ModestGeniusXL

Black History Month 2012

Did you really think I was going to let this entire month go by without speaking on it?  Come on now...do you know whose blog you're reading??

Instead of going into a long dissertation about one or more subjects, I decided to do a Black History Month in pictures.  If you see me on The Book you were able to experience this on a daily basis.  I changed my profile pic once a day to coincide with my favorite person (or sometimes people) from Black History.  For the purposes of this blog, I've condensed that into a collage for all to enjoy.  Let's see how many of the 29 images you can identify...

Real Steel

Well the Oscars have come and gone to be another year that I didn't achieve my goal of watching all the Best Movie contenders.  Not even close having seen only one of them.  That's going to happen though when I'm trying to keep busy doing pictures.  However, I did manage to finally watch this flick that could have very easily been an Oscar nominee as well.  In an alternate universe.

"Real Steel" takes place in the near-future where the sport of boxing has "evolved".  Human fighters have been replaced by robots and washed up fighters like Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) are a thing of the past.  Since money is the only thing that motivates Charlie it's also all he sees when he finally meets his estranged son Max (Dakota Goyo).  Of course he can't pass up the opportunity to sign away his rights if he can make a good payday in exchange.  It's more money for him to finance his fighting bot career to pay off his betting debts.  But it's not long before he realizes what a great kid he is when Max's determination to make a championship contender out of a sparring bot inadvertently brings the two of them closer.

When you think of it, the premise of "Real Steel" isn't really that far-fetched.  Not the fact of these huge robots fighting so much because let's face it, the technology they depict is still pretty far off.  Boxing is pretty much already a dead sport.  Partially due to the emergence of MMA, but also due to the fact that it has been full of corrupt folks that don't have the fans' best interest at heart.  Maybe the next step would be to have fighting robots involved.  Even though they're controlled by humans so you would still run the risk of corruption getting involved.

I had intentionally stayed away from this one for a while for a couple of reasons.  The most obvious being that it was clearly obvious that they made this as "Transformers" filler.  When this was released were were still waiting for a new "Transformers" movie so Hollywood wanted something out there close to it.  You can't tell me they didn't fashion these robots after those and/or have them in mind when they made this.  Not that I'm mad at them.  When you got a good thing your ride it out.

The other reason was the blatant comparison that immediately came to mind when first seeing the trailer for this.  I'm sure the first thing that everyone (at least from my generation) thought of when they saw this was Rock n Sock 'Em robots.  I remember seeing this trailer in theaters and just knew they were trying to make the toys into a movie.  Why not?  They've got a "Battleship" flick coming out soon.  "G.I. Joe" is already on it's second film.  Toys usually make good movie fodder.

So one afternoon I was at Redbox with G and saw that in there.  I asked him if he wanted to see it.  He did so we checked it out.  I figured it couldn't have been all that bad since it did have Wolverine in it.  Plus, ironically, the same two reasons I was steering clear of it were also good reasons to see it.  I love me some Transformers.  I was always a Rock em Sock em robot fan.  And I have to admit that "Real Steel" was actually a rather decent flick.

I expected that Jackman would be on point, but I didn't know what to anticipate from the kid.  He was probably the best non-robot thing about the movie.  He was your typical defiant teenager but didn't go overboard with it.  You almost admire him for his brashness.  It was certainly warranted.  And it sure came in handy given the fact they were trying to get into the boxing business.  When I see kids like him do such great jobs in action films it just makes me get even more upset at the horrible casting that was done to get the kid Annakin in "The Phantom Menace."

Don't get me wrong, "Real Steel" was indeed as trite as I thought it woud be.  However, it had more things going for it than I anticipated.  The robots were fun to watch in spite of the fact they were Transformer/Rock em Sock em ripoffs.  Not to mention that the kid did his thing with his role.  I won't go as far as to say I'm looking forward to a sequel, but this turned out to be not too shabby.


My rating:  C +

 

 

Random (XL-Images) Pic of the Day

50/50

There should be nothing funny about cancer.  But what about when you make a movie about it co-starring Seth Rogen?  Well it's a little hard to avoid the comedy factor at that point.  Then the challenge becomes achieving the right balance so that it doesn't come off like they're making cancer look like it's a laughing matter.  That's one of the main reasons I wanted to see "50/50" was to see if and how they could accomplish that.

Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a 27-year-old who gets the unexpected news that he has cancer.  He is determined to beat the disease with the help of his best friend Kyle (Rogen).  The movie tells the story of how Adam struggles with that battle both physically and emotionally and how his friendship with Kyle transforms in the process.

Apparently this was inspired by a true story.  Will Reiser wrote the script and loosely based it on his own experience with cancer.  I would like to think that there are some people out there with that horrible disease that have friends as great as Rogen's character.  Not everyone can take news like that and make sure that their friend stays in good spirits in spite of the pain and discomfort that chemotherapy would cause.

It was great how they jumped right into the bad news from the very beginning.  I was wondering if they would want to take time to develop the character first before he was given the news that he had cancer.  That way it would allow us to empathize more as we see what a nice guy he is making that moment of discovery a little harder to take.  However, they do an excellent job of still showing that as we see how he deals with the disease.

Levitt is spot on as usual with his performance.  The more I see this kid the more it's hard to remember that he got his claim to fame playing a goofy role on a sitcom.  He takes roles like these and is able to bring dramatic depth to it.  I personally think that it has a lot to do with his appearance.  He still has a boyish look to him and knows how to manipulate that to where you get that puppy dog syndrome.  Who wants to see a puppy get sick? 

Rogen's part is extremely well-played as well.  His brand of humor is actually perfect for the things that Adam is going through.  How much would it suck while you're that sick to learn that your girlfriend isn't as good a girlfriend as you thought?  That's the last thing someone battling cancer should have to contend with.  Well fortunately Kyle handles the situation brilliantly for him in perhaps the funniest moment in the "50/50".

I still think they should have went another way with the ending.  It left me a bit unfulfilled.  (Spoiler alert) I honestly didn't expect him to die, but it would have made for a better ending if he did.  Or at least if didn't bounce back so well.  Then they could have avoided that trite Hollywood scenario of everyone living happily ever after.  I thought movies were trying to get away from that anyway but it appears they didn't get the memo here.

"50/50" excels more than just because of the way the friendship is depicted between Adam and Kyle.  It's also the other friendships Adam develops after discovering the cancer news.  It provides the opportunity of other great performances out of some key supporting actors like Anna Kendrick as the psychiatrist and Phillip Baker Hall as a fellow cancer patient.  The movie reveals that friendship is all forms can help in overcoming even a major obstacle like cancer.  Afterall, isn't that what friends are for?


My rating:  A -

 

 

An Iconic Farewell

Greatest. Voice.  Ever.

There's no other way to accurately categorize what Whitney Houston was to our generation.  In spite of the demons she would battle later and the tasteless jokes that ignorant people will try to use, hers was quite simply put the greatest voice many of us have ever heard during our lifetime.  And now she's gone.

Legendary music icon and multi-Grammy award winning artist Whitney Houston passed away yesterday in Beverly Hills.  She was only 48-years-young.

I never thought I would feel a void like there was when MJ left us, yet here I am again with a very similar surreal feeling.  I grew up listening to Whitney.  From way back when she made that cameo appearance on "Silver Spoons" to watching her be the only Black woman whose video played on MTV.  Regardless of the issues she's had in recent years I just assumed she would be around for years to come and this memorial would be much too far away to anticipate. 

It's ironic because was just discussing icons with someone else the other day when they tried to rationalize that Madonna is not in the same category as Michael Jackson.  I contended that she is.  I still do.  In fact, there are few people that are at that stratospheric level of iconism (yes, I just made that word up).  Yet it never dawned on me at the time to include Whitney in the discussion.  Maybe it's because it had been so long since she has been relevant that we had taken for granted what she had given us. 

Whitney stuck out like a sore thumb when she first came on the scene.  It was the age of the supermodel when all those folks like Christine Brinkley and Cindy Crawford were all on the rise.  We were used to seeing the lanky, skinny girls with pretty faces model.  Not sing.  Then along comes Whitney who has that look AND can sing.  But it wasn't like she could only sing.  The sista could flat out SANG.  It was a voice that matched by no one.

