Minority Reports

There are two new movies that will attempt to gain widespread success by tapping into "underserved" minority groups. Better Luck Tomorrow and Chasing Papi were both made on the cheap, and have casts and filmmakers who are Asian American and Latino respectively. But both movies also bear the burden of having to be successful in order for future "ethnic-centered" films to get made. It's sad that these types of movies have to rely on word-of-mouth to gain an audience, while studios spend tens of millions marketing bigger pictures. BLT director Justin Lin is even distributing an email he wrote, in an attempt to start a grassroots campaign. In the email he writes "This Friday, we open in LA, San Francisco, Chicago and New York. How we do in these first cities will determine if the rest of the country will get to see us at all." What a shame.

I am well aware that all of these studio decisions are about money and are not inherently racist. But the flaw I see is that these small-time films are never able to break out of the self-perpetuating system of low exposure. If these minority-made films never get the chance to get a wide release (of, say 1000 screens the first weekend instead of 10), how will they get to prove that they can draw an audience? It's not fair to keep them on such limited low-profile release schedules, especially when My Big Fat Greek Wedding just proved that white anglo audiences will indeed embrace a movie about a different ethnicity.

 
Reality Central

I'm loving the new set of faux reality TV commercials that are appearing on Comedy Central. The ads, which air at the beginning and end of The Daily Show, Chapelle's Show and the like, depict a "new reality show coming soon" that has some Can-This-Be-True? premise. The joke of course, is that they're not and at the end they show the tagline "get real" and the Comedy Central logo. My favorite "ads":

Joe Mormon (where a polygamist bachelor gets to pick four women to marry)
Handicap House (a Real World filled with all kinds of disabled people)
While You Were Drunk (where contestants get wasted then hook up with strangers)
Really Blind Date (which is just Blind Date with actual blind people)

The sad thing is, these premises are actually plausible given what's being put out by Fox these days. If only Comedy Central would do another season of their hilarious reality spoof Contest Searchlight.

 
Bling Bling or Big Bust?

I'm quite intrigued by UPN's new series Platinum (And yes, this is the first time I've ever been intrigued by a UPN series). The show, which will premiere on Monday, follows two brothers who run an independent hip hop label in New York. First of all, it's great to have a drama series that stars minorities since, with the exception of the on-hiatus Kingpin, there are exactly zero of them on network television. I just hope that the portrayls of black characters are honest: not over-the-top and not overly PC. Secondly, I think it's cool that hip hop has become mainstream enough that it can be the subject of a primetime show. Whether or not the music in Platinum is any good (I doubt it will be), I think the whole hip-hop world of excess, hype, feuds and competetiveness will make for an excellent dramatic backdrop. Here's hoping UPN can actually produce a quality series.

 
LIST-O-RAMA
Top teams for 2003-2004

With Syracuse capping off another great college basketball season last night, it's already time for us hoopheads to start thinking about next season. We still don't know which college underclassmen and prized high school recruits will be going pro yet, so I'll have to make some assuptions (TJ Ford: stays. Dwyane Wade: draft) but it's still fun to speculate. Here's my prediction for how the top twelve will look at the end of the regular season:

1. Florida. Lee, Walsh, Roberson and Drejer are four talented returnees and Billy Donovan is an outstanding coach and recruiter. This is a program that will be elite for a long, long time. Losing Bonner will hurt, but the departure of Brett Nelson will be addition by subtraction.

2. Texas. TJ Ford has a chance to be a two-time national Player-of-the-Year and the Longhorns return every significant player they had this year. I would've picked them for the top spot, but the Big 12 will once again be the toughest conference in America next year, meaning Texas will lose a few more games than the Gators will.

3. Duke. Ewing and Redick will emerge as the two superstars here, as Duhon has always been overrated. Also, the Devils will bring in the nation's top recruit, Luol Deng.

4. Kentucky. Their super-deep roster only loses Bogans and Camara, so the Wildcats will once again win with their smothering D.

5. Missouri. The addition of transfer Jason Conley means the Tigers will add the nation's top scorer to a roster that includes Arthur Johnson and player-of-the-year candidate Rickey Paulding.

6. UConn. Okafor has said he'll return to wreak havoc in the paint.

7. Michigan State. Their tourney run proved that Izzo guy can reload his roster and coach as good as anyone in the nation.

8. Gonzaga. All but one of their starters return, including WCC Player-of-the-Year Blake Stepp. One benefit of being a mid-major is that the Zags don't face defections to the NBA. Yet.

9. Arizona. Lute ALWAYS reloads. We'll see if incoming freshman PG Mustafa Shakur (who already has the best name in the college basketball) can be another 4-year starter like Jason Gardner was.

10. North Carolina. Roy Williams or not, the Heels will be solid with their star trio of sophomores.

11. Notre Dame. Chris Thomas and Torin Francis will return for a potent inside-outside combo.

12. Stanford. I have high hopes for the Card, since we return four starters and get back a true PG in Chris Hernandez. Our freshmen SG Tim Morris and SF Fred Washington should be able to contribute athleticism off of our deep bench. But the one thing that worries me is how we're going to replace Julius' point production. Childress needs to step up and prove that he's the one of the best players in the conference. Davis and Little have the potential to be dominant inside (like we were from '99 to '01) but they must stay out of foul trouble. If Monty can iron out the kinks, the Pac 10 title is ours.

 
Roy Williams is my hero

Three cheers for Roy Williams for standing up for himself after his Jayhawks lost tonight. CBS reporter Bonnie Bernstein had the gall to ask him TWICE about the UNC job. A despondent Williams tried his best to be polite and say he hadn't thought about it yet (which is an honest answer). But when he got mercilessly pushed for an answer, Williams said, live on CBS "I could give a shit about North Carolina right now." Good for you, Roy.

 
Headline writers need to think outside the Booth

I always knew that headline writers loved puns, but this is ridiculous. Here are some actual headlines about Phone Booth's win at the box office this past weekend:
'''Phone Booth' rings in at No. 1"
"Phone Booth answers Box Office call"
"Phone Booth Dials Up Win"
"'Phone Booth' Rings Up $15 Million Debut"
"Phone Booth Dials Up the Box Office"

These editors are having way too much fun out there.

 
62 games down, one to go

I'm loooking forward to Monday night's national championship game more than any other NCAA title game in recent memory. There are a lot of sentimental reasons to like both teams. For Kansas, you've gotta love Roy Williams and the fact that he spurned the Carolina job 3 years ago to stay and make his own mark in Lawrence. Collison and Hinrich are also easy to root for as two seniors leading their team after coming up short in the Final Four last year.

For the Orangemen, there's the fact that Syracuse is the best college basketball program that's never won a title. It'd be nice to give their fans a win, especially after having lost two previous title games. Then there the fact that Jim Boeheim has built a great program at his alma mater over the past two decades, has yet he never gets mentioned in the same breath with Coach K, Lute Olsen and Bob Knight.

But in the end I'll be rooting for Kansas, just 'cause I've liked them ever since the days of Jacque Vaughn and Paul Pierce. Here's hoping that it'll be a fast-paced, well-played, entertaining game that makes for a fitting end to another terrific college basketball season.

 
Rest in Peace, David Bloom

I was saddened to hear about the death of NBC correspondent David Bloom in Iraq. Only 39 years old, he died of a pulmonary embolism that was unrelated to combat. I always turn to NBC whenever I watch the news and David Bloom has been such a familiar face to me for years. He always gave such precise, high-energy reports whether it was from the White House, the OJ trial or from Iraq. Even though I obviously never met Bloom, for the first time I feel like this war has taken somebody that I know.