Afro Samurai: Resurrection - Director's Cut Review

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(More customer reviews)Afro Samurai has found vengeance, and has sworn off fighting. You didn't think that would last, did you?
Nope, it didn't. And the past catches up to the silent afroed warrior in a big way in "Afro Samurai: Resurrection" -- a wildly stylized, bloodsoaked, wildly anachronistic tale of what will happen after you get your gory revenge. And Samuel L. Jackson fits into the quiet, butt-kicking titular character like a hand in a fine leather glove.
Afro now lives in a temple where he meditates, carves little statues of Buddha, and thinks on his bloodsoaked past (cue wild flashback scene involving crazy ninjas and a river of blood).
That would make for a boring movie, so suddenly Kumo and the sexy, sadistic Sio appear, and steal both Afro's No. 1 headband and his father's remains. With his sword reforged, Afro sets out to reclaim the No. 2 headband so he can challenge Sio, and stop her from resurrecting his father (just so she can torture him).
But regaining the headband leads to a terrible cost -- a kindly man with a little son, haunted by the headband's bloody legacy. And the path to Sio's lair is riddled with grotesque henchmen who are very interested in seeing Afro dead -- and Sio herself plans to use a terrible weapon to destroy the man she hates above all else.
Like "Samurai Champloo," "Afro Samurai" is a stylized story that wears its hip-hop trappings and period Japanese flavour like badges of honor. Or headbands. Whichever. The actual story is rather thin, but it carries a heavy message about revenge -- one you get it, it will haunt you like a bloody ghost forever and corrupt others along the way. Ninja Ninja provides a little humor ("I'm gonna die, man! Or at least have a stroke... I HATE HEIGHTS!") but it can't lighten the storyline.
"Afro Samurai: Resurrection" doesn't hold itself back on the fights -- neatly sliced bodies, fountains and rivers of blood, savage beatings and some really creepy cybernetic/masked baddies who are unafraid to get dirty. The highlight is a balletic nighttime duel between Afro and Shichigoro, surrounded by deadly chains and glowing lanterns, and framed by fireworks reflected in the water.
And it leaves the way paved for a third "Afro Samurai" story. I'm waiting.
Most regular actors are terrible at voice-acting, but Samuel L Jackson could easily make a living at it if he wanted to -- both the deep, gravelly voice ("Watch... your damn... MOUTH") and the annoying jabber of Ninja Ninja. And Afro serves as an excellent anti-hero, who does some truly terrible things but is willing to pay for them.
Lucy Liu does a solid job as well, giving Sio both sensual viciousness and tenderness, and even a sort of moral core ("History will mourn the atrocities you now commit"), while Yuri Lowenthal and Mark Hamill have good small roles. And Liam O'Brian's gravelly/soft voice gives poignancy to his small but memorable role as Shichigoro.
The two-disc edition has a cluster of extras, mostly in featurette form -- a two-part making-of documentary, an interview with the creator, music composition, video game, commentary, and assorted other stuff. Mainly interesting if you really love the movie.
"Afro Samurai: Resurrection" is a solid sequel that shows what happens when revenge is swung back at you. A good, bloodsoaked anime that opens the way for more.

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Afro Samurai (Academy Award ® nominee Samuel L. Jackson) avenged his father and found a life of peace. But the legendary master is forced back into the game by a beautiful and deadly woman from his past. The sparks of violence dropped along Afro’s bloody path now burn out of control – and nowhere are the flames of hatred more intense than in the eyes of Sio (Lucy Liu: Kill Bill). She won’t quit until Afro is schooled in the brutal lessons he dealt those who stood in his way. There’s no such thing as final vengeance. The cycle of bloodshed spinning around the Number One Headband must roll on. Featuring the voice of Mark Hamill (Star Wars) and fresh production from The RZA (Wu-Tang Clan), the saga that began in the best-selling anime DVD of 2007 continues in Afro Samurai: Resurrection.
The Director's Cut features:

A limited edition art book featuring forwards from the RZA, Bob Okazaki (creator) and Fuminori Kizaki (director) as well as never before seen images from the anime and the original manga.
Over an hour of exclusive behind the scene featurettes including the making of the anime, the making of the video game, interviews with the cast and crew, RZA in the studio, commentary from the creators and much more! Stills from Afro Samurai: Resurrection (Click for larger image)