I don't know if I could eloquently put into words how phenomenal Whitney's voice was in her prime.  Everyone with that strong Baptist background will know just where I'm coming from though.  Whitney had that soul-stirring voice that took you back to church whenever you heard it.  It didn't matter what she was singing about.  She had the uncanny ability to make you feel a song deep down to your core.  To make your hair stand on end when she went to her upper range with such angelic flawlessness.

There are countless examples I could refer back to to reference how amazing her vocal ability was.  The one that readily comes to mind was her rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at Super Bowl XXV.  Just as Prince would later do with his Super Bowl halftime show, Whitney gave a Super Bowl vocal performance that will NEVER be topped.  The Star Spangled Banner would never sound that epic again.  How many other renditions of The Star-Spangled Banner would top the modern music charts?

It was more than just the voice that propelled her to the top though.  She had the full package.  If Helen had a face that could sail a thousand ships then that young Whitney was our version of the same thing.  Not to mention that Colgate smile she had to match.  Then add on top of that how she carried herself with such an air of class that it was evident she had been well-groomed by the legends before her that she could call Mom (Cissy Houston), cousin (Dionne Warwick) and godmother (Aretha Franklin).

Some say the beginning of the end for her came when she hooked up with Bobby Brown.  I'm going to take a different approach.  A bit of a controversial one.  I would venture to say that it was many of our own folks that helped make that union possible.  Whitney had gotten to the crossover point where she was started to get a little backlash.  Where Black folks were saying she wasn't as much soul and not quite Black enough for them.  Does anyone else remember when she got jeered at the Soul Train Awards?  So she showed us.  She would married the then ultimate bad boy of R&B.  The rest would be infamous history.

Whitney had so much good will built up with the greatness her voice had provided over the years that we forgave her transgressions no matter how minor or major.  We didn't mind that her acting in her movies was marginal at best.  At least her songs on the soundtracks distracted from that.  We didn't care that she couldn't dance a lick.  She didn't have to dance when she had those unparalleled vocal cords.  And of course we didn't like the drug addiction she struggled with but we hoped she would eventually overcome it so she could age gracefully.  Unfortunately it would never happen.

Even while Whitney was still with us I would argue tooth and nail with anyone that would dare say 'so-and-so' has a voice like Whitney.  It didn't matter who it was.  Not even Adele with as incredible as she is.  Not even Jennifer Hudson with with her no longer underrated skills.  Not Christina.  Not Mariah.  None of them are even close to Whitney in her prime.  Hers was a defining sound of a generation that we may never see again in our lifetime.  I am thankful that I was able to experience it.  Even more thankful that although her presence is gone her music remains forever.

God's choir just increased by tenfold.

Rese in peace, Whitney.

 

 

Chronicle

I love it when a good movie just sneaks up on me and falls in my lap.  In this day and age where studios always want to over-hype their major releases that always leaves room for some of the lesser-knowns to get through.  I managed to catch a trailer or two of "Chronicle" on television but the first exposure was online.  Even though I've reached the saturation point where the "Cloverfield" recovered video footage technique has gotten old (thanks much "Apollo 18" for cementing that), a premise of teens with supernatural powers that get out of their control was too hard to pass up.

High school students Stephen (Michael B. Jordan), Matt (Alex Russell) and Andrew (Dane DeHaan) make an incredible discovery while snooping on someone's property during a party one night.  It leads to the three of them developing extraordinary telekinetic powers none of them understand.  They slowly learn to control the abilities to use them to their advantage, but the more that Andrew's home life gets out of control, the more he begins to use his powers maliciously.

I know I criticized some movies out there as being filler flicks and "Chronicle" could have easily fallen into that category.  A "filler flick" is a movie that was obviously done and released just so that we would have something to tide us over until a major franchise releases their latest movie.  Just like I said this new "Battleship" is with the "Transformers" franchise.  Or how "I am Four" was for just about any Marvel film.  However, there was something more appealing about this one.

Namely it was the fact that I see in "Chronicle" what could have been a class of X-Men that had not yet found Professor X.  These are three kids that have super abilities and have no idea what to do with them or how to use them.  It's not really a lot different from when young folks stumble into tons of money.  They are not yet mature enough to know how to handle it responsibly.  The same thing goes for the super powers.  So what we end up witnessing is what happens when these kids get out of control with no one able to reign them in.

