Its just a movie

I hear you loud and clear lashun. Let me just say that I haven't seen this, but if it IS full of stereotypical nonsense, I'll be against it. I'll go into the theatre or rental place with a clear head, but stereotypical movies don't click with me too well, ie soul plane. I'm evenly hard on black or white movies. If the movie is bad, then it's just bad. Come on, gigli wasn't a black film, and they could have kept that one. Manos the hands of fate isn't a black film, and it's viewed in many circles as the worst film ever. A bad movie will get thrashed if it's bad and praised if its good. The only place where I feel we don't get our rightful praise is at award shows, except for BET awards shows.

Thank you for your intelligent and compassionate post. I couldn't agree more. It's not Chakhov, but as you say, Blacks are just starting to get the clout to produce their own movies and they have to start somewhere. I would rather see movies like THE COOKOUT and BARBERSHOP than not see blacks represented in the movies at all.

Who do you think is making more money off of this film, blacks or whites? I'm going to go with white people. Not only that, but if blacks are going to continue to make films that throw their own race under the bus, they're going to start with crap like this and stay there. Spike Lee has been making intelligent black films for over a decade, it's not like black people are just now starting out in life. This film is one step forward for the people making money off of it, and two steps back for blacks in general.

It seems like the critics are harder on blacks than white producers.

Astute observation. Honestly,some of the black movies are not stellar because the directors produce to make money. In the past, there were actually black movies that had depth and some do now. But some admittedly don't But most movies out everywhere generally suck because people look to make a buck instead of doing serious films. I find it hard snagging mainstream Hollywood films of decent comment and at times independent films seem to be losing steam. I do not stampede to see these people either. I also feel that at times the content and dialogue in some black films ain't up to snuff but some of these posters on this particular blog come across self-righteous and sanctimonious. I have heard the critiques of black films from a lot of more insightful critics- black and white-but some of these posters again strike me as sanctimonious and self-righteous. I would like to see films the caliber of Lackawanna Blues, Cooley High,stomp the Yard, etc...I have an idea of what I want to see although I can't put it into the words I want to see.

I think the original posters is making a few assumptions:
1. Black producers and movie makers are a new phenomenon.
2. This movie was created solely by black people.
3. The posters and reviewers on this site are all (or at least a majority) white.
4. That movies are inconsequential in the greater culture.

Firstly, black moviemakers are not new. African-American directors, writers, and producers have been active since around the 1910s, even before Hollywood as a industry center existed. In that time, they made "race movies", movies with socially important themes shown in black theaters (such as Oscar Micheaux). And we've been active sense then. I suppose in the last 20 years, black filmmakers have been more present in Hollywood, but it's not they grew up and learned their craft in a vacuum - they know what makes a good movie and what doesn't. Especially the makers of this movie - people like Queen Latifah and Danny Glover? For shame - they've both been involved in great films (like Life Support). If anything, this movie was the result of a classic Hollywood trait: nepotism. Nearly everyone involved in the production process was part of Queen Latifah's entourage.

Secondly, this was definitely NOT a movie solely created by black people, not for a second. No Hollywood film is, although I would definitely say a movie by Spike Lee or John Singleton would have more authorship by black people than a film like this. No, white people were involved in this (the President of Lions Gate, to be exact) - you can't chalk this up to the collective inexperience of black filmmakers (and not just because there is no such thing).

Thirdly, I would say that the a large number of the people that loathed this movie were black. Of course, this is the internet, and I can't really take a poll, but I'm black and I hated this film. It wasn't just bad and not funny - there's tons of crappy comedies that come out every year - it was offensive in almost everyway and absurdly stupid. Especially the idea that it's cliche "message" was enough to compensate for the ever-present stereotypes throughout the film. While I might not agree with critical reviews all the time, if they were especially hard on the film, it wasn't for nothing.

And lastly, "it's just a film" doesn't cut it. Even I've used this line, but films are an art form and an industry and therefore very influential. This film perpetuates stereotype upon stereotype, is representative of an industry-wide tendency of racial and ethnic insensitivity for dumb and unintelligent comedy, and misrepresents African-American culture (sure, Soul Plane was terrible, but at least it didn't purport verisimilitude).

In fact, thank God this film was God-awful - it saved it from being successful and spreading this crap out to a larger audience.

Hey, it's back! Check the profile for the message boards I control.

[deleted]

cudnt hav sed it better myself. bravo.

Count backwards from 10...chakra...breathe bitch!!!

A major problem with this is that if black producers keep making the same type of generally one-dimensional black comedies black film will continue to degrade into this abject form of general crap. Its not as though black movies are progressively getting better thanks to these movies and they won't as long as we continue to allow people to make money without doing anything that is actually original or creative.