Hot or Not: Will Smith

Will Smith

Real Name:
Willard Christopher Smith Jr.

Rap Sheet:
Where The Day Takes You, Made in America, Six Degrees of Separation, Bad Boys, Independence Day, Men in Black, Enemy of the State, Wild Wild West, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Ali, Men in Black II, Bad Boys I and II, I, Robot, Shark Tale,Hitch and The Pursuit of Happyness.

Best Role:
Capturing the mannerisms and voice of the greatest of all time in Ali.

Worst Role:
Re-hashing his annoying Fresh Prince of Bel air role in the tedious Made in America.

Can he act:
Uses his sex appeal rather than acting skills to win his audience over, however, when the roles require it you can be sure of an engaging couple of hours entertainment.

Skill Rating:
****

Hot or Not: Queen Latifah

Queen Latifah

Real Name:
Dana Elaine Owens

Rap Sheet:
Jungle Fever, House Party 2, Juice, My Life, Set It Off , Hoodlum, Sphere, Living Out Loud , The Bone Collector , The Country Bears , Brown Sugar , Chicago, Bringing Down the House, Scary Movie 3 Barbershop 2: Back in Business , The Cookout, Taxi, Beauty Shop,Last Holiday and Hairspray.

Best Role:
Playing a gangster lesbian in Set it off was an early turning point in her career in which she delivered some extreme violence to the role.
Worst Role: As ex con Charlene opposite Steve Martin in Bringing Down the House. A truly embarrassing caricature, that was instantly forgettable.

Can she act:
Yes, but needs more varied roles in her portfolio, as she tends to opt for sass mouthed fast talking characters.

Skill Rating:
***

Hot or Not: Ice T

Ice-T

Real Name:
Tracy Marrow

Rap Sheet:
Trespass, Gangland, 3,000 Miles to Graceland, Ricochet, whose the Man, Tank Girl, Johnny Mnemonic, Mean Guns, Crazy Six and Frankenpenis.

Best Role:
Playing a cop alongside Mario Van Peebles in New Jack City

Worst Role:
Playing a gangster hunting for buried treasure in Trespass.

Can he act:
No, wooden and unbelievable are the phrases that have dogged his career

Skills Rating:
*

Whoa!

I’ve got a feeling that Fox have a hit on their hands…

Fine Line

I’ve been waiting for you, Obi-Wan. We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner; now I am the master. – Darth Vader, star Wars

Oh The Horror

Earlier this year I treated you to a review of part two of Tarrentino’s homage to 70’s cinema, Deathproof. Well they’ll soon release part one Planet Terror on these unsuspecting shores, until then here’s the trailer.

Badass Villains

Badass Villains – you love to hate

Heroes come heroines go but one things for certain you will always remember the low life’s of the movie world. No longer dressed in black the most memorable villains are black. Here we run down some of the best that ever made our skins crawl. But let’s face it, you need people like these. You need people like these so you can point your fingers and say that’s the bad guy. By popular demand (well Emerson asked for this) say hi to the bad guy.

Vernita Green, Vivica Fox – Kill Bill
The well worn phrase hell hath no fury is absolutely personified in the steely hit woman for hire that is Vernita Green aka Coppertop. Part of the elite hit squad which failed to assassinate “The Bride” excels on screen when she is beating seven bells out of Uma Thurman as she attempts to finish the job she started.

Fox is midway in my top ten as quite frankly I’ve seen more deadlier girl on girl action in the isle of my local Tesco’s. But she still gets props for her barefaced cheek when after meting out a savage beatdown she utters the lines “So I suppose it’s a little late for an apology,huh?”

Darth Vader voiced by James Earl Jones – Star Wars
I’m sure you hadn’t forgotten that the man behind the universe’s super villain was in fact an African American. Clad in black from head to foot the subliminal reminders that this villain belongs to us don’t stop there. “You don’t know the power of the dark side” Vader utters in the Empire Strikes Back…too right you don’t.

Nino Brown – Wesley Snipes New Jack City
Brown was a new breed of gangster, the new public enemy, the new family of crime. “sit your five dollar ass down before I make change” Brown utters acidicly in one scene never was a truer word said with so many different connotations as Nino Brown raised the bar and set the standard for all gangsters who came after him.

Cleopatra ‘Cleo’ Sims, Queen Latifah – Set It Off
Claiming the title of Gangster Bitch Latifah’s stand out performance as the lesbian gangster moll etched out a very credible acting career for her. The portrayal of the hard hitting, smoking and drinking Cleo was never reprised in any of her subsequent characters. A real shame as the role really stretched her…

O Dog – Larenz Tate – Menace to Society
With friends like these who needs enemies the central character Caine would have been wiser to avoid this guy like the plague. Instead throughout the movie he seemed joined at the hip and after he uttered the immortal line “What’d you say about my mama?” It was definitely downhill from here.

Trivia: Transformers

For the scene with Scorponok bursting out from the sand and attacking the soldiers, the effect was achieved by detonating primer cord under the sand. The explosions would be in close proximity and very dangerous to the actors in the scene so before the scene was filmed, Michael Bay told the actors to run and keep running no matter what happens or else they could seriously be injured or even worse, killed. As a result, the look of panic on the actors’ faces as they flee from Scorponok in this scene is 100% genuine

Diamond Geezer

There is a well-worn phrase that we’ve all heard at least once, and it goes like this: ‘It’ll all end in tears’. Well, who would have thought this interview between two upstanding black men would start with tears flowing all over the place. The tears fall down the handsome ebony face of the slick, sharp, suited six-foot two-inch star of Gladiator, The Island, Amistad and Blood Diamond. The star in question, originally from Cotonou, Benin, is Djimon Gaston Hounsou.

