Bamboozled was terrible. No, I'm not joking. I was mad.



What's worse is that it was bad for more reasons then I can get into here, and while I know this can be a place for lively debate, I know I won't have the time to discuss with y'all like I wish I could.



First, the good thing about the movie: Mos Def. Acting his ASS off. Funny, but in a subtle way. Put Jada to shame in their scene together.



Now the bad:



Bamboozled fails on every level. It does not enlightnen, in does not inform, it does not entertain. It's poorly written, poorly acted, and the subject matter is poorly satirized.



A shame, considering the powerful statement he COULD have made with an excellent premise overflowing with satirical opportunities.



Just a few problems I had with the flik:



1) It's one of the most "dumbed-down" movies I've ever seen. Ironic, given the premise of the movie. Much like Singleton with Higher Learning, Spike doesn't present developed characters - he presents 2-D cardbord cutouts. "Corporate Negro" (complete with "Nerd Voice"), "Wigger" exec (complete with slang), "Militant Rap Crew" (complete with headwrap-girl and MC Search), etc. These aren't real people - they are oversimplified versions of people that seem more pulled together from stereotypes than reality. Therefore, they are not engaging and everything they do seems suspect.



2) The movie seems like it was written by someone who didn't really know how television works and rather than taking a little time to find out - just decided to make it up. Well, I've aquired some experience with the TV side of Hollywood and I can say with complete confidence - it don't work like what happened in the movie.



First - what exactly was Damon's job at the company? Second, was the company he was working for a network or a studio? Networks air shows, and pay a license fee equal to about half the cost of the show. The other half is picked up by a studio - like Paramount of Warner Bros. The creator, often someone unaffiliated with either the network or the studio, makes the third part of the equation. Those three entities share power over the show's creative direction.



Why is this important? Because Spike had a tremendous opportunity here to show people what really goes on behind the scenes of the TV shows they know and hate. Instead, he decided to dumb the story down so that the audience wouldn't be caught up in the complexities of reality. Ironic again, considering the premise of the movie.



Speaking of innacuracies - what was up with Mos Def's crew? The "making fun of the pro-black" rappers" stuff would have been brilliant in '90, but it seems Spike ain't listen to rap music since Do The Right Thing came out. "Conscious" rappers nowadays (the four that are left) - do you think they act like that? It didn't feel at all real, and them kidnapping and killing Savion at the end was dumb as shit. Thats a 1989 fantasy of 1969. Death is a cheap way to get some emotion out of the audience at the end when you can't pull it off with great writing (again, like Higher Learning).



3) The satire, where present, is heavy-handed and unsophisticated. The "Tommy Hillnigger" and malt-liquor commercials go on too long and just feel dated. They almost work, but not quite. Damon's giving up the award was well done, though.





4) Waste of Talent - C'mon. He had Al Sharpton, Johnnie Cochran, and The Roots and did virtually nothing with them.



5) The movie never really makes a sophisticated critique of black humor - which I thought was the point. Ok, they're in blackface. Now what? Is he saying that all black comedy is bad? Or is Paul Mooney there to say that all black comedy is bad unless you do angry race humor (and hell, I do angry race humor every day). What's really the point? How can we relate whats on screen SPECIFICALLY to things we see today. The accusation of "coon" or "bufoon" is nothing new - this movie should have challenged us with the question "where does entertainment stop and coonery start"?



The most important part of the movie - which is the reaction of people to the show and the protests over it - are totally glossed over. We never see the question of what is "appropriate" black comedy addressed by normal viewers. When the guy in the "militant" crew is watching and laughs and his boys get mad at him - THATS THE MOVIE!! Thats where Spike could have illustrated something worthwhile.



What I saw was Tommy and Savion in blackface doing old school comedy routines and some shuffling. Is that ... Martin? Is that ... Eddie Griffith? Is it Pryor? Is it Cedric and DL and Steve Harvey? Don't be a coward - come out and say what you're point is! I'm not impressed with blackface, I'm impressed with someone who can paint a picture which really draws concrete parallels beyween a minstrel show and "homeboys in outer space". This movie does none of that. It just has strong IMAGES. People will walk away saying this movie is DEEP not because its written or executed with depth but because someone is showing blackface. It seems to me that the real life audience is just as easily manipulated as the audience in the movie itself.



There's more - there's a LOT more, but I gotta bounce. These are just one man's opinions, and I don't pretend to know a whole lot about how HOllywood works, but I've met with and know studio execs, creators, writers, etc. I was expecting to see Hollywood get the skewering it deserves and I was greatly dissapointed.





Adub





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