The Corner (HBO Miniseries)

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The bleak reality of drug addiction is captured with unflinching authenticity in The Corner, an excellent, reality-based HBO miniseries. Having lived on the streets of West Baltimore, Maryland, where this compelling drama takes place, actor-director Charles S. Dutton knows the territory, physically, socially, and emotionally, and his compassionate approach is vital to the series' success. Dutton cares for his characters deeply enough to give them a realistic shred of hope, even when hope is consistently dashed by the ravages of addiction. This is, at its root, a family tragedy, focusing on errant father Gary (T.K. Carter, in a heartbreaking performance) a once-successful investor trapped in a tailspin of heroin dependency. His estranged wife Fran (Khandi Alexander) was the first to get hooked, and she's struggling to get clean, while their 15-year-old son DeAndre (Sean Nelson, from the indie hit Fresh) deals drugs, temporarily avoiding their deadly allure while facing the challenge of premature fatherhood.

Through revealing flashbacks and numerous local characters, we see the explicit fallout of addiction, and while violence occasionally erupts, its constant threat is secondary to Dutton's dramatic vision, which remains steadfastly alert to the humanity and neglected potential of these lost and searching souls. The Corner is, essentially, the civilian flipside of HBO's equally laudable series The Wire, which approaches a similar neighborhood from a police-squad perspective. Performances are uniformly superb, details are uncannily perfect, and for all of its human horror, The Corner is riveting, not depressing. A closing interview with the characters' real-life counterparts bears witness to the fact that these lives--with inevitable exceptions--need not be lost forever. --Jeff Shannon

Description

THE CORNER presents the world of Fayette Street using real names and real events. The miniseries tells the true story of men, women and children living amid the open-air drug markets of West Baltimore. It chronicles a year in the lives of 15-year-old DeAndre McCullogh, his mother Fran Boyd, and his father Gary McCullogh, as well as other addicts and low-level drug dealers caught up in the twin-engine economy of heroin and cocaine. HBO(R) original Miniseries 6 one-hour episodes 1. Gary's Blues 2. DeAndre's Blues 3. Fran's Blues 4. Dope Fiend Blues 5. Corner Boy Blues 6. Everyman's Blues

Customer Reviews:

On Par With The Wire.......2007-07-23

The Corner is gritty, and real. It tears at your heart, and at your conscience. As a nation, we can and we must do a better job looking out for those of us who are drug sick, poor, or under-educated. If we can afford to spend $500 BILLION every year for our military to be off somewhere killing others, we can spend a couple of those Billion cleaning up and bettering our own nation. The Corner shows us what happens when we don't. The Wire stacks up the body count, The Corner just breaks your heart.

Good Quality Television...........2007-06-27

This is a fascinating and emotional true story of how drugs can destroy not only a family but a community. The character of Gary McCullough is truly a tragic figure. I wish the dvd had extras but the end does have a nice touch with character updates and director Charles Dutton interviewing the real life Deandre, Fran, Blue, and Tyreeka. I definitely recommend this gripping and gritty tv mini-series.

Gritty, hard, sad and Very Well done........2007-06-17

Not an easy watch. Its the center of poverty a Lot of people never see and probably cannot relate to, but I think it instructs, and one gets to understand at least to a degree, why people end up giving up on themselves and ending up on drugs. Its better than being 'wide awake' and living in the poverty and harassment that they have to live with on a daily basis. No hope, no future, constant crime, its frightening and yet its reality. Its also very well done and heartbreaking at times as well as gritty and dark and will leave a lasting mark. Well worth the watch!!

Wonderful miniseries!.......2007-03-09

This is a fantastic portrayal of what goes on in the open air drug markets of America. Great acting, cinematography, and direction!

Outstanding!.......2007-02-27

There's a scene right at the end of episode three titled "Fran's Blues", where Charles S. Dutton is talking to Baltimore Police Officer Robert Brown (played by Brian O'Neill). Officer Brown says he's sad about how the neighbourhood has changed over the years due to drugs. "The rot started in the projects," Brown says, and then it "Just kept creeping uphill." Dutton asks Brown if he ever feels like he's wasting his time, given the number of people the city locks up every year only a fraction of who get "prison time". Brown doesn't seem to think so, replying that there are still good people in the neighbourhood, "Church people, working people", who want to see the drug scourge end. Duttom then asks Brown if he thinks the war on drugs will ever be won? There's a long pause. The officer looks everywhere but at the camera and, after what seems like an age, finally says: "No comment."

Fans of "The Wire" (of which this series is a very close relation) will also recall a scene where it's implied by one of the characters that the war on drugs isn't being fought with any conviction because if it was and was eventually won, well, then local politicians wouldn't have anything to campaign about, would they? And then let's not forget the very strong belief among social commentators and observers both black and white, that narcotic drugs were brought into the black community by the CIA to ensure black folk remained a permanent underclass. Why do I bring all this up? I bring it all this up because these are the issues that came up for me while watching this powerful series. More than anything else, I came away feeling amazed that we live in a society that has allowed such incredible suffering to go on, on such a massive scale, for so long.

The six-part series is very cleverly directed by Charles S. Dutton to look like it was part documentary and part drama with skilfully added in flashbacks. In just six one-hour episodes it explores a wide range of social issues such as urban deprivation, poverty, family breakdown and teenage pregnancy but the focus is really the psychology of drug addiction and the despair of people caught up in it, particularly the McCullough family: Dad Gary (played by T.K. Carter), Mom Fran (played by Khandi Alexander) and two sons DeAndre and DeRodd (played by Sean Nelson and Sylvester Lee Kirk respectively). The series poses a lot of interesting and crucial questions about the so-called war on drugs that so far, I haven't heard any real-life politicians seriously address. Ever.

The series is from the same brains behind similarly Baltimore-focused shows as "Homicide: Life on the Street" and of course "The Wire". I know a couple of Baltimore residents personally and while all fans of these shows, they do have mixed feelings about them. I can understand why. Other shows supposedly based in other cities like New York's "Law & Order", Los Angeles' "The Shield" or Las Vegas' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" are all very well produced, directed and acted, (not to mention popular world-wide), but they are also very obviously works of fiction. This crop of shows on the other hand are based on non-fiction books. "The Corner" is based on "The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood", a non-fiction book by David Simon and Edward Burns and "The Wire", though largely written by Simon and Burns, is based on the non-fiction book "The Wire: Truth Be Told" by Rafael Alvarez. Even "Homicide" was based on a non-fiction book. They are thus so very close to the truth of what life is like on the streets of Baltimore. Or so I'm told. I can understand how that could make some people uncomfortable. Almost like they and their city are being put under a microscope.

