The Road Killers

Director: Deran Sarafian

Cast: Christopher Lambert, Craig Sheffer, David Arquette

Genre: Action/Thriller 1994

Running time: 90 mins. 

Rating:★

While on a road trip, Jack Lerolland (Christopher Lambert) and family are horrified when a young boy is nearly run down by a carload of troublemakers. The group's ringleader, Cliff (Craig Sheffer), challenges the boy's father to a deadly game of chicken. Intent on eliminating witnesses, Cliff orders his friends to kill Jack while he kidnaps the family. The biz are gang's plan crumbling as they among themselves, revealing volatile tempers and shocking secrets. 

Let's take Mad Max, True Romance, and a bunch of Eighties' badass films as our inspiration for our camera shots, mixed in with some dry dialogue, upper-middle class twits, a sexually frustrated teenage girl, and a group of "punks" who are suppose to have no morals. What do we have? A bunch of unnecessary close-ups, redundant flashbacks on events that just happened bullshit! The dialogue and the character dynamic are so painstakingly and unbelievably idiotic that you, the viewer, lose all interest in finding out how the plot "thickens." Lastly, the washed out red undertones are completely useless in being anything for the storyline, except to give the illusion that it's "cool."

Bless Me, Ultima

Director: Carl Franklin

Cast: Miriam Colon, Luke Ganalon, Dolores Heredia, Bento Martinez, Castulo Guerra, Joaquin Cosio

Genre: Drama/War 2012

Running time: 106 mins.

Rating:★★★★

Based on acclaimed author Rudolfo Anaya's novel, BLESS ME, ULTIMA is a turbulent coming-of-age story about a young boy growing up in New Mexico during World War II. When a curandera named Ultima ( Miriam Colon) moves in with his family, Antonio (Luke Ganalon) experiences a series of mysterious and terrifying events, which cause him to grapple with questions about his own destiny and the powers of this mystical woman.

At the start of the film, there is immediately a sense that the beauty and the patient enjoyment of nature, cycle, innocence, "the ways of men," and religion are key elements in setting the stage of where the story is about to act out. Streams transitioning from winter to spring, vast rolling mountains, the windmill rotating beneath the blistering sun, and the Virgin Mary painted on the side of a barn. These magnificent imagery with the narration, organically shifting from one to the next, are what intices the audience into taking the hints of the possible themes of the film. A mystical bond between Ultima and Antonio, as soon as they are introduced to the story. Why? We're not sure. We, the audience, are told that Antonio was the last child she "pulled out" from his mother. His sisters are debating whether or not Ultima is a witch. They are told by their mother that she is just a curandera, a healer who uses folk remedies.

"The smallest amount of good can triumph all the powers of evil." But what is the significance of the owl in correlation to Ultima? And the bond between her and Antonio are like kindred spirits who don't miss a beat. Patient and loving souls, who observe all and wait for the right moment before striking. Perhaps it is this that makes the owl so significance. We are later told that Ultima was given the owl as girl from a wise old man, as a bond of time and harmony of the universe. It is clear too, anger, ignorance, and rash decisions will get you nowhere with more consequences than one thinks. With pureness of heart and a willingness to see and remember the good in people, wonderous things will happen in time.

There is a question, asked at the beginning, that is revisited near the end. "Why is there is so much evil in the world?" Antonio asks his father this. His father replies that he doesn't think evil really exists that it is more a lack of understanding. Which is a very interesting thought to consider. One that we must look inside ourselves to answer. A very moving film that uses high and low contrasts with a red undertone beautifully to express the journey Antonio goes on while growing through the wisdom of and the bond with Ultima.

360

Director: Fernando Meirelles

Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, Ben Foster

Genre: Drama/Romance 2011

Running time: 110 mins.

Rating: ★★★½ 

A businessman tempted to be unfaithful to his wife, sets into motion a series of events that ripple around the globe, Vienna to Paris, London, Bratislava, Rio, Denver, and Phoenix, with dramatic consequences. A witnessing of an array of people of different social backgrounds and their relationships with one another. With that a reminder, "Everything comes full circle." 

How far will one go to, naively and degradingly, to get what one wants in life? There are always consequences. Does it always bring the happiness that one had hoped for? Or a feeling of entrappment and suffocation? All these questions bombarding and swirling around the mind as each of the characters are introduced with their stories that somehow weave into one narrative. The blue undertone is unclear as to how it aids in illustrating the story at first. Is the need for love, to connect, and for success the underlining themes of the film? Is having so much idealic hope for events to turn out great for once and then doesn't, a reason to stop trying? Then it goes back to the point of everything coming to a full circle. 

