L. got me to watch Black movie that I had never seen. I have heard of this movie and seen random references to it but never had a strong desire to check this out. Turns out I really enjoyed it. This is about a former singing group called The Heartbeats. There is Duck, his older brother JT, Dresser, Choirboy, and Eddie King Jr. I mention his government name because this man is a problem. All of them are but in different ways. This starts off with Duck looking at a magazine cover asking whatever happened to various musicians from back in the day. We flashback to the group losing a talent show to a weird ass band. A manager named Jimmy shows up and says he will pay them $100 if they don't win the next show. They lose and he coughs up the cash and his wife is like “We are not going through this again.” Turns out he has been betrayed in the past in the music industry. They agree to let him manage them after the clubs owner wants them.
At another show this group Bird and The Midnight Falcons fuck with the bands music by not letting Duck play piano and having people boo them on purpose. Eddie starts singing another song and ends up making Bird's girlfriend have a damn orgasm in her seat before fainting in Eddie's arms. They win the contest and this asshole named Big Red Davis wants to release their first single. Jimmy knows Red is full of it and doesn't want them to sign. They start shopping their music around but companies are mostly interested in using their songs and giving them to other artists. After watching so many music documentaries this was done like crazy back in the day. I still find out that other people made and sang songs I swore were done by someone else. They end up having to sign with Red and start a raggedy ass tour of bars and experiencing super racism by cops. They finally get a look at their first printed album and the shit has a whole ass entire white family on the front.
The band finally starts to become successful and Eddie starts doing all the drugs and sleeping with women. Eddie thinks he is going to be replaced (he should be!) and signs his own deal with Red. Jimmy threatens to tell on Red about all his illegal dealings which was a very dumb thing to do. Just looking at Red you know this man will break into your home, suck your wifes toes, and stab you. Not in that order. Jimmy plans to bounce and tells his wife everything is fine. He being all slow trying to leave and ends up getting run over and killed. I was like “Sir, if you do not speed your slow ass up!” Red shows up at this mans funeral acting all innocent and gets slapped by Jimmy's widow. The group learns that Eddie and his deal with Red caused all this trouble and gets kicked out the group. They add this dude Flash to the band and continue to do well while Eddie is a bum now. He wants back in but...nah.
Duck starts thinking that his fiancé that he shouldn't be with anyway is sleeping with Choirboy. He is called such because he comes from a very religious family. After a while he becomes all smooth an' shit. Duck follows her to a hotel to discover that she was actually meeting with his brother JT. Oooooh! JT wants her to tell Duck about their affair but she is like “Why when I can just have both of y'all?” JT was with her back in the day before Duck was but still. Shits gross. While getting an award Flash announces he is leaving the group which catches them all off guard. Next, Duck says he knows about JT and his fiancé and leave the group. Now its time to fast forward!
Choirboy sends Duck an invitation to his church. Duck sees Eddie there and he is sober now and married to this lady he put through the ringer back in the day. Religion! Duck finally goes to see his brother JT who is now married with two children and named his son after Duck like they said they would years ago. I'd be mad, honestly. Duck not a cool name. I knew a light-skinned boy named Ducky back in junior high. I knew a Bear too. Black people weird. The band all get together at a barbecue and one of Flash's new songs come on and JT is like “Turn that wack shit off!” Then the group begins dancing together. The end.
This was a good movie. I wasn't a big fan of some of the original songs but the classic ones that were covered were good. There was not a lot of racial shit to bum me out but just enough to remind you that shit was different a few decades ago. I mean, its still bad, but its not like cops are just pulling over Black people for no reason anymore. Huh? Seriously? Well...shit. Either way, this was good and did not feel like it was as long as it actually was. Ended up renting this on Amazon because Max likes to play hookie pookie with their movies.
Robert Townsend as Donald "Duck" Matthews
Leon Robinson as J.T. Matthews
Michael Wright as Eddie King, Jr.
Tico Wells as Anthony "Choirboy" Stone
Harry J. Lennix as Terrence "Dresser" Williams
Hawthorne James as Big Red Davis
Chuck Patterson as Jimmy Potter
Diahann Carroll as Eleanor Potter
Click here for previous The Review.
No comments:
Post a Comment