Post-Bicentennial Men

Jimmy Carter Man From Plains
Not To Be Confused With Ali G The Man From Staines
Trailer

Although he left the Oval Office in 1981, Jimmy Carter has never stopped working for peace, love and understanding. Who woulda thunk that a simple peanut farmer from Georgia could help shape our world into a better place, and continue to do so as an octogenarian. He’s actually done more good for this earth as an ex-President than the yahoo currently residing at Penn Ave. With a lifetime of great achievements and of course, the failures that come with em, it’s hard to imagine that a documentary solely focusing on this fascinating elder statesman hadn’t been dones up properly since he first took office

While not exactly the cup of tea of toasting times past I was trying to orders up here, Jimmy Carter The Man From Plains is still a solid examination of the man’s life as it is today. Director Jonathan Demme (the dude behind the camera for Married To The Mob Silence of The Lambs) completely bypasses the usual A to Z biography details and instead spends most of his and our time tailing Carter as he visits media outlets across the country promoting and defending his hot button book with an even hotter buttoned title, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. The book may have intentionally stirred up controversy, but at least it’s bringing much needed attention to the issue at hand. The doc works similar magic, with the focus on our out of control media coverage, but at least it’s bringing much needed attention to a man who is as far from plain/Plaines as possible

What’s Up Doc?: now that a doc’s in the can, I hope someone decides to make a fictional flick about President Jimmy Carter and the ‘killer rabbit’

IMDb Sweeney: JC got props in the credits of the original Longest Yard

John Grisham’s Jizzum (aka Verdict): Jeepers Worth A Peepers

Mr. Untouchable
A Not So Noble Barnes
Trailer

Leroy ‘Nicky’ Barnes was the ‘untouchable’ NYC king of heroin in the 70s, who finally got touched, went to jail, sat there, then turned in his former associates, and became a free man. If you want to learn anything else beyond that one sentence, look somewhere else, cause this doc is more empty than Camden Yards in October. I can sympathize with director Marc Levin for not having any footage to work with, as dealing drugs isn’t the mos videogenic thang goings, but watching the same 5 photos being zoomed in and out on doesn’t make the time fly, no matter how much ‘Superfly’ you pump into the soundtrack. While the interviewees are colorful, they don’t really inject any insight, juss props and disses. That leaves Barnes to poorly tell the entire story, in the shadows as a witness in da relocation program. I surely wish it was the director who got relocated, and forced to come up with a sequel to his ghettotastic Whiteboyz

Show Us The Money: one of the associates that Nicky turned in was Frank Lucas. His story is the basis for Ridley Scott’s American Gangster, in which Nicky is portrayed by Mr Daddy Day Camp, Cuba Gooding Jr

John Grisham’s Jizzum (aka Verdict): Sum Merit But No Stinking Badges

Jimmy Carter & Mr. U both open in select theaters this Friday

until next thyme the balcony is clothed…