WEEKEND ACTUALS: WTM (17.96m), Elysium (13.69m), Planes (13.39m), KA2 (13.33m), Percy (8.75m)

[jacquelinejane]

Fantastic.  They makeup to make him look like Reagan was incredible.

 

Here is my take on the cast:

 

Forrest Whitaker:  Oscar worthy.  Quiet but brilliant.

Mariah Carey:  I didn't even know it was her.  She was fine but had very little to do.

Alex Pettyfer:  An asshole and plays one well.  I hated him but he played him well.

Vanessa Redgrave:  Not much to do either.

Oprah:  Great range.  Powerful scenes and definitely Oscar worthy.

David Oyelowo:  The best performance of the film imo.

Terrence Howard:  Slimy, swarmy and unlikable, did it very well.

Cuba Gooding Jr.:  He is good in everything.  I don't know what happened to him after Jerry Maguire but he is good here again.

Lenny Kravitz:  good strong performance.

Robin Williams:  Not overly memorable

John Cusack:  Best of the cameos...nails Nixon's mannerisms

James Marsden:  Terrific as JFK

Minka Kelly:  Gorgeous but not much to do

Liev Schreiber:  Decent

Alan Rickman:  Fantastic

Jane Fonda:  Just a natural actress.  Was on screen for about 60 seconds but she was perfect as Nancy Reagan

 

YASSSSSS

 

Love Mr Oyelowo, he's one of my favourite actors, criminally underrated. This makes me so happy to hear.

[Cmasterclay]

Very excited to check out Lee Daniel's the Butler (or, if it was a porn, Ron Jeremy's The Buttler). Think it will be great. baumer gave it a glowing review, and that's cool!

[Harpospoke]

Those who are hating on it because of politics are completely missing the idea of the story. It's a story about civil rights and the civil rights movement and the story is the backdrop of a butler who worked for all the presidents during the civil rights movement. Its not really about politics at all.

That sounds pretty political to me.   There is usually a "white people are bad" element in there somewhere in a movie about civil rights.  It's wearing pretty thin with me to be honest.

[lab276]

That sounds pretty political to me.   There is usually a "white people are bad" element in there somewhere in a movie about civil rights.  It's wearing pretty thin with me to be honest.

Well I hate to break it to you, but the opponents of the Civil Rights movement tended to be white.

[Leyla]

awww that drop 4 WTM & WWZ

& +4.5% for Nysm all good

Edited August 19, 2013 by Leyla

[Talkie]

Well I hate to break it to you, but the opponents of the Civil Rights movement tended to be white.

 

All those Jim Crow laws didn't write themselves and the crosses that burned on our lawn didn't spontaneously combust. 

[Harpospoke]

Well I hate to break it to you, but the opponents of the Civil Rights movement tended to be white.

So were the people who changed things. If white people had all the power, that means white people had to make the changes.At this point, it's just getting old to me. I get it already. But we've won that fight. Time to move on and start becoming one race like Martin Luther King wanted.

[Leyla]

hmm so so-decent avg for Austenland & Aint them bodies saints

 

Blue Jasmine hits 10m soon

Edited August 19, 2013 by Leyla

[jacquelinejane]

If it's getting old to you, go read a book. Stop willingly consuming media that god forbid wants to tell black people's stories.

 

White people fucked up things for a lot of people. I say this as a white person. If the reality of that is too confronting and uncomfortable for you, there's plenty of other movies and stories that will happily allow you to stick your head in the sand.

[baumer]

That sounds pretty political to me.   There is usually a "white people are bad" element in there somewhere in a movie about civil rights.  It's wearing pretty thin with me to be honest.

 

I don't understand what you are trying to say here.  Are you implying that white people didn't have blacks as slaves?  Are you implying that whites didn't hang blacks?  Are you implying that there were no burning crosses, that there was no racism, that blacks didn't have to sit at the back of the bus, that they didn't have their own fountains, their own washrooms, that they could not attend the same schools as white kids, that they couldn't eat in the same part of the restaurant as whites, that they weren't beaten by whites that the KKK didn't exist, that their wages up until about 20 years ago were less than white people, that the word nigger is still used to degrade them that they didn't have to face discrimination in their every day life?