In any event, one question that never seems to get answered via any of these shows and always seems to get glossed over is why these people get into drugs in the first place. We're told that Fran lost her sister and turned to drugs to ease the pain but no more is said on the subject. Personally, I'd have liked to find out what it was about Fran or any of the other drug addicts in the series and/or what it was about their lives that made drugs so attractive an option as an escape?

Also, these drugs are not manufactured on the streets of Baltimore so how do they get there? And where do they come from? I feel until we get shows that begin to focus on some of the root causes of the world's drug epidemic today, all we'll ever get is very entertaining shows that mainly serve to make us voyeurs on other people's tragic sadness.

But the emphasis is definitely on 'very entertaining'. I watched the entire series over two days, three episodes a sitting and then watched them all over again. As sad as the stories are, they were fun to watch. It was so much fun to see many of the same actors from the current season of The Wire on this too, people like Lance Reddick, Maria Broom, Clarke Peters, Reg E. Cathey; all incredibly versatile and talented artistes. Finally, it was also great to see (at the end of the final episode) the real-life people behind the story and find out how they felt about being portrayed on film in this way. They didn't seem to mind and the real Fran Boyd expressed the hope that seeing how bad her life on drugs was, might encourage other drug addicts to get help.

I hope so too.

I know this is long-winded and may seem more like an essay than a review of a DVD but I just don't think it's enough to review something this significant with generic praise like "Great work by Charles S. Dutton!" (Even though it is) or "T.K. Carter's performance was stunning!" (Even though it was) or "Sean Nelson was great!" (Even though he was) or "Khandi Alexander shines!" (Even though she does). In my view, this winner of 3 Emmys is a body of work that is much greater than the sum of its parts, as fantastic as those parts are. This series makes me think and it makes me wonder. Not many TV series can do that.

But then, this isn't TV. It's HBO.

Akeelah and the Bee (Widescreen Edition)

Average customer rating:

In my top ten EVER movies - not JUST for kids!!!
Outstanding
You go, Akeelah!
It's Often The "Small" Films That Pack The Most Punch!
I'm a sucker for a good montage sequence

Akeelah and the Bee (Widescreen Edition)
Starring: Keke Palmer , Laurence Fishburne , Angela Bassett , Curtis Armstrong , and J.R. Villarreal
Director: Doug Atchison
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000G1R394
Release Date: 2006-08-29

Amazon.com

There aren't enough superlatives in the dictionary to describe the excellence of Akeelah and the Bee. Superbly written and directed by Doug Atchison, this PG-rated family drama covers the same dramatic territory as the acclaimed 2002 documentary Spellbound and the 2005 drama Bee Season, but the fictional story of 11-year-old Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer) is, if anything, even more entertaining, inspiring, and full of hope for the potential of children everywhere. Although reluctant at first (and fearful of being labeled a "brainiac" by classmates at her under-funded middle school in South Central Los Angeles), Akeelah grows determined to win the district, regional, and ultimately the Scripps National Spelling Bee, aided by the able coaching of an English professor (Laurence Fishburne) who, like Akeelah's overworked single mother (Angela Bassett) is slowly recovering from a devastating personal loss. Structured like a conventional sports drama, Akeelah and the Bee rises above its generic trappings to become an uplifting and deeply moving study of friendship, pride, fair play, and above all, the value of self-confidence and realization that there's more to life than winning. As played by the young Palmer in an award-worthy performance, Akeelah is a winner in the best sense of the word, and so is this wonderfully positive movie. --Jeff Shannon

Description

An inspirational drama, Akeelah and the Bee is the story of Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer), a precocious eleven-year-old girl from south Los Angeles with a gift for words. Despite the objections of her mother Tanya (Angela Bassett), Akeelah enters various spelling contests, for which she is tutored by the forthright Dr. Larabee (Laurence Fishburne); her principal Mr. Welch (Curtis Armstrong) and the proud residents of her neighborhood. Akeelah's aptitude earns her an opportunity to compete for a spot in the Scripps National Spelling Bee and in turn unites her neighborhood who witness the courage and inspiration of one amazing little girl.

Customer Reviews:

In my top ten EVER movies - not JUST for kids!!!.......2007-09-17

"Akeelah and the Bee" is not only inspiring; it will move you. You will cheer for Akeelah. You will cheer for her community. You will want to know a kid like Javier and giggle at just how completely silly, fun and sincere the kid is. You will have your mind blown by the performances of Keke Palmer and Samuel L. Jackson. There are some surprises along the way as well: such as the gangbanger who, in a moment of remembering his own 5th grade blue ribbon-winning poem brings out a hint of compassion and a spark of pride. Not just in himself and what he'd done; but in Akeelah and what she worked so hard for as well. The character you think is the antagonist and yet turns out to be something very different. This movie shows a lot of things that do happen within pre-teen friendships from bullying to jealousy within friendships and yet Akeelah remains human throughout. Keke Palmer's portrayal of her is more real than most "Actors" out there today. She showed a whole range of emotions; she showed determination and above all - she showed that she's got chops. She had BETTER go far in movies or there is no justice in the world!
This movie has inspired my 7 year-old to want to learn how to spell better - to beg me to buy word games such as Scrabble ("No, mommy, not Scrabble Jr, they didn't play that on 'Akeelah and the Bee', I want to play the REAL Scrabble!" and Boggle, Upwords, anything that will help her learn new words - even word-find books - she's devouring those now. If this movie can inspire a new spark to a love of learning, it deserves every award out there!
Word to the wise: There are no explosions in this movie - no car chases or anything along those lines. What you will see is a moving, intelligent movie that doesn't talk down to kids. It's more real than 90% of the movies out there with a cast that, though largely unknown (with the exception of Angela Bassett and Samuel L. Jackson and oh! yes, the Principal is, I believe, played by a bloke who was a bit of a surprise...you might recognize him from "Revenge of the Nerds" in which he played Booger! He's changed a bit over the years, I'm glad to say. Is much better in this role.
Casting directors need to have a look at the supporting cast of this movie. I don't know who taught these kids how to act; whomever it was needs to teach most of Hollywood remedial classes - these kid are better and more real onscreen than most of the big, over-exposed "actors" out there today. Get them out there and let them act more - let's see what they can do! As for this movie, it's already a favorite in our house. Five stars isn't enough, really. As I said, it's in my top ten *ever* list. No matter how many times I see the movie, I still find myself cheering for Akeelah - it's almost like a sporting event where you are shouting encouragement at the screen and your favorite players - our entire family shouts encouragement to Akeelah every time. That is something that's always spontaneously done. Now what other movies out there can inspire THAT sort of reaction?!
Don't think twice, just watch it.

Outstanding.......2007-08-21

One of the best movies of the year. Excellent acting and script. Heartfelt and humorous, also inspiring and intellectually engaging.
Totally excellent.

You go, Akeelah!.......2007-08-18

Truthfully, I was NOT expecting to like this movie. I was sure I had seen it before in the same, tired, mentor-underprivileged kid(s) genre.

