Some recent favorites:
InvictusGood movie. I'm not the biggest Morgan Freeman fan, and the thought of him playing a newly-minted President Mandela, with Matt Damon as the white captain of the national rugby team, wasn't exactly what I thought of as entertaining. But Clint Eastwood is the director, and sure enough he didn't disappoint. Inspired "by true facts", it shows Mandela to be a shrewd politician, despite being free only 5 yrs now after 30 on Robben Island.
Mandela realizes how much rugby, and the Springboks mean to the Afrikaaners and sets out to use the team as an entity under which the whole country can bond. The problem is that for the black South Africans the Springboks, their tradition, their colors... everything, represents the old days of apartheid, so getting them to embrace the national team would be no easy feat, but a critical one if the young rainbow nation is to survive. Helpful is the fact that South Africa has been chosen to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup.
Good movie... very inspirational.
The Hurt LockerAnother movie I didn't really have much interest in at first... even after all the awards, and boy was it well-nominated. According to IMDB this movie received 120 nominations, winning 73 Awards, among them 6 Grammys, including Best Picture and Best Director. The movie deals with a bomb disposal unit in Iraq, the tensions over being in the middle of a war, added to the stress of the trade... bomb disposal, walking around with a target on your back all the time, not knowing who among the local population to trust, etc.
Really good movie.
NotoriousBiopic about the slain rapper, the Notorious B.I.G. I avoided this movie like the plague, thought it would be some serious shit... for a number of reasons. This one really hits close to home, I didn't know Biggie or anything but I used to see this dude around my neighborhood since he used to be hustling on my block, right across from my living room window. This was back in 1989, long before he blew up.
I remember that block for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that 920 Fulton St. was the first place my family moved to after coming here to the US. Right above the A and the C train, walking distance to downtown Brooklyn, and when I was feeling brave enough, walking distance to school, at 1700 Fulton almost 2 miles away. I'll also remember this place b/c this was some serious hard times for me and my family, my mother and them worked upstate NY and were home only on weekends, so I lived by myself during the week, and nuff times mankind had to go to sleep hungry. Nuff times we used to wake up to find that some crackhead or the other came up the stairwell and took a crap on the stairs... pile ah feces right next to two or three empty crack vials.
I remember looking out my window and seeing these fellas selling drugs. One time I happen to scrape together enough pennies and quarters to go across de street and buy mih 3 chicken wings with extra mumbo sauce... only to see ah li'l fella fish out a 4-inch wad of money from he pocket to buy he food... and here I is damn near a grown man depending on my mother and dem to feed and clothe me. I eh go lie... the temptation was strong.
Anyways... Biggie was also my favorite rapper, after all ah dat, and here it is, this is a movie financed by his mother and Puffy, and most of the actors were unknowns. So I had real doubts... but was pleasantly surprised by how the movie got me caught up. Hard to say it wasn't biased... after all is
his people telling
his story. But I thought it was even-handed in showing everything, flaws and all. Gravy (Jamal Woolard) was very believable as Biggie, with Anthony Mackie (also co-starring in Hurt Locker, above) as Tupac. Angela Bassett played his mother, which I didn't agree with... what, Sheryl Lee Ralph wasn't available? But anyways, the movie was good... and if you're a fan of the music that's just an added treat as it have nuff behind the scenes stuff, from the recording studio, to the concerts etc. Brings to mind another great hip-hop flick,
8 Mile... not that it anything like it, but the mix of good story, good drama and great music very similar.
The Diary of a Tired Black ManI see this shit sitting on de shelf at Blockbuster and could only shake my head. It was clearly biting that next Tyler Perry movie Diary of a Mad Black Woman. But I end up ketching it on Showtime last night... it arrite man. Unlike the Tyler Perry movie, this is more a documentary about relationships between black men and women, told from the perspective of a man of course, with street interviews with real people... and the occasional vignette thrown in. Some of the scenes in the vignettes are exaggerated and play into stereotypes... but there were some occasional nuggets of wisdom from the interview subjects. I found myself nodding along in agreement on more than a few occasions. On others I could only shake my head... is no wonder why we have so many issues between black men and women, lol. And we here shouldn't delude ourselves into thinking that it only applies to African-Americans.
http://www.youtube.com/v/1HVcFyF-mco