‘Movie Corner’ Archives
“Chi Raq”: Fails! Should have succeeded
BY HOWARD MCQUITTER II On the one hand, Spike Lee puts a spotlight on the serious problem in Black America: staggering murders among African Americans, particularly the young, mainly with young black males being both perpetrator and victim the bulk of the time. On the other hand, “Chi Raq,” the title of his most recent film, too often swings wildly into farce. Lee”'s film is too schizophrenic to be a good movie which obscures what could have been good maybe if he had stuck to keeping “Chi Raq” a drama. Samuel L. Jackson”'s role as Dolmedes, the “comic” relief, is wasted in farce appearing periodically in the movie at times when the movie should have taken its seriousness in those areas that desperately requires it. Jackson, impeccably dressed in various colored three-piece suits, near the beginning of the movie, in rather sardonic tone, tells the audience: “Welcome to ”˜Chi Raq”', land of pain, misery, and [...]
Mr. Peabody & Sherman
By Howard McQuitter II Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014) **** DreamWorks. Animation/Adventure/Family Cast: Ty Burrell (Mr. Peabody, voice), Max Charles (Sherman, voice), Ariel Winter (Penny Peterson, voice), Leslie Mann (Patty Peterson, voice), Guillaune Arestos (Robespierre, voice), Lauri Fraser (Marie Antoinette/Egyptian Woman, voice), Stanley Tucci (Leonardo da Vinci, voice). (PG) Running time:92 minutes. Languages: Spanish/English. Director: Rob Minkoff. I find myself going back in time”“fondly”“with “Peabody”'s Improbable History” as a segment of “Rocky and His Friends” which debuted on ABC in 1959 and later known as “The Bullwinkle Show” on NBC. The animation show created by Jay Wards Productions as a half-hour cartoon featured Bullwinkle J. Moose and Rocket J. Squirrel of Frostbite Falls, Minnesota, and their archenemies Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale; then there is Mountie Dudley Do-Right, a good but [...]
Philip Seymour Hoffman: July 23, 1967- February 2, 2014
One of Hollywood”'s most gifted actors and reaching today”'s rare status of an actor”'s actor, Mr. Philip Seymour Hoffman, died of an overdose of heroin in his Manhattan apartment on Sunday, February 2,2014, the same day as Super Bowl XLVIII. He was 46. A most unfortunate fate for an actor with immense talent loved by studios, critics and audiences alike. Rather than reiterate the sad saga of the man”'s life falling on his own in the current heroin epidemic in America, I will write some of the directors he worked under and the films he was in: (more…)