Three things made me give it a chance:

1. Laurence Fishburne who is always delicious to watch and can give a quiet dignity to any scene in any movie.

2. Angela Bassett who in her ever present gorgeousness and grace must have descended from a line of ancient royalty.

3. I am one of those nerds who actually watch the Spelling Bee on ESPN.

I am glad I watched it. My eyes stayed moist almost throughout the entire movie but my heart glowed. Keke Palmer does an awesome job as Akeelah blossoming from an uncertain progidy into becoming 'powerful beyond measure' and every nuance, change and unfurling is expertly captured on camera and that was my undoing: this subtle and powerful transformation.

Palmer holds her own amidst the screen legends and it was fascinating for me to see how both Fishburne and Basset somehow tone done their huge screen charisma on this small movie. It proved to me that these two are in a great class of actors, as yet undefined.

The DVD has pretty good extras and I do like how everything is spelt and pronunciations given. I thought is was funny, silly and slightly quirky.

My only hope is that Keke Palmer keeps this pace because if she does, she will one day hold Hollywood in the palm of her hand as do Fishburne and Bassett.

It's Often The "Small" Films That Pack The Most Punch!.......2007-08-07

I have come across a number of gems in "small" movies that tend to have the most impact. These are movies that seem to be overlooked at the box office by movie-goers. Perhaps there is a fear that they are too corny, sentimental, or just plain boring. However, many of these films are anything but.

Akeelah and the Bee dares Americans to face a glaring paradox: Everyone is a winner. Yes, we preach this and we try to teach this. This film actually makes this concept work. In a society that thrives (many times too much) on competition, we often forget that people have feelings. How often is it the kids who need to remind us of that fact. For example, in the Little League World Series, you often see many acts of sportsmanship.

Akeelah and the Bee is about a young African-American girl who lives in south central Los Angeles. She lives with her mother who works as nurse and struggles just to make ends meet. Akeelah discovers that she has a love for words, and spends hours looking through the dictionary to not only be able to spell the word, but also understand what the word means.

This is a hobby that she keeps to herself. She doesn't want her classmates to get wind of the fact that she just might like something academic at school. However, when her English teacher notices that Akeelah does exceptionally well on her spelling tests, the teacher immediately attempts to get Akeelah to participate in the school spelling bee. Reluctantly, she agrees.

As briliant as Akeelah is with words, she still needs a lot of work and help. Enter her "spelling coach," Dr. Larabee (played magnificently by Laurence Fishburne who was also a producer for the film). Dr. Larabee also has a love of words, but he has to encourage Akeelah to study the origins of the different words, and perhaps even more importantly, he helps to instill a confidence and a sense of self-worth in Akeelah. One of the first steps is that Larabee will not allow Akeelah to speak ghetto-talk. "You will speak intelligently," he says. It is a bit of a mystery at first as to why Larabee wants to coach Akeelah as it is apparent that there is something else going on. There is a touching reason that I will not disclose here.

Angela Bassett plays Akeelah's mother. And her performance, as in so many of her films, she does a great job. She plays a hard mother but a caring one. She is so busy with work, that it comes as a surprise to her when she finds out about Akeelah's talent.

Another surprising performance is given by Curtis Armstrong as Akeelah's principal. Armstrong has done mostly comedic roles, such as the infamous "Booger" in "Revenge of the Nerds." I was slightly apprehensive at first, but he also turns in a very credible job. He plays a very supportive school principal. After seeing this role, you might wonder why we don't have more "supportive" principals in our schools.

Of course, I can't mention performances without mentioning Laurence Fishburne. He is still one of my favorite actors. He is so brilliant at embodying the sage-like man who has an unswerving, and yet quiet wisdom. My two favorite roles of his are Morpheus from the "Matrix," and Furious Styles from "Boyz and the Hood." His performance here in this film is no less inspiring and thought-provoking.

At last, I have to talk about newcomer, Keke Palmer (Akeelah). This amazing, young actress turns in a great performance as the young spelling, whiz kid. While she plays Akeelah with a young, impressionable sweetness, she is also able to tap into the brewing teenage arrogance that is starting to come out. Akeelah has got some attitude, but Palmer is careful to not let that overshadow the softness and kindness of Akeelah.

This film may seem a bit formulaic, but I assure you, it has a surprise at the end that I would bet few people see coming. This is a film that will have you feeling good no matter how many times you've seen it. It has that kind of power that very few films are able to capture. These kinds of movies are called "gems" because very few of them seem to come along. I truly wish that there were more films like this out there. It demonstrates that movies can be so effective in inspiring and educating, but few movies are made to do this. Anyway, you can't possibly go wrong with this film which is easily watchable fo the entire family.

I'm a sucker for a good montage sequence.......2007-07-13

There are too few good family films around these days. Some of the kid's movies peddled by the major studios are okay, but they mostly try to appeal to adults by being saturated with snarky in-jokes and cultural references that only adults would get. I guess we are suppose to giggle demurely when the writers throw us a little treat right over our children's heads. They then try to appeal to kids with flatulence humor (which I'm all for by the way), by completely overpowering their senses, and, of course, the melodramatically enhanced death of a parent, which I guess is suppose to hook the young viewers by setting up some sort of repetition compulsion.

Akeela and the Spelling Bee is a breath of fresh air. It is a beautiful story that focuses on a young girl gaining confidence and a sense of mastery through working hard, using her natural gifts, and an impressive display of resilience. There are good messages in the film. Every character set up to be a villain is ultimately redeemed by Akeela's unflappable grace and inability to be seduced by thoughts of retribution. You do have the death of a parent as part of the backstory, but it is not played up in that manipulative lets-traumatize-the-children Disney style. It is there as a necessary part of explaining Akeela's character and the complexities in her bond with her coach.

And, you get montage sequences of Akeela cramming for the spelling bee. Not just one, but three. I always love that in a movie, when the music starts and you just see brief clips of the character studying in various settings. Many is the time in my own life that I gutted through exam preparation by dissociating to my own little montage sequence.

Some critics have focused on clichés in the movie. But they are not clichés to little kids who haven't spent the bulk of their time deconstructing cinema. And they aren't clichés to parents who can make a vicarious, playful connection with their kids and just take the movie at face value. In the end, your kids will love this movie and, if you let yourself get swept into it, you too will find yourself both inspired and entertained.