 

Sorry but if you are tired of these stories being told, then my suggestion for you is to pick up a book, google racism in America, watch Roots, or better yet, watch Mississippi Burning, which, like the Butler, is based on a real case that happened in 1964.  Racism is real bud.  White people have done terrible things to other races.  There's no getting around that.  

 

As to your point that whites did a lot to help ameliorate racism, you are correct, the powers that be have always been white so it only stands to reason that whites have done their part to change the laws.  And that is featured prominently in the film.  Presidents like JFK, LBJ and Reagan are shown doing some good to get black people the rights they all deserved to have.  

 

Perhaps before you criticize the film for hating on white people you should understand what white people have done over time and you should see the film to understand what you are talking about.

Edited August 19, 2013 by baumer

[RobinHood26]

So were the people who changed things. If white people had all the power, that means white people had to make the changes.At this point, it's just getting old to me. I get it already. But we've won that fight. Time to move on and start becoming one race like Martin Luther King wanted.

 

Edited August 19, 2013 by Jay Salahi

[baumer]

I didn't even read that part Jay.  lol

 

What do you mean move on?  Sweep it under the rug?  I don't think so.  How many films have come out that have dealt with the civil rights movement?  How many major films?  Without looking them up, I'd say Mississippi Burning, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Malcolm X, Do the Right Thing, Boyz N' The Hood, The Help, To Kill a Mockingbird, Gandhi (not dealing with black people but a significant film about civil rights).  

 

I'm sure there are more but these are the ones I can recall off the top of my head. That's less than ten films in 50 years.  Yep, we sure are beating the civil rights movement to death, aren't we? 

[Talkie]

So were the people who changed things. If white people had all the power, that means white people had to make the changes.At this point, it's just getting old to me. I get it already. But we've won that fight. Time to move on and start becoming one race like Martin Luther King wanted.

 

We haven't won the fight. Not at all. Did you miss the George Zimmerman trial, the Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights Act, states across the south moving to infringe on the rights of Blacks and other minorities to vote and the million and one other indicators that this country has much more work to do when it comes to racial discrimination? 

 

As for whites making the changes, do you think this country would ever have changed if the Civil Rights Movement hadn't forced the issue? We'd still be living with Jim Crow laws like the fucking 50s if it really had been up to the majority of whites whether the laws changed or not. 

 

Things have changed for the better, there's no doubt of that. In my own lifetime I've lived through cross burnings, an attempt to firebomb my family's home, assaults by racist thugs and a lot else besides. None of that would be tolerated now the way it was back then. One of my uncles was almost lynched for becoming engaged to a white woman 40 years ago; now two of my brothers are happily married to white wives, with nary a problem from the neighbors. All the changes are great, but Blacks and other minorities don't have the privilege of ignoring the problems that still remain. We can't have a colorblind society until discrimination and inequality no longer exist. 

[Ozymandias]

[Jack Nevada]

"We've won the fight"? Thats so incredibly arrogant. 

[baumer]

 

Sorry, I don't get the reference.  Can you explain it to me?

[Jack Nevada]

Sorry, I don't get the reference.  Can you explain it to me?

It means he wants to stay out of this discussion

[Hatebox]

I'm fascinated that race issues are still (understandably) so emotively charged in the US. A professor I once had suggested that in America it was race and in the UK it was class. Given the government PR war currently waging in Britain over welfare claimants I'm beginning to think he was right.

[Jack Nevada]

Kinda related, but its weird how showing a black man with a white woman in like a major Hollywood movie, or any media for that matter, is still so rare. It feels like one of the few taboos left. 

Edited August 19, 2013 by Jack Nevada

[baumer]

Well racial tensions aside just see the Butler....its a really good film.