Film Vault Tuesday (Week 10)

So, last week I was doing some shopping in a well known drugstore... when I was walking back to my car I was approached by a crack head holding a still in the box MP3 player. I took a closer look at the box, it hadn't been tampered with and had clearly just been stolen from the drugstore. I had never heard of the generic brand name on the package.

I've been thinking about getting an MP3 player for a while now... Santiago even wrote an MP3 player review to help me decide.

I came to the conclusion that I just wouldn't use one enough to justify the cost of a decent player... At the same time- even the crappy ones go in the $75 range. And who wants to spend that much on something that might not work?

So when this crackhead approached me and was willing to sell this crappy MP3 player for just $20, I couldn't say no... Well actually he wanted $40 but I talked him down to $20.

Anyway, I took my generic MP3 player back to the office to show Moe Greene... his prediction- "it'll be good enough to make you want a better one within a month."

I argued that the small memory and crappy display wouldn't bother me because I'd hardly use the thing anyway... deep down, I knew he was right.

And he was... sort of.

It did make me want to buy a better one, but it didn't take a month, or a week, or even 24 hours. We ended up making a trip to Best Buy that night where I dropped $160 on a fancy one with a color display and double the memory of the crappy one.

As we were walking back to Moe's car, a funny thought occurred to me... For the last 4 years I had resisted the urge to buy an MP3 player, and now I'd bought 2 in the span of 8 hours.

FILM VAULT TUESDAY

Title: Crooklyn (1994)

Cast: Delroy Lindo, Alfre Woodard, Zelda Harris

Why: Well in honor of the fact that I'm going to see Spike Lee's new movie "Inside Man" this Friday, I thought I'd honor my favorite director by pimping out one of his more underrated movies...

It's semi-autobiographical tale based in 1970's Brooklyn... It follows the Carmichael family as seen through the eyes of their youngest daughter Troy (Zelda Harris).

Delroy Lindo turns in a remarkable performance as Woody, a father struggling to find success as a musician while at the same time trying to provide for his family... Alfre Woodard turns in a solid performance as Woody's wife- a school teacher and mother doing her best to hold the family together.

Remote Stopper Scene: Towards the end of the movie, Troy, the little girl wakes up from a nightmare and Delroy Lindo comforts her... I know that's a really vague description but I can't really go into anymore detail without giving plot twists away... Let's just say it's a very powerful scene.

Goosebump/Tear Factor: I'm a complete mess for the last 20 minutes of the movie.

Overall Rating: Like most Spike Lee films, it has a very quirky and unique style that tends to polarize people... And that's not even factoring in the issue of Spike's politics.

Much of White America completely write off his movies as soon as they here his name involved... Which is very unfortunate because not only is he a brilliant film maker, but his political views are usually greatly misconstrued.

As far as Crooklyn is concerned, I'd put it somewhere between a 7.5 and an 8... The lead actors are great, but some of the supporting cast are out of their league. But it's still an excellent movie.