Average customer rating:

The "bonus feature" with Joshua Marston's audio commentary is enlightening!
Drug Smuggling
Great Spanish independent suspense drama ...............
Maria Full of Something Alright
A "job" that can kill

Maria Full of Grace
Starring: Catalina Sandino Moreno , Virgina Ariza , Yenny Paola Vega , Rodrigo Sánchez Borhorquez , and Charles Albert Patiño
Director: Joshua Marston
Manufacturer: Hbo Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0002TT0MI
Release Date: 2004-12-07

Amazon.com

When a movie can blend passionate social concern with good old-fashioned suspense, it must be doing something right. Maria Full of Grace scores high on both counts. Maria is a Colombian teenager who, for a large paycheck, agrees to be a mule for drug-runners: she has to swallow dozens of thumb-sized capsules of heroin and smuggle them into New York. This debilitating process is painstakingly described, and of course not everything goes as planned when Maria and her fellow mules land in America. Director Joshua Marston is working on a low budget, which explains the film's narrow, single-minded focus--but this may be a strength, not a weakness. The trump card is the lead performance of Catalina Sandrino Moreno, who won awards at the Seattle and Newport Film Festivals. Her empathetic face carries us along on Maria's journey, and humanizes a problem that is too easily relegated to a headline. --Robert Horton

Description

(Drama) Maria Alvarez (Catalina Sandino), a bright, spirited 17-year old, lives with three generations of her family in a cramped house in rural Colombia. Desperate to leave her job stripping thorns from flowers in a rose plantation, Maria accepts a lucrative offer to transport packets of heroin-which she must swallow-to the United States. The ruthless world of international drug trafficking proves to be more than Maria bargained for as she becomes ultimately entangled with both drug cartels and immigration officials. The dramatic thriller builds toward a conclusion so powerful and revealing it could only be based on a thousand true stories.

Customer Reviews:

The "bonus feature" with Joshua Marston's audio commentary is enlightening! .......2007-08-12

"Maria Full of Grace" on DVD has one advantage over seeing it on the big screen - the "bonus feature" with Joshua Marston's audio commentary.

I thought that "Maria Full of Grace" was a Colombian movie. Instead, it's an American independent film. The original script was written by Joshua Marston, who also directed the film. HBO video financed the film.

The "bonus feature" of this DVD with Marston's audio commentary is an important insight into the making of "Maria." If you're a student of film-making, this is a must see. The entire film is played with Marston giving a running commentary on what you're seeing. He talks about the how the idea of the film originated, the financing of the film, the use of Spanish instead of English, the use of Ecuador as a location for Colombia, the politics of the drug war, the selection of the actors, the dialogue, the editing, etc.

I watched the feature then I watched the "bonus feature" in one sitting. It was a three-hour viewing session for me because the "bonus feature" was so interesting that I couldn't turn it off.

Drug Smuggling.......2007-05-07

This movie has tremendous social impact and will stay with you long after you have watched it. It is hard to believe it is fictional because you know as you are watching it that this truly goes on, on a daily basis, and it is difficult to turn away. While it may not be easy to identify with the title character, it is very easy to understand her motivations and how it could happen. It is slow but intense and very interesting. Years after seeing the movie, I still think about it and remember it well. It's an important movie and well worth seeing. If you're going to take the time to watch, don't watch the dubbed version but see the film as the filmmaker would want you to see it, in it's original language.

Great Spanish independent suspense drama ......................2007-05-03

I love and own this film. It's a Spanish independent suspense drama.
"Maria Full of Grace" is about a young girl growing up in Columbia
with her family barely making ends meet. Once she is fired from
a low paying job she becomes even more desperate.

Maria reluctantly agrees to smuggle heroin inserted in latex capsules to destinations in the US. She struggles morally and physically with the danger of swallowing dozens of these capsules at once in order to make much needed money.

The film continues when Maria and other poor, reluctant desperate girls are trapped in the world of illegal drug trafficking. They quickly learn the drugs are the only thing that matter to their employer.

I viewed the movie with the help of subtitles (my Spanish is awful), don't let this stop you.
"Maria Full of Grace" is a great film, that's touching
and suspenseful with social concerns.

Maria Full of Something Alright.......2007-04-08

"Maria Full of Grace" by Joshua Marston certainly has a story to tell. The fault with the movie is that the powerful tale could be told better and more powerfully. The characters could have been brought to life more aptly by more apt actors. The lead actress Catalin Sandino Moreno is no doubt a beautiful young woman who portrays subtle emotions and feelings in her angelic face but her supporting cast doesn't really show up to the dance and the script writing is lacking.

What I believe the film to be about is bringing to light a certain level of social awareness of the immigrant story. Even if the immigrant story is born out of desperation, a desperation so powerful as to cause young sub-20 year old people to swallow enough drugs to feed a habit the size of Utah. This film brings to light the story of mules--humans trafficking drugs within their bodies awaiting to poop them out on American soil so the drug cartels can continue to thrive. It is no doubt a story that needs to be told and an awareness that needs to come to the good common folk of the US of A. We are supposed to be the melting pot are we not? We were all traced back to immigrants, yes?

The actress that plays Maria's friend, Blanca turns in one of the more 1-dimensional stone-faced performances seen in quite a while. Of the other mules that accompany Maria and Blanca to New York...well the story writing really doesn't support getting to know them. We know little to nothing about any of the characters outside of Maria and it is a flaw. A flaw leaving you thinking this movie and this story could have really been something.

If you are interested in the dynamics of the drug trade, Colombia's civil war plight, policies behind the war on drugs, or humanistic tales of immigrants, I'd say go ahead and watch this flick. If you are looking to view some of the greatest movies around year by year and are peeking at those that came out in 2003, I'd say go elsewhere. The reviews and recommendations suffer from critics automatically giving higher ratings to foreign films. It's foreign, it's different, it's in a different language we don't understand told by people we don't know, it must be unique and illuminating. Well I'd say that's an old mule's tale and in need of some laxatives. ...mmw

A "job" that can kill.......2007-03-04

The desperately poor women who become carriers of drugs--inside their stomachs, no less--risk a terrible death but are willing to do so for the chance to live in the U.S. Not a propaganda piece, but a hard, cold look at the truth.

Average customer rating:

In my top ten EVER movies - not JUST for kids!!!
Outstanding
You go, Akeelah!
It's Often The "Small" Films That Pack The Most Punch!
I'm a sucker for a good montage sequence

Akeelah and the Bee
Starring: Keke Palmer , Laurence Fishburne , Angela Bassett , Curtis Armstrong , and J.R. Villarreal
Director: Doug Atchison
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B000G1R38U
Release Date: 2006-08-29

Amazon.com

Description

Customer Reviews:

In my top ten EVER movies - not JUST for kids!!!.......2007-09-17

Outstanding.......2007-08-21

One of the best movies of the year. Excellent acting and script. Heartfelt and humorous, also inspiring and intellectually engaging.
Totally excellent.

