Hollywood Shuffle 2

To the author of another excellent review of Step Up 2:

It has been 24 years since Robert Townsend's "Hollywood Shuffle" went out and smacked America upside the head. I guess Jon Chu, and all the rest of the Disney crew, didn't see it. Either do your cultural homework or stop making films. Somebody ought to put a biohazard sticker on Hollywood and shut the place down permanently. The only people who should be making a film about street dance in Baltimore is street dancers in Baltimore, not 75-year-old European American studio executives who last danced on VJ day.

Perhaps I am too angry. Alright, I relent. Anyone can make a street dance film, whether old or young, European or African, Eastern or Western. But let's agree to keep racism out of it. I prefer no rotten eggs in my delicious hot fudge sundaes, thanks.

"Step Up 2" needs to Step Off

To Ray Greene at boxoffice.com I sent the following comment with much appreciation:

Thanks for the best movie review I have ever read. The only thing I would add is the incredible racism against the sole Asian character, who we are asked to believe is straight off the boat and speaks English with a Charlie Chan accent - and yet magically dances hip hop like she grew up in LA. That would be like Charlie Chan blowing bebop alto sax like Charlie Parker. And - now you've got me started - what's with the blatant skin-color coding? The darkest skin is reserved for the meanest characters? And the only member of the 410 crew to break ranks and join Andie and the "good guys" was a light-skinned hispanic. Sure, that wasn't predictable. Hello.

I just watched this cinematic trash last night with my three children, and was so disturbed that in the middle of a quiet scene I just had to blurt out "This is racist!" Granted, the soundtrack is excellent, and the 410 crew's dancing and choreography were superb, far better than Stomp the Yard and even Honey (which we all greatly enjoyed), but I couldn't hold back a second longer. I had to say something just so my kids would, hopefully, not take it too seriously.

It's time to end the freedom from accountability Disney and other Hollywood studios enjoy. There should be a new ratings system: R for racist. Studio suits will have to think twice before putting that stuff out on "the streets." Because you know what? I'm actually starting to believe that the vast majority of Americans, knowing that a film is racist, would not pay a single cent to see it.