The archival video footage technique works well in this particular movie for the most part except for a couple of instances.  Like when one of the boys takes the camera to his friend's funeral.  Who would really do that?  I can't even count the number of funerals I've been to and I have yet to see a video camera at any of them.  I was even leery to take my regular camera to the ones that I did go to. 

"Chronicle" hits it high point at its finale when things finally come to a head with Andrew.  That's when they really showcase the full extent of the boy's abilities.  Amazingly, it all looks pretty realistic.  Especially the part when a news copter is in the scene shining a light on the entire thing.  But more than that is how well the kid actors depict their emotions getting out of control while their powers do the same.  It made for a very tense moment that had been built up to perfectly throughout the film.  I wish they would have left it at that instead of a final few minutes that felt a bit tacked on for posterity sake.

If it won't be a while before I see another one of these mockumentary movies then I think I'll be just fine.  Although something tells me I may still watch "Project X".  Still, it was good to see that "Chronicle" did not disappoint by proving that it was more than just a filler flick.  It was the perfect joint to see in theaters due to the special effects and a corresponding story to round it out.


My rating:  B +

 

Safe House

If it wasn't for Denzel's presence in this, "Safe House" would normally be one of those flicks that I would have waited for it to get to Redbox.  Maybe even cable.  There was nothing remarkable about that trailer that stood out to me to show that it was worth seeing.  Except for the fact it had Deznel in it.  So there I was opening day dropping my $7.50 (matinee price) to see if both he and Ryan Reynolds could turn a so-so trailer into a worthwhile movie.

Washington plays Tobin Frost, the most dangerous renegade spy the CIA has ever known.  He mysteriously pops back on the grid after a decade on the run.  He is immediately detained and one of his first stops is a South African safe house manned by rookie operative Matt Weston (Reynolds).  When the safe house is compromised and eventually breached, Weston has to go on the run with Frost to keep them alive long enough to find out who wants them dead.

I was hoping that I was wrong about the plot when I saw the trailer.  Was it really something as elementary as crooked authorities are looking to kill a prisoner and one honest official tries to keep him alive?  How many times have we seen this now?  Unfortunately, that's exactly what "Safe House" was.  They really could not have come up with a more simplistic storyline.  I'm rather surprised that Washington would sign up for something like this.  The material was so beneath him that it wasn't even funny.

I have often said that if a movie is so transparent that even I can figure out the twist and/or who the undercover bad guy is then they're doing something wrong.  You could pick out the mole in this one immediately.  They really should have gotten some better acting out of him/her to avoid that.  Or it would have helped even more if they would have avoided trying to be so stereotypical altogether.

But when it comes to performances that may have been the one thing that did save this movie.  Namely Denzel's.  They can make him sport the nappy hair all they want and match it with unkempt appearance and he can STILL turn a dramatic role out the box.  He makes the Frost character a mixture of someone you would be terrified of while at the same time admiring.  The perfect anti-hero. 

As for Reynolds, he's already proven that he can hang with the best of them when he puts enough effort into it.  I still haven't seen "Green Lantern" to know if it's as bad as the critics said, but if it was then he's back to redeeming himself here.  There are plenty of moments where his character Weston is torn between doing what he was trained to do and doing what his gut is telling him to do.  Reynolds convincingly brings that across in his performance without having to verbalize it.  He plays extremely well off Denzel so the two on screen together give us something fun to watch.

What wasn't too fun to watch here was the fighting sequences.  Too many of them were edited very choppily and quite honestly rather sloppily.  They were entirely too close so you couldn't see what was going on.  It's something that I noticed seems to be common whenever aging stars try to do action films.  They did it a lot in "The Book of Eli" and (as much as I hate to draw this comparison) "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull".  Either do it right or don't do it at all.

"Safe House" definitely is not without its issues.  Chief among those being the fact that the story itself is very non-existent.  However, you can thank both Denzel and Ryan for making it a movie worth seeing.  Although I do now think that I would have been okay waiting for this to get to Redbox.


