I
went to the movies this weekend to check out this flick. However, please allow
me to vent a little before I go into my movie review. First of all, when in the
movie theater, stay wake! I literally sat through 20 minutes of someone snoring
during the last 30 minutes of the movie. The person snored like he/she had not
had any sleep since the 1800’s. I mean
damn! It was like I was in a different movie theater watching a different movie
called, “12 Years A Snorer!” Look. If the 10:15pm movie showing is past your
bedtime, make sure you get a ticket for the 12 noon showing of the movie or at
the very least the 6:45pm movie showing. Next, scoot over God-dammit! Ok. I was
a little long in the concession line. The people taking the order were as slow
as a turtle pissing! This is why I and many others entered into theater 17 as
the movie reviews were playing. I mean, people were saving seats for two and
three people and pretending not to see you when you were suffering with anxiety
trying not to look too uncool trying to get to a seat the damn dark! Scoot over
God-dammit! Everybody can’t sit close to the edge of the rows to get the edge
on the other movie goers when the movie is over. Also, why in the hell don’t
people fill out the entire rows in the theaters? Meaning, people sit in groups
of four and five, filling up both ends of the row, with two or three seats in
the dead middle left open. WTF!? Fill in all of the damn seats so the end seats
can be for those of us who may come in during the previews because of the slow
ass workers at the concession stands!!! Anyway, I am done with this. I just had
to share this little tidbit. LOL!
Ok,
now on to my review of the movie. Overall, I loved the movie. I thought the
writing was good. The cinematography was of great quality. The writer and director
of the movie, Malcolm D. Lee, did an excellent job with the development of the
characters from the first movie. I loved the way he brought all of their lives
full circle in this second installment of the franchise. I laughed at the punch
lines. I wiped away tears as I witnessed the character, Mia, battle cancer and
even when her husband, Lance, physically broke down in deep sadness and in
disbelief of his wife’s death at the burial site. I loved the way Anthony
Hamilton and Marsha Ambrosius did a slow re-make of the Stevie Wonder classic, “Always”
at the funeral. This part of the movie where Mia struggled with cancer struck a
personal chord with me because my favorite aunt died of pancreatic cancer three
years ago. She went through a very similar experience during her battle with
cancer. Mia even looked like my aunt as she laid in the bed sick from her
illness. My family and I just like Mia’s friends in the movie, stayed with my
aunt during her final days. The pain they felt as they witnessed her struggling
to hold on was very familiar to me. I would not wish this experience on any
one.
However, even though I said that I loved the movie overall, I do have some analytical criticisms. The movie was not perfect. It has some flaws. Everyone who knows me knows that I have never been one to follow the crowd. They know that I can’t just been herded like a mindless sheep. They know that I have never been one to just allow my brain just shut off because I am being entertained by a movie of any kind. I watched this movie with the same analytical and critical brain as I did with the movies, “12 Years A Slave” and “Lee Daniel’s-The Butler.” A few things stood out for me in this movie. The night before I went to see the movie, I read an article regarding the movie in this month’s Jet Magazine. In the movie, it mentioned how writer and director, Malcolm D. Lee, had to convince the Hollywood movie studio executives that this movie was worth funding. Hmmm, so when I went to see the movie, I waited to see what convinced the Hollywood studio executives to finance this movie. This is the same thing I wondered to myself when I noticed all of the slavery themed movies that have been brought to the big screen this year. I knew something had to be sacrificed, compromised or a particular message to black people had to be slipped into the movie in oder to make Hollywood happy and feel comfortable about financing a movie with an all black leading cast. Well, it was the same message that appeared in “Lee Daniel’s-The Butler,” “12 Years A Slave,” The TV show, “Scandal,” and quite possibly in “DJango Unchained.” Those of you who went to the theaters to see "DJango will have to let me know if this message is in the movie. Based on what I have heard and read about that particular movie, the message is the same. The message being, the white man is the savior, not all white people are bad, and the promotion of interracial love between Blacks and whites. Funny. You never see these messages being promoted to Jews in films about Jews when it comes to the current and historical enemy of their people, the Nazis or even today's Nazi skinheads. Anyway, Jordan, the strong, independent, career driven Black woman ends up with the white man in the movie as the only man who she finally realizes she loves. Shocking! LMAO!
The message to this group of particular Black women is that your Black man in no way can measure up to you and your success. You are way too tough for him to handle. You are too strong for him. There is no way any man can handle you unless he is white. Next, to top off this little “get together” the writer of the movie tried to make it seem as if Jordan was not digging her white boyfriend in that way. A dying Mia had to impart some wisdom regarding finding love as she lay dying. She said, “Jordan, be open minded and be open to love!" It is amazing that we can’t be this wise when it comes to finding love with each other in the black community. I’m just saying. The total disrespect of the Black man and Black marriage and commitment came when the ex-stripper, Candie, literally lusted out loud after the only white man in the movie, who happened to be Jordan’s boyfriend. Mind you. Candie is married to Julian, the college brotha who took her nasty ass out of the strip club and tried to make a legitimate woman out of her. This bitch was so horrible in her “Scandal-ous” lust for this white man that she made sexual comments about the white man right in front of her husband. So much that he actually heard her. Total disrespect! She did it throughout the entire movie!
Of course, the N-Word was tossed around a few times in the movie by Terrance Howard’s character. I did not see the need for it because this certainly was not a movie about slavery. Finally, the issue of Black women and hair crossed my mind. Yes. Mia was dying of cancer. To bring the point home, she removed her hair hat during a heated argument with her husband Lance which revealed her natural hair that had fallen out to that of a very low length. I thought to myself during this scene in the movie, “So, will it have be cancer that will allow Black women to feel good about wearing their natural hair without the weave, chemical relaxers, and transsexual looking hair hats?” Chris Rock’s movie/documentary, “Good Hair,” which showed black women where their hair weave comes from and how the chemicals used in perm relaxers ate through aluminum cans in a lab did not seem to create any fear in the majority of black women.
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