You go, Akeelah!.......2007-08-18

It's Often The "Small" Films That Pack The Most Punch!.......2007-08-07

I'm a sucker for a good montage sequence.......2007-07-13

Average customer rating:

"Che" Guevara Killed In Cold Blood? Naw, Really?
Heartbreaking but excellent movie
Bravo, Wonderful and Awesome!
Cuba Libre
The Lost City

The Lost City
Starring: Steven Bauer , Richard Bradford , Benjamin Bratt , William Marquez , and Julio Oscar Mechoso
Director: Andy Garcia
Manufacturer: Magnolia
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B000C3L2PC
Release Date: 2006-08-08

Product Description

Andy Garcia stars and makes his directorial debut in a passionate and historical tribute to his native Cuba. Havana in 1958 is a place of pleasure for many, but others are not happy under the rule of dictator Fulgenico Batista. As the revolutionary forces of Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara prepare to move on the city, Fico Fellove (Garcia)-owner of the city's classiest music nightclub, El Tropico-struggles to hold together his family and the love of a woman (In s Sastre). Observing all is The Writer (Bill Murray) an ex-patriot American who sees Fico being drawn into events as the revolution changes everything. Though Fico watches a culture vanish and a people transformed, it is his love of Cuban music that keeps his memories alive. Co-starring Dustin Hoffman and Steve Bauer.

System Requirements:
Running Time: 143 Minutes

Format: DVD MOVIE

Amazon.com

For his first feature film as a director, Andy Garcia has crafted an ambitious and vivid love story set amid the Cuban revolution. El Tropico, an elegant nightclub, overflows with exuberant music and sinuous dance; the owner, Fico (Garcia, Ocean's Eleven, The Untouchables), and his family live a life of privilege in Havana, but Fico and his father hope to steer the brutal reign of Batista towards democratic reforms. Fico's two brothers are not so patient and get caught up in the guerilla forces that seek to overthrow Batista by force; one dies after a failed coup attempt, the other joins Fidel Castro's revolutionary army. Meanwhile, Fico and his widowed sister-in-law Aurora (Ines Sastre) fall in love, their romance unfolding in the still-thriving Havana nightlife, while during the day Castro's new regime turns as repressive as Batista's. Gorgeous cinematography captures the spectacle of the musical numbers in El Tropico, which are never less than stunning, and the depiction of the political chaos is effective and dynamic. Unfortunately, at the heart of the movie is stasis; Fico, though morally indignant, never takes any action, and his courtship with Aurora is beautifully filmed but lacks palpable heat. Clumsy dialogue and odd digressions with mobster Meyer Lansky (Dustin Hoffman, Rain Man) and a seemingly metaphorical character known only as the Writer (Bill Murray, Lost in Translation) make a long movie feel even longer. But the music is undeniable; if your feet don't itch to dance after watching The Lost City, you have no soul. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

"Che" Guevara Killed In Cold Blood? Naw, Really?.......2007-09-15

As I watched the movie, I was reminded of what old Uncle Joe, Joseph Stalin used to say about a variety of things - "Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed." "Ideas are far more powerful than guns. We don't allow our enemies to have guns, why should we allow them to have ideas?" "Death is the solution to all problems. No man - no problem." The Stalinist style of Ernesto "Che" Guevara de La Serna y Lynch finally comes through in a mainstream, albeit, independent english language film. And as I watched the accurate portrayal of this psychopath,I sought out words that would perhaps sooth me into believing as the majority apparently do out of ignorance or allegiance that "Che" was a humanitarian. Let us read:

"I'd like to confess, papa', at that moment I discovered that I really like killing." Letter from Ernesto Guevara to his father during a time after he delivered a point blank shot from his pistol to the temple of Eutimio Guerra, a rebel guerilla (not one of Batista's men mind you, one of his own) ordered executed by Fidel Castro in 1957.
- Marcos Bravo. La Otra Cara Del Che, Editorial Solar. Bogota, Colombia.

""Fusilamientos? Hemos fusilado, fusilamos e seguiremos fusilando mientras sea necesario. Nuestra lucha es una lucha a la muerte."
"Executions? Yes. We have executed. We execute and we will continue to execute while it remains necessary. Our struggle, is a struggle to the death. "
-Ernesto "Che" Guevara, United Nations General Assembly, December 11, 1964, audio recording

"To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary," "These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. This is a revolution! And a revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate. We must create the pedagogy of the paredon (The Wall)!"
- Jose Vilasuso, Come Era El Che, Bayamon/edu, Puerto Rico, 1997

"Crazy with fury I will stain my rifle red while slaughtering any enemy that falls in my hands! My nostrils dilate while savoring the acrid odor of gunpowder and blood. With the deaths of my enemies I prepare my being for the sacred fight and join the triumphant proletariat with a bestial howl!"
- Ernesto "Che Guevara", Diarios de motocicleta, (Auto-biography) also known as the "Motorcycle Diaries".

"Yet immediately after the Santa Clara bribe and skirmish, Che ordered 27 Batista soldiers executed as "war criminals." Dr. Serafin Ruiz was a Castro operative in Santa Clara at the time, but apparently an essentially decent one. "But Comandante" he responded to Che's order. "Our revolution promises not to execute without trials, without proof. How can we just....?"

"Look Serafin" Che snorted back. "If your bourgeois prejudices won't allow you to carry out my orders, fine. Go ahead and try them tomorrow morning -- but execute them NOW!".

-Enrique Ros, Che: Mito y Realidad. Ediciones Universal. Miami, 2002

It was during the last days of December 1959; in the dark, cold cell that 16 prisoners slept on the floor while the other 16 were standing so they could lay down, but nobody was thinking about that, our only thought was that we were alive and that was the important thing; we lived hour to hour, minute to minute, second to second without knowing what the next would bring.

It was about an hour before it would be time us to change shifts when the sound of the iron door opening was heard as they threw another person into the already crowded cell. For a moment in the darkness we couldn't tell that it was a boy some 12 to 14 years old at most who had just become our newest cellmate. And what did you do? We all asked almost in unison. With his bloody and beaten face he stared at us and responded "I defended my father so they wouldn't kill him, I couldn't stop it. Those sons of bitches murdered him."

We all looked at each other as if to find the right words to console the boy but we couldn't find them. We had enough of our own problems. It had been two or three days since they had executed anyone and each day we had more hope that this would all be over. The executions are unmerciful, they take life when you need it most for you and yours, without listening to your protests or yearnings for life.

Our happiness didn't last much longer, when the door opened they called out 10, among them the boy who had been the last one in. We had been wrong because those they called, we never again saw.

How could it be possible to take a child's life in this way? Could it be that we were wrong and that we were to be released? Near the wall where they conducted the executions, with his hands on his waist, paced from side to side the abominable Che Guevera.

He gave the order to bring the boy first and he ordered him to kneel in front of the wall. We all screamed for them not to commit this crime and we offered ourselves in his place. The boy disobeyed the order with a courage that words can't express and responded to this infamous character: "If you're going to kill me you're going to have to do it the way you kill a man, standing, not like a coward, kneeling.