The characters are very relatable. The audience is surrounded, like a storm cloud, by the hopeless depression each one is entrapped by, going about their daily business because it's the only illusionary solution to get by. In the last decade or so, the idea of having a glimpse into the lives of complete strangers that are unconsciously connected. Though, it's a stretch and it's a film, it reminds the viewer that we are not as alone as we think and we are not all that different from one another. We all have problems. One interaction can sometimes change the course of one's life. However, taking risks can sometimes be necessary to go to the next phase in one's life and not always in a negative way.

It's refreshing to have a film that's not afraid to use subtitles interchangably, like its confident that the audience is able to figure things out on their own and literate. By the end of the film, the depressive, emprisoned, and suffocating blue undertones turn into a strange, but freeing warm undertones. 

Seven Years in Tibet

Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud

Cast: Brad Pitt, David Thewlis, B.D. Wong, Mako Jamyang, Jamtsho Wangchuk, Lhakpa Tsamchoe, Jetsun Pema

Genre: Drama/Biography/History 1997

Running time: 136 mins. 

Rating:★★★★

A true story of the adventure of an Austrian prisoner of war who is transformed by his friendship with the young Dalai Lama.

The intense, but very serene red and golden undertones with the Dalai Lama's beginning story versuses the harsh muted blue undertones with the Heinrich Herrer's (Brad Pitt) story is very curious and beautifully executed. Also, the warm climate versuses the cold icy climate to illustrate the two characters' differences in personalities is organically done. Heinrich's stubborn and anger issues gets him in trouble with his men, his relationship with his wife, up to when he becomes a war prisoner. 

As he and his unwanted companion try to make their escape to India to Austria, where neither have a real desire to go back, they find themselves unwilling be dragged into more trouble. Though in the mist of his long treacherous journey, Heinrich slowly and somewhat reluctantly dealing with the demons he left back home. He is lost at where his purpose lies. All the meanwhile, the Young Dalai Lama is trying to hold onto the joys and innocence of his childhood instead of fulfilling the prophecy.

While in Tibet, they are welcomed at the holy city Lhasa. Heinrich is taken back with the people's hospitality and  the difference in cultures, such as,"admiring the man who abandons his ego." The war continues, life continues to fail at getting any better or hold any joy for him. Will he learn from his mistakes or continue to be a victim to them? When Harrer is introduced to the Dalai Lama, he is taken back with awe and bewilderment. During their time together, Heinrich becomes a close friend and tutor to the young spiritual leader, while finally find a purpose and joy to life.

The film is beautifully shot that the audience feels just as trapped, as Herrer, in the situations he is put in and just as bewildered in the cultural and holy differences in Tibet. The Dalai Lama's innocence, simple joys in everything, and incredible wisdom makes me want to continue to have a desire to learn and be open to new things. Life might not turn out the way we want exactly, sometimes it turns out to be better in the long run. And finally, it is ok not to know everything right now.

The Odd Couple

Director: Gene Saks

 Cast: Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau

Genre: Comedy 1967

Running time: 105 mins.

Rating:★★★★

Two divorced-veteran funnymen, deciding to share a New York apartment, work together with precision timing of a vaudeville team, but always with brilliantly spontaneity. Lemmon plays fussy Felix, fastidious to a fault. He proves that cleanliness is next to insanity. Matthau is Oscar, who wreaks havoc on tidy room with the speed and thoroughness of a tornado. 

Though the saying, "Opposites attract," usually thought of as a romantic reference, but when it's a platonic relationship between two guys or "buddies," it's comedic genius. We're introduced to our first character, Felix ( Jack Lemmon) is extremely miserable, with a bit of a flare for being over dramatic, and goes to a hotel in hopes to commit suicide. One can only assume that it is over his wife from the photos he takes out of his wallet and the wedding band that he takes off right before he is about to go through with the action. When the window fails to open, Felix goes to a strip club in hopes to cheer himself up. Oscar is introduced to the stage with a poker game with some buddies. The arraignment of Oscar's pigsty apartment is enough to make anyone's skin crawl in vommit. However, Walter Matthau portrays Oscar with such an asinine, carefree, and anger that it is fucking brilliant and captivating. One is left with two reactions, sometimes simultaneously; a desire to punch him and the desire to have that kind of balls to pull off the things that he does.

