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Forest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia Wedding Comedy | Pajiba - Scathing Reviews for Bitchy People

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What's Grosser than Gross? Carlos Mencia

Forest Whitaker Continues to Get the Shaft / Dustin Rowles

Trade News | May 19, 2009 | Comments (20)

It’s a common complaint: Even the most talented African-American actors have to fight for decent roles, which are few and far between. It explains why Tyler Perry can cast some of the best black actors in the business. It also partially explains Cuba Gooding’s post-Oscar career. Unless your name is Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Eddie Murphy, or Will Smith, occasional slumming is necessary. Look no further than Oscar winner Forrest Whitaker for proof. Here’s a great Oscar winning actor who has been around for 30 years and has only a handful of great parts. Despite winning an Oscar in 2006, he hasn’t made anything of quality since: Vantage Point, Street Kings, Powder Blue? And if he doesn’t get anything good soon, he’ll be forced to go behind the camera again, and nobody wants Forest Whitaker in the director’s chair, see, e.g., First Daughter, Hope Floats.

It hasn’t gotten any better. He’s got six movies on tap, and besides a speaking role in Where the Wild Things Are, it’s not looking any better for him. For instance, he plays the lead in a Tim Story Katrina movie, and Tim Story is 17 kinds of awful (Fantastic Four, Taxi). And as we mentioned last week, he’s also starring in another Jekyll and Hyde movie, playing Jekyll to 50 Cents’ Hyde. Ugh.

It gets worse, though. Now the man has gone and signed onto a family wedding movie alongside … Carlos Mencia. Jesus. Maybe the man just takes everything (see Battlefield Earth). Maybe his brain is missing the part involving discretion. Anyway, the logline: It’s “a clash-of-cultures comedy; the story centers on two overbearing fathers (Whitaker, Mencia) who must put aside their differences to plan the wedding of their son and daughter (America Ferrera) in less than two weeks.”

So, it sounds like every other family wedding comedy. Except this one stars an Oscar winner and the least talented comedian this side of Dane Cook. Can’t wait!


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Comments

Damn you Rowles! I've been trying to forget that Travoltian abomination for years, thanks for the reminder. Jerk.

Posted by: admin at May 19, 2009 10:03 AM

The problem is, Forrest Whitaker can only read half the script. So when he scans the page, everything on the left sounds Oscar-worthy. It is only when later, he hears the other half of the line, and trumpets around like an enraged baboon. That's why in most of his films, he has that sad, pissed-off thousand yard stare of a father at a ballet recital. This is what leads to Scientology.

Posted by: hatemail at May 19, 2009 10:12 AM

Forrest Whitaker truly deserves better. Damn you Hollywood!

Posted by: tamatha at May 19, 2009 10:28 AM

He wants to get paid, duh.

Posted by: AdaHaze at May 19, 2009 10:29 AM

so sad.
he was the only part of the crying game that actually made me cry.

Posted by: gp at May 19, 2009 10:33 AM

Black actors can be discriminating like Lawrence Fishburn, in which case they can build a fine stage career, or they can take whatever crap that comes down the pike like most everybody else.

Posted by: Tracer Bullet at May 19, 2009 10:42 AM

I keep waiting for Whitaker's googly eye to pop out of his head.

Oh yeah, I said it.

Posted by: eddie at May 19, 2009 10:45 AM

Rent "The Shield" for a great Forrest Whitaker performance. He was in Season 5 but start at the beginning to see how it gets there because the show rocks ass anyway.

Posted by: TylerDFC at May 19, 2009 10:59 AM

I would say that Eddie Murphy slums almost exclusively.

I've heard Sam Jackson occasionally finds work, though.

I wonder if the reason for the lack of roles for black actors is that directors are so caught up in the importance of issues of race that they are incapable of casting a black actor in just any old role. That is assuming this is a real issue. Without actually sitting down and doing some math, I'm not sure the numbers bear out the perception; I mean, you could say the same things about only the cream of the cream consistently getting good work about any ethnic group, so at best we're talking about degrees here, and African Americans only make up 12% of the population, so are the numbers really that far out of whack? Asian Americans make up 5%, and how many Asians can you name getting steady, quality work in Hollywood?

Posted by: Eep at May 19, 2009 11:15 AM

Dan Cook!! THAT'S who I always confuse with Ryan Reynolds...

[ducks and hides]

looks, not talent...

[ducks again]

Posted by: Stella at May 19, 2009 11:19 AM

You know what that header pic looks like? It looks like someone took a Gillette Mach 5 to Chewbacca's face.

Posted by: Skitz at May 19, 2009 12:55 PM

I just rewatched Ghost Dog the other day, and I really do think Forest Whitaker deserves some great roles. He's such an interesting actor. This post really bummed me out.

Posted by: Marcela at May 19, 2009 2:15 PM

No love for his guest role on ER or The Last King of Scotland?

Posted by: lordhelmet at May 19, 2009 4:28 PM

Actually I think Cuba Gooding Jr's post-Oscar career can be explained by the fact that he can't act his way out of wet paper sack. The Oscar is the part that's harder to explain.

Posted by: Sarah at May 19, 2009 5:12 PM

Yeah, what did Gooding win that Oscar for? Boys in the Hood? Tough role to carry out: emotional teenager whose brother got shot and killed. That Oscar was his to lose...

Posted by: Jez at May 19, 2009 6:02 PM

Uh no, Jez. Cuba won his Oscar for his role as the footballer in 'Jerry Maguire'. I guess you forgot the whole 'Show me the money' line that was over-used. And for the record, he was great in Boys In the Hood and that wasn't his brother, that was his friend.

Posted by: Shazza at May 19, 2009 7:00 PM

I believe he won it for Jerry Mcguire(?)

Posted by: Alex at May 19, 2009 7:03 PM

Why do we need another Jekyll and Hyde movie, anyway? Besides which, if you don't have the range to play both Jekyll and Hyde, fuck off. I'll just watch Steven Moffatt's Jekyll again, thanks very much.

But LordHelmet - I'll give Forrest some love for his guest role on ER. He was all kinds of awesome. What isn't awesome is the way the network that shows it here (because we are so behind that it is, in fact, still going here) keeps fucking over ER and moving it around into unwatchable timeslots. Bastard Australian networks...

Posted by: rach at May 19, 2009 10:28 PM

I was there today and saw them filming. Forest was wearing a blue cap and white t. Carlos was wearing a red jersey and red cap. Forest was yelling at Carlos and Carlos was yelling "Mexican Mexican Mexican" something idk during the take. I didnt see America though...

Posted by: mari at June 4, 2009 3:11 AM

by there i mean at park in Beverly Hills...

Posted by: mari at June 4, 2009 3:14 AM





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