My rating:  B -

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the Legends

It's been a while since I've seen one of these come up where they fall in the "I thought they were already dead" category.  Not to be mean but I seriously could have sworn that Mr. Dundee had left us a while ago.  Since boxers as a whole don't have long life spans I just assumed that the same thing happened with trainers since the mental rigors can be just as strenuous.  But even with that, dude held on for a while.

Renowned trainer Angelo Dundee passed away last Wednesday after recently dealing with blood clot issues.  He was 90-years-old.

Most of us regular folks commonly associate Dundee with what was greatest accomplishment.  Or at the very least the the one he was best known for.  He was the trainer that was in Muhammad Ali's corner for pretty much all of his career.  Under Dundee's tutelage, Ali (then Cassius Clay) became the then youngest man to ever obtain the heavyweight title when he defeated Sonny Liston in 1964.  The two of them never looked back after that.

They would go on to create some of the most epic moments in boxing history.  Sure, I was too young to fully remember or even appreciate the 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" against George Foreman in Zaire.  The same goes for his third fight against Joe Frazier in the Phillipines which would be known as The Thrilla in Manilla".  However, I wasn't even out into my teens before I was watching replays of them on television.  I was old enough to know that I was witnessing greatness.  Yet it wasn't until later that I would understand how pivotal Dundee was behind the scenes as part of Ali's successes.

It was more than just Ali though.  All in all, Dundee had a part in training 15 world champions.  Including George Foreman.  But also including Sugar Ray Leonard.  Now Leonard's fights I clearly recall watching as a shorty.  Not so much the Roberto Duran ones but definitely the ones with Hagler and Hearns.  It was obvious that Dundee knew how to not only pick winners but to keep them motivated to stay the way.

It's a shame that boxing has declined to the point it is today where no one could really give two shakes about it.  That's probably why the news of Dundee's passing only made big headlines in the sports world.  Boxing doesn't transcend like it used to so even the legends aren't as newsworthy as they used to be.  But us old heads know how important Dundee was to the world of the boxing.  Even if the sport is dying (or arguably already dead), there's no denying many of it fondest memories would can be attributed to Dundee's teachings.

Rest in peace, Angelo

 

Love....Peace....

Who DOESN'T know the rest of that saying?  We all grew up with it.  That's a pretty safe statement to make knowing my reader base because everyone from my generation to my parents' were familiar with the greatness that was "Soul Train".  Even the young bucks remember watching when they would have been near babies.  So the news yesterday was very disturbing for many of us.  What a jacked up way to kick off Black History Month.

"Soul Train"s iconic creator and long-time host Don Cornelius was found dead in his home in Los Angeles early Wednesday morning from an apparent suicide.  He was 75-years-old.

I can't even express how impactful "Soul Train" was for me coming up as a child of the 80s.  I was in a small basically rural town in Norwalk where there was literally a handful of Black families.  We had to wait until the mid-80s on Thursday nights to see our folks on television "The Cosby Show".  But before that, we could always count on "Soul Train".

Saturday.  11am.  WGN.  The time was permanently etched in my brain.  It was perfect timing for it too.  All the Saturday morning programming geared to us shorties was coming to an end by that time.  When 11am rolled around, Soul Train really was the hippest trip in the nation.

The Don was responsible for having the longest running music related syndicated television program in history.  He left shows like "American Bandstand" and "The Ed Sullivan Show" in his wake.  Not only because of its longevity but because "Soul Train" featured the music from which all of the popular music of the day owed its roots.  Yep...I said it.  Many of these folks making music today wouldn't be where they are if it wasn't for R&B.

The Don understood that the it wasn't just the music that was the key to the show.  It was the people.  The dancers.  The entire vibe they created with their looks, their styles and their moves.  We tuned in each week to see all of that just as much as we did to listen to the sounds and to see who the latest lip-synching performers would be.  But make no mistake, we would have been alright tuning in late just as long as we made sure to catch that world famous Soul Train line.  The show had the entire package from beginning to end.  The Don's baritone velvet baritone voice to match his smooth persona was just the icing on the cake.

I will continue to stress that I will never understand how people can choose suicide as an option.  It is a permanent answer to a temporary problem.  However, none of us know what type of demons some of these suicide victims may have been facing.  Regardless of their age and regardless of their celebrity.  I just hope that whatever it was that he finally found the peace he was looking for.