How they don't kill each other is beyond anyone. The one pushes the other's buttons, while being totally oblivious that he's doing it. It's freakin' fantastic!!! Felix is the "wife" and Oscar is the "husband." The comedy is witty, dynamic, and they have perfect timing in delivering the lines. But they are just what the other needs to deal with their issues. 

Killing Lincoln

Director: Adrian Moat

Cast: Tom Hanks, Billy Campbell, Jesse Johnson

Genre: Drama 2013

Running time: 96 mins

Rating:★★★★

Based on The New York Times best-selling novel, the film focuses on the events surrounding the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln ( Billy Campbell). While some aspects of the plot to slay Lincoln and cripple the newly forming union are widely known, much more of the history unfolds in this insightful epic account. As actor John Wilkes Booth ( Jesse Johnson) becomes increasingly obsessed with removing Lincoln from office, a secret plot form, and ultimately empowers Booth to carry out an event that will change America forever.

Though, a TV film, it is the fourth film within the last ten years to touch upon the events leading and after the assassination of President Lincoln. Of the first three films, The Conspirator is the only one worth while seeing, but the again it was director by Robert Redford so how can anyone argue the film's brilliancy. Abraham Lincoln, The Vampire Slayer and Lincoln don't even compare to the previously mentioned. A true National Geographic "documentary" with reenactments and narration by Tom Hanks, this TV adaptation is taking the educational truth and entertaining motion picture to a new level. Blurred into a captivating that any age will never want to forget one U.S. emfamous marker in history. It is truly astounding the extent this film goes to be accurate like never I have ever seen or desired to witness. In fact, that's how brilliantly the film has set its stage that the audience feel that they are but a fly witnessing these historic tragedy with no way of being able to intervene John Wilkes Booth's decision. The lighting is not in Hollywood traditional radiance, but in a more accurate candle lighting that would have been appropriate for the period, allowing the audience to feel more of a witness to these events. And though you know what is going to happen, you are unable or have a desire to turn away! Lastly, Billy Campbell is a more captivating Lincoln than Daniel Day-Lewis was.

A Touch Of Class

Director: Melvin Frank

Cast: George Segal, Glenda Jackson, Paul Sorvino, Hildegard Neil

Genre: Comedy/Romance

Running time: 106 mins. 1973

Rating:★★★

Being free and easy proves neither free nor easy for married Steve ( George Segal) and divorced Vickie ( Glenda Jackson) when they fall in love. At his harried best teetering between two households, Segal plays sometimes sly, sometimes fumbling Steve. As Vickie, Jackson slings verbal jabs and hotel furnishings with equal glee.

A Seurat-like cinematography is an interesting way to lay the stage for these to characters to first meet. A beautiful and tranquil connection on the surface, but taking a closer glance, one will notice the dots of problems that make up the surface that are bound to create many obstacles and tension. How much will one go to have "no-strings-attach" sex, especially when one of the parties involved is still married? Steve has definitely met his match, his confidence wavers and his power is over thrown. Vickie is a no nonsense, sultry, and a wee bit stuck up woman, who has unknowingly met her intellectual match. Her standards of life are broken by a man who isn't going to put up with those standards all the time. 

Both George Segal and Glenda Jackson have a magnificent comedic dynamic. You can't wait to witness how the one will get under the other's skin, while all the while hoping they will fall in love, in true cinematic tradition. This film is one example, where predictability is welcome when it's done well (script, the actors casted, classic snappily-quick-witty comedy, editing, cinematography). Lastly, my weakness for sixties/seventies architecture, interiors, and fashion are all incapsolated in one film, how fantastic!

The Box

Director: Richard Kelly

Cast: Cameron Diaz, James Madden, Frank Langella, James Rebhorn, Holmes Osborne

Genre: Sci-if/Mystery/Thriller 2009

Running time: 116 mins. 

Rating:★★½

Push a red button on a little black box, get a million bucks cash. Just like that, all of Norma and Arthur Lewis's financial problems will be over. But there's a catch, according to the strange visitor ( Frank Langella) who placed the box on the couple's doorstep. Someone somewhere, someone they don't know, will die. Cameron Diaz and James Madden play a couple confronted by agonizing temptation yet unaware they're already part of an orchestrated and, for them and us, mind blowing chain of events. 

It's set in 1976, Cameron Diaz is in it, and there's a mysterious box dropped off at 5:45 AM exactly, oh yeah, this is a recipe for a stellar film. I get more excited when my alarm clock goes off! Oh! Oh! Before one forgets, it's set in Virginia, which means Cameron Diaz with a Southern accent and apparently missing four of her toes on her right foot?