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Baadasssss Cinema - A Bold Look at 70's Blaxploitation Films (2002) Review

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(More customer reviews)Being a fan of the blaxploitation genre, I was excited to hear about the DVD release of BaadAssss Cinema. However, upon viewing it, I became very disappointed. First, let me start off by saying that the 56-minute running time does not justify the price being charged for this DVD. Second, this title is anything but a bold look at 70's blaxploitation films. The documentary is organized by years, which doesn't work well. It would have been more interesting and flowed better if it were organized by different styles of blaxploitation films, such as gangster films or horror films, or films featuring strong female leads. The documentary focuses almost exclusively on films starring people who were interviewed, such as Pam Grier, Fred Williamson, Gloria Hendry, Quentin Tarantino, and Melvin Van Peebles. A lot of time is devoted to Sweet Sweetback's BaadAsssss Song, Shaft, and Pam Grier's Foxy Brown and Coffy. There's no denying that these films played a pivotal role in the blaxploitation movement, but why isn't Dolemite included? Is it because Rudy Ray Moore wasn't interviewed? The documentary is astonishingly shortsighted. No mention is made of movies like Abby, the black rip-off of The Exorcist, or Darktown Strutters, or even the Shaft sequels for that matter. Were they left out because the filmmaker thought they were an embarrassment to the genre, or because they are too obscure for the target audience? Lastly, most people interviewed feel that the blaxploitation movement died out around 1976, so the remaining years of the 70's are left out. The only two post 1976 films featured are Original Gangstas and Jackie Brown, both made in the 90's. There is so much missing from this documentary, and the only people who will benefit from it are blaxploitation completists and people new to the genre. If you're looking for information on black cinema of the 1970's, I suggest the book "What It Is...What It Was!The Black Film Explosion of the '70s in Words and Pictures." Unlike BaadAssss Cinema, it features articles with insight and interviews that matter (ironically with many of the same people interviewed in BaadAsssss Cinema). Overall, BaadAssss Cinema fails to make the blaxploitation movement seem important.

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In this groundbreaking documentary from the Independent Film Channel, filmmaker Isaac Julien takes us back to the early 70s and the explosion of blaxploitation films, today one of American cinema's most beloved cult genres. Featuring a wealth of footage from such classic films as Superfly and Shaft, and interviews with such key players as Richard Roundtree, Quentin Tarantino, and Pam Grier, BaadAsssss Cinema gets to the bottom of exactly what helped the blaxploitation genre achieve its revered cult status.DVD Features: Extended interviews with Pam Grier, Quentin Tarantino and others; Letterbox Format; Interactive Menus; Scene Selection

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Breakin' Collection (Breakin' / Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo / Beat Street) (1984) Review

