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Reviews
Sunset Park (1996)
Excellent Movie
I thought Sunset Park was an excellent movie about high school basketball. The actors did a good job playing roles that honestly were younger than their actual ages. A lot of sports teams have players that disagree with one another and bicker a lot over small stuff. The Sunset Park players were no different and I thought their depiction of this was well done. The scenes were filmed well and I felt like I feel when I am in NYC. I've watched this film 4 times and each time I enjoy it. I also like this movie b/c it takes me back to my early college days when things were really fun.
Also, on the soundtrack, Aaliyah has a hot joint called "Are You Ready". Check for that.
Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. (1992)
Excellent Movie
I thought this was an excellent movie. It held my attention the whole time. The only acting I saw that wasn't really professional was by Ty and some of the smaller characters. But, really, that only added to the realism.
Some people say there was overacting. To me these critics are probably overreacting to 3 things:
1)Johnson's hard accent which if you are not used to, will think is over dramatical. 2)The lingo. You have to remember this was 1992. A lot of the stuff they were doing and saying was typical then. The house parties where everyone danced in step (which by the way, the scene that had the Caribbean dance feel mixed with the NY style was very authentic. I'm referring to the party that Chantelle went to after lying to her mom about where she would be, where she first hooked up with Ty). Plus the clothes were Cross Colors style, remember those? 3)The energy of Chantelle. It may seem over the top, but I've met people like this, and some from NY no less.
I thought it was cool to show how Chantelle did try to hold up this self image of being so strong, but really she needed a male role model. That was evident when she couldn't believe her father hit her, or when Ty initially called her a bad word and stuff. She acted like she couldn't believe it happened after she put so much trust in them. That is very typical. A female needs a good man to be around and when they don't have it, they try to assume some of what they think are a man's characteristics. All that bravado Chantelle gave off with her mouth and actions? It was what she thought she needed to succeed in this harsh world.
A comment was made that the family and Chantelle didn't look "poor" enough. That was dumb. What did the user want, Chris Rock on the crack in New Jack City? I've seen plenty of lesser income areas where from the outside, I was scared to enter. But, on the inside, their area was neater that my own house. Reason being, just because you have lesser income, doesn't mean your living quarters will be in shambles. Also, since you have less money and area to live in, you are almost forced to be neat. Lastly, everybody has problems like these from the rich to the poor. Comparing this movie's lower income area to "ones in LA" was another dumb comment. You can always find one area that is supposedly worse than another. Just like you can always find an area that is supposedly wealthier than the other. Those comments made me angry.
Excellent movie. Where is Johnson? I don't know.
2 last things:
Back then, they didn't do director's commentary but that would have been nice to put on the DVD. I can't stress that enough.
Johnson's commentary would have been REALLY good. Johnson, if you are reading this, please let us know where you are and comment. Or e-mail me.
Third, they didn't really stress HIV/AIDs. But, I guess that is what the movie KIDS was for. Another NY movie. I remember the Nikki D song "Daddy's Little Girl" from the back in the day. That was always fresh, house mixed with rap.
Brooklyn!!! I love it.
Romeo Must Die (2000)
Simple action flick that entertains
I thought this was a great movie. I saw it before Aaliyah died so throw out the sympathy vote. I have always loved Aaliyah and didn't want to see the movie in the theater because I thought she would be horrible. Was scanning through the channels one night and saw it on HBO. It was the BOMB! First of all, Aaliyah is not that bad. She has that typical role that all musicians play in movies(cocky kind of arrogant attitude, all lines they say have arrogant inflection, aka Whitney Houston in Bodyguard, Will Smith early Fresh Prince). But she comes off well. The plot is interesting enough as Aaliyah's pops tries to protect her while the Chinese and African Americans settle the beef. The action scenes were not deathlike but then again the movie was not serious like that. People were expecting Bruce Lee type junk i.e. helmets that have spikes on them being thrown at enemies, spikes dig in, pull the helmet away and the person's head comes off. Crap like that. No. This was meant to be light, entertaining,with some action and a lot of comedy(esp. memorable, Li using Aaliyah as a tool to fight and she walks along the wall). The comedy is hilarious. Anthony Anderson was hilarious if not your stereotypical brother. Some people have wrote comments about not developing the Chinese characters. Wasn't meant to be here. This movie is about the African American characters. There are only 1:30 minutes I think. No time to develop an Art and Entertainment Biography on minor people. Same thing happens in films where African American characters are outside listening to "rap" in the background while Steven Siegal or somebody does work. It is all stereotypical, simplistic stuff and take it for what is. If you want real depth and racial meaning read something by Langston Hughes or W.B. Dubois, not an action flick! One love to Aaliyah.
P.S. This was certainly better than the "The One". Hopefully, there will be only one of those. I'm out like the Knicks and the playoffs.