One has to wonder early on in the film, though, the subtraction of Norma's usual discount and Arhur's rejection on his astronaut application wasn't predictably deliberate ploy to get the couple tempted to push that red button. Well, no shit! Phew, glad that mystery was solved. The only thing this movie has going for it is Frank Langella's performance and the grotesquely C.G.I. that disfigured half of his character's face so fantastically glorious. Then the next obvious question, are the "someone"s who die, once connected to the pressing of that same red button and the same offer of one million dollars? Perhaps, but why? Is it a government experiment or an aliens's experiment?

The film is, however, posing and exploring an interesting psychological question of what are we willing to do to get the "prize," when there maybe a terrific consequence in return. A consequence that we have no control or choice over. Or do we?

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

Director: Yves Simoneau

Cast: Aiden Quinn, Adam Beach, August Schellenberg, Anna Paquin

Genre: Drama/History/Western 2007

Running time: 133 mins.

Rating:★★★★

It begins powerfully with the Sioux triumph over General Custer at Little Big Horn. The action centers on the struggle of three characters: Charles Eastman (Adam Beach), a young, Dartmouth-educated Sioux doctor, Sitting Bull (August Schellenberg), the proud Lakota chief who refuses to submit to U.S. government policies designed to strip his people of their identity, their dignity and their sacred land - The Black Hills of the Dakotas; and Senator Henry Dawes (Aiden Quinn), one of the men responsible for the government policy on Indian affairs. While Eastman and schoolteacher Elaine Goodale (Anna Paquin) work to improve life for the Sioux on the reservation, Senator Dawes lobbies President Grant for kinder Indian treatment.

 

"It is easy to be brave from a distance. Easy, and often quite safe. Once there was no honor in killing, only necessity. Honor came with true courage.  But that day is long gone." Elaine Goodale (Anna Paquin) quoting an Indian saying, sets the stage of what is about to unravel. The horrors that mankind play on one another, when ego, greed, propaganda, and ignorance are embedded. Was "educating" in Christian and U.S. ways really the right method to have peace and improve life with/for the Native Americans or a way to have control over a group of people like savage dogs? What choices does one nation have when the enemy forces have what they do not? Honor and fighting for you beliefs in may not seem the immediate answer, but one that is the better route in the long run. Many questions on the events that already have known outcomes and organically retold in this film, still feel very unanswered. Suppose all one can do is to reflect on one's own actions as they choose to interact with others and the choices made. 

Wonderful use of muted earthy undertones mixed in with sepia photographs that allows the audience to feel as if they are back in the nineteenth century and witnessing these events that are safely out of harms way due to moldy history books and time. The landscapes are very well-thought out and breathtaking that one can't help but wonder, how much happier and simpler life must have been before the U.S.& destroyed it. Perhaps, it is nativity and blindness on my end for saying all of this for it is beyond my comprehension what it was like before, during, and after.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Director: John Madden

Cast: Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel, Tom Wilkinson, Maggie Smith

Genre: Comedy 2011

Running time: 124 mins.

Rating:★★½

When seven cash-strapped seniors decide to "outsource" their retirement to a resort in far-off India, friendship and romance blossom in the most unexpected ways.

The life they once knew and cherished has now come to a stop, when having to face the inevitable retirement. Avoiding death and aging, money and prejudices, These seven people will now make a journey to India where  seemingly black-and-white mentality will now have color and ways they could never imagine! You will never find many films that have two accomplished actresses with more gumption, as you will with Judi Dench and Maggie Smith!  Both of their characters sticks up their asses, one with racism and the other having to cope with doing things by herself without her late husband. And though the lot, being English, that they are the more civilized culture. But are they really? Is it simply ignorance that makes them start to wonder whether their trip is a good idea gone wrong? As their journey opens their minds, their revelation immersed in an alien culture that will help them find themselves again as the transition into the next phase of their lives. Which is most definitely not a means to an end, but an awakening joy!

The cinematography beautifully uses muted blue undertones in the beginning of where are the audience meets the state of the characters and then transitions into vibrant red and golden undertones when the characters allow themselves to let go of what they knew and start enjoying the unknown .

