Fresh Flicks...

So quite a few of you guys ask me about movies or I find myself explaining A LOT of jokes that make references to movies. I have come to the conclusion that most peoples taste in films is very restricted or just sucks... (I'm pretty sure 90% of the time it's the latter). So I'm going to start feeding you films/DVDs that need to go (as in own) in your film/DVD collections (or see at least see twice, in there entirety and have a complete comprehension). In no particular order, here we go...

• When We Were Kings - This is a documentary about the "Rumble In The Jungle" fight in 1974 between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. Now whats great about this film is that it not only covers the fight, but also the political and social climate at the time. A slew of substantial black figures make appearances and James Brown has a very interesting segment in which he talks about the role of the music industry versus his responsibility as a black man that has a pedestal to speak about racial injustice. The movie had been shelved for 20 years because of legal issues but I'm glad I got to see this film as an adult because I don;t think I would have been able to appreciate as much as a kid.



• The Usual Suspects - This is a brilliant movie. I will not say much about it other than... YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS MOVIE AT SOME POINT YOUR LIFE!!!!



• Fight Club - This movie and the one listed before it are the types of films that get to the end and your whole understanding of the film has been so screwed up that you have to watch it again. Of course, it's so completely obvious the second time around your kicking yourself for not figuring it out the first time.



• Bamboozled - Me and Mau went to see this at a free screening at UCLA and it was such an uncomfortable experience to see this film in a room full of people who couldn't truly relate to it. On the other hand I'm glad I saw it in a room that was so racially diverse because very few people (including blacks) truly understand how deep the foundation of racisim in the United States truly is. There is also a line in the film that put in perspective the amount of time that has passed between slavery/Jim Crow and now and it all hit me within the span of this film. Damon Wayans, Jada Pinkett Smith, Savion Glover, Tommy Davidson, Mos Def, and quite a few hip hop artists all do their thing (even though Damons choice to portray Pierre that way still confuses me) and I think that even though they carry the film, it seems like Spike Lee just made the film to showcase this 3 minute montage of the portrayal of blacks in film and mass media. I had seen some of them before but I was scratching my head at quite a few. If you have never heard of Stepin Fetchit, Amos N' Andy, black face, Vaudeville, Buckwheat, Kujo, "mammy", Birth Of A Nation or Rodchester then you need to some research and THEN see this film.



• Birth Of A Nation - Now if you are not black but have black friends, you do not need to own this film. You don't want one of your black friends going through your DVD collection and finding this one. You only need to see it because of it's historical reference. This is one of the first films EVER and is considered to be the first "Hollywood Blockbuster". It's basically a propaganda film that was made by southern sympathizers around the time of The Civil War. It portrays the Ku Klux Klan in a sympathetic light and tells the "story" (emphasis on story) of what would happen to America if blacks were freed and given equal rights. It's completely bogus but it needs to be seen so that people are aware that there are people who believe these things to be true.

Sorry y'all, I think I'm going to stop right here because I'm starting to get pissed off. It could be that I have had "Fight The Power" on repeat while typing but I don't want this to turn into all black films post so I'm going to stop. However, you now the first film next week will be "X". See you then!