Great Movie
Added 6/26/2009
The DVD arrived quickly and looked new, just the way I like them. Thank you.
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Good Movie
Added 6/25/2009
I remembered it a little differently than when I saw it again, but it still was good. Rae Dawn Chong did an excellent job in this movie, and James Earl Jones seemed very real as a professor. It seems a little politically incorrect at first, but then you understand why later in the movie.
Amazon still offers the best prices and Amazon prime will be your best friend if you buy/ship at least 5 to 8 times a year. They have been great on shipping fast. It is worth the one year price.
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DOESN'T REALLY KNOW WHAT IT WANTS TO BE!
Added 6/3/2009
Seeing this film now after all these years, it hasn't aged all that well. It's OK,....funny at times, but I found it to be heavy handed too, trying to drive home a lesson about what's right and what's wrong!
I don't know if this film could be made today with all the "PC" nonsense that is shoved down our throats! C. Thomas Howell is OK in the lead role and the supporting cast is better than the end result, but in the end the film seems to be trying to be two different things......it doesn't pull either off...all that well. It's still a decent movie and if you grew up watching it, it may hold fond memories for you.
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Great Movie
Added 3/9/2009
I remember watching this movie when I was 13, and I thought it was pretty funny. That's the great thing about the 80s. Movies were fun back then. The 80s were just fun in general. Comedies centering around racial issues have been around a long time, but they did it with enough dignity and enough story line to get away with it.
Of course, the climate was different back then.
While the make-up job wasn't as good as Robert Downey's in Tropic Thunder, the story line certainly holds a little bit more water. And it is a good story.
I encourage anybody to watch it. It is a good story line and an enjoyable, funny movie.
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C. Thomas Howell, howl, Thomas, howl
Added 12/11/2008
"Soul Man" was a well meaning but extremely lame comedy about a White So Cal student who scams his way into Harvard School of Law on a scholarship for Black students. Now that we have a Black President of the United States--or will very soon--who actually attended Harvard School of Law, this movie seems to be very outdated. It wasn't well received when it was released in 1986 either, and it is easy to see why. It just isn't very funny, and the writing and situations that could have arisen from such a mix up are never exploited for any real comic value. For instance, the scene where his parents come to visit, not knowing that he has taken a pill to turn his skin black, and meanwhile the landlord's daughter waits for him in the bedroom is just rather awkward and unbelievable.
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Mark Watson: Mom! Dad! There's something I have to tell you... I'm black.
=====================================
Likewise, the White students who crack Black jokes don't ring true; they are cardboard one dimensional characters. The incidents are just shoe horned in. The reactions Mark gets when people think he's Black, such as expecting him to be a good basketball player, are very tired clichés. Finally, he just doesn't even look Black, just more like he has a perm and a tan.
While "Soul Man" was a fiasco as a comedy, the romance between Sarah Walker (Rae Dawn Chong) and Mark Watson (C. Thomas Howell) was pleasantly amusing--and guess what? A few years later the two got married for real, though it only lasted about a year. James Earl Jones was impressive as Professor Banks, a teacher who didn't cut Mark any slack just because he was Black, and instead pushed him even harder.
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Professor Banks: Mr. Watson, I am not a humorous man, but if you insist on taking up my class time making jokes, please see to it that they are funny.
======================================
Objection sustained, Professor Banks.
CAST OF SOUL MAN
C. Thomas Howell ... Mark Watson
Rae Dawn Chong ... Sarah Walker
Arye Gross ... Gordon Bloomfeld
James Earl Jones ... Professor Banks
Melora Hardin ... Whitney Dunbar
Leslie Nielsen ... Mr. Dunbar
Ann Walker ... Mrs. Dunbar
James Sikking ... Bill Watson (as James B. Sikking)
Max Wright ... Dr. Aronson
Jeff Altman ... Ray McGrady
Julia Louis-Dreyfus ... Lisa Stimson
Maree Cheatham ... Mrs. Dorothy Watson (as Marie Cheatham)
Wallace Langham ... Barky Brewer (as Wally Ward)
Ron Reagan ... Frank
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Minority Report (Widescreen Edition) (2002) .... Arye Gross was wronged husband Howard Marks
For the Boys (1991) .... Arye Gross was the lacky Jeff Brooks sent to fetch Dixie Leonard (Bette Midler) for a TV Show
"The Office" .... Melora Hardin was Jan Levinson / ... (37 episodes, 2005-2008)
"Veronica's Closet" .... Wallace Langham was Josh Blair (64 episodes, 1997-2000)
Weird Science (1985) .... Wallace Langham (as Wally Ward) was Art
"Saturday Night Live" .... Ron Reagan, son of actor Ronald Reagan, was Host (1 episode, 1986)
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) .... Julia Louis-Dreyfus was Mary
"Seinfeld" .... Julia Louis-Dreyfus was Elaine Benes / ... (174 episodes, 1990-1998)
"Hill Street Blues" .... James Sikking was Lt. Howard Hunter (97 episodes, 1981-1987)
Forbidden Planet (1956) .... Leslie Nielsen was Commander J. J. Adams
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) .... Leslie Nielsen was Lt. Frank Drebin
Star Wars Trilogy (1977) (voice) .... James Earl Jones was the voice of Darth Vader
Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Two-Disc Special Edition) (1964) .... James Earl Jones was Lt. Lothar Zogg
The Great White Hope (1970) .... James Earl Jones was Jack Jefferson
The Sandlot (1993) .... James Earl Jones was Mr. Mertle
The Color Purple (1985) .... Rae Dawn Chong was Squeak
The Outsiders (1983) .... C. Thomas Howell was Ponyboy Curtis
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982) .... C. Thomas Howell (as Tom Howell) was Tyler
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Mark Watson: What's happening, brother? Get down, get down. Looking good, mamma, looking good. Well, I gots to be going now!
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0 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Great Movie
Added 6/26/2009
The DVD arrived quickly and looked new, just the way I like them. Thank you.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Good Movie
Added 6/25/2009
I remembered it a little differently than when I saw it again, but it still was good. Rae Dawn Chong did an excellent job in this movie, and James Earl Jones seemed very real as a professor. It seems a little politically incorrect at first, but then you understand why later in the movie.
Amazon still offers the best prices and Amazon prime will be your best friend if you buy/ship at least 5 to 8 times a year. They have been great on shipping fast. It is worth the one year price.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
DOESN'T REALLY KNOW WHAT IT WANTS TO BE!
Added 6/3/2009
Seeing this film now after all these years, it hasn't aged all that well. It's OK,....funny at times, but I found it to be heavy handed too, trying to drive home a lesson about what's right and what's wrong!
I don't know if this film could be made today with all the "PC" nonsense that is shoved down our throats! C. Thomas Howell is OK in the lead role and the supporting cast is better than the end result, but in the end the film seems to be trying to be two different things......it doesn't pull either off...all that well. It's still a decent movie and if you grew up watching it, it may hold fond memories for you.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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