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(More customer reviews)It's time to put your headband and parachute pants on and break out those Grandmaster Flash records for the holy breakdancing trilogy of films. These movies were made pre-Gangsta rap when disputes were settled either on the dance floor or on the mic. Breakin', its sequel, Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo, and Beat Street were all released in 1984 and are a fantastic time capsule of their times in all of their cheesy (and in one case not so cheesy) glory.
Looking at it now, Breakin', with its laughably cheesy dialogue ("Blond, brunette - if they're looking for hair why don't they look for gorillas?"), horribly dated `80s fashion (skinny ties! headbands! parachute pants!) and wooden acting, is a harmless, cartoony look at a more innocent time. And let's be honest, that is part of the film's charm.
After the surprise success of the first Breakin' movie a sequel was quickly rushed into production and the result is Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo (great title, btw). Special K, Ozone and Turbo are back and this time out our heroes have come together to save an inner city community centre from a greedy developer who wants to knock it down and put up a shopping centre. They have 30 days to raise $200,000.
Beat Street is the East Coast answer to Breakin' that was grittier, edgier and therefore not as successful but definitely more authentic. Shot on the dirty, grungy, pre-Giuliani streets of New York City, it follows Kenny (Davis), an up-and-coming rapper/DJ who is buddies with Ramon (Chardiet), a gifted graffiti artist who uses the subways and sides of buildings as his canvas.
Unlike Breakin', this is how the hip hop scene really looked and sounded back in the day. Parties take place in the basements of burnt-out buildings in the slums of the city. These guys are all young, poor and hungry to make it out of the ghetto anyway they can. Beat Street also trumps Breakin' in the number of cameos by pioneers of the genre, featuring the likes of DJ Kool Herc, Kool Mo Dee, Doug E. Fresh, Afrika Bambaataa and Melle Mel. This also results in a great soundtrack that shows many of the influences on early hip hop: calypso, salsa, jazz-all thrown into the mix.
Beat Street is everything that the Breakin' films aren't: gritty, cold, gray with characters that swear and even die. It is a fascinating example of the polar ends of the spectrum and this box set collects all three movies for one to immerse themselves in early '80s culture.
MGM has basically repackaged these three movies and so we have Breakin' and Breakin' 2 presented in crappy pan and scan with nothing more than a trailer as an extra. Beat Street can be seen either, pan and scanned or widescreen with a trailer included.
Included exclusively with this box set is a DVD of extras. Sadly, they have almost nothing directly to do with the three films which is a big disappointment. Surely, they could have gotten Shabba Doo and Boogaloo Shrimp back for some new extras? What's Rae Dawn Chong done lately? And where's the deleted scene of Kadeem Hardison cut from Beat Street?
Instead, the focus is on the hip hop culture itself. First up, is "The Culture of Hip Hop" which traces the genre's origins. There is a surprising lack of commentary from celebrity pioneers like DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and others. Instead, more obscure (to those not in the know) people talk about the basic elements of hip hop and b-boy culture.
"The Elements of Hip Hop" breaks it down into four components: graffiti, DJing, breakin' and MCing. This is a pretty decent introduction to the basic components of the culture and a nice companion piece to the first featurette.
"Beat Street Battle: Rock Steady Crew vs. New York City Breakers" is the only extra that has anything to do with the films in the set and it is just a scene lifted from Beat Street.
"Shout Outs" is basically a montage of people who were interviewed in the first two featurettes giving thanks to all the people who inspired and supported them over the years.
Also included is a music video for "Will Not Be Destroyed" by the Living Legends with loads of nice breakdancing footage.
Finally, there are small galleries with stills from each of the three movies from the set.

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BREAKIN COLLECTION - DVD Movie

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A Mother's Prayer (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)I saw the actual play and fell in love with the story! Everyone can relate to the struggles this family encounters. The singing is unbelievable (thank you Johnny Gill and Shirley Murdock) and the humor is sure to brighten your day. This play will open up your eyes and heart, and re-teach you some life lessons you've may have lost.

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A Mother's Prayer, starring Robin Givens (Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys), Johnny Gill (legendary R&B singer), Shirley Murdock (Man of Her Dreams) and Jermaine Crawford (HBO's The Wire), tells the compelling, heartwarming tale of family members torn apart by their individual struggles. The only thing that can truly bring the family back together is a mother's dying wishes. With a lot of love, this family is about to learn the true meaning of the saying: the family that prays together stays together. Come along on an emotional journey through song, laughter and triumph.

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Cooley High (1975) Review

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(More customer reviews)Never has a movie made me laugh so hard, as well as providing me with feelings of nostalgia and heartwarming sentiment. COOLEY HIGH (1975) features laugh-out-loud moments by the dozen, as well as containing many moments of reflective, poignant beauty.
The story here takes place in Chicago, 1964, and revolves around a poet named Preach (played by Glynn Turman), basketball player Cochise (played by Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs), their other buddies, and what goes on in the day-to-day lives of these teens in urban life. We witness the boys frequently cutting class, stealing food, hopping buses and trains, chasing after girls, shooting dice, getting into fights, and all other sorts of typical teen shenanigans. The aforementioned outline may sound a bit redundant for a film (or maybe it could be due to the poor description I've given), but the aforementioned aspects are integrated into a unified whole, and in a compelling way. So, in the end, things work very nicely. If there's one fault I can think of (though it doesn't bother me, but may bother others), is that the storyline moves a bit fast, and many may wish that some of the scenes (or certain aspects of the film) would have been fleshed out more.
Amidst all of the wildness, Preach meets a lovely girl named Brenda (played by Cynthia Davis), and develops a relationship with her. This is one of the few aspects of the film to soften up what otherwise may have been just a brash comedy.
While Preach, Cochise and the boys all took lighthearted pleasure in lying, cheating and stealing -- it all seemed to catch up with them in the end, as a result of one wild ride in a stolen car. And later, a simple misunderstanding leads up to the tragic finale.
Before I close this review, I'm going to list a few of my favorite funny scenes:
(1). Preach and gang visit the zoo after cutting class. One of the guys decides to defend - and get friendly with - a Gorilla, after the rest of the gang were teasing it. What happens next is pretty foul, so I won't mention it here, but let's just say it had me laughing like a maniac.
(2). Broke and unable to afford money for the boys to see a movie, Preach and Cochise decide to pretend to be undercover policemen, and hassle two female prostitutes - making them believe they're going to be arrested. The ladies beg to be let off the hook, but Cochise decides to take a bribe - for money, of course.
COOLEY HIGH is a fantastic film. It could provide many with dozens of belly-laughs, as well as a tear or two. It's a beautiful portrait of life (the ups and downs of it), love and friendship. Viewers in their middle ages will find this film to bring back fond memories of their youth. It can also make some viewers come to the realization that certain qualities in this film are sorely lacking in the vast majority of today's cinema. Features actor Garret Morris, and excellent backing music by classic R&B artists like The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, Diana Ross & The Supremes and countless others.