Walking behind the boy, the Che said "whereupon you are a brave lad..." He unholstered his pistol and shot him in the nape of the neck so that he almost decapitated him.

We all shouted "assassins, miserable cowards" and so many other things. He turned around towards us and emptied the pistol's magazine. I do not know how many of us were killed or injured. From this horrible nightmare, from which never we managed to wake up, we realized that although wounded and in the student clinic of the Calixto Garcia hospital, one thing was clear, the only card we could play was to escape, it was our only hope of survival.

- Pierre San Martin, How Che Murdered, El Nuevo Herald December 28, 1997

"The house was among the most luxurious in Cuba," writes Cuban journalist Antonio Llano Montes. ''Until a few weeks prior, it had belonged to Cuba's most successful building contractor. The mansion had a boat dock, a huge swimming pool, seven bathrooms, a sauna, a massage salon and several television sets. One TV had been specially designed in the U.S. and had a screen ten feet wide and was operated by remote control (remember, this was 1959.) This was thought to be the only TV of its kind in Latin America. The mansion's garden had a veritable jungle of imported plants, a pool with waterfall, ponds filled with exotic tropical fish and several bird houses filled with parrots and other exotic birds. The habitation was something out of A Thousand and One Nights.

Llano Montes wrote the above in exile. In January 1959 he didn't go quite into such detail in his article which appeared in the Cuban magazine Carteles. He simply wrote that, "Comandante Che Guevara has fixed his residence in one of the most luxurious houses on Tarara beach."

Two days after his article ran, while lunching at Havana's El Carmelo restaurant, Llano Montes looked up from his plate to see three heavily armed Rebel army soldiers instructing him to accompany them. Shortly the journalist found himself in Che Guevara's La Cabana office, seated a few feet in front of the Comandante's desk which was piled with papers.

It took half an hour but Che finally made his grand entrance, "reeking horribly, as was his custom" recalls Llano Montes. "Without looking at me. He started grabbing papers on his desk and brusquely signing them with 'Che.' His assistant came in and Che spoke to him over his shoulder. "I'm signing these 26 executions so we can take care of this tonight.'

"Then he got up and walked out. Half an hour later he walks back in and starts signing more papers. Finished signing, he picks up a book and starts reading -- never once looking at me. Another half hour goes by and he finally puts the book down. 'So you're Llano Montes,' he finally sneers, 'who says I appropriated a luxurious house.'

"I simply wrote that you had moved into a luxurious house, which is the truth," replied Llano Montes.

"I know your tactics!" Che shot back. "You press people are injecting venom into your articles to damage the revolution. You're either with us or against us. We're not going to allow all the press foolishness that Batista allowed. I can have you executed this very night. How about that!"

"You'll need proof that I've broken some law" responded Montes.

"'We don't need proof. We manufacture the proof,' Che said while stroking his shoulder length hair, a habit of his. One of his prosecutors, a man nicknamed 'Puddle-of-blood' then walked in and started talking. 'Don't let the stupid jabbering of those defense lawyers delay the executions!' Che yelled at him. 'Threaten them with execution. Accuse them of being accomplices of the Batistianos.' Then Che jerked the handful of papers from Mr. Puddle and started signing them.

"This type of thing went on from noon until 6:30 PM when Che finally turned to his aides and said. 'Get this man out of here. I don't want him in my presence.'"

- Marcos Bravo. La Otra Cara Del Che, Editorial Solar. Bogota, Colombia.

"No dispare, No dispare! Yo soy el Che Guevara y valgo para usted mucho mas vivo que muerto"
"Don't shoot, don't shoot! I am Che Guevara and I am worth more to you alive than dead."
Ernesto "Che" Guevara, to his captors in Bolivia on October 9, 1967.

He was probably expecting them to dispense with the "archaic bourgeois detail" of judicial proof before killing him.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone interested in seeing a cleverly avoided and in many cases self admitted side of the "Che".

Heartbreaking but excellent movie.......2007-07-23

I am so glad that I watched this movie - it is a powerful and moving story. The film did not get the credit that it so richly deserved. The cinematography was stellar. Andy Garcia did a fantastic job of directing. Bill Murray and Dustin Hoffman were slightly annoying and threw the balance of the movie off somewhat. Probably the reason that the film was not praised in Hollywood and the critic world, is because it was NOT pro-Castro. It was more of a family saga and love story than a detailed account of the Battista, Che Guerrera, and Castro atrocities, so I think that needs to be taken into account when viewing it. Definitely a film to watch!

Bravo, Wonderful and Awesome!.......2007-07-16

Got the movie because I love Andy Garcia! He was excellent as usual as a director, actor and distinguished gentleman. What can I say! He is gifted and delivered a great production. The acting, plot and story are So Real and the great scenes. Loved the special features and interview which made this very special. Go and get it now! You'll appreciate the good acting and a great love story. I'll be watching it again and again!

Cuba Libre.......2007-05-21

In his feature-film directorial debut, Andy Garcia uses the screen as his canvas to paint a vibrant and wistful picture of a Havana he never really knew firsthand. In 1961, Garcia's parents fled the prison that Cuba had become under Fidel Castro. Alarmed at the sight of their five-year-old boy Andrés marching in their front yard and singing the communist hymn The Internationale, they decided to leave Cuba to raise their family in Miami Beach.
The Lost City represents Garcia's quest of sixteen years to tell this epic story of a Cuban family's struggle to grapple with the turbulent events of the communist overthrow of strong-arm dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1958--events that inevitably tear the family asunder. The film's dramatic, moving script is the final screenplay penned by the late, legendary Cuban novelist Guillermo Cabrera Infante. An early supporter of the Castro revolution, Infante's gradual disillusionment with the communist dictator forced him to flee in 1966.

The Lost City revolves around nightclub owner Fico Fellove (Garcia), who runs the El Tropico, the ritziest cabaret in downtown Havana, and his two brothers, Ricardo (Enrique Murciano) and Luis (Nestor Carbonell). The movie opens with an elaborate dance scene onstage at the club, where Fico's extended family celebrates his parents' anniversary. But as soon as the camera lurks backstage, the audience discovers that all is not well in the family, nor in Havana.

Fico's father, university professor Don Federico--played with great intelligenceby Tomas Milian (one of many Cuban expatriates among the cast and crew)--holds court in Fico's office, arguing for reasoned, democratic opposition to the brutal Batista regime. But overzealous son Ricardo predicts that a coming revolution will free the oppressed people of Cuba. Heated discussion escalates into a violent confrontation between patriarch and prodigal son, and Fico and Luis have to forcibly restrain their brother. The rift within the family ominously symbolizes the divisions that have broken out in the Fellove's island paradise, once known as the "Pearl of the Antilles."

