‘A Walk Through Fort Greene’

Renaissance man Nelson George and Brooklyn filmmaker Diane Paragas are working on a wonderful-looking project. Check this teaser out:

Compare and contrast

Coming attraction: ‘Repo Men’

The upcoming sci-fi thriller “Repo Men” has nothing to do with the ’80s cult classic “Repo Man.” And that’s too bad.

With Jude Law, Forest Whitaker and Liev Schreiber, “Repo Men” apparently squanders more high-grade acting talent than any movie I can think of.

Seriously, scroll down and check out the widescreen trailer at the bottom of this page. Then explain to me why “Repo Men” doesn’t star John Cena, DMX and Dane Cook.

(The gory trailer is rated R, so you must type in a birth date to view it.)

This movie was shot in 2007. It’s due to be released in April 2010. Don’t know why it’s been sitting on a shelf so long. Maybe “Repo Men” was rushed into production in the first place because of the looming writers’ strike. Oh well.

Coming attraction: ‘Death at a Funeral’

Hat-tip: Shadow and Act.

‘This Is It’

If you see it, please let me know what you think.

UPDATE (10/28/09): Author and filmmaker Nelson George saw the movie today and shared his thoughts on Facebook:

“My friend Tigist went with me and cried on and off for the entire film. I didn’t cry but was quite impressed.

“I saw Michael perform many times over the years and thought his stage craft was at a very high level. His performance of ‘Human Nature,’ ‘Smooth Criminal’ and especially ‘Billie Jean’ were extraordinary.

“That said, he did look frail to me and I’m not convinced he could [do] that show for 50 nights without more bulk and upperbody strength. I was also aware that this was a very selective use of footage. They made a two hour film of 110 hours of footage. By definition much was left out. But that’s speculation.

“What is clear [is] that This Is It [is] a great document of the 20th century’s last great entertainer.”

Is this the worst movie ever made?

I doff my cap to the commenter known as “junebug,” who, in the “Pootie Tang” discussion thread this morning, mentioned a movie called “Ax ’Em.”

I’d never heard of it.

“Ax ’Em” was written, produced and directed in 1992 by Michael Mfume, a son of the ex-congressman and former NAACP president Kweisi Mfume.

The movie wasn’t released until 2002. Skraight to DVD.

Since then, various B-movie aficionados on the Web have discussed “Ax ’Em” in terms of its mind-boggling technical incompetence. (“How do you review a movie so unfit for public viewing that you can’t even figure out any of the characters’ names?”)

One dedicated YouTuber has uploaded the entire film... in eight parts. He calls it “the worst horror movie ever.”

How much of this 10-minute clip can you sit through?

Coming attraction: ‘Still Bill’

This documentary is screening Wednesday night at L.A.’s Downtown Film Festival.

Coming attraction: ‘Passing Strange’

A year and a half ago, I blogged about a Broadway musical called “Passing Strange,” created by the singer/songwriter Stew.

Spike Lee has made a documentary movie of “Passing Strange.” It’ll be in theaters on August 21. And next year it will air on PBS.

Here’s the trailer. It sure looks interesting. (Hat-tip: Shadow and Act.)

‘They killed Cornbread!’

Speaking of Laurence Fishburne, here’s a 10-minute clip from “Cornbread, Earl and Me,” the 1975 movie in which young Master Fishburne first distinguished himself.

By 1976, Fishburne had grown up enough to be cast as a soldier in Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam epic “Apocalypse Now.”

(This one’s for you, bklyn6.)

‘Soul Power’ in more cities

This is me doubling down on my previous recommendation of the documentary film “Soul Power.” So much great concert footage in that flick. (Just look at those Spinners!)

“Soul Power” opens today in Philadelphia, Detroit, Houston, Seattle and several other cities.

In August, the movie rolls out to D.C., Denver, St. Louis, Miami, Dallas, Atlanta, Memphis and Richmond, among other towns.

If you’re in Charlotte, New Orleans, Pittsburgh or San Antonio, you’re gonna have to wait till September. Wherever you are, keep an eye out.

Don’t know if there’ll be a soundtrack album. So let me hit you with a cut from the “When We Were Kings” CD, which features sounds from the same music festival.

Click here to hear James Brown doing “The Payback.” You can watch this performance in “Soul Power.”

Now playing: ‘Soul Power’

Yes, I do plan on seeing “Bruno.” But my first order of business this weekend was checking out the documentary “Soul Power,” which opened today in a handful of theaters in L.A. and New York.

A companion piece to “When We Were Kings,” “Soul Power” focuses on the three-day music festival scheduled to coincide with the 1974 Ali-Foreman fight in Zaire.

The festival presented an awesome collection of talent: James Brown, B.B. King, Celia Cruz, Miriam Makeba, Bill Withers, the Spinners, the Crusaders...

Drawing from many hours’ worth of precious footage, director Jeffrey Levy-Hinte has prepared a joyful meal of a movie. But he takes his time in setting the table.