Rest in peace, Don.

 

 

I'll Make Me a World in Iowa 2012

I can't believe I almost went and forget to tell y'all about this year's event.  I'm pretty sure this has been a staple on my blog since I first started it. I may have let my previous weekly features fall by the wayside, but not this annual event.  Even if it was one that I almost didn't go to.  Almost that is.  And it wasn't even a very strong "almost".  I knew I would be missing it.

Are there any of the folks who follow this that aren't familiar with I'll Make Me a World in Iowa?  If so, let me give you the Cliff Notes version of what it is:  an annual event celebrating Black culture in Iowa.  Another way to look at it is one big function to help kick off Black History Month in the central Iowa.  Either way, it's a great opportunity to showcase all the great things that our people are doing here in Central Iowa.

It didn't dawn on me until very late in the game that I needed to have t-shirts for the event.  Not to sell but just to wear.  If there was ever an opportunity to get the XL-Images name out there on a broad scale then that was it.  Of course, I didn't think of it until the week of.  Who was I going to find to get quality shirts done in less than a week's time?  That's where The Book came in handy yet again.  I got more than a few good suggestions and one great one.  I'm pretty sure I have now found my permanent supplies for my XL-Images gear going forward.  At least that gear that requires screen printing.

The funny thing about wearing that shirt to I'll Make Me a World is I never expected to get so much adulation from wearing them.  Sure, I was expecting folks to inquire about what I was doing and that would be a chance to get them my card so we could connect.  What I was getting was folks would see the name and commence to tell me how much they loved my work.  Then they would ask for a card so they could call me to set up an appointment.  Only time will tell how many of them come through, but it was still a pretty good feeling.

The vendors were all pretty much all the same usual suspects.  The heavy hitters that consistently want to put a good front in the community (The Principal, Nationwide, Wells Fargo, etc.) were all there.  What I was checking for was the local folks making noise.  Like my dude Josh with Jaytees Apparel doing his thing.  Only his first year with a table and he was selling t-shirts like hotcakes.  Gave me even more inspiration to get my own table next year.  Be on the lookout for it.

The food was incredible as always.  There were half a dozen food vendors there with the best soul food you could imagine.  I could have easily gotten a sampler platter from each of them and called it a day.  Not that they all had sampler platters available.  Or that I even needed that much food if they did.  One thing I do know is now more than ever I am convinced that I HAVE to get to Patton's the next time I'm in Des Moines and looking to eat out.  If you don't know about them then you too have been sleeping.

The headliner this year was Shemar Moore.  It's obvious what demographic they were appealing too, huh?  It's been obvious for the past two years.  Last year was Boris Kodjoe.  If I didn't know any better I'd say that the folks in charge of getting the headliners for I'll Make Me a World were women.  Further evidenced by the fact that the featured performer was Kenny Lattimore.  It's as if they book folks that they want to see the most.  Let's switch it up a little, ladies!

I will admit that I was impressed with how Shemar carried himself.  He could have easily gotten up there and been very full of himself.  Much like Vivica Fox was when she came.  Instead he was down to earth.  Even when he went to flash his abs after SEVERAL requests from women in the crowd he was humble about it.  Afterwards, he was more than willing to take photos and sign autographs (for those folks that waited in line).  He didn't go into a private room making himself available to only IMMAWII staff like Kodjoe did.  Most importantly, Shemar did it all with the attitude as though he genuinely enjoyed being there.  Or maybe he's just a better actor than the folks that came before him.

Naturally, I got some some great photos of different moments from the day.  I contemplated creating a photo gallery out here but then decided you can better appreciate them in high definition as they're meant to be seen.  So you can click on this link to view them in all their awesomness:

I'll Make Me a World in Iowa 2012 : XL-Images Style

All in all, I would venture to say it this year's version was one of the best ones I've seen.  Probably because I left early before it was time for the youngsters to start acting up as usual.  Or maybe because they had more big names than usual with Shemar, Kenny Lattimore and even comedian Jonathan Slocum.  But again, they really could use more input from us guys when getting their entertainment.  So next year if they could reunite En Vogue as the featured headliner(s) along with my table just off to the right of the stage then they can count on 2013's version on being an even bigger success.