In the tragic saga that chronicles the Fellove family's dissolution, Fico loses both brothers: Luis is executed by secret police when caught as the ringleader of an [...] attempt on Batista, and Ricardo commits suicide after betraying his family to win favor with the communists. The meaning of the movie's title emerges as we see what has been lost; the film becomes an elegiac love letter to the graceful and glamorous world in which Fico moves, but which is now slipping through his fingers as the communists impose control over every aspect of Cuban society.

Elaborate musical and dance sequences, featuring the impulsive Afro-Cuban rhythms that define Cuban music, set off the onscreen action. Rumba and mambo show-stoppers make The Lost City the kind of fusion of light entertainment and serious drama that American movie studios have forgotten how to make. But what most grabbed me were the ballet scenes, featuring the lithe agility of dancer Lorena Feijóo, who in real life is principal ballerina for the San Francisco Ballet.

This kind of filmmaking threw many critics for a loop. But for me, The Lost City comes off more like a Bollywood extravaganza than does the mostly anemic "serious" fare Hollywood serves up these days. The most convincing scenes are in the love story between Fico and brother Luis's aggrieved widow, Aurora, played by the exquisite Inés Sastre. Emmanuel Kadosh's camera simply loves her serene, alluring beauty: as Fico falls for her, so do all the men in the audience.

Most crucially, Infante and Garcia don't whitewash or gloss over the true history of Fidel Castro's tyrannical rise to power: he is shown for exactly the brutal dictator he was and is. One wouldn't think that actor Jsu Garcia's portrayal of Ernesto "Che" Guevara as a murderous goon--rather than as the Martyred Saint of the People--would be controversial almost forty years after his death, but it has caused The Lost City to be banned in many Latin American countries.
Although uneven in a couple of scenes, the film overall is gripping and beautifully made, full of forceful, evocative performances that would make any new director proud. In a memorable cameo, Dustin Hoffman nails gangster Meyer Lansky's quietly menacing demeanor. Fans of The Incredibles's sultry "Mirage" character will get a glimpse of actress Elizabeth Peña playing a communist bureaucrat who threatens to shut down Fico's nightclub, unless he removes the orchestra's saxophone ("an instrument of imperialist oppression"). Bill Murray provides comic relief as "the Writer," an obvious stand-in for novelist Infante. Some of his jokes fall flat, but altogether he injects a sense of uneasiness that foreshadows the beginning of the end for Fico's fortunes.

Emmanuel Kadosh's vibrant cinematography bathes the screen in rich hues reminiscent of Gordon Willis' Technicolor prints of The Godfather, Part II (also filmed in the Dominican Republic). Production designer Waldemar Kalinowski and art director Carlos Menéndez re-create a rich, elegant Havana, adding first-rate production values to this low-budgeted movie.

Oddly, The Lost City was panned by most critics in the U.S., presumably for its length and uneven execution. However, after reading many of the reviews, I suspect more than just a little opposition to be rooted in politics rather than aesthetics. Typical of the reviews was Stephen Holden's in the New YorkTimes:

The impoverished masses of Cubans who embraced Castro as a liberator appear only in grainy, black-and-white news clips, awkwardly shoehorned into the movie to fill in historical blanks, and in some buffoonish parodies of sour Communist apparatchiks barking orders once Mr. Castro takes over.
Almost fifty years after Castro seized power and turned Cuba into a death camp and a sewer, its suffering captives still risk shark-infested waters and treacherous currents to reach the freedom of America's shores. Yet to many American Baby Boomers, nostalgic over the red "Che" t-shirts of their pampered college years, the nightmare reality just ninety miles from American shores might as well be invisible.

Earlier this summer, when the aging Castro went under the knife and, for the first time, temporarily relinquished power to his brother Raul, you could witness more accurately what Cuba's muzzled masses probably felt: thousands of Cuban-Americans of all ages and incomes filled downtown Miami, celebrating Fidel's impending demise, waving Cuban and American flags, literally dancing in the streets.

In The Lost City, this same spirit moves Fico Fellove, who chooses to live and work alone in poverty and freedom, as a dishwasher in New York City, rather than as a slave in the socialist "paradise" of Havana:

I can't go back. It's too dangerous...for my soul. I have no money. But here, I feel as though I'm worth more than I ever was.

The Lost City.......2007-03-15

A very good historical account of the early days of Castro's revolution. It is narrated as a personal experience. It shows how families were separated by either murdering the oposition or having to flee the country.

Average customer rating:

Damn good free running!
Ghetto Blaster
District B-13 Review
Crank and Snatch
Superb action, and a sufficiently new plot for the modern believer of Civil Disobedience.

District B13
Starring: Cyril Raffaelli , David Belle , Tony D'Amario , Bibi Naceri , and Dany Verissimo
Director: Pierre Morel
Manufacturer: Magnolia
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B000GPPPTK
Release Date: 2006-09-05

Product Description

In this action packed film set in the ghettos of Paris in 2010, an undercover cop and ex-thug try to infiltrate a gang in order to defuse a neutron bomb.

System Requirements:
Running Time: 85 Minutes

Format: DVD MOVIE

Amazon.com

For eye-popping kinetic thrills, District B13 tops the class. In the near future, the worst ghettos of Paris have been walled in and left to rot. When a neutron bomb gets stolen by a criminal kingpin in seedy District B13, Damien--a cop who specializes in deep cover assignments (Cyril Raffaelli, a stuntman turned actor)--has to team up with Leito (David Belle), who grew up in the district and has his own reason for going back: the kingpin kidnapped his sister (tough yet adorable gamine Dany Verissimo). The plot takes a few preposterous turns, but it's beside the point--every turn serves only to maintain the relentless flow of sheer physical prowess. Belle is one of the inventors of a sport called parkour, which treats a city's architecture like an obstacle course; while running from gun-toting thugs, Leito leaps, bounds, and scrambles up and down buildings with astonishing grace. The fight sequences are just as down-to-earth yet over-the-top as Damien whirls, kicks, and crunches through armies of bad guys. Just as important is the tongue-in-cheek tone that never turns smirky; the movie doesn't take itself seriously, but doesn't mock itself or its basic cinematic pleasures. Anyone looking for a break from the overbearing CGI and self-important pomp of Hollywood action movies should watch District B13. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

Damn good free running!.......2007-08-09

Damn good free running! The movie itself was kinda lame but the free running...oh the free running. It kicked a**!

Ghetto Blaster.......2007-07-02

France's `District B13' borrows heavily from the U.S.'s gangster movie arsenal. To their credit their innovations mutate the genre in a thoroughly frenzied and entertaining way. As a science fiction thriller that doesn't take us far into the future, the film`s premise is about a turf war between a vigilante, Leito (David Belle) and a gang with drug interests. Living in a bleak time when all post offices and schools have been closed and the districts are barricaded, these dark ages present a police force that can barely tread water. Taking place in Paris in 2010, don't expect to see any scenes with the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre Museum. Instead we get a landscape that is nearly as bleak as 'Children of Men' Children of Men (Widescreen Edition) and a story that has the bad guys blackmailing authorities with a nuetron bomb. Leito connects with Damien (Cyril Raffaelli), a cop to be reckoned with. Both build a rivalry and tension, but each has motivation enough to try and save their city.

