The Viewing Culture

Upcoming Movies 2014 -- These are movies that are scheduled for wide releases and feature people of color as the main characters...I hope I'm missing some. Think Like a Man Too - June 20 Verdict : I didn't see the first one, don't think I'll be seeing this one, even if Kevin Hart is in it. Get on Up - August 1 Verdict : I need to see another trailer. I'm leaning toward seeing the James Brown biopic right now. Addicted - September 5 Verdict : The synopsis of a woman being addicted to sex makes this seem like it will be too much like Tyler Perry's Temptation, which I did not enjoy. At all. No Good Deed - September 12 Verdict : If the trailer doesn't look hacky, I will see this because Idris Elba is in it. Annie - December 19 Verdict : I liked the original Annie. I like Jamie Foxx (I seem to be the only person who does) so I'll give it a shot. Upcoming Television Pilot Developments 2014-2015 -- These are TV pilots being ordered or develop...

Did the first one warrant a sequel? Oh, right. It made money. So will this still star Jaden Smith with Papa Smith breathing into his neck from barely off camera? Or will this follow someone different? I'm little confused here, probably because I'm not sure why these movies need to exist. I hope this one isn't so predictable and plodding as the first remake.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=116813 I guess that will be different? Ejiofor certainly has proven he can play the villain, like in his role on Serenity which was quietly menacing. Will the writers take advantage of all he can do, though? Or will it just be something for him to maniacally laugh and scream through? Of course, he has to be offered and then accept the role first.

So I watched A Haunted House 2 trailer... I didn't watch the first movie, so I can't say that I was going in with high expectations or an open mind. Looks like a lot of The Conjuring will be in there with a healthy dose of the Insidious sequel (I'm guessing from the poster). Don't know what commercial they're parodying with the trailer. That will be fun for somebody...right?

Okay, if I see the Michael Bay produced redo, it will be accidentally. The new trailer did not get me excited at all. It was just about what I was expecting. The turtle design was the last straw (after the casting and then before that the whole alien thing that Bay took back).

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=116505 Really, Ice Cube? That's the movie that you're using your rebound success to make? The third Barbershop movie? Well, okay then. At least a whole heap of black folks will be hired to reprise old roles and take on new ones. That's something, right?

What is with all this wide release religious-themed movies lately? Is this just a coincidence? I don't get it. I know Hollywood doesn't care about conservatives, and I'm not really sure they think that church-goers are a reliable, bankable audience. Are these movies supposed to appeal to the mainstream? Why is Russel Crowe Noah? And Christian Bale as Moses in Exodus ? What, I guess Nicole Kidman will be Ruth next. Or maybe Chris Hemsworth as David. Makes about as much sense as Crowe and Bale. Is this an Australian thing? Weird.

I wonder why this is necessary. Will this be exactly the same? It seems to be, since Zoe Saldana even has a similar hairstyle to Mia Farrow in the same role from the original Rosemary's Baby. I hope they don't make the remake hokey. The original really made an impact on me in my youth.

My first impressions for the Caesar Chavez trailer... There was no Spanish--I guess to not scare away the Americans. No strong narrative either. The trailer is kind of unfocused. Trying to tell two different kinds of stories--biography and civil rights drama. I'd pick the civil rights drama for the first trailer. That's compelling and makes us ask questions about the man behind the revolution. Lastly, did any of the women speak? An odd message there.

I vaguely remember talk about this movie some time ago when it was doing festival rounds... Not sure if it's my kind of movie, though. It's probably a moot point, however. What's the chance that it's coming to a theater near me? I barely got to see 12 Years a Slave. Barely. My theater had it two measly days. Eh, we'll see. This seems like one of those 'see whom I can get a rise out of' kind of movies...

This actually looks okay. It has a mystery. How he end up there? A somewhat clear goal and stakes. He's got to get out...or else. And is very much urgent...I think. The lead boy is all special and will lead the lesser, no-so-enlightened boys on the path out. He'll also find love? Don't know how that fits in. The cast is diverse, so that's a plus. There's a bit of implications going on, though, that I don't even want to get into.

Apparently, Tyler Perry's The Single Moms Club (yes, apparently all of that is the title) isn't doing well as his movies in the past have in their opening weekends. So far it's sitting at number six. Maybe because this is his attempt to crossover to white audiences, and the black audiences can smell it? Yeah, the trailer features Nia Long, but I see all those other actresses there, and they were the ones with the goals, not Nia. I also see that Cocoa Brown is relegated to the comic relief role that actresses that fit a non-traditional type are forced into. Is it that his audience is losing faith in Mr. Perry? Or are they just not feeling the change-up? Maybe it was just a miscalculation on everyone's part? Who knows?