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Often called 'the black American Graffiti'but with "far more vitality and more variety" (The New York Times), Cooley High takes a nostalgic, poignantand hilariously funnylook at black teen life in 1960's Chicago.It's 1964. JFK has just been assassinated. Martha & The Vandellas, Little Stevie Wonder and The Four Tops rule the airwaves. And two high school students discover themselvesand the taste of freedomfor the first time. Preach (Glynn Turman), aserious-minded writer, and his best friend Cochise (Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs), a basketball hero headed for college, are best friends at Cooley High. Together they cut classes to go to the zoo, crash parties, put the hustle on some hustlers and dream about getting out of their impoverished, rough neighborhood. But when an innocent joy ride makes them the targets of two vengeful hoods, their alreadyuncertain futures seem even further out of reach. Featuring a "well-handled mix of comedy and dramawith a soundtrack of Motown gold" (Blockbuster Entertainment Guide) and a "universal appeal"(Los Angeles Times), Cooley High is "the best American comedy so far this year" (Village Voice)!

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Superfly (1972) Review

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(More customer reviews)Superfly (1972) is a tough, unpolished gem rising above the numerous films to come from the blaxploitation period of the early 70's. While some are critical of the message they believe posed within the film, one of glamorizing the image of the drug dealer, I didn't really see it that way at all. I think this image presented was a superficial one, and one that the main character within the film saw and understood, prompting his actions and decisions to try and escape the life.
Ron O'Neal, who recently passed away on January 14, 2004, plays Priest, a streetwise pusher in a dilemma. Seems he is tired of the hustle, and is looking for a way to get out of the game, but, as his partner Eddie (Carl Lee) puts it, "Look, I know it's a rotten game, but it's the only one The Man left us to play." Apparently Priest has thought long about this, and he has come up with a plan to score a lot of cash in a short amount of time, and then plans to retire. Sounds like a plan, but Priest soon encounters powerful forces that feel he is worth more to them on the streets, pushing junk, doing what he does best. While the film does appear to glamorize the lifestyle of the drug peddler, I truly believe the underlying message was than despite all Priests' success, he was languishing in a form of slavery, always working for someone else and taking all the risks involved in such a trade. In a way he realized this, but found it difficult to leave the life, as that was all he knew, and working for 'chump change' was not in his future.
Gordon Parks, Jr. direction may seem amateurish with jerky camera shots and such, but it fit in nicely with the nature of the material within the film, giving a raw, harsh look into the seedy side of life, much like Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973). One of the things that really sets this film apart from the other movies of the time was the soundtrack by the legendary Curtis Mayfield. With such funkified songs as Pusherman, Freddie's Dead, and Superfly, Mayfield's contributions to the film served to elevate it above many films within the genre, and solidify his career as a musical genius. O'Neal is great as Priest (love those outta sight mutton chops), and is supported by some really decent performances by the lovely Sheila Frazier, Julius Harris, who many may recognize from the James Bond film Live and Let Die (1973), and Charles McGregor, who also appearing in Mel Brooks Blazing Saddles (1974).
There are a good amount of special features on this disc including a brand new documentary called `One Last Deal: A Retrospective', a commentary track by Dr. Todd Boyd, a USC professor of television and cinema and author of "Am I Black Enough for You: Popular Culture from the 'Hood and Beyond", a early featurette with Ron O'Neal, a `making of ` documentary with O'Neal, `Behind the Threads' featurette with costumer designer Nate Adams where he shows off some of the original costumes from the film, and an audio only track with Mayfield's music. Also, I really liked some of the small touches within the interactive menu. For instance, instead of a listing for `Scene Selection', it's titled `Makin' the Scene', the `Special Features' selection is titled `Fly Features', and the subtitles section is labeled `Jive Talk'. A very nice and well-developed release by Warner Brothers, although I still am annoyed that they use the cheap plastic and cardboard packaging. When will they learn...
Cookieman108

