Posted on 04/26/2009 3:46:23 PM PDT by lewisglad
In this movie executive produced by Beyonce Knowles, her father/manager, Matthew Knowles, and Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Beyonce plays the Black wife of a Black investment executive. Her husband is relentlessly pursued and stalked by a hot, White (and crazy) blonde temp (Ali Larter). Although the husband never gives in to the White chick's pursuits, she frames him up to make it look as if he did, and he's in the doghouse with his wife.
And the Black couple is surrounded by a cadre of brainless and otherwise non-ideal human beings with gaping flaws. There is the lecherous, married White male co-worker (Jerry O'Connell) who can't believe the Black executive won't accept a little something on the side with the hot blonde--something he (the White guy) says he wants to do with her. Then, there is the world's most brainless White baby sitter, who gullibly lets the stalker White chick into the house to kidnap the baby. And don't forget the world's most brainless gay White male secretary, who ditzily gives the stalker White blonde the complete scoop on the Black couples' weekend plans, making it easier for her to stalk them. Even the White chick cop (Christine Lahti) isn't too bright. Yup, not a single White character in the movie who is sympathetic.
Sure, race is never mentioned in the movie. It doesn't have to be. Look at the movie poster and the colors they chose for the design, and the way the characters are juxtaposed. It's all about Black versus White, baby. I live in a mostly Black suburb of Detroit, and I saw the movie in a local theater with an entirely Black audience. I heard all assortment of racist comments about the White people and the White chick stalker, throughout the movie and afterward as I left.
(Excerpt) Read more at debbieschlussel.com ...
I’m not sure what that has to do with this movie review.
Or reason and substance.
Can we call a moratorium from Debbie Schlussel columns? Seriously, she’s a conservative Ted Rall. She’s not doing us any favors, folks.
Cash is king.
I like her ~because~ she is judgemental on the pop culture, and cultural issues (so rare for a Conservative, even to take a “pro-morality”) stance on things that effect our culture these days..I’d say a ‘breath of fresh air’!
Not my kind of flick, but sounds like a rerun of the Life and Times of Kobe Bryant.
Whooo-hooo---somebody is due to report to the nearest "re-education" center for sensitivity training!
“he worst fear of many black women in America is that white women are stealing their men.”
But of course, unless those men are committed to those ladies, they are not “theirs.” All males and females have a right to choose their own mates, without someone else feeling they have a claim on them. And even more specifically, even when people are securely attached and/or married, the other person still doesn’t “belong” to them. We may be committed to someone else, but we never OWN that person.
On the other hand, I’ve also heard that many beautiful, smart, together black ladies have been looking for intelligent white men. It seems not to be about that phony thing race, but about, as another survey we read about recently, finding people we are comfortable with because of something we have in common.
>>Please. Imagine if the opposite had been the focus of the film; a white couple with a black female stalker.<<
I remember with Rising Sun - the author (Michael Crichton) didn’t want a black actor because then people would assume it was a racial movie - but that was 14 years ago - these day it can go either way - it can be a racial statement or it can be a black actor playing a mainstream part.
Don’t you hate it when the producers hire kidnappers and force you to go to their movies?
“What’s the appeal?”
She rejects political correctness and tells it like it is.
;The black couple is MARRIED.”
I don’t know about this - I was at a convention for my company this weekend. It was a very busy weekend here in Little Rock. Little Tae Kwon Do kids, some little dance competition kids, all over the hotel. And then, off to the left of us,, a really big black wedding. Wedding rehearsal Friday night, wedding Saturday night. Must have been at least ten bridesmaids, equal number of other attendants. I simply cannot imagine how much money was spent on that wedding. And it was clear, mother of the bride, mother of the groom, and all the other realtives, all stable families. So it does happen.
I never saw so many well heeled black people in one place. On the one hand, I was extremely happy that these people were doing the right thing. They were all gorgeous - funny, though, the bride and groom were probably the least attractive of all the people there. It’s hard to imagine who they were, how they could afford such a wedding, and why so many of their much more attractive friends were there for it. Still, the point is, they were doing the right thing. There are lots of black marriages.
But why? She’s beautiful, why do that?
Don't juxtapose Schlussel into a true conservative think tank, otherwise I'd have to jump ship to my own private island. I compare her to the likes of Garofalo.