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=116066 First of all. I'm not even sure that Dwayne Johnson should physically have enough time to film another movie. Second of all, could the description of that movie be any more generic and oh so familiar.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=116035 That's cool. Let the speculation begin. I hope Lupita's in a pivotal role in the Star Wars movie and not a handmaiden to some queen like Keira Knightley was. That would be extra disappointing. I wonder how many she'd be in. She need not be affirmative action girl, either. A small scene-stealing role would be extremely spectacular. Something mysterious and confident and heroic with a bit of edge. That's whether she's on the good side or bad. The force is strong with this one.

My First Impressions? Ugly. I guess this is a first cut because everything looks so drab and gritty and dirty. Also, I don't know why they decided to use the collage approach rather than to tell a coherent story. There were some parts I was confused about, but the star, Chadwick Boseman, looks like he's doing a good job. I don't really see him as James Brown, though. Yet that might change as I'm watching the movie.

I watched the trailer to Wes Anderson's  The Grand Budapest Hotel.  It is definitely one of his films. Composed like a painting, every character a quirky character--didn't know it was rated R, though. The full of quirky characters thing got me thinking. Do black films--that is, films in which the majority of characters are people of color and are portrayed as people of color--have films like this? Films that have every character laden with quirk and also that have a distinctive style behind them. Like a  Fargo?  The answer left me scratching my head. I think I need to seek these films out. The closest I could think of was the first Friday movie. Yet it didn't quite make it because the love interest was a black hole of no personality. Oops. I'm very sure these movies exist, and I'm just ignorant of them. They've got to. I wish I knew about them.

I went to another small talk today at Comic Con about diversity in pop culture. It was okay. The only problem was one of the speakers were late and then talked over. I should have left early. The questions they asked the audience were deliberately too specific (Okay...people of Caucasian descent, what do you think?--oh...because other ethnicities have spoken enough and Caucasians have never gotten their say--right...More whites from the audience spoke than blacks. Hmm). I do agree that the reason that more diversity doesn't exist in the comic book world is because its audience doesn't accept it. I find 'nerds' very intolerant and insular. They hate change and don't take very well to encroachment upon their worlds, nor are they very sympathetic to other people's worldviews. All that together is just a big ole pile of apathetic indifference to diversity. They like their medium the way it is. If it's not diverse, so what? They're not going to go out of th...

For the moment it seems that Mr. Hart is very hot. He has proven that he can carry a movie. More importantly, he can sell a movie outside the 'urban' community (how does urban translate to blacks? Do rural blacks not count somehow?). Yes, Mr. Hart is on the rise. He's taken advantage of that momentum and positioned himself most favorably and profitably in upcoming high-profile comedies. He's even doing a movie next year with Josh Gad that sounds much like Hitch -- a Will Smith vehicle. Hart's strategy is clearly to be as broad and commercial as possible, which I think will work...if he paces himself. I'm just seeing a lot of him these days. On top of that, in every movie he's playing the same kind of character. That brash, screechy tomfoolery cowardly sort. When he plays a more subtle character, I notice that those movies don't do so well. That's a not so good thing in Hart's favor. Slowing down and choosing roles more carefully--ones that ...

Sometimes I don't want to have topics to write about for this blog. I want it to be irrelevant. Anyways... Mr. Michael B. has been cast as The Human Torch in the upcoming reboot of The Fantastic Four movie. Do I think he will be good in the role? Well, if the script doesn't hamstring him, he should do fine. Of course, I wonder how they will handle his canonically biologically Caucasian sister. Yet the director seemed to always wanted Michael B. for the part...but they cast his sister, Sue Storm, as white. The interwebz, as usual, went crazy. It's no wonder: they had problems with Jessica Alba being too 'ethnic' and tan for the part of Sue Storm in the 2005 movie so I'm sure a black man for a part that has always been white in the comic books and previous movies has left people positively slathering about the mouth. 'Oh, this will ruin everything because...' Yes, the color of his skin will somehow ruin everything. Thanks for that. At least that...

Lupita for Supporting Actress! 12 Years a Slave for Best Picture! Wow!