Now before we go into the reason why tears are flowing from the 42-year-old actor originally from Benin let’s clear up a few misunderstandings. Frequent mispronunciations of his name have ranged from Dijjymon, Jeemon and Deejay Imon, the actor’s name, is pronounced like Simon but with a J. Also while the themes and calibre of his films call for him to be rough, rugged and reactionary to his violent surroundings with a steely resolve, he is a deeply spiritual, passionate and sensitive man who shows a deep love for his homeland Africa. He regularly lends his support to Amnesty International and Oxfam.

So why is Djimon crying? One would have thought given his background, a severe upbringing that includes vagrancy on the streets of Paris and ultimately survival against extreme odds in the modelling industry and Hollywood, Hounsou would have had ample material to draw on for his role alongside Leonardo DiCaprio. It’s this recollection of extremities when explaining his preparation that starts the slow trickle of tears as he explains, “If I were to draw on my background I’d find that pretty limiting in exploring the depth of the character. I’ve been touched and in a sense hurt by what has happened to Africa and all that it’s gone through from the genocides and the various holocausts. When the role came about I was literally begging for it as all that had built up inside me literally poured out.”

Filmed entirely on location in Africa and set against the backdrop of the civil war that enveloped Sierra Leone in the 1990s Blood Diamond tackles the harrowing issue of diamonds mined and smuggled by unscrupulous individuals. Their greed kept the region in a perpetual state of instability, thus allowing the ongoing plunder to finance fierce wars in the region. Given the seriousness of the subject matter it’s interesting that the actor still found time for lighter moments off-screen once the cameras had stopped rolling,“Both Leonardo and I had this routine which kept our spirits up where, while we were in this godforsaken place, we would pretend we were strolling through the streets of Paris each holding a cup of hot chocolate and a croissant.

While Jennifer had a group of baboons who would routinely visit her tent and raid her mini bar!” I guess you had to be there.

Pac Lives II

Last week I wrote that Tupac, who had a very promising film career, was still alive. Here’s more proof if you needed it…Cheers for the heads up Rosemary.

Fine Line:

“This is Lex Luthor. Only one thing alive with less than four legs can hear this frequency, Superman, and that’s you.” – Lex Luthor, Superman

Flop o the worl’

I took my son shopping over the weekend as I wanted to buy him some baby flip flops. He had his eye on these…needless to say I didn’t purchase em.

Bourne Free

Bourne Ultimatum

What’s it about?
The last in the chapter that follows Jason Bourne as he seeks to reassemble his fractured memory. Is he ex CIA, FBI or Special Opps well it’s all revealed here. Oh yeah and buckle up as there are a few surprises.

Is it any good?
I have to admit to being very ambivalent to the franchise it never really floated my boat, however, its all change here as the Director Paul Greengrass has saved the best till last. This is astonishingly good combining slick photography the use of hand cam and intricate stunts to pull off a pretty riveting outing.

You’ll remember this bit:
The battle between Bourne and the assassin Desh in the Tangiers is truly something to behold no punch appears to be pulled as they cane each other with books and…socks.

Get A Life!

Before we celebrated my long awaited break from the UK both Life Fm’s DJ P and myself discussed what’s hot in the world of movies for the forthcoming month. Enjoy the highlights here

Big Bold n Clever

Just for Jano as she has been asking about my BBC gigs I’ve put together a quick snippet of a recent hour long show I did with Tessa Dunlop.

Fine Line:

“What I’m looking for is someone who can contribute to what England has given to the world: culture, sophistication, genius. A little bit more than an ‘ot dog, know what I mean?” Harold, The Long Good Friday

You The Man

I reckon if they were to play out my life on the big screen the role would have to be given to Martin Lawrence. But how about your life? Come on, tell me who would play you.

He’s Alive

I’m not really a big conspiracy theorist or anything like that but I’m telling you Tupac is alive!

How else can you explain why in a track entitled “I Get Money”, which the keen eared among you will have already noticed is a remix to 50 Cents recently released track of the same name, does he manage to mention 50 Cent, Young Buck and Tony Yayo…

Listen for yourself or download to your iPod here

Disturbing the Peace

Disturbia

What’s it about:
Modeling itself on the classic Hitchcock thriller Rear Window this re-imagining follows Kale (Shia Labeouf) under house arrest for knocking out his high school teacher. With nothing to do for days on end for entertainment he spies on his neighbors one of which is a serial killer.

Is it any good:
Sorting your odd socks draw would have been infinately more entertianing that sitting through this lazy adaptation. If you are expecting shocks I’d advise that you bring some jump cables as you won’t find any here.

You’ll remember this bit:
It’s not all bad as the performance from David Morse as the utterly convincing neighbor from hell rescued this otherwise forgettable two hours

Fine Line

“You wan’ dead, then I will kill yuh clart!” – Ivanhoe Martin, the Harder they Come