Netflixorama: The first blog...

Recently signing up for X-Box Live Gold and having a subscription to Netflix meant one thing to this film fanatic: An even more endless stream of movies to my living room.

You mean I can put a list of 500 of Instant Watch movies and just peruse through them? I have to say my mind melted a bit and happiness prevailed. Considering work has been a bit on the rough side (meaning I hate my job and want to get a new one) and my writing has become stagnant, I needed a venue to get something on the board. Something to keep writing on a semi-daily basis. And a thanks goes out to Microsoft for signing this deal up because my love for Netflix has significantly gone up a bit more. Also a godsend because when we get the DVD's in the mail from them, we tend to not watch them for a week or so, which is just a waste of money in the long run.

So I've been watching tons of stuff, mostly stuff I just don't own on DVD (like Hook, which watching again just makes me love Dustin Hoffman's performance that much more... yet Robin Williams leaves a lot to be desired in the way of Peter Pan. Especially that little Pan hairstyle he's got going on... atrocious). Also have been catching up with my favorite Britcom of all time, Red Dwarf, but was sad to see that the first two series are the re-edited ones done for the 10th anniversary on BBC, I believe. It's like Lucas' redoes, but without any of the finesse and taking out full lines of dialogue that I've memorized since watching this show on channel 31 back on NYC UHF television. Sad, but still funny as all hell.

But then again, I'm not going to waste my time reviewing movies I've loved for many years on here. That's just asinine. Instead I'm going to divulge the films that either I somehow never watched or better yet, might have watched many years ago but now it's like watching it for the very first time.

The first film I did that with was Cotton Comes to Harlem. Where to begin with that film? I had a great time watching this blaxploitation classic that I've always seen the VHS at the video stores but never got a chance to rent it like I did with the larger than life classics of blaxploitation like Superfly and Shaft.

I have to say I wasn't disappointed by this film, directed by the late great Ossie Davis, a great melding of both tradition comedy and a high stakes crime film. Yes, you heard that correct, it had some great set pieces in Harlem, of course, and with the likes of Coffin Ed and Grave Digger on the case, nothing would ever be the same. It has the underlying (and sometimes blatant) theme of racism mixed in with the power someone could have over the poor black families when given a choice that seems almost too good to be true. The whole plot revolves around 87 poor black families who have given a $1000 a piece to go Back to Africa, the campaign held by the Reverend Deke O'Malley to send back his black brethren to the motherland. The only problem is the money is stolen at the rally held for the fund and now it's up to Coffin Ed (Raymond St. Jacques) and Grave Digger Jones (Godfrey Cambridge of Watermelon Man fame).

Red Foxx also plays Uncle Bud, a homeless man always looking to get a quick buck. As usual, he's funny and looking like he's one heart attack away from the promised land. The one scene of note had me laughing loud enough for my neighbors in the other building to shut up for a few minutes was when they're chasing the culprits who have stolen the money, and Ed and Jones crash their car into a watermelon truck, of all things. The look the give each other, especially when Ed just smacks the watermelon out of Jones hand, almost seemed to be a statement about that common misnomer about what black people like in the food department. When asking a few guys at work about that stereotype, I have heard the same thing, "Ugh, I hate watermelon."

It's a back and forth chase throughout, which I don't want to ruin for the few of you who might want to watch it, but finally checking it out, I got where the Cotton part of the title comes from. They find a huge bail of cotton from the south, pure cotton which hasn't been treated yet. I won't go into detail, but it's a very important plot point that makes a whole lot of sense.

You also have a white cop getting seduced by the sultry Iris (played by the epitome of beauty Judy Pace), who somehow convinces him into wearing a paper bag over his head to make love to her but then gets away with him in just his skivvies, a gun in hand and the paper bag on head. Just one of the many funny scenes that will make you think a little too.

Am I thinking too much into it? I don't think so. It deserves a ton of credit for the genre it helped spearhead in the coming decade. Many people point to Melvin Van Peebles' seminal classic Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song as the first in the genre, but the year before had two very different films that pointed in the direction for black people to get noticed in the world of film. They Call Me Mr. Tibbs (another film in the Netflixorama future) and Cotton Comes to Harlem predating Van Peebles' film by a full year.

So check it out, and I'll come back tomorrow with a review on a film that I could have swore I've seen before yet while watching some of it today seemed like a breath of fresh air. That film being Tales from the Crypt presents Demon Knight.

Til then, happy watching..