Film Roar

Did any one see (Sugar Hill) via 1974? I saw it recently on cable and enjoyed it. That blck chic was kicking that white chicks ass... lol

I want to own it. Speaking of the blaxpolitation films, I really have not been in to those films, but lately I want to watch more of them such as Cleopatra Jones and others, (I forgot the one with Pam Grier) anyway have any suggestions? They need an ol school black movie channel.

I remember seeing "New Jack" when it first came out,and what I remember was the sheer terror that Wesley Snipes as Nino Brown was. I was recently talking to my sister about influencial films of the '90's, and when I said that "New Jack" was one of them she was shocked. She thought I was talking about the fact that it was one of the 'hood movies and I told her that that wasn't it; It introduced the masses to jeeps,beepers,gold chains,cell phones,and it reclaimed the soundtrack.
Just wanted to sound off on that. I have been reading your site on the Matrix for two days straight, and I must say,it has some of the most profound and insightful messages I've read on a movie to this date. Thanx

Nick on January 13, 2003 09:56 AM
^^^this is in reference to what you said:
fyi - New Jack City and Boyz N The Hood may have had the same release year but New Jack City came out first so how can New Jack be trying to be like Boyz.

Second of all, New Jack City and Boyz are not the same (i can see you comparing Boyz and Menace). Yes they may go under the genre of hood movies but they are not the same.

New Jack City is my G.O.A.T. and in my opinion was a damn good movie. The 1st of the 90s hood movies. Yes 1st. (Please do not get it twisted).

New Jack was tight. Menace was tight. Boyz was tight. A lot of those movies were good.

Nothing against anyone's opinions though. But New Jack City will always be my G.O.A.T.!!!

Thank you. : )

I actually think that BarberShop Is a terrible film. It's not that funny and wastes a lot of good actors through a weak script.

The Friday Trilogy in contrast have been consistently funny, as well as 'All about the Benjemins'& stands testiment to the creative abilities of 'Rap' artists who may have thus far only carved a carear making gangster music.

Like most rappers, i imagine that a black producer trying to make a commercially succesful film would be expected to make a film that emulates the storyline/genre of previous films in an (utimatley futile) attempt to emulate the successes of previous films.

As mentioned previously there have been a good few decent serious films such as Bamboozled, 'Mo better Blues'etc but these flicks never got the praise they deserved because they dealt with 'real' issues and not issues that satisfy this hollywood driven market.

I actually think new jack city was a highly enjoyable film but i appreciate the sentiment against the number of gangster flicks that have been made in comparison to other types of film.

Also, there was a time when brother Snipes was considered an A-List actor...

That is a good question. I am not sure that I have very useful advice. I would suggest that you watch more movies in the genre for preparation and give the student's a handout with a list of titles they can pursue outside of class (like New Jack City, Menace II Society and Dead Presidents). I would also suggest watching all movies on DVD since most of these DVDs will include some short documentary that could be very relevant to what you are studying.

Nick, do you have any other suggestions?

I am a media studies teacher working in london and am starting to teach film genre in particular the so called gangsta/hood genre the two films we focus on primarily are boyz in the hood and panther. Does anyone have any advice or ideas to help me do this.

See, the sad thing is, I actually block things like the 1970's "blaxpolitation" movies from my mind or something because the ones i did see WERE so awful... I never lumped them in the same category as Boyz n the Hood or Menace II Society because I felt they were more a farce than anything else.

I suppose that to me, "black" films capture the realism in the particular culture and society and the "blaxploitation" films are a totally different thing and I don't even connect them. I must have been too traumatized by Blacula...

The term 'Blaxploitation' is usually used to refer more to the slew of black action films that came during the early 70s than to the Hood Gangster genre that poped up in the early 90s. Watch the original Blaxploitation movies and I think you will see why they have the 'exploitation' term in them.

Hood Gangster movies:
New Jack City (1991)
Boyz N the Hood (1991)
Menace II Society (1993)
Dead Presidents (1995)
Trespass (1992)

Blaxploitation movies:
Blackenstein (1973)
Blacula (1972)
Cleopatra Jones (1973)
Black Godfather (1974)
Black Mama, White Mama (1973)
Hell Up in Harlem (1973)
Mack (1973)
Superfly (1972)

For a good list of Blaxploitation movies go to http://www.scarecrow.com/inventory.asp and search for 'blaxploitation' as a Category.

I just saw Barbershop tonight and I really enjoyed it... I grew up in LA and grew up in the 'hood (well, it turned into the hood while I lived there) so i got pretty much all of the humore and story... I usually dislike Cedric the Entertainer, but he was pretty funny in this... Probably my only bef with the movie is how I would have handled Lester Wallace...

Funny thing is, right after watching Barbershop, we watched XXX with Vin Diesel and Eve was in that movie too... kinda weird :)

As for why there is a separate genre for "black" movies... I am not sure... back in the 90's there was always talk about "black-sploitation" films (Boyz n the Hood, Menace II Society, etc.), but i didn't see it as exploitation... I really think that those films did create a genre of "black films"... maybe it's because we all grew up watching caucasian families and caucasian society, we don't see the need for a "white films" genre because it's in the majority...

Well, it's a genre, just like Westerns or Noir or War movies or whatever. What's unfortunate is that it has become so defined a genre. There aren't many sub-genres. You have the blacksploitation movies of the '70s -- Shaft, Coffy, etc -- and you have the gangsta movies of the '90s -- Boyz, Menace, New Jack, etc. Even movies like Fridays doesn't get outside that.

You have some noteable exceptions, for sure. But they are exceptions (Spike Lee, of course, has made several of those exceptions, though some certainly involve the genre, but in a non-cliche or typical way). One of my favorites is actually done by a white guy, too (besides Fresh): The Color Purple. That's the best "black" film I've seen, I think. I think it's Spielberg's best serious film, too. By far. It's a film I consider a definite 5 and should have been Best Picture for that year.

I don't know where the problem is. Do studios think people will only go to see gangsta films? Are black filmmakers only interested in gangsta subjects? Do people only go to see gangsta films? I don't know. I think the African-American experience is one that's ripe to be explored in interesting ways.

I am looking forward to seeing Barbershop. It's on my list of to-rents.

If you wanna see a great "black" film (I don't know why we have to differentiate and not just call movies "movies", but) see Barbershop. It's funny and has a positive message. I may not get all of the humor involved, but the refreshing message intertwined is a nice change of pace from the drug films. In fact, I don't remember one drug reference or use.....weird.

Amen. New Jack City just got hype because people wanted black cinema to be successful. Everyone wanted another Boyz in the Hood (and ironically, the best movie besides Boyz in the Hood to come from that era was Fresh, which was actually made by a Jewish filmmaker). New Jack City and Menace II Society were just living off Boyz in the Hood. Released again today and they'd be nothing in the mainstream media. Also, Peebles, Ice-T, and Snipes are not A-list, imo.