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henry_ferrill
Reviews
Norbit (2007)
Embarrassing, but still had its moments
I only give this movie a 3 because of two scenes. The scene in which Mr. Wong jokes that Norbit married a "gorrirra" and the puppet show. Just thinking about those scenes puts me in stitches.
But the over-the-top caricature of the beyond-morbidly-obese loud, mean, emasculating Black woman embarrasses me to the fullest. I'm just glad I didn't pay money for it. However, I find it ironic that my cousin bought the real DVD, but has always gotten bootlegs of other quality films...puzzling.
Wow, that wasn't enough lines. Well, I will also have to give honorable mention to Pope Sweet Jesus and Lord Have Mercy, the indubitable Eddie Griffin and Katt Williams (Taylor?).
Tarzan and the Green Goddess (1938)
Tarzan Yell WAAY too long...
I'll take this movie to comment on as my platform for the Tarzan yell. There is still none better than Weissmuller's to this day. I've only started to watch Tarzan the Tiger, with Frank Merrill, quite possibly the best physical Tarzan there was by the way, and his Tarzan yell was "YAAAA! YAAAA!!! YAAAA!!!!" It pales in comparison in imagination to Herman Brix' yell, but Herman Brix yell is none too pleasing. "AAAAaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH MAAAAAAANNNNGGGAAAAAAANNNNEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!" While quite amusing, it's too long and therefore loses its significance. In the Weissmuller films, it's used to call man or beast, or signify that Tarzan may be in trouble. More accurately in Herman Brix' films, it's used as the victorious cry of the bull ape after a successful conquest, as it should be used. But it shouldn't be a pronounced cry, but rather a savage, eerie, unsettling cry that most would loath to associate with a human.
Tarzan and His Mate (1934)
Maureen O'Sullivan is irresistible as Jane!
It feels weird saying this as a young black man of 29, but Maureen O'Sullivan engenders/embodies a flirty sexuality unequaled in today's movies. She plays tomboyish, but is so flirty at the same time that renders her simply irresistible as Jane. I'm also surprised that Tarzan is still so rough with her and that that was acceptable back in the day. I mean, it's cute, but a tad ungentlemanly.
Since I need to write at least ten lines, I'll continue on...
It's actually really refreshing, the irrelevance of the shame of nudity in this film. Here we are, in 1934, with a man undressing for a bath in the same room with his friend. Jane's naked silhouette tempting the imaginations of every red-blooded American. It's just so natural and alluring in its unabashedness. The skinny-dipping scene is a beautiful ballet of light, water, and skin. It's not pornographic, simply playful and free.
As a black man, I'd love if there was some way the treatment of blacks in this film weren't so harsh, as though all they are are beasts of burden, but I suppose it was a sign of the times. It's darned near slavery. But then again, I never traveled on safari in Africa in the 30s.
Tarzan of the Apes (1918)
Maybe silent movies aren't my thing...
Ever since I started reading Edgar Rice Burroughs' original Tarzan novels, I've been anxious to get my hands on the different interpretations of Jane's "forest god." Well, maybe silent movies aren't my thing, however, like the guy who said he likes to watch silent movies and imagine what it would have taken to create such a picture with the technology they had at the time, I suppose it was interesting. You think they would have had better cutting of the shot with the lion, seeing as it was touted as an actual lion kill. (Hell, just let the camera roll!) But I guess the stuff of legend is mysterious, cryptic, and inspired by what may have been.
I cram to understand how somebody can call this "very interesting," but let it be said that I agree wholly with John G. Olson.
The Butterfly Effect (2004)
Donnie Darko? Give me a BREAK!!!!
I just rented Donnie Darko based on people saying The Butterfly Effect can't
compare. Well, I just wasted two-plus hours of my life on that crap. Donnie Darko is the kind of movie people watch and force themselves to enjoy to think themselves "deep" and intellectually-superior to everyone else. That movie
never MOVED. The Butterfly Effect NEVER STOPPED MOVING. It had a point -
there was emotion - strong emotion - you actually felt something for the
protagonist who, despite all his best intentions, just couldn't have his cake and eat it and have everybody else have their cake and eat it, too. His life was TRAGIC, and he had to sacrifice the one thing he loved most to save it. I don't know what this movie DIDN'T have. The one thing I couldn't find on discussion boards was WHY exactly people liked Donnie Darko. Interesting... I mean, the comments I find that slam TBE could be applied to any movie a critic wanted to slam. And the filmmakers did all this with not the biggest budget. All I have to say is I was thoroughly entertained and think this is the first DVD I've rented that I couldn't stop watching until I'd watched ALL the versions and ALL the special features.
Better Luck Tomorrow (2002)
Maybe you can't relate...
I loved this film. It's the sort of escapism appreciated by those borne of being the nerdy outsider in high school, the short guy who gets good grades...the intelligent runt...
I think I've grown in the days since high school, but it was kinda fun to experience some of what I went through. Interesting to note, as one of the "smart" kids in school, and the only black face in my elementary school, I ended up hanging out pretty much solely with Asians throughout my experience in an ultra-white suburb in the San Francisco Bay Area. Maybe the film spoke to me because of that. But also because when my parents sent me to a private high school in Oakland so I'd be around a more diverse ethnic (read: Black) environment, I was still the short guy, the nerd. So while I had my friends in the honors and AP classes, I still ended up hanging out with people who weren't exactly looking out for my best interests. I had the car, of course. We would throw rocks through windows, attempt at breaking into cars, throw eggs...REAL stupid stuff just to be in the thick of things.
I guess this film is like that to the extreme...