WARNING: If you have not yet seen "bamboozled", you might not want to read further (I STRONGLY recommend you see the film, it is very well made, contrary to Mr. McGruder's assertions...and the acting of the entire cast is excellent...I was surprised by how well Glover acted).

>Bamboozled fails on every level. It
>does not enlightnen, in does
>not inform, it does not
>entertain.

It entertained me. The first part was quite funny.

As for enlightenment, I can't think of many films which do that. Hopefully, you have a screenplay or a television script which does so. The Boondocks doesn't enlighten me. Are you failing as a cartoonist in that respect? Nor is The Boondocks informative, to me.

> It's poorly written, poorly
>acted, and the subject matter
>is poorly satirized.

I disagree. I thought there was very subtle satire of things like Cuba Gooding's Oscar acceptance speech (for "Jerry Maguire") and I found it clever how the malt liquor commercial satirized that type of advertising and rap "booty" videos at the same time.

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

He made a powerful statement in my opinion. Left the entire theater that I saw in SPEECHLESS, much like the original poster to this thread.


>Just a few problems I had
>with the flik:
>
>1) It's one of the most
>"dumbed-down" movies I've ever seen.

Really? You must not see very many movies.

>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.

"Higher Learning" was intended to be a serious drama, where characters are supposed to be realistic. This is SATIRE. The characters are clearly EXXAGERATED. I'm not sure how many satirical films you have seen, but that's part of the genre...where were the 3-D characters in "Hollywood Shuffle"? There were none, but that movie was BRILLIANT. By the way, I feel that Tommy Lee Davidson's character was very well drawn out, Savion Glover's character was likewise given depth, as was Pinkett's character (who went from loyal flunkie to slightly disturbed to full tilt rebelling against the show idea).

> "Corporate
>Negro" (complete with "Nerd Voice"),
>"Wigger" exec (complete with slang),
>"Militant Rap Crew" (complete with
>headwrap-girl and MC Search), etc.

Those aren't all the characters. The militant rap crew, save for Mos Def, had very few lines, so that's a TERRIBLE example.

>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

This sounds like your real beef. This was a fictional world that Lee created. In the real world, Mantan would have a great deal of difficulty getting sponsors and boycotting by Sharpton would have a strong negative impact on the ability to acquire advertisers.

>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.

The point of this film isn't to make a documentary on how TV shows get made. I think you let yourself get distracted by the fact that Spike chose to bypass certain realities about the TV world for the sake of the satire. EXCUSE ME, but are the characters in Boondocks three-dimensional? FUCK NO. Get out of here with that, Aaron. Did you do research on census takers before writing the "Grandpa as Census taker" section of the Boondocks so every frame realistically reflected the life of a Census taker? If so, keep researching, because you failed. I don't think the Boondocks realistically reflected the life of a Census taker. How silly is that to say????

>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.

Hence the Master P and Cash Money references, right???? You REALLY need to go see this film again. And if the Mau Maus weren't a dead-on parody of the Wu-Tang Clan (with an added commentary on the "one female in all male crew" phenomenom which is rampant in RECENT HIP-HOP), I don't know what is (they sure weren't parodying Public Enemy....did you pay attention in this movie at all?????? get some sleep before you see the film next time).

>"Conscious" rappers nowadays (the four
>that are left) - do
>you think they act like
>that?

Rappers like Wu, billed as conscious, do act like that (drinking and so forth), the rest was exxagerated for satirical purposes.

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.

Go watch "Drop Squad", the satirical antecedent to that scene...

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).

The writing was great. "Higher Learning" was a different genre of film than "Bamboozled". Why the fuck are you comparing apples and oranges? Do you not know the difference between drama and satire?

>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.

Tommy Hilfiger and "high culture fashion marketed to the ghetto" is a fairly recent phenomenom. I haven't seen it satirized in other films, so how is that "dated"?

> They almost work,

The Boondocks almost works too. Quit hating and work on your strip.

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Spirit

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