I'm not sure why anyone would see this movie as a racial comedy. Was My Big Fat Greek Wedding a racial comedy? They are basically comedies that have different cultures interact and since that happens everyday in this country...interaction between cultures is a good thing. It helps us understand each other better.
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0353214
We can't really understand each other better when all that is presented to us is stereotypes!
http://www.angelfire.com/nb/complexsusie
Be offended :)
The problem is Queen Latifa's character seems to be a hackneyed stereotype of black women. Her character is unlike the majority of people she represents.
I can understand why the writers would choose to make her character this way. Hollywood and Media have a "stock character" formula for certain ethnic and socio-economic groups. Instead of taking the time to develop characters it's much easier to use what's already been set out before them. It seems to work on the American viewing audience, because movies like Bringing Down the House do much better than movies like Brown Sugar.
But who really cares? Its a M-O-V-I-E. It isn't some serious academic piece. Alot of people out there seriously need to get the corn cob out of their posteriors, and realize what movies are for. Some movies are serious films, others, like this, are purely for their comic or entertainment value, not something meant to be deep and meaningful.
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Yeah, and keep spelling out M-O-V-I-E like we don't know how to read...
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Get over yourself. Maybe you should just stay home so that maybe you wont be exposed to anything that might be even lightly concieved as offensive. If the black people in this movie look like asses, tell that to your friends that act just like that. Its not a stereotype if its at least partially true. Its not like every black person in the movie acts like a retard.
sharefirst of all they make Queen Latifah help his kid read by reading playboy magazines or whatever. This movie was awful i almost left the theatre. First of all there was about 2 funny jokes in it, and second of all there was nothing but black and white stereo typing. They made practically all the whites racist and all the blacks stupid or gross. I cant believe they would show a movie like this in the theatres.
shareThere were no stupid black characters in this movie. Maybe that's just how *you* see them.
shareI really don't think you could take this movie as deep or meaningful. It was meant, as you said to be pure entertainment. People that look at something like this as racial, or stereotypical, should belong to the academy so artsy meaningless films like Adaptations/Hours/blah blah blah can be nominated. It's a shame to see talent go to waste sometimes, but when it comes out in purest form, that's the best entertainment ever.
shareIt's easy to dismiss a movie like this as "just a movie" so you don't have to actually look at the messages it sends. It *does* perpetuate negative steretypes of black and white people. The point is, thousands and thousands of people are going to see this movie and look right past the stereotypes and think, yeah, that's great, haha. And if anyone tries to question the content of the film, they can just say, you're being too critical/pretentious/artsy, it's just a movie, get over it.
Hollywood movies that make millions at the box office aren't popular because they don't mean anything. They are popular because, at some level, enough people find them acceptable for it to be a cinematic and financial success. That says something about who we are as a culture, and that *is* important.
Yknow, I really like how the morals we teach our children can be so easily undermined by a "M-O-V-I-E". Just shows how stable and firm these grounds have become, where parenting and teaching have come such a long way.
shareJust like spider man caused little kids to jump out of their balconies and 'monster' portrayed women to be aggressive ,serial killing and lesbian
Get over it ,will you.
You could diss every movie for something,just like every race could diss each other and such movies, with a mind like yours
Stereotypes are outrageous. that is why they are funny. We all know that they aren't representative of the entire population, but the few people that are the stereotype are funny. There are stereotypes for every group on the planet (blacks, whites, Americans, French, Canadians, Republicans, Liberals, etc.) The best that we can do is not worry about a bunch of "politically correct" B.S. and just learn to make fun of ourselves, it will make life a lot easier
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Get over it. It wasn't a stereotype, and if it was it was a damn good one. There was nothing offensive about her character. Everyone doesn't have to act like a WASP.
shareAny black woman who calls herself "Queen" is a stereotypical racial joke in itself.
shareI'm a big fan of both Steve Martin and Queen Latifah, but when I saw the trailer for this movie it looked surprisingly offensive to me. The trailer seemed to present their characters as the worst stereotypes, but then I thought well, it's a comedy, are these stereotypes going to be brought down in the course of the film? It's hard to tell by reading everyone's comments. Everyone seems to see it in such different ways. But I still can't bring myself to pay $9 to find out for myself, so I think I'll wait until it's on dvd and then maybe I'll rent it.
shareYou are very correct, why would anybody want to see a person typecast in such a way. I am very offended that Steve Martin would play a intelligent (but still not so bright)uptight middle aged white man.
Maybe, just maybe, this is just a movie. (all one word, no spaces) Afterall as of now $100,000,000 of movie goers can't all be wrong.
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It is interesting though that our hero or heroine must be wrongly imprisoned. Think about the entire point of the movie. She was framed but was convicted because she was a "heavy set woman wearing a wig and glasses with a tatoo on her left breast". Why do we have to have yet another main character that was in prison but they didn't do it. The movie could have worked just as well if she had actually been guilty - who cares. It's like hollywood will play characters that have a rough past but only if it wasn't their fault.
The thing that did offend me is no self respecting person would put up with many of the situations we see in the movie. Dressing up as a slave and serving dinner, pretending to be a nanny because there's no other explanation why she would be at the club, hiding her from betty white's character because <gasp> we can't have black people in our house. Who would put up with this BS in real life? If it weren't this ridiculous hollywood tripe Steve Marin's character would have told countless people to mind their own $&^&^*# business. The scene with the bosses questioning him about his relations with his black nanny would have been a juicy suit in real life. The scene with the rich heiress after she is kidnapped was also ridiculous. If she were as racist as she is made out to be she wouldn't have sat between two black people and smoked a joint. stupid, stupid, stupid.
And what is the very last scene we see? I believe it was the Santa Monica pier? They don't have black people in california? Black people aren't allowed in clubs there? I missed where it was really supposed to be set if not in california.
I did laugh but I found myself thinking that things were too unbelievable and no right minded person would put up with the things that happen in the movie. I also have no idea what the title has to do with the content of the movie?
well my friend, the title is meant to emulate perceived common black slang, in this case, a term that implies a drastic change in someone/something, "bringing down the house" (for example: "this party is so cool, it BRINGS DOWN THE HOUSE!)
The sheer absurdities you mentioned and many more that you might not have noticed tend to portray this film as racially unprogressive and damaging to americans by further perpetuating unfounded and simplistic racial stereotypes. The reason Queen played a convict is that no other position would be suitable to the plot structure. Her being a convict, whether she was guilty or innocent, is important to how her and steve ultimatly react and feed of one another. And yes, to seem tolerant and not racist, Queen's character NEEDED to be innocent of this crime in order for her influences to have meaning, rather than if she was guitly, maybe steve would not have acted the way he did
i cant begin to tell you what is wrong with this movie, educate yourself further and put a stop to this trite sh*t now!
It's typecast, because Dana Owens is only capable of playing one type of role.
The fact that people are stupid enough to refer to her as queen just boggles the mind.