Besides some incredible chase scenes that really add some spark, most of the lines are funnier than the ones given to Bruce Willis and 007. What usually is handled by running, this dynamic duo does by climbing walls and doing summersaults. Some cool menace emanates from the ringleader Tah and his muscular crew. The message about social justice may seem tacked on for some, but the integration begs to differ. It's understandable that there's been quite a critical stir for this foreign movie just waiting to move up on our radar screen. However, as smoothly as this movie is laid out, one wonders why Leito's sister (a likable, spunky performance by Dany Verissimo) is used as bait when the nuke could serve as meatier blackmail. I can only say that the tension grows in a movie that is nearly flawlessly paced. At least here France has done for gangster movies what other foreigners have done for automobiles.

District B-13 Review.......2007-06-15

If you enjor movies whit amazingly choreographed fight scenes acrobatics, this movie is for you. Short, but sweet, District B13 brings together all the elements of a true action/thriller.

Crank and Snatch.......2007-04-10

If you enjoy movies like "Crank", "Snatch", and "Transporter" you will definitely want to catch this one. The choreography of the fights is phenomenal. This movie at first came across very much as a foreign film and I was on the verge of turning it off since it started a little slow. I am glad I hung in a little longer because the pace picked up in a hurry and the story, acting, and action were great. The dubbing is off just a little, but not bad. This is more gang war than SciFi, but it will entertain most action fans. I recommend it and I think it has replayability since it has a different feel and look. Definitely rent it, but I think you will want to buy it, if just for the fight scenes.

Superb action, and a sufficiently new plot for the modern believer of Civil Disobedience........2007-04-04

An unsuspecting (or not so) good guy, a hard boiled cop, a crime boss, and a bomb counting down from 24 hours. Sounds original, right? Well, District B13 contains enough amazing action (more flight than fight) and a cleverly dealt twist to leave grinning those with political or physical freedom at heart.

Those interested in parkour may compare this film with Casino Royale. This film is much more the standard bearer for parkour than Casino Royale, as it uses many traceurs in many scenes, rather than one in one.

I will absolutely see this film again. Absolutely.

Average customer rating:

A classic black film for the ages!
the real deal !!!!!!!!!!
Doesn't Hold Up
"Superfly" helps represent the era of the Seventies.
Classic

Superfly
Starring: Ron O'Neal , Carl Lee , Sheila Frazier , Julius Harris , and Charles McGregor
Director: Gordon Parks Jr.
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
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ASIN: B0000TWMT8
Release Date: 2004-01-13

Amazon.com

The pinnacle of blaxploitation movies, the 1972 Superfly stars Ron O'Neal as a drug dealer who wants out of the business but decides to take out some enemies in the process. With its criminal hero, one might almost think this could be an existential crime movie, but no...it's really just an effective piece of pulp with a strong performance by O'Neal, grim settings, cool direction by Gordon Parks Jr., and a famous soundtrack by Curtis Mayfield. --Tom Keogh

Description

Ron O'Neal in the smart, streetwise box office success about a pusher who tries to make one last killer deal before kicking the business. Featuring a hit Curtis Mayfield score. Year: 1972 Director: Gordon Parks, Jr. Starring: Ron O'Neal, Carl Lee, Julius W. Harris

Customer Reviews:

A classic black film for the ages!.......2007-07-10

Ron O'neal gave his best performance as an actor in this 70's classic. It showed the story of a street hustler focused on getting out of the drug game, inspite of his colleagues trying to hold him back. Gordon Parks Jr. did an excellent job directing this urban drama classic. The story line was superb as well as the cast that appeared in the film. Sheila Frazier is still quite a foxx to this day. Eddie really should've known better than to leave his main man Priest hangin' at the end. I was glad to see Priest sho nuff stick it to the man at the end of the movie.

the real deal !!!!!!!!!!.......2007-06-14

Having grown up in the Bronx in the 60's and 70's, I can honestly say this is as close to the real deal as it gets. Hats off to Gordon Parker, Jr.

Doesn't Hold Up.......2007-05-07

I loved it so much when I saw it in the early 70's, but over time it seems dated and corny. Ron O'Neal's performance as Priest seems stilted and forced. Best thing I can say about it now is that it has a wonderful score from Curtis Mayfield that DOES still hold up. Buy the music and forget the film.

"Superfly" helps represent the era of the Seventies. .......2006-11-16

This movie is outrageous. Gordon Parks Jr.'s "Superfly" is interesting enough with its cliches of drug pushers, users, pimps, hos, and the dismal life in the ghetto. Good performances are given by Ron O'Neal as Priest, the drug pusher who wants to do the unthinkable -- get out of the business, and Julius Harris as Scatter, Priest's former connection to "The Man". After a little "help" from his friends Priest discovers he can only trust his woman, Georgia (Shelia Frazier). But, Priest has masterminded a way to take him and Georgia away from this life to another.

A director today, for example, could never get away with making a movie like this. The movie moves along like a series of music videos, stopping periodically to insert some dialogue and characters and situations, after which it moves back into another music video. Even that sex scene in the bathtub seemed to go on forever, panning up and down and up and down and up and down the naked bodies in the tub, presumably long enough for the song to play out before we can move on to the next scene.

From a technical standpoint, the film is an absolute disaster. There's a foot-chase early in the movie during which a wire of some sort falls directly in front of the camera lens not once, but twice, the audio is numerous scenes does not even remotely match the video (the never-ending bathtub scene, for example), and the acting is abysmal.

Throughout the film, the enjoyment comes from Curtis Mayfield's superb soundtrack. It has a way of elevating what might be just another b film to a cult classic. From "Little Child Runnin' Wild" in the opening sequence to Curtis Mayfield's live performance of "Pusherman" in Scatter's club to the end credits with the title track, this is simply one of the finest pieces of music ever written specifically for a film. The soundtrack album, which produced hit singles with "Freddie's Dead" and "Superfly", stands with Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" as perhaps the two greatest soul albums of the 1970's.

Classic.......2006-11-03

This movie is the typical 1970's Blacksploitation movie with great music and bad acting. Hovever, it's a classic and I love it. As soon as I was able to find it on DVD I knew I had to get it.

Average customer rating:

big rhed comes homw
ultimate monster movie
Adult Popcorn
The very latest models for 1953
Great 50s Classic

The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms
Starring: Paul Hubschmid , Paula Raymond , Cecil Kellaway , Kenneth Tobey , and Donald Woods
Director: Eugène Lourié
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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