I'm not sure what the USA Network's problem is.
Maybe, someone is asleep at the control panel.
That can be the only reason why they seem to have The Player's Club movie marathon on their channel the last few days. The Player's Club (Ice Cube's 1998 movie) has to be one of worst black movies ever made and one that continually perpetuates stereotypes of black life in America.
Black men are not all hustlers and black women are not all hoes. Black people are also not all obessed with money (at least I'm not) or at least not more than the rest of the pigments that make up America's melting pot.
I didn't go to the theather to watch The Player's Club when it debuted in 1998. I admire Ice Cube's ambition to make his money in the entertainment world but I disagree with his method.
His movie, BET's endless video shows showing nothing but "T" & "A" and a lot of our hip hop music today are also not helping. I started to think.
Money is power.
I made an executive decision my freshman year in college that I would spend my money on discretionary things (like going to the movies) wisely. I said that I wasn't going to support BBP's (Bad Black Productions) and have not since 1997.
The Player's Club was one BBP and unfortunately I can fill up both sides of several sheets of white lined paper with others.
On the flip side, I can say there aren't enough good black movies (Love Jones, Brown Sugar, Antoine Fisher, Remember the Titans, John Q) that make us think, that make us cry, that make us laugh, etc.)
Can someone explain to me why we are so destructive to ourselves?
And
Why are we the first one to exploit ourselves?
I do not have the answer to this one.
8 comments:
Sorry Sherlon...but I liked Players Club.
Don't know if you've ever been to a strip club, but it houses strippers...like Diamond and like the other nameless characters.
You have hustlers in those clubs as well as good upstanding citizens.
I don't think that it is a movie that portrays blacks as all hustlers ...strippers...or whatnot, it is just a movie that is capturing a different aspect of life in strip clubs other than shake it like a salt shaker.
Players Club is fine cinema. The Diamond character put classy Chicagoan Lisa Raye on the map. In addition, the movie had golden nuggets of truisms interwoven throughout the flick.
For instance, that unforgettable line, "Make the money, don't let the money make you," is awesome.
The other great line, "It's bytches like you, who make it HARD for women like me,'' was profound.
The world is a better place for the Players Club. Jamie Foxx, Bernie Mac, Ice Cube. Quality casting.
I admit I've watched the movie a time or two, but it didn't do anything for Lisa Raye's career but forever typecast her as the "ghetto chick" - a label she hasn't been able to shake even in her current role on UPN.
Jamie was able to transcend this role (and Booty Call) by being good at his craft. Ice Cube - eh, not so much. Bernie was/and always has been funny - with or without Player's Club.
it served its purpose. it catered to a target audience. plus, just like the real hip-hop, even when it is the flyest shT in town, that same target audience gives it the cold shoulder.
I haven't seen it. But, unfortunately, there are lots of our folk who will pay good money to see ish like Players Club. It's a sad truth. But on the other hand, with the absence of anything better on presented at the box office on a regular basis featuring people of color...and I don't mean those movies when Will Smith plays opposite a non-sistah. I ain't mad. Thank God for Tyler Perry! (sike)
"She Hate Me" was a movie which made you think, it flipped the script and had a "man-whore" as a central character. It also delved into issues such as economics and homosexuality and in particular lesbianism. It was a little raunchy but it was classic Spike Lee. Yea Spike made some good ones I still love "Crooklyn" HaHa. "Love Jones", "She Hate Me", and "Hav Plenty" which people call cooky. The last two go largely unnoticed.
I actually just saw "She Hate Me." Quality cinema - eh, not so much. It was cool and all. But I watched it because it was Spike and I wanted to see what was in his head. I did appreciate the role reversal, though, but the premise was a little hard to wrap my head around from jump.
I guess I have to rent this "She Hate Me"
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