Comments on: Weekend Box Office: “Good Hair’s” Racism, “Cirque du Freak: Vampire’s Asst,” Boring “Amelia,” “Astro Boy”

By: mb

mb — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 08:51:57 +0000

It seems like almost every time you review films that highlight issues of the black community you have to indulge in some sort of bizarre racist commentary. You don’t have to portray yourself as a full-on racist circa 1835 to stick it to the PC culture. I mean, you state that GOOD HAIR is a documentary about “Black women’s obsession with hair-relaxers and weaves-above all else in their lives” and then state that of course, you already knew this “fact”, having grown up in a black community. So black women place hair above all else in their lives? You know full well that the doc doesn’t make this claim, but you say that it does so that you can insert your personal beliefs about what black women’s priorities are and not seem off-topic for the movie review. You used a similar technique in the Precious review. As a member of Mensa, you certainly are quite able to discern that one of the major themes of the movie is that the welfare lifestyle is profoundly damaging to communities, families, and individuals. Yet a review about a movie with black actors just wouldn’t be complete without a rant about the inferior nature of black cultural contributions, so you purposely mischaracterized Precious as being based on a book of the “gangsta lit” genre so that you could attack the movie as glorifying welfare and go off on how ghetto and distasteful you think the artistic works of blacks are. It makes me sick when I hear some obnoxious progressive blithely spouting the most condescending, racist garbage and then in the next breath calling conservatives racist. Unfortunately, though, some of your movie reviews give these liberal idiots ammunition.

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By: adam

adam — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:54:17 +0000

Regarding Astro Boy: this is a well-made and entertaining movie. However, it does have more than its share of left-wing themes. For example, the surface of the earth is so polluted, only a few stragglers live there. Also, the Robot Revolutionary Front are good guys (if incompetant) as they seek to liberate enslaved and abused robots. Are the robots stand-ins for ethnic minorities? Not sure.

The president of New City is a thinly-disguised Republican who wants to use technology only for violence in a cynical “wag the dog” reelection strategy. He abuses civil rights, gives tax breaks to his rich friends, and in the end launches a coup of sorts. This is right out of the Bushitler fever swamp. The bad president’s campaign slogan is “No Time For A Change.” Could this reference be any more obvious.

The seemingly friendly (white) father figure to the surface-dwelling orphans turns out to be a real robot-abusing creep. The orphans naively do his bidding. There is an almost pedophile-like quality to this character.

Also, Astro’s creator (ie, the dead boy’s father) rejects Astro. So, three white men are bad guys. The only good white guy is an Einstein-like Jewish “type”, a brainy and empathetic grandfatherly type.

It sometimes pains me to take my kids to these films. I guess you’ve got to take the good with that bad.

By: Joe

Joe — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:55:08 +0000

Rock started his career making fun of his own people then he turned on whites. Funny debate between him and Larry Elder on Youtube. Elder eats his lunch.

By: ConcernedPatriot

ConcernedPatriot — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:22:03 +0000

As a side note, Chris Rock was dropped from a pending biopic on Richard Pryor after he “jokingly” (yeah, right) defended Michael Vick and his dog-fighting business on “The Jay Leno Show,” commenting, “What the h— did Michael Vick do? Pitbulls ain’t (sic) even real dogs! Dogs have never been good to black people!” Pryor’s widow, who runs an animal rescue group, was justifiably outraged, and ensured that Rock would lose that movie job.

By: CaliforniaScreaming

CaliforniaScreaming — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:11:28 +0000

Great story about your haircut experience. $200 for swampwater green, LOL. I travel a lot and like you I have walked into a barbershop or salon and then regret it. I like to have my hair short but not too short then it is like a porcupine. I have been surprised by good and bad on my haircuts. I too went to a black salon and went through with the cut. I admit I was apprehensive because I don’t know how much experience blacks salons have with straight coarse hair. I have gone to SuperCuts, had black stylists before and they have much experience with straight hair. I figured if it is bad, I can wear a hat for a couple weeks. She was real nice and sweet and did a terrific job. I gave her a big tip.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:41:46 +0000

I saw Good Hair in New York last weekend, and I agree almost 100% with your review. However, I thought Rock was unnecessarily gratuitous when he showed Condoleeza Rice with the voice-over about some women are infamous. It was juvenile and uncalled for. But I must say not one person in my theater laughed at that moment. Also, I hated that Al Sharpton played such a large role in the film (although there was a funny moment with him talking about meeting Ronald Reagan).

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:37:04 +0000

First of all I walked into a black barber shop on accident in my neighborhood. I should’ve known something because it was painted purple where as it used to be white(seriously). When I walk in there was unmistakable air of “HUH?. I looked around and there were about 7 guys and a child waiting. I don’t wait well anyway so…. I asked for the charge for a cut and was told 15.00. I Got mine cut at Rex’s on Ford rd and Telelgraph for 7.00 + 3.00 TIP. I told him I paid $7 at Rex’s and left. Watching my back. He said to me before I left that he’d do it for $10 but I told him no thanks (trust him to cut in good? No.) Just the looks on their faces were enough to cause me to turn around. I ended up driving to Rex’s but that was before I got tired of getting my hair cut by a nasty chick that talked to her friend of her great Lebanese boyfriend and her numerous bar adventures.

Second of all I never realized that black chicks were prone to charging the fee of a “date” to the cost of their hair and nails. I’ve had several of them approach me where I used to work with offers of sex for hair and nails! They were right up front with it. How could I refuse such a great offer? I don’t date prostitutes. These were women that were in their late 30′s and with kids. Their friends were on board with the whole business too. The rationale was that a guy should pay for the wear and tear on their “equipment”, seriously. Listening to these brainiacs talk about their maintainance costs was torture for an 8 hr shift. They’re so dam loud about they bidness.

By: docilej

docilej — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:26:09 +0000

I dig the ‘fro’. I say keep it real & natural