Anna Karenina

Director: Joe Wright
Cast: Keira Knightly, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Kelly MacDonald, Matthew MacFadyen, Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson, Alicia Vikander, Olivia Wilson, Emily Watson
Genre: Drama 2012
Running time: 130 mins.
Rating:★★★

At the twilight of an empire, Anna Karenina ( Keira Knightly), the beautiful high-ranking wife of one of imperial Russia's most esteemed men ( Jude Law), has it all. But when she meets the dashing cavalry officer Vronsky ( Aaron Taylor-Johnson), there is a natural spark of instant attraction that cannot  be ignored. She's immediately swept up in a passionate affair that will shock a nation and change the lives of everyone around her.

You, the audience have been welcome to view a new play on the stage. A play filled with surprises and elegantly choreographed. This is how the film lures you in to the story that is about to unfold. You are a witness of what is going on stage and what is going behind stage. The model train set that then transforms to an actual moving train, blurs the line of what is fantasy and what is reality.  A feeling of entrapment with longing for freedom resides in all of the characters, but especially with Anna Karenina (Knightly). It is with Vronsky (Taylor-Johnson) that Anna may have found her key to open the door to her dreams. A dangerous one, it may be, but one she cannot help herself from indulging in. However, will she like what she see before it destroys her?

The surreal dream-like imagery with its constant switch from duality from blue-icy bright to red-golden and dark undertones, hints that the fantasy will eventually collide into reality sooner than later. What starts as a seeming comedy turns into a tragedy. The film's constant duality is part of its charm!

Promise Land

Director: Gus Van Sant
Cast: Matt Damon John Krasinski, Frances McDormand, Rosemarie DeWitt, Hal Holbrook
Genre: Drama 2012
Running time: 107 mins.
Rating:★★★

Corporate salesman, Steve Butler (Matt Damon) has been dispatched in the rural town of McKinley with his sales partner (Frances McDormand) to offer much-needed relief to the economically hard-hit residents in exchange for drilling rights to their properties. What seems like an easy job for the duo quickly becomes complicated by a respected school teacher (Hal Holbrook), a slick environmental activist (John Krasinski), and Steve's interest in a local woman (Rosemarie DeWitt). As they grapple with a surprising array of both open hearts and closed doors, the outsiders soon discover the strength of an American small town at a crossroads.

The chemistry between Matt Damon and Frances McDormand is fantastic! It is very obvious their characters having being doing sales together for so long that they know how to push each others' buttons and how to bring out the best in one another. An almost brother-sister dynamic. Although, Frances McDormand out acts Matt Damon, which is no surprise because after all, she is Frances McDormand....enough said.

An Us-Them pride struggle along with a deep desperation for this small town folk to not let their town and their lively hood go bankrupt and die, this film, at the heart of it, is about Steve's journey through all this. It is not a romance film, though it touches on it lightly. Steve's journey starts out as an over-confident and competitive salesman, who will once again win over small town folk's "simple minds" and their greed for money. As things get complicated, his comfort zone and self-esteem are torn apart, the audience realizes with him that there are a lot of suppressed anger issues. Issues that Steve desperately tried to run away and rebel from. It is not until the "black and white" mind set of whose bad and whose good or whose right and whose wrong is shattered and betrayed, that Steve is able to deal with his demons. He is finally able to break free from his gilded cage and enjoy life again!

Peggy Sue Got Married

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast: Kathleen Turner, Nicholas Cage, Helen Hunt, Joan Allen, Jim Carrey
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Fantasy 1986
Running time: 103 mins. 
Rating:★★

If you could live your life all over again, would you change anything? Peggy Sue (Kathleen Turner) gets the chance to answer this tantalizing question.

At a high school reunion, Peggy Sue is haunted by the memories that are tied to her high school sweetheart and soon to be ex-husband, Charlie Bodell (Nicholas Cage). After being chosen, once again, as prom queen, she faints and is transported back to herself just before she graduated high school. Will she make the same mistakes twice?

A Back to the Future-like event that makes one realize that things happen for a reason. You can't change the past, only the future.  Nevertheless, the film only skims the surface of time travel in a somewhat campy way. Of course, a fantasy story won't be complete with a nerd to assist Peggy-Sue's problem. The nerd's there, but not enough for you to give two shits about his bond with Turner's character in the same manner as Marty McFly and Dr. Emmett Brown. The film delves into a self-indulgent, depressed housewife's daydream of trying to not fall in love with her high school sweetheart and then caving in because of her "kids." What a lot of smoke up the ass! A fluffy light-hearted film for those who don't want to make their brains work so hard and dream in "La-La Land." There is no real character development, just a sequence of events that one woman can't change from her past, no matter what she does....sooo enjoy the trip down memory lane? Hmmm....come on Coppola you're better than this garbage!

