Sunday, May 24, 2015

Blackface in Fantastic Four



The new Fantastic Four movie is coming up quick. I’m a nerd girl and ordinarily I would be excited for this. We aren’t going to get into t he fact that I don’t believe the movie needed to be rebooted; this is about the casting of Michael B. Jordan. Let me say this, I am thrilled that Michael is working and I am over the moon for him. He is a great actor and I see him going far in Hollywood. So this is not about me dumping on him or calling him a horrible actor. I think he is a great actor and I wish him nothing but the best, but I have a problem with the coloring of Johnny Storm.

I believe that Hollywood is just being lazy. Instead of creating movies featuring black superheroes or movies with a majority black cast, they are giving us token blacks.

My bone of contention is that we didn’t need the Human torch to be black! We didn’t need for Michael to be cast in a role for a white actor. He could have been Static Shock, Black Panther, Firestorm, Panther, or even Patriot. There are hundreds of black superheroes Jordan could have been. Hundreds of other movies Marvel could have made with black superheroes.

There are thousands of out of work and looking for work writers in Hollywood that could have written a superhero movie about black or minority superheroes. I’m a looking for work writer that could have given them that movie.

We as POC have become so used to the table scraps from Massa’s table that we aren’t questioning why we can’t get a seat at the table. We aren’t wondering why in 2015 this is still a conversation. We aren’t scratching our heads as to why the first black president has to have his Twitter account flooding with “nigger” and “monkey” tweets. We are so used to not seeing ourselves reflected in popular culture that we will take any bone that is throw our way without question. We are so used to seeing TV shows with all white casts that we immediately attack the shows with all black casts as not being uplifting or doing nothing more than portraying stereotypes. We are conditioned to be crabs in a barrel. So that way when anything is dangled over the barrel we are grateful.

Well I’m sorry that is not good enough and I’m not buying it. I am not going to rejoice over this “victory” I am not just going to sit back and take it and be glad for this bit of toast. This casting is hush money. This casting is to make us forget that Hollywood since its inception has kept black actors and actresses at the back of the bus. This is make us forget that in the 87 year history of the Academy Awards only 12 black men or women have won and only 32 have been nominated. This is to make us forget that a light skinned black woman on one of the highest rated black shows, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, replaced a dark skinned woman. Blackface Human Torch is to make us forget the only Oscar nominations that black actors and actress get is when they are portraying offensive stereotypes about black people. The maid, the whore, the crooked police detective, or the magical negro. This is to make us forget that the first Disney prince spent three quarters of the movie as a frog. This is to make us forget that the promos for the animated movie Home featured a purple alien on the posters in mixed and majority white neighbourhoods, but the black kid was slapped on the posters in the majority black neighbourhoods.

Having a problem with this blackface Human Torch doesn’t make me any less black than any other black person on the planet. I am allowed to be black and have a problem with token black characters. 

Monday, May 18, 2015

2015 To Watch List

These are the movies that I am eagerly anticipating for in 2015. This will be expanded as trailers catch my eye.



MAY 2015
Tomorrowland (in 3D)
JUNE 2015

Jurassic World (in 3D)


JULY 2015
Mr. Holmes (Limited)
AUGUST 2015

OCTOBER 2015

The Last Witch Hunter


NOVEMBER 2015


DECEMBER 2015

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (in 3D)


Spooks - The Greater Good



I will admit I had high hopes for this film. Ok wait let me back up for a minute. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a rabid Game of Thrones fan. A massive fan and consumer and I am a proud House of Stark supporter, Kit Harington is my new love affair. The boy is gorgeous with a capital G. I mean that silent smoulder and dark curly hair, excuse me while I find a fire extinguisher for my ovaries. Glued to my TV every Sunday at 9pm (yes I’m an American) I watched him grow from the awkward bastard son of the Warden of the North, to the Lord Commander of the Nights Watch. It’s been a glorious five seasons I have to say. I went into Spooks expecting the Harington touch. I waited for it; I yearned for it. Finally I had to give up hope and just pray for a quick death. Death evaded me for 104 minutes.

The United Kingdom for the better part of my life has been dominating the box office with spy movies. There is no movie icon dead or alive that does spy like James Bond. The man revolutionized a cocktail with a cocky smile for Pete’s sake. When I go to see a spy movie in the United Kingdom I am expecting the Earth to move. I am expecting the sky to crack and God caress me gently on the face. I am not expecting the main character to blunder around from one disaster to another because of daddy issues.

This movie started circling the bowl almost at the onset. MI5 is coordinating the handoff of a high profile terrorist to the CIA. While sitting in traffic, central command for the operation notices several fast moving motorcycles heading toward the caravan. Now I might just be a trigger happy American, but the last time I checked when officers feel threatened they are trained to protect themselves and the mission, but these highly trained operative just sit in their cars whistling Dixie and waiting for traffic to let up. Forgive me but I didn’t know this movie was a one-way ticket to Wonderland. I thought this was a spy movie, not a fantasy thriller. It didn’t get better from there. If anything I wished it was one of those movies that’s so bad its actually good if you watch it long enough. Spooks is not Big Trouble in Little China. It’s more like Glitter and Waterworld. A mistake for everyone involved.

Since the War on Terrorism commenced scriptwriters and directors have found an untapped villain resource. I can’t fault them for falling into that trap, but I can call them on their BS with lazy writing. Elyes Gabel put in a command performance as the villain, but I just didn’t believe his motivation. I will give him kudos for shooting an unarmed and bound woman in the stomach. I believed that.

Kit’s character was like a newly birthed baby horse. Stumbling around the world hoping someone will take pity and point you in the direction of your mother’s teat. He believed everything everyone told him. HE IS A SPY!! PEOPLE LIE! After the fourth time he got burned by a person that was supposed to be a friend I gave up. Bella Swan in Twilight had more of a backbone and she was going to jump off a cliff because her boyfriend dumped her.

If this movie is any indication of the sort of operatives MI5 churns out I’m going to need Sean Connery to show them a thing or two about spying, and great one-liners. This movie was in desperate need of a great tagline.

Spook had no idea what sort of movie it wanted to be. Did Spooks want to be a proper spy movie, a straight thriller, or just a plain action movie? It was more confused than a virgin on their wedding night. Nothing it did worked out and in the end the audience was left wondering how the hell this movie went from concept to screen time.

Save your money on this one folks and be content to drool over Kit on Game of Thrones