MovieChat Forums > Lottery Ticket (2010) Discussion > Are there any good black films that don'...

Are there any good black films that don't have Spike Lee Directing...?


I mean honestly it seems the only way "Black Film" retains any value is through over-utilizing black stereotypes. During the 70s Blaxploitation had a place, I think its time for this tired minority genre to step out of the film industry and step out of the entertainment industry in general.
Spike Lee was just a diamond in the rough I suppose, he unfortunately spawned hack directors like this guy and Tyler Perry, a sad day for the ethnicity indeed.

reply

Precious
Love and Basketball
Uptown Saturday Night
Eve's Bayou

I dunno. It would be nice to find some african-american filmmakers with more to say. But those are movies I thought were quite good.

reply

[deleted]

Racist.

reply

Coming To America!

reply

Hustle & Flow
The Wood
White Men Can't Jump
Remember the Titans

reply

"Lottery Ticket" is a good movie. It's laugh out loud funny and it's positive in it's message.

It goes against stereotypes. Kevin Carson lives with his grandmother but the movie doesn't say his parents are off on drugs or deceased where many "hood" films point that out quickly. His best female friend is about college and his best male friend is loyal. His grandmother goes to church. I love Spike Lee films but his movies showcase middle class black life primarily and his women characters are consistently underdeveloped outside of "Crooklyn"

People don't understand when they complain of stereotypes and cliches. Stereotypes by definition mean that "ALL" people of that group are said to be the same. When you see a movie with a black person drinking kool aid it's not stating WE ALL DRINK KOOLAID. It's saying this character does and it's LIKELY that a black person in the inner city would drink koolaid. It's not expensive and it can be made to fit someone's taste. Some black people do play basketball, live in the hood, cuss, fight, etc. You have to look at the WHOLE movie to say the film is stereotypical.

reply

As someone that maintains a high standard of "black" movies (because bad black movies piss me off more than bad any other kind of movies because black movies aren't churned out every month), I can say there are a few non-Spike movies that were good. But in all honesty, Spike isn't that great of a director. He's certainly made his fair share of bad movies (Girl 6, Miracle at St. Anna, and Bamboozled coming to mind). But here's some movies that haven't been mentioned that I found to be entertaining.

Coffy
Black Caesar
Hav Plenty
Claudine
Lackawanna Blues
Premium
Fresh
Something Is Killing Tate
Set It Off
Ballast
I'm Through With White Girls
Asunder
Not Easily Broken
Disappearing Acts
How Stella Got Her Groove Back
Love Jones
The Brothers
Love, Sex & Eating the Bones
Breakin' All The Rules
Racing For Time
Down in the Delta
The Color Purple
Jason's Lyric
Idlewild
Miss Evers' Boys
Life
Harlem Nights
A Lesson Before Dying


I'm sure there are more I'm not thinking of, but if you're expecting Hollywood to back a film in which black people are not making fools of themselves then expect to be very, very disappointed.

Who cares? He's a cheeseburger.

reply

Sort films, by directors, first.

Lee Daniels. He produced "Precious". Very uncompromising, and brutally real film director.

Hughes Bros. had a good start, but lost momentum after "From Hell" did so poorly (despite decent critical reception)

The trouble is "good black films" are decided by other people. The bottom line is can this movie make a profit. A film that is accessible for many people tends to gravitate toward the bottom line, and it doesnt have the integrity of the filmmaker or the viewing audience in mind.

reply

The bottom line is can this movie make a profit. A film that is accessible for many people tends to gravitate toward the bottom line, and it doesnt have the integrity of the filmmaker or the viewing audience in mind.


Although I agree, let's be honest, they're not going to "waste" a good script on a black cast. They're not going to make a Silence of the Lambs or a Jaws or a Knocked Up or a Superbad on an all or mostly black cast. The only movies with black casts that can't otherwise be made with any other kind of cast.

And if you're thinking "Death at a Funeral", they of course had to throw in a lot of black-specific talk and references in it. The thing that makes "bad black movies" bad is that they're preoccupied with the "black" part. People just want to see themselves in interesting stories. I'd love to see a movie like Taken made with a black cast that doesn't make the fact the cast is black an issue.

Who cares? He's a cheeseburger.

reply

I don't disagree that this movie will be terrible but come on where do any of you get off? White people make twice as much and twice as bad safe family early teens comedy like this one.

reply

I don't disagree that this movie will be terrible but come on where do any of you get off? White people make twice as much and twice as bad safe family early teens comedy like this one.


True, but nearly all of the *good* scripts that go on to become good or great movies do not fall into the hands of non-white actors. This isn't a racism thing, it's a numbers thing. The people with money want to spend their cash on actors they think will put butts in seats. On the black side, there's Will Smith, Denzel Washington, and that's it.

However, the one thing you might be able to point to as racism is the fact very few young non-white actors are given a shot in smaller supporting roles that might launch them. I've been grinding my teeth at how many "geek gets hot chick" movies they keep putting out and never once is the actor playing the geek or the hot chick not white.

Hollywood is not in the business of launching non-white actors. They just aren't. You'll never see a Transformers movie with a black/hispanic/asian character in the lead or a Terminator/Avatar type movie with a non-white person in the lead with the occasional Denzel/Smith movie because they don't see a profit in it.

This, despite the fact Tyler Perry's awful movies make lots of money and even Lottery Ticket beat out Jennifer Aniston's terrible movie, Hollywood still isn't about to shell out more money than it has to to appeal to non-white audiences.

Who cares? He's a cheeseburger.

reply

[deleted]

To the OP:Your new mission.... to rent and watch this new list of movies:
1. The Best Man
2. The Wood
3. Love and Basketball
4. The Great Debaters
5. Life
6. How Stella Got Her Groove Back

Now run along lil one....Netflix is waiting

reply

Medicine For Meloncholy
On The Outs
The Secret Life Of Bees
Akeelah And The Bee
Pride
Mr 3000


Im the Alpha and the Omoxus. The Omoxus and the Omega

reply

Is anyone interested in upcoming films like
Bolden
Vipaka

Forest Whitiker is always putting our films such as these. It's up to Black folk to run to the theatre in droves like they do Tyler Perry films.


Im the Alpha and the Omoxus. The Omoxus and the Omega

reply

Love Jones is one of my all time classic favorites, very underrated film too.

reply

Good African American fimakers beside Spike Lee!
Gordon Parks
The Learning Tree
Shaft
Shaft's Big Score
Leadbelly
Solomon Northup's Oddyssey

Ossie Davis
Cotton Comes To Harlem
Black Girl
Gordon's War

Michael Schultz
Cooley High
Which Way Is Up
Greased Lightning
Scavenger Hunt
The Last Dragon

Robert Townsend
Hollywood Shuffle
Eddie Muphy:Raw
The Five Heartbeats

John Singleton
Boyz In The Hood
Poetic Justice
Higher Learning
Rosewood
Four Brothers

reply