Rain

Director: Maria Govan
Cast: Renel Naomi Brown, Irma P. Hall, Nicki Micheaux, Shervante Nixon, Cch Pounder
Genre: Drama 2008
Running time: 93 mins.
Rating:★★★

Determined to find the mother who abandoned her, 14-year-old Rain (Renel Naomi Brown) leaves her secluded home after her grandmother dies. But her hopes for a loving reconciliation are quickly shattered when she discovers that her mother (Nicki Micheaux) is now a drug-addicted prostitute living in the worst part of the city. Frightened, Rain must summon all her inner strength to survive. She turns for help to a kind-hearted track coach (CCH Pounder), who encourages Rain to pursue her dreams.

Determined to find the mother who abandoned her, 14-year-old Rain (Renel Naomi Brown) leaves her secluded home after her grandmother dies. But her hopes for a loving reconciliation are quickly shattered when she discovers that her mother (Nicki Micheaux) is now a drug-addicted prostitute living in the worst part of the city. Frightened, Rain must summon all her inner strength to survive. She turns for help to a kind-hearted track coach (CCH Pounder), who encourages Rain to pursue her dreams. 

Life may not have been any better than the eternal love, life, beauty, and joy that Rain's grandmother gave her. She has a passion for running that her community and grandmother encourages Rain to use this talent and not waste it! However, there is something missing in Rain's life and as sure as the fire in her belly, she is going after it. Even if it means leaving the comfort of her tightly knit community to the unknown and strange city to find it. A relationship with a loving mother again, but what she finds isn't exactly what she expected. As she struggles to adjust, Rain starts to doubt whether her decision was the right one and the void is digging deeper. It isn't until she is registered at a new school and meets the track coach, Ms. Adams (CCH Pounder) and fellow student, Magdelene (Shervante Nixon) that she finds what she was really looking for....a family and choices! Her running becomes more than a talent, but a gateway to find who she is as a person and may be enough to reconcile with her mother, along with her mother's demons!

Rock of Ages

Director: Adam Shankman
Cast: Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Malin Akerman, Mary J. Blige, Alec Baldwin
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Musical 2012
Running time: 123 mins. 
Rating:★

In 1987, a small town girl, Sherrie Christian (Julianne Hough) and a city boy, Drew Boley (Diego Boneta) meet on the Sunset Strip, while pursuing their Hollywood dreams. A film adaptation from the 2006 rock jukebox Broadway musical by Chris D'Arienzo.

Oh...God...A feel good-teeny bopper-who has not real thought of their own-film. This is just as painful as that Rent flick, but more torturous because they turn classic rock songs into pop-y boring brainless shit! The script seems like..um..it was written by a thirteen year old girl or some stuff! Blah...blah...blah.... predictable Walmart shopper targeted garbage!!! The only thing going for the movie is the costume design and make-up. But thats not enough for me to give a fuck! Who in their right mind thought this was a good idea for a Broadway show let alone a film! Fluff...Fluff...no real story line...ugh!

Watermelon Man

Director: Melvin Van Peebles
Cast: Godfrey Cambridge, Estelle Parsons
Genre: Comedy/Drama 1970
Running time: 98 mins.
Rating:★★★

Jeff Gerber (Godfrey Cambridge) seems to have it all: successful career, a nice suburban home, a progressive-thinking wife (Estelle Parsons) and two cute children. But he's also a loud-mouthed racist who wakes up one morning to discover he's turned into a black man. The doctors have no explanation and on cure for his sudden change. Suddenly, Gerber is a white bigot in black skin who has to deal with a shocked family, intolerant neighbors, cold shoulders at the office and a back seat on the bus!

A "light" comedy on what karma could do to someone who overly upbeat-know it all-racist who only see things in a black and white manner. It is only when he wakes up that morning and discovers he has turned black that he abruptly realizes how narrow minded his thinking is. His own hatred and stereotyping for anyone who isn't white is turned towards him bringing a lot of anger within him. A nightmare that gives him different kind of confidence of himself, a drive to for tolerance and hard work without having everything handed to him so easily, regardless of race. Beauty is only skin deep!

The use of quick changing from yellow to red to blue in the cinematography allows the audience to reflect on their own quick judgement on strangers. The film plays on stereotypes of both blacks and white to such an extreme that it seems ridiculous and comical. However, this is where the film is brilliant in its subtle underlining message. In spite of everything, everyone has to struggle with intolerance and quick judgement, so again, why should color of skin matter? Love is all you need!