succès. Heureusement, Dominique Pinon est là. Chouchou du réalisateur depuis des décennies, Pinon rempile et apporte sa touche personnelle au rôle du déjanté Fracasse.

” [...] on est déçus de ne pas être plus surpris, frappés par un manque d’originalité [...]” (Première). Coup dur avant sa sortie, la critique n’a visiblement pas été emballée par le film et le fait savoir. “La mécanique semble tellement huilée et la scénario tellement cliché qu’il manque un petit truc [...] Tout ça pour ça?” (Elle), “[...] le moteur tourne souvent à vide, les mécanismes se grippent et toute la machinerie tousse.” (NouvelObs), “[...] il nous agace avec cette fable gavée de bons sentiments [...]” (Télé7jours). Le verdict du box-office reste néanmoins le plus attendu par l’équipe.

Face à cette grosse sortie française, Hollywood ne perd pas au change avec la distribution du très attendu Clones de Jonathan Mostow. Adaptation du comic Surrogates écrit par Robert Venditti et Brett Veldele, le film est mené de front par l’éternel Bruce Willis. Ce thriller du futur met en scène deux agents du F.B.I. qui enquêtent sur le meurtre d’un étudiant. Rien de peu banal excepté le fait que dans ce futur, la population entière vit au travers de clones commandés à distance leur garantissant une sécurité totale. Ce meurtre orientera l’agent Greers (Willis) vers une vérité dont la société qui fabrique les clones se passerait bien de révéler au grand jour…

Pour rendre crédible ce futur potentiel, le réalisateur va jusqu’à présenter dans les premières séquences le scientifique japonais Hiroshi Ishiguro qui utilise un double robotisé pour donner des conférences à plusieurs endroit en même-temps. De belles promesses de Clones qui divisent les avis… “Brillant, poétique, aigu comme un épisode de “la Quatrième Dimension”” (NouvelObs), “La satire sociale est donc l’un des moteurs de Clones, ce qui n’empêche pas Mostow de s’adonner à l’un de ses figures préférées: la séquences d’action échevelée.” (L’Ecran fantastique), “Clones, aussi désincarné que ses protagonistes, ressemble à ça: un vestige des années 90 [...]” (Première).

Enfin, trois autres sorties remarquées avec This is it de Kenny Ortega – ou un montage des répétitions du concert qu’aurait dû donner feu Mickaël Jackson – distribué sur deux semaines uniquement (vous avez dit coup marketing ?), l’adaptation ciné de la série animée Panique au village de Vincent Patar et Stéphane Aubier qui a conquis la critique : “Frappadingue, hystérique mais aussi poétique, Panique au village est un film rare [...] qui nous scotche un grand sourire sur le visage [...] Un petit morceau de bonheur, quoi.” (Mad Movies) – A voir en famille ! – et le délirant teen-movie Dance Movie qui prolonge l’ascension lucrative des frères Wayans, introduisant le petit dernier Damon Wayans Jr. Les avis ? “A peine drôle et d’une abyssale bêtise…” (Télérama). Aouch !

Bonne semaine !

Hélène Barbaza

—> Si vous passez par la case ciné, profitez de la nouvelle catégorie Conseils des internautes pour y laisser vos critiques ou un simple avis.

Micmacs à tire-larigot
Un film de Jean-Pierre Jeunet, avec Dany Boon, Yolande Moreau, Dominique Pinon.

Michael Jackson’s This Is It
Un film de Kenny Ortega.

Clones
Un film de Jonathan Mostow avec Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell.

Dance Movie
Un film de Keenen Ivory Wayans, avec Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans.

Cinéman
Un film de Yann Moix avec Franck Dubosc, Pierre-François Martin-LAval et Lucy Gordon.

Les Zintrus
Un film de John Schultz, avec Ashley Tisdale, Kevin Nealon.

Panique au village
Un film de Vincent Patar et Stéphane Aubier.

L’Ours et le magicien
Trois courts-métrages réalisés par Dace Riduze, Evalds Lacis et Maris Brinkmanis.

Le Jour où Dieu est parti en voyage
Un film de Philippe Van Leeuw, avec Afazali Dewaele et Ruth Nirere.

Irène
Un film d’Alain Cavalier.

Making of
Un film de Nouri Bouzid avec Lotfi Abdelli, Lotfi Dziri, Dali Boumnijel.

Damon Wayans Jr. is a funny dude.  ” Yo. I’m not coming in today … yea i got it… that BIRDFLU” lmaooo DEF WATCH!!

Robert Townsend, Ronald E Grant, Keenan Ivory Wayans, Chris Tucker photographed at the 2002 American Black Film Festival by Adrienne C Barr

Robert Townsend, Keenan Ivory Wayans and Chris Tucker: three of the most talented actors and directors of our time who’ve given us some of the funniest shows and films in recent years. To name just a few:

Robert Townsend – Produced and starred in Hollywood Shuffle, The Five Heartbeats

Keenan Ivory Wayans – Produced and starred in Scary Movie 1,2 and 3, In Living Color, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka

Chris Tucker – starred in the Rush Hour franchise, Dead Presidents, Friday

Also shown in the photo is the legendary Ronald E Grant, Recording Artist/Music Producer of tracks for artists such as Mariah Carey and Biggie Smalls.

The list of films, television shows and movies produced by or starred in by Townsend, Tucker or Wayans is far too extensive for me to list in a blog.  But in the gloomy night of well-made but tragic films like Menace II Society and Boyz In The Hood, these men helped to usher in a new sunrise of humor that we hadn’t seen since the days of comedic legends Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby. They brought us a ’smarter’ kind of humor with movies that made us think about how black culture was being portrayed on the large and small screens. And both Townsend and Wayans in particular subtly pointed out the important difference of being laughed with and being laughed at when it comes to black comedy.

