BEFORE: Happy Star Wars Day! There's no film from the franchise I haven't seen, so I can't really mark the occasion with a movie, but at least there's a new Disney Plus Clone Wars spin-off, "The Bad Batch", that starts today. And I'm deep into this chain starring Samuel L. Jackson, who carries over from "The Samaritan", and who played Jedi Mace Windu in three prequel films. That's something, I suppose.
THE PLOT: A troubled and racist African-American L.A.P.D. officer will stop at nothing to force out a friendly interracial couple who just moved in next door to him.
AFTER: What year was this film released? 2008? Things seem to have done a complete 180-turn since then, assuming that this IS the way things were in 2008, which isn't necessarily the case. When you think of "racist cop", you think of a white man, right? Perhaps this film was playing a bit with those expectations, because it features a black racist cop, as if that's a thing. Is it, though? The other expectation you might have if you think of a conservative character, living in a very nice house in a very nice L.A. neighborhood, and that man had a problem with an interracial couple living next door, that would also suggest a white man, right? Again, not the case.
This makes me wonder when this little racial wrinkle was added - was this movie always written with this as part of the plan, or was it written with a white racist cop, and then somebody realized a whole new dimension of storytelling could open up if they flipped the race thing. It seems like it could be possible, a proud African-American person might wonder why another black person might date a white person, or marry a white person, or plan an interracial family. Unlikely, but it could happen. And there are black Republicans (Repu-black-ans?) because I know at least one. Maybe there were more in the before-times and fewer now, but they do exist.
I was willing to apply the Scaramucci theory here - in that scenario this character isn't racist, he just hates everybody, regardless of color. Better to be an asshole than a racist asshole, I guess - and this character has been mad at the world since his wife died, and takes it out on his kids by being very strict, but then as time goes along we realize that yes, he judges people by their color, and after a few times poking fun at a white guy for listening to rap music (again, it could happen...) and being pissed off about his neighbor throwing cigarette butts into his yard (this is not cool, no matter what your skin color is) it does surface that this cop has a definite problem with the mixed-race couple next door.
They're also young, friendly and have been known to get it on in their backyard pool, so there are plenty of reasons to hate them, without making it about race. But hey, free sex education for the neighbor's kids, and now he maybe doesn't have to have that awkward talk with them that he's been putting off. No, no, it isn't cool to have sex where your neighbor's kids can see you - that's enough to get you on a list somewhere. Surprisingly, this film is sort of based on a true story, a black police officer in Altadena, CA that was harassing the couple who lived next door, and after a series of newspaper articles, that cop was eventually fired.
Another, perhaps quicker solution here would have been to sell their house, but the couple JUST bought it. They'd have to take a loss on the selling price, probably, plus there were all those costs involved like broker fees, legal fees, deed fees, mortgage points, and other wonderful things that you find out about when you buy a house. Then to sell the house and buy another one, they'd have all those costs AGAIN, it's probably not worth it. A better idea would have been to rent out the house and just live in a hotel for a while, until things change or settle down - but then, of course, we wouldn't have a movie.
The movie eventually gives a reason why Officer Turner has a problem with interracial marriage, but was this necessary? Explaining it comes maybe just a bit too close to justifying it. All this takes place against the backdrop of the annual Los Angeles fires (one of the four seasons - fires, floods, droughts and riots) and the fires don't care whose houses are in their way, or what the racial or political leanings of those people are. A good reminder that there are things bigger than our petty human differences and grievances, and you can bet that a few dozen films that are going to use COVID-19 as a similar metaphor are in the works. By this time next year I predict we're going to be buried in films similar to "Contagion", "World War Z", "I Am Legend", "28 Days Later", etc. even though everyone will be too sick of hearing about the actual pandemic to go watch a movie about a fictional one. But it's probably going to happen.
Here in NYC, it's a constant battle against our neighbors - last summer was the worst fireworks season we ever had, every neighborhood sounded like Fallujah on a bad day. Yeah, sure, I get it, people were pent-up under lockdown with nothing to do, but that's no reason to stock up on explosive devices to celebrate during the entire month of June. Front-line workers were occupied elsewhere, and some entities were importing fireworks by the vanload, which didn't help and created a "perfect storm" of firework activity. I'm praying this doesn't happen again this year. We've also got people who souped up their cars during lockdown who race wildly through the streets of Queens, and a rooftop party space that opened up down the block, with late-night wedding receptions that go on until 2 am on the weekends. Somehow the unique acoustics on our block bring all that sound right to our bedroom window, so we can hear everything the DJ is saying over the P.A. system. Great.
Also starring Patrick Wilson (last seen in "Morning Glory"), Kerry Washington (last seen in "I Think I Love My Wife"), Jaishon Fisher, Regine Nehy (last seen in "Death at a Funeral"), Ron Glass (ditto), Jay Hernandez (last heard in "Toy Story 4"), Keith Loneker (last seen in "The Vault"), Caleeb Pinkett, Justin Chambers (last seen in "The Wedding Planner"), Lynn Chen, Dale Godboldo (last seen in "Thor"), Robert Pine (last seen in "Mother's Day"), Bitsie Tulloch (last seen in "Concussion"), Eva LaRue, Vanessa Bell Calloway (last seen in "Coming 2 America"), Robert Dahey, Cocoa Brown (last seen in "Ted 2"), Ho-Jung.
RATING: 5 out of 10 floodlights
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