A third of the movie is over before the first concert scene (the Spinners doing “One of a Kind Love Affair”). I would’ve preferred less behind-the-scenes stuff about the construction of the stage, for instance, in exchange for a couple more music performances.

The performances are thrilling... building up to James Brown and the J.B.’s roaring through “Payback” and “Cold Sweat.”

Quite a coincidence that “Soul Power” would open on the very day that President Obama arrives in Ghana. Because the sight of Muhammad Ali and James Brown in Africa evokes the same sense of cultural magic.

Here is the trailer:

The Skip & Spike Show

Today on The Root: Henry Louis Gates interviews Spike Lee on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of “Do the Right Thing.”

Follow this link to watch the 6-minute video clip.

May I point you...

... to a hellified discussion that jumped off today on the cinema blog Shadow and Act?

It began with Sergio Mims’s provocative piece titled “Spike’s Career Crisis.” (And you know how it gets when black film freaks start rolling on the subject of Spike Lee.)

A new black cinema blog!

As I make my way to the exit, let me recommend a brand new culture blog that many of you might enjoy.

It’s called Shadow and Act (an Ellison reference there). It’s a collaborative effort led by the battle-tested blogger Tambay Obenson.

Team members include the inimitable Invisible Woman; KJ (known in the UBM comments section as “must love movies”); and Sergio Mims of EbonyJet.com.

Shadow and Act is updated all day with cool-as-shit information.

This morning, Tambay shined a light on a 2006 Brazilian film, “Antonia,” from the producers of “City of God.” It’s available on DVD from Amazon.com. Here’s the trailer (in Portuguese):

Siskel & Ebert on ‘Hoop Dreams’

Remember the 1994 documentary “Hoop Dreams,” about two high- school basketball standouts from Chicago? A superb film.

The first time I heard about it was on “Siskel & Ebert.” They gave the movie unconditional raves.

Matter fact, Gene and Roger talked up “Hoop Dreams” before it had a distribution deal. Even before it screened at the Sundance Film Festival. Their support launched the three-hour doc to commercial success.

My path crossed in cyberspace with Steve James, the director of “Hoop Dreams,” a few years ago. So I reached out on Facebook to see if Steve had any thoughts to share about Mr. Siskel, Mr. Ebert and “Hoop Dreams.”

Turns out the publicity firm representing “Hoop Dreams” had a working relationship with Siskel & Ebert. “They talked Gene into seeing the film because he was a huge basketball fan with Bulls season tickets,” Steve James says.

“And they talked Roger into seeing it by talking about its social relevance and shrewdly asking him to bring along his lovely wife Chaz, who they were certain would respond to the film.”

The publicists set up a special showing. “Of course, being pros, [Gene and Roger] kept their game face on for the entire private screening and left without saying a word,” Steve recalls.

“It was only when the show called to tell us that it would be reviewed that coming week that we knew they must have liked it. We couldn’t have dreamed they would like it so much.

“We hadn’t even left for Sundance ourselves when the review ran on their show urging people to see it at the festival.”

Embedded below is that review... and more.

As Steve James relates, that early review was only the beginning. “They reviewed and promoted it again and again for its theatrical release, and on their Academy Awards show, and their end-of-the-year 10 Best lists.”

That’s what Siskel & Ebert could do when they got behind a picture. God bless ’em.

By the way, the full-length version of “Hoop Dreams” can be viewed right now, for free, on Hulu. Just follow this link.

Now playing: ‘American Violet’

Don’t know when I’ll get a chance to go to the movies, but “American Violet,” which opens today, looks interesting.

An L.A. Times article about the film is here. The trailer is below.

Siskel & Ebert on ‘Full Metal Jacket’

I can’t believe Roger Ebert ragged on “Full Metal Jacket.”

And I dare suppose that few people now believe “Platoon” was a better movie... even though “Platoon” won an Academy Award for Best Picture (while “Full Metal Jacket” got just one Oscar nomination... for writing).

“Full Metal Jacket” has a dream-like magic about it. Always did.

Anyways... enjoy Gene and Roger going hard at each other.

Give me 10 minutes of your life...

... and I will show you three very cool mini-documentaries, courtesy of Cinelan. The filmmakers are Steve James, Jessica Yu and Richard Guard.

Siskel & Ebert on ‘Happiness’

Gene and Roger had good things to say about Todd Solondz’s “Happiness.”

I thought the movie was despicable... an act of contempt towards its characters as well as its audience.

“Happiness” didn’t tell the truth about human beings, and didn’t seem interested in doing so. I can’t name a movie that I dislike more.

Siskel & Ebert on ‘B*A*P*S’

Gene and Roger, being good liberals, tended to over-praise black filmmakers and black performers. (At least that’s the feeling I always got.)

A dozen years ago, they drew the line at “B*A*P*S” (written by Troy Beyer, directed by Robert Townsend, starring Halle Berry). It was more than they could bear.