In addition to breathing fresh air into black comedy, Wayans is also largely responsible for launching the careers of stars such as Jim Carrey and Jennifer Lopez.  Had there been no “In Living Color” there would have been no “Fly Girls” or “Fire Marshall Bill.” One can argue that the extraordinary talent of Carrey, Lopez, Daman Wayans and many others from the “In Living Color” ensemble would have been discovered eventually but I argue just as strongly that each of their ‘big breaks’ came light years faster because of the show.

There are so, so many men and women who belong on this list — Hudlin Brothers, Kasi Lemmons, Bill Duke –I can’t even begin to list the great actors and producers who are responsible for shaping my and many more generations of theatrical fun, so I just decided to start with three.

La primera Scary Movie

Hollywood se ha vuelto muy predecible desde hace años, por lo que algunas noticias no son ya realmente sorpresivas. Por ello, la confirmación de la quinta parte de Scary Movie – algo de lo que ya se había hablado anteriormente – no debe de ser una novedad. Esta saga se ha convertido en un éxito asegurado a pesar de no tener ningún aporte real. La misma se espera que esté en pantalla para el 2011, y si bien no se han dado a conocer detalles de la trama, no será nada difícil saber que es lo que podemos esperar.

Posted by Audiegrl

EW/Nicole Sperling—Funny man Marlon Wayans is in advanced discussions to play one of comedy’s most iconic figures in the biopic Richard Pryor: Is it Something I Said for Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Prods. and Sony Pictures. The project has been written and will be directed by Bill Condon (Dreamgirls). Eddie Murphy was originally attached to star in the project, but he dropped out over conflicts with Paramount Pictures, which was previously on board to finance the film.

While Wayans is primarily known for his comedic roles in Wayans Bros.’ movies such as Dance Flick and White Chicks, he received critical acclaim for his dramatic turn in 1999’s Requiem for a Dream. Sources tell EW.com that Wayans fought for the role, blowing the producers away with a 13- min screen test where he “transforms into Pryor.” The movie depicts Pryor’s controversial brand of comedy and his battle with drugs and is currently budgeted at $20 million. Chris Rock, Pryor’s widow Jennifer Lee Pryor and Mark Gordon are also lined up to produce.

More…

Knowing is half the battle.

You can't fight the numbers

GI Joe was a staple of my childhood. As pointed out on this blog before, nothing came close to the explosions and truly satisfying destruction of a Cobra base with a jolly “YO JOE” capped on at the end for good measure. Favorite Joes include Dusty, Snake Eyes, Cross Country, Lady Jay and Flint.

Favorite Cobra villains were, and will always be, The Crimson Twins (aka Tomax and Xamot) not

Fact: Identical twins are scary AND mostly likely agents of Cobra

only because of their flamboyantly evil costumes but also because of that weird voice that the actors on the show implemented to make them seem like villainous gymnasts from the country of auto-tune. Plus their names are mirrior images of each other (yes it took me 20 years to realize that) so that’s pretty awesome too.

GI Joe, while rooted in the Regan-era Military-Industrial Complex and, on some level, an agent for Pro-American leanings during the Cold War is still one of the classic cartoons from the 1980s and I am proud to have been one of the lucky kids who got to see the tv show and the comic book during it’s heyday.

GI Joe, Transformers, and the  like all were apart of the Golden Age of American television, an era that has not been topped since. Hollywood has proved this point by leeching off of the ideas of their 80’s counterparts to make blockbuster movies out of childhood memories. While I have yet to see the new GI Joe movie, I am more inclined to see it over Transformers since it lacks the bemoaning of Shiloh LeBouf, I am still wary of what kind of mind-raping it might incur in the form of a Wayans Brother portraying a GI Joe.

When I do get a chance to see the movie, and even if it crushes my memories of a more simpler time, at least now I’ll know…and knowing is half the battle.

Não é tão bomba quanto eu esperava. E, quem diria, até que funciona como diversão rasteira. Duas boas cenas de ação valem o ingresso: a do início do filme e toda a sequência em Paris. Ambas esbanjam ritmo, capricho, montagem correta e pirotecnias absurdas que, por incrível que pareça, convencem muito bem. Pena que o clímax do filme fique bem aquém, com uma sucessão de takes escuros, repletos de movimentos que não conseguimos acompanhar e cortes rápidos demais – aparentemente com o objetivo de mascarar uma porrada de efeitos mal-retocados (um desleixo que virou marca registrada do Stephen Sommers desde “O Retorno Da Múmia”) . Mas você até pode dar um desconto desta vez, se levar em consideração a boa (no bom e mau sentido) presença de Sienna Miller. E o fato de que este é o único filme com um irmão Wayans que não é um cocô completo.

(G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra – 2009) – Trailer
Direção: Stephen Sommers
Roteiro: Stuart Beattie, David Elliot, Paul Lovett, Michael Gordon, Stephen Sommers
Elenco: Dennis Quaid, Channing Tatum, Sienna Miller, Marlon Wayans, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ray Park, Jonathan Pryce, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

A White Chicks sequel?  The Wayans brothers are at it again.  Shawn, Marlon, and Keenen Ivory Wayans have all signed on for this, so it looks like we’ll have to suffer through it.

Entertainment Weekly reports:

Details are scarce at the moment, but I think we can all imagine pretty much how this movie is going to go. Another crime of some sort, another opportunity for those luckless FBI guys to prove themselves by going under deep cover — this script is going to write itself. And as soon as Marlon and Shawn put on that make-up, you’re pretty much guaranteed an hour and a half of LOLs.

I’m assuming that was sarcasm, but with Entertainment Weekly, they may actually believe that!