Loretta Devine

Blu-Ray Review: ‘Jumping the Broom’ Stumbles Over Clichés

Jumping the Broom Blu-Ray

CHICAGO – Salim Akil’s “Jumping the Broom” is the sort of sociological comedy so hell-bent on smothering the audience in a sentimental love-fest that it quickly softens its potentially biting premise. Akil’s background in television (“The Game,” “Girlfriends”) may explain why the film feels like an uneasy melding of sitcom and soap opera clichés. Any time the film threatens to become interesting, it instantly goes into autopilot.

Film Review: No Leap of Faith to Enjoy ‘Jumping the Broom’

Jumping the Broom

CHICAGO – There is a tradition within the African American community during weddings. It stems from the past, when marriage was deemed illegal for the race, and provides the title for a new film, “Jumping the Broom.” The now symbolic gesture is the basis for a clash between families and social classses in one seriocomic marriage weekend.

Blu-Ray Review: Tyler Perry’s ‘For Colored Girls’ Deserves Another Look

For Colored Girls

CHICAGO – Tyler Perry must have a bit of internal conflict. On one hand, he gets critically slammed for films that display little creative effort at all like “Madea Goes to Jail” or “Why Did I Get Married Too?” but those movies make money. Then he tries to do something clearly considered artistic with his adaptation of Ntozake Shange’s choreopoem “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf,” now truncated to simply “For Colored Girls” and recently available on Blu-ray and DVD, and it makes less than most of the films he’s directed.

Blu-Ray Review: ‘Lottery Ticket’ a Losing Wager For Everyone

Lottery Ticket

CHICAGO – The comedy “Lottery Ticket,” recently released on Blu-ray and DVD, is so forgettable that it seems almost mean to pile on top of the negative reviews that greeted it in theaters. It’s not a horrible film, mostly because of the charms of its three leads, but there’s just not much nice to say about it either. It’s bearable and mildly-diverting, but with so many other great released on the market this month, don’t you want more than that faint praise?

Film Review: Cluttered, Melodramatic ‘For Colored Girls’ Never Comes Together

For Colored Girls
HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 2.5/5.0
Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Ntozake Shange’s choreopoem “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf” was a landmark event in 1974, giving voice to a segment of society rarely seen on the stage. It took 34 years for a filmmaker to tackle this remarkable work in film form and Tyler Perry’s “For Colored Girls” retains some of the inherent power of it source and features some strong performances in the process but never finds the narrative cohesion needed to translate it to modern movie audiences.

Slideshow: 19-Image Gallery of ‘For Colored Girls’ Starring Janet Jackson, Thandie Newton

| Image 1 of 19 |
From left to right: Anika Noni Rose (as Yasmine), Kerry Washington (as Kelly), Janet Jackson (as Jo), Kimberly Elise (as Crystal), Phylicia Rashad (as Gilda), Loretta Devine (as Juanita), Tessa Thompson (as Nyla) and Thandie Newton (as Tangie).

CHICAGO – This 19-image slideshow contains all of the official press images for the highly-anticipated “For Colored Girls,” starring Janet Jackson, Loretta Devine, Michael Ealy, Kimberly Elise, Omari Hardwick, Hill Harper, Thandie Newton, Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose, Tessa Thompson, Kerry Washington, and Whoopi Goldberg. The film was written and directed by Tyler Perry. It will be released on November 5th, 2010.

‘My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done’ Inspires Genuine Head-Scratching

My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?
HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 2.5/5.0
Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – When David Lynch came to Chicago for an “Inland Empire” screening back in 2007, he offered memorable advice to a moviegoer baffled by his work. He said that his audience should meditate not on the “intellectual experience” provided by his films, but the emotional ideas that they conjure. Meditating on anything else would prove useless because, as Lynch put it, “If you meditate on buttermilk, you’ll end up going to the dairy.”

Syndicate content

User Login

Free Giveaway Mailing

TV, DVD, BLU-RAY & THEATER REVIEWS

Advertisement



HollywoodChicago.com on Twitter

archive

HollywoodChicago.com Top Ten Discussions
referendum
tracker