Articles tagged "queen latifah"

The PopMatters Summer 2009 Movie Preview Feature

Summer of Same: July 2009

by Bill Gibron

[29.Apr.09] :. In a rare attempt at novelty, July jets along with only Harry Potter and the Ice Age crew sampling continuing series spoils. The rest provide unknown pleasures.

The PopMatters Summer 2009 Movie Preview

Film Review

The Secret Life of Bees

by Cynthia Fuchs

[17.Oct.08] :. May's wailing wall appears repeatedly in Gina Prince-Blythewood's The Secret Life of Bees, each time an invitation to reflect, to remember what was and hope for what might be.

Recent Film reviews

Column: Suffragette City

The Secret Life of Bees

by Matt Mazur

[13.Oct.08] :. What could have been a brave film turned out lukewarm, lost in its own self-importance, stripped of its feminist overtones and watered down for mass consumption.

Recent columns

The PopMatters Fall 2008 Movie Preview Feature

Talk, Talk, Talk: October 2008

by Bill Gibron

[10.Sep.08] :. What studio suit thought this was a good idea? With four months to schedule your high priced efforts, you instead unload almost 30 overpriced pictures on an unsuspecting movie audience.

The PopMatters Fall 2008 Movie Preview

Film DVD Review

What Happens in Vegas

by Sam Maclean

[29.Aug.08] :. As the saying (sort of) goes, what happens in Vegas should stay in Vegas -- so, too with this film.

Recent DVD reviews

Film Review

What Happens in Vegas

by Cynthia Fuchs

[9.May.08] :. In What Happens in Vegas, Joy and Jack are fated to fall in lazy-movie-love.

Recent Film reviews

The Return of the Popcorn Circus: May 2008

by Bill Gibron

[28.Apr.08] :. In the first act of this four-part production, Tinsel Town decides to do some unbelievable front loading. Will there be room for independent offerings, or former HBO carnal comedy divas? Who knows? Without a doubt, it's an interesting way to start the season.

Mad Money

by Cynthia Fuchs

[18.Jan.08] :. Mad Money borrows liberally and carelessly from Set It Off, still a smart, angry film about class divisions that have only grown wider since 1996.

The Perfect Holiday

by Cynthia Fuchs

[12.Dec.07] :. Part "family movie" and part "romantic comedy," Perfect Holiday divides its energies unevenly, leaning too heavily on the adults acting like children.

Queen Latifah: Travlin Light

by Will Layman

[30.Oct.07] :. The rapper/ actress/ singer bids for jazz legitimacy. One wonders why she bothers to try.

‘Tale’ seeks to tell the cold truth about the Arctic

by Dixie Reid [McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)]

[16.Aug.07] :. SAN FRANCISCO - In the very early days of making the wildlife saga “Arctic Tale,” cinematographer-director Adam Ravetch and his wife, Sarah Robertson, were aboard an ice floe and filming...

Arctic Tale

by Cynthia Fuchs

[25.Jul.07] :. Trying too hard to reinvent the penguin subgenre, Arctic Tale focuses its anthropomorphizing energies on girls instead of boys, on natural enemies instead of platoons of birds who all look alike.

Hairspray (2007) (2007)

by Todd R. Ramlow

[20.Jul.07] :. Hairspray doesn't just replay Waters' film, it extends and complicates the original parody.

Ice cream server one day, ‘Hairspray’ star the next

by Terry Lawson [Detroit Free Press (MCT)]

[18.Jul.07] :. Yes, she really was in the Cold Stone Creamery, scooping ice cream. And no, she really didn’t know it was coming. “I knew I was one of the final four,” says Nikki Blonsky, who was...

Monkey Business (Part 3: July)

by Bill Gibron

[3.May.07] :. Finally, a month with only one remaining series contender. All wizard based Potter-y aside, this will be the most tenuous time for the business called show. After a strong start, the eccentric collection of entertainments here could make or break this potentially record shattering motion picture season.

Life Support

by Iquo B. Essien

[9.Mar.07] :. What shines through in Life Support are the life experiences of safe sex advocates and real women living with the virus.

Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

by Jack Patrick Rodgers

[8.Mar.07] :. Stranger than Fiction isn’t sure if it wants to be a comedy that relies on stereotypes in order to accentuate the humor, or a drama with the absurdities played as deadpan as possible.

‘Life’ of a Queen: Latifah digs deep for an HBO movie

by Marisa Guthrie [New York Daily News (MCT)]

[8.Mar.07] :. NEW YORK—Queen Latifah has had her share of big laughs and bigger triumphs. And her comic timing is as reliable as a sitcom laugh track. But often the performers we’re accustomed to...

Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[10.Nov.06] :. Maybe Professor Hilbert knows exactly how right he is, given the film's relentless archness: it knows that you know that it knows it's meta.

Last Holiday (2006)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[13.Jan.06] :. As she gains increased clout (maybe her new Hollywood star counts for something), perhaps the Queen can angle for work that's challenging and rewarding for all her subject.

Beauty Shop (2005)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[1.Apr.05] :. Good news: Queen Latifah is free of wet noodle Jimmy Fallon.

Queen Latifah: The Dana Owens Album

by Mark Anthony Neal

[11.Nov.04] :. The album is a tribute to Queen Latifah's talents and her musical tastes, and a an example of what the so-called hip-hop generation can produce, when we allow them to grow up.

Taxi (2004)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[8.Oct.04] :. Belle is set up to work against stereotypes: athletic, aggressive, mechanically inclined, she's a black woman NASCAR fan.

The Cookout (2004)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[10.Sep.04] :. The sports reporters are upset: if Todd's not going to fit a stereotype, what good is he?"

Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[28.Jun.04] :. Eddie (Cedric the Entertainer) comes to understand a new place for himself, and, no small thing, frames an acutely political history by his own story.

Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[5.Feb.04] :. These first five minutes grant Eddie and the barbershop some specific background, of resistance and community.

Scary Movie 3 (2003)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[23.Oct.03] :. Just when you thought the Scary Movie franchise had run out of ideas, here it comes again -- looking like it's run out of ideas.

Bringing Down the House (2003)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[8.Mar.03] :. It's like an episode of Bewitched, only longer, and with a feisty black woman instead of a white witch.

Chicago (2002)

by Lesley Smith

[26.Dec.02] :. Watching Chicago is rather like watching a shot-for-TV music video by a neophyte director projected without thought or re-cutting straight to a movie screen.

Brown Sugar (2002)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[10.Oct.02] :. Brown Sugar can blur lines between mainstream and margin, mix up the spirits, just as hip-hop -- so-called real hip-hop but also, in its way, brashly commercial hip-hop -- has always done.

Last Holiday (2006)

by Cynthia Fuchs

'So much of the movie,' says director Wayne Wang of his Last Holiday, 'is about giving up your fears and trying to live your life.'

The Bone Collector (1999)

by Cynthia Fuchs

The Bone Collector assumes you know the drill, the serial-killer-movie drill. It gives you most everything you need to know during the first four minutes, half of which take up the credits sequence (the credits themselves are, of course, hyper-scratchy and slashy-looking, very post-Seven stylish).