"....sympathetic White character in the entire movie?"
Idris Elba's Derek character never let anyone into his predicament but for one office buddy in an overview as he became worried that if brought to light it could turn on him and become a much publicized sexual harassment suit. How sympathetic are the majority to males being the ones sexually harassed?
Should he have even had a drink with her at a bar while on his way to a "no spouses allowed" office Christmas party? Probably not. A little harmless shared flirtation to Derek became an obsession to Lisa (Ali Larter), a temp worker which in a two week stint had her eyes on set on him for a conquest.
Typical story line, handsome characters. The only difference I saw in this film -stereotypical white female vs black female role- comparison was that Sharon (Beyoncé Knowles)played a "strong black" woman who took on this psycho and was not afraid to "take care of business" & beat the crap out of her when she found her in their bed, when coming back to reset the alarm system. The wife, Sharon, did not play the victim,stated she did not believe in divorce (parents married for 30 years)& kicked her husband out of the house for 3 months in a "get it together-prove if you are worthy of return" scenario allowing only visitation with their young son.
Should he have told his wife early on even when the nutcase jumped into his car in her trench-coat covering only underwear? Probably so. When she followed him to a retreat. Probably so.
Christine Lahti played the detective who just played it cool in her interrogation of Lisa. She just gathered the facts, kept surveillance on the house and suggested an alarm system. Not really much one could do in a domestic, "he said she said" stalking situation.
The teenage babysitter was taken advantage of by a the skillful psycho by showing up announced and claiming Sharon had forgotten she was coming by. Pretended to call the alleged friend and offer the phone over after saying there was no need to punish the sitter. Typical teenager who was scammed by this manipulative obsessive woman.
The stroking of the male ego, lack of common sense and definitely cowardly reaction to the situation only played into the plot carefully planned out by this psycho predator.
If anything this would be considered a more feminist film, where the power was in the female characters and not the males.
The film had some resemblance to Fatal Attraction thriller so you knew where it was going. Anne Archer who played Beth Gallagher (wife) was not as powerful a role. Obsession Rated PG-13 not R as "FA".
Good thriller. Beyonce' can pack a punch!
No she spewls her own biased version of each film and in her last review I wondered if she even saw the film--mentioning Anti-Fox News and other made up tripe of a headline in regard to State of Affairs. (FR)
Those who love to hate anything theater, arts related will drink the Schlussel Kool-aid and post per pictures (like that gives any credibility).
Well, the play runs both ways. Think of Samuel L. Jackson playing the crazy/bad-cop character formerly portrayed by Ray Liotta and Al Pacino in other movies) in Lakeview Terrace, upending Jackson's earlier role in Amos and Andrew in which all the white cops were drooling goobers, and the white criminal and the pizza girl were the only white people in the whole film who weren't degenerate idiots and warmed-over uberracists. Amos and Andrew, as if the title wasn't enough to stir it up, also featured an end-title closer by Sir Mix-A-Lot: "My Suburbian <sic> Nightmare". And what nightmare would that be, dog? Surrounded by white people?
Then you have all the Spike Lee Joints. Enough said.
Even Eddie Murphy takes a pass on playing it straight in Boomerang. The white people in that film fell into a few distinct stereotypical categories:
- Furniture, mostly in the middle background
- White caricatures, like the waitress who "talks all white"
- People from France, who don't say anything but just appear in Murph's office to lay big checks on him for unspecified "publicity services"
- My favorite category, and the most significant ...... Just Absent. As in, Not There.
Falls in with who is really on top (M/F) often seen in films.
Actually, I doubt it -- Crash was a lot more honest (going by what's written here), a lot broader and more multivariate. And it came across a lot more like real life than Lakeview Terrace or, I'll warrant, Obsessed, or any of the films I mentioned upthread.
"...go watch the movie with a mostly black audience. "I dare you..."
How racist or unintentionally careless is that comment?
I had that happen in the 90's, attending a high-school football game. I wandered into a stadium where two mostly-black schools were playing (the band on the other side had one white kid in it -- her isolation was total, she was sitting by herself, all the other band members left a space around her), and the first words addressed to me -- by an older man -- were, "You lost?"
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