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If not for sassy Sandra Bullock, this young black man would be living on the streets.
The Blind Side, a new sports drama based on Michael Lewis‘ book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, tells the real-life, against-all-odds story of Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle Michael Oher, who came from a broken home and lived alone on the mean streets of Memphis, Tennessee before becoming a football star. How did he do it? He was saved by some well-to-do white folks, of course!
Not to take anything away from Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, the good people who took Oher in and helped him realize his potential, but seriously, why do sports movies always have to focus on black ghetto kids going nowhere fast until their great white hope comes along to teach them how to not be illiterate or go to jail? Whatcha tryna say, Hollywood Honky-wood? Black people can’t make it without benevolent whites? Don’t make us call Rev. Al on you! To see why we’re suspicious and steamed, check out these other, pattern-forming sports movies about light-skinned saviors.
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Go, New York, go! It’s nice to see Cali destroyed for a change.
New York’s apocalyptic big screen fantasies come true this weekend. After cruelly decimating NYC in three previous films (Independence Day, Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow), director Roland Emmerich finally focuses the destruction on the rest of the world in 2012, his tale of the Mayan-predicted doomsday. The greatest city on Earth doesn’t escape, but at least it gets to watch California catch an L.
To better understand why the residents of the Big Apple are relieved to see other cities toppled, watch all the classic clips of New York being destroyed from throughout movie history. If we missed any of your favorites, post a link in the comments section so everyone can watch as it all falls down…
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Growing up imitating actions greats Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, Tony Jaa practiced his destiny for countless hours in his father’s rice paddy, using the family’s elephants as launch pads to practice flips into the river. At age 15, his dreams began to materialize when stuntman and action-film director Panna Rittikrai took him on as a protege. In 2003, Jaa’s big break came with the release of Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior. Since then, Tony hasn’t disappointed, filming some of the best scenes in the biz—low budgets be damned!
Today, the sequel to his breakout film, Ong-Bak 2: The Beginning, finally hits theatres in the US. Need a good reason to go see it? How ’bout 10 of ’em? Below, we’ve compiled Tony’s best fight scenes for your viewing pleasure. Jaa Rule!
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We love fall, and not just because the changing of the autumn leaves is a bittersweet reminder of time’s fleeting passage. Nope! It’s because it’s almost Halloween, which means telling our eight-year-old nephew that not only is he adopted, but his real parents are DEMONS who are COMING BACK FOR HIM WHEN HE TURNS NINE MWAHAHAAHAHAH. Or at the very least it means girls in hot skimpy costumes and giving ourselves a good scare with a classic horror movie.
Of course, everyone has their favorite, but most of you are wrong—so we’re taking this opportunity to let you know what the actual 50 scariest movies of all time are. This might seem early, but you’ve only got a week and a half until the Big ’Ween (ayo!), so use the time wisely and schedule a few movie marathons based on our infallible choices. And don’t come crying to us when you can’t sleep…
• CLICK HERE TO START THE SCARY MOVIE COUNTDOWN…IF YOU DARE!
It’s hard to remember our childhood without reminiscing about the mischievous monsters of Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are that lived in our dreams. The figments of our animated imagination finally come to life with director Spike Jonze’s highly-anticipated film adaption of the your favorite bedtime story. With the film opening this weekend, put the baby mama drama aside and your boss’ bitching outta your head, and sail into the land of the Wild Things, just like you always used to.
If there’s one person who never left that mysterious land, it’s Spike Jonze. His expansive career has been built on boyish fantasies of skateboards, bikes, explosions, and pranks. Hell, even his name is make-believe (his birth name was Adam Spiegel). With that said, we think it’s time we take a peek into Jonze’s coloring book and check out the most iconic/interesting of the works that have kept him 39 going on 13…
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Jesse Eisenberg is that dude. Beginning with scene-stealing roles in Roger Dodger and The Squid and the Whale and moving through a lead role in this past spring’s Adventureland, he’s quickly carved out a niche as Hollywood’s go-to white nerd, but truth is, he’s way cooler than you, or us (starting with the fact that he doesn’t live in L.A.). His latest flick, Zombieland, opens today, and Jesse graces the pages of our October/November issue, offering five contradictions from his life for our My Complex column. Earlier in the summer, we caught up with him at a pay-by-the-hour motel in Queens (Jesse rode his bike), where he spoke on his college course work, his fear of Hollywood, and his Broadway aspirations. Check out the interview and video below..
• CLICK HERE TO SEE JESSE’S “MY COMPLEX” INTERVIEW
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Just to give you a sense of where movies are right now, consider some current box office “hits”: a 3-D food movie, Bruce Willis in a hairpiece, a rehash of an ’80s musical, and two white people with chin dimples falling in love. You know what Hollywood needs right about now? Some BLAXPLOITATION, bitches! Thankfully, the beloved ’70s genre is poised for a comeback thanks to Michael Jai White, whose new movie Black Dynamite blasts its way into theaters in a couple of weeks. To give the kids a refresher, Complex put together an in-depth countdown of the genre’s best flicks, so you can know what’s really going down. Keep it pimpin’, pimpin’!
• CLICK HERE TO BEGIN THE BLAXPLOITATION COUNTDOWN!
It wasn’t all good. There were a lot of awesome movies that came out in the 2000s—you can check them out on Complex’s 100 Best Movies of the 2000s countdown if you haven’t already—but there was a lot of disappointing dog shit too. Not all of the decade’s bad movies were intended for us, of course, but there were a number of flicks that had us amped, only to leave us sorely disappointed like a herpetic jumpoff. Check out the 10 worst violators…
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The first decade of the new millennium (a.k.a. The Aughts) is drawing to a close, but we’re not done with it yet. For the past few weeks, Complex has been looking back at the Best of the 2000s (in case you missed it: Top 100 Albums | Top 100 Sneakers) and there’s still much more to come, from web videos to T-shirts.
But this week, we’re bringing you the 100 Best Movies of the 2000s, as we see it. Our tastes are pretty eclectic (we call ourselves Complex, after all), so we’ve got everything from loud comic blockbusters and juvenile cock ‘n’ balls comedies to subtle indie romances and rock documentaries. Check it out to see if your favorites cracked our top 100, and maybe find a joint or two to throw on for your next movie night.
• CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TOP 100 MOVIES OF THE 2000s!
Patrick may be Swayze, but his life lessons are still with us.
The don Patrick Swayze, not to be confused with his less talented, less famous brother Don Swayze, died Monday of pancreatic cancer. Rest in peace, Pat. Though best known for romantic chick flicks like Dirty Dancing and Ghost, Swayze also had bangers like The Outsiders, Road House, and Point Break that were entertaining and educational for dudes (if you could read between the movie lines). Check out 7 lessons we learned from this great entertainer…
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