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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: 1972Director: Gordon Parks, Jr.Starring:Ron O'Neal, Carl Lee, Julius W. Harris

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Next Friday (2000) Review

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(More customer reviews)I thought this movie was funny, but I think it would have been funnier with Smokey. If you haven't seen the first one, watch it before you view this one or you may find it a bit confusing. If this movie had Smokey in the cast, I would have given it 5 stars. Overall, it is definetly a movie worth watching if you are up for a laugh.

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Ice Cube returns as Craig Jones, a streetwise man from South Central Los Angeles in this smash hit sequel to the comedy, Friday. Trouble ensues this time out as Craig relocates to the suburbs in order to hide from the neighborhood bully, Debo.DVD Features:Alternate endingsDVD ROM FeaturesGag ReelMusic VideoTheatrical Trailer

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Black Dynamite (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)I saw this during its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival - and was lucky enough to run into the director, Scott Sanders and the incredibly talented composer and editor Adrian Younge in line at another screening. This video combines moments from the trailer with bits from my conversation with the filmmakers - all captured on a handy Flip Mino Camcorder.
Back in the day, films like Shaft, Foxy Brown and Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song styled funkalicious jazzy soundtracks, tough black heroes and heroines and corrupt white cops and politicians. A new genre was born, both celebrating and exploiting black culture, targeting urban African-American audiences with its style and subject matter. Some of the best of these films have become cult favorites, and have influenced new filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, whose Jackie Brown paid explicit homage to the genre he'd grown up on and loved. Shaft was recently remade in slick Hollywood style by John Singleton; but for the original low budget style and campy flair you had to go to the bargain bin dvd versions, until now.
Created by Scott Sanders and Michael Jai White, Black Dynamite tells the tale of a righteous brother, who's got kung fu skills and knows just how to please the ladies. What he can't do is what he promised his mother on her death bed: protect his brother from the drug lords that are destroying the inner city. Upon hearing that his brother was killed, he swears revenge and sets out on a quest to discover those responsible. It turns out this was no simple hit - his brother's assassination was part of a vast conspiracy to disempower blacks by hitting them where it hurts the worst, and the conspiracy goes all the way to the top: President Richard Nixon himself, who, it turns out, has some sweet kung fu moves all his own.
The film is hilarious, taking all of the absurd, campy, raunchy and cool elements of traditional 70's blaxploitation films like Superfly and Dolemite, and tying them together into an absurdly funny epic revenge and save-the-world flick.
Part of the appeal is that the film mimics the on-the-fly imperfection of the old B-movie style Blaxploitation. Boom mikes occasionally appear in the shot, distracting the actor; obvious continuity problems (a woman whose tear of sadness appears and then disappears and reappears as the camera cuts back and forth between her and the big BD; an actor is suddenly replaced by a stand-in mid-scuffle, after he is obviously injured by a punch) add to the overall lightheartedness of the endeavor.
What impressed me, though, was that the film was not mocking blaxploitation, but rather paying homage. The filmmakers clearly know and love these films. Best of all, though, is Michael Jai White's absolute immersion in character as a tough-as-nails crusader whose soft heart and shy demeanor only occasionally surfaces. I haven't laughed out loud this much during a film in a very long time. Highly recommended, but not for the timid.

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An all-star cast led by Michael Jai White is featured in this 1970's-style blaxploitation action fiilm about the legendary super crime fighter "Black Dynamite." The Man killed his brother, pumped heroin into local orphanages, and flooded the ghetto with adulterated malt liquor. Black Dynamite was the one hero willing to fight The Man all the way from the blood-soaked city streets to the hallowed halls of the Honky House

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