MovieWatcher: Cinematic Heaven

I spent the weekend, mostly glued in front of my television, watching movies. TVOne had some awesome movies on this weekend, and I just went along for the ride. I am fighting some anxiety (more on this later), so I needed to chill out, and these movies did just the trick…

Claudine

The incredibly beautiful Diahann Carroll, the talented James Earl Jones, and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs at his best…Claudine is one film that should be on everyone’s list to see. Claudine is raising six children, and is on welfare, when she begins a relationship with Rupert (Roop), who is a garbage collector. The thing is, if “they” find out that she is even dating him, her welfare benefits are reduced and if they get married, then they can’t afford to raise the kids without her benefits. Talk about complicated…the kids don’t like Roop, and the oldest (LH-J) is just downright nasty to him, because he thinks that Roop will be like the other suckers who have come into his mother’s life and left her there all alone with the kids.

At the core of this movie, though, is the strength of Claudine. She is a single mother who is doing the very best she can to keep her children together. The bond is strong, and so is she. Life doesn’t always guarantee that things will be rosy and bright, but it does teach us to make the best of what we have. I think that is the lesson that I learned from Claudine. And, the music is out of this world! Curtis Mayfield wrote and produced, Gladys Knight and the Pips sing…it is heavenly!

Uptown Saturday Night / Let’s Do It Again

I remember spending the night at my granny’s house and her laughing so loud in her bedroom that she woke the whole house up…when we went in to check on her, she was laying in her bed, holding her stomach, with tears rolling down her face from laughing so hard. She was laughing at Let’s Do It Again, with Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby…when I finally saw for myself what she was laughing at, I had to admit that it was pure comedy! Sidney is excellent as the straight man, and well, Bill was at his comedic best. In Uptown Saturday Night, Wardell (Bill Cosby) convinces Steve (Sidney Poitier) to go to this uptown nightclub. While there, they are robbed and Steve’s wallet is stolen. Steve finds out the next day that he has won the lottery and the wackiness ensues!

Let’s Do It Again takes the cake though. I think I laughed from the beginning of this movie until the end. It’s kinda like Richard Pryor’s Which Way Is Up? (a true classic) in that the funniness never ends. This time, the two are trying to raise funds for their brotherhood club. They decide to fix a boxing match, with none other than Jimmie J. J. Walker as Bootney Farnsworth. It is also worth noting that James Evans John Amos is in this film as Kansas City Mack and fine ass Calvin Lockhart stars as Biggie Smalls (yeah, this is where Biggie got his name from).

Purple Rain

What more can be said? The acting is terrible, save for Clarence Williams III, but the music is phenomenal. The storyline is easy to follow, but I think the draw is Prince himself. It is easy to believe that he went through some of these things, and to feel his angst and frustration. Troubles with his parents, with his girl, competition with the other band (I think it was hater-ade myself…Morris was jealous)…all of this combined to make him push even further. But once he finally opened up and got with the program, the ending was incredible! I could watch Purple Rain over and over again, if for the music alone.

So that’s my weekend in a nutshell…what did you do?