Alright.  First off I rarely make appearances around these boards anymore, but I have just returned from a movie that is so derrogatory to the minorites of my country that I just needed to write it somewhere.  And what better place than here.  This is going to be very long by the way because I have a lot to say.  I also have a Blood Alcohol Content of around .10 at the moment hahahahaha.  

A little background first.  My father is black, my mother is white, and my significant other is Dominican.  So I'm coming from all fronts in this review/warning.  The GF won some advanced screening tickets to see this film from a local radio station.  She wanted me to accompnay her which I did.  Now the premise of this movie can be summed up in three sentences.  Black kid gets in trouble with thugs in America.  Black kid runs away from his problems instead of taking them on like a man to Puerto Rico, Black kid meets a hot boricua that can dance.  The end.  I guess that was four sentences.

Now I can't say this is a bad movie film wise because it is so generic that it is "average" at worst.  Even my Dominican GF said the movie itself wasn't bad but the way it depectied the Latin and Black communities was borderline blatent racism.  The problem with this movie is that is glorifies all the wrong things.  Frist off the main character is a criminal.  How cliche.  A black kid that is a criminal.  Second, the Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico are either professional dancers that break into choreographed routines in the middle of a club the size of a dining room or they're drug dealers.  Third, the main character doesn't have one positive characteristic to make you want him to succeed in his conflicts.  The kid is a loser that runs away and lives happily ever after.

So basically this movie is a glorification of the "street life" and that if you are young black man that is in a gang.  All you have to do to solve your problems is run away to another country, and the hottest female in that country will swoon over you like you are her soulmate because you know how to dance to reggaeton, which apparently is today's hottest music genre.  Funny, I only hear it on my way back from work at 1 in the morning on the radio.

So I have a question.  Why does every movie depicting the lives of a minority in America have to be crime based?  Think about it.  And the great thing is that minorites are making these films.  So they are demeaning their own people.  Now I'm assuming this movie was made to shine light on the reggaeton music genre and to make it more mainstream.  But films like these are directed at a certain audience.  And who would that be?  Yes young black and Latino viewers.  So what's a greater message to these groups than to show that being a thug is cool, running away from your problems is acceptable, and everything will work out in th end.  Maybe I'm missing something.  Is this who black and Latino people are?  Is my Columbia graduate Doninican girlfriend a "sell out"?  My girlfriend made a great observation as well.  She asked why the storyline couldn't have followed a main character that was maybe torn between school and his love of dancing and reggaeton.  Or maybe the family was very strict on what music the kid could listen to and this music was his escape from them.  Just anything more positive rather than something as lazy and effortless as a thug who runs away and "discovers" it.  A movie like this takes no talent to write.  You could change the music and the title and this could be 5 more movies released in the next five years.

So my challenge to all you writers that come from different ethnic backgrounds, is to be proud of your heritage.  Write positive things about your people and history.  Don't be lazy and just go along with what stereotypes say about your people.  Give them some positive attributes to show your people's moviegoers that what you see on the news and in other movies isn't how you have to act.  

Anyway, the movie itself is not bad.  It's a very generic fish out of water story basically.  But just the lack of effort in depicting the Latino music phenomenon of reggaeton is just disgusting.  I can't believe that people aren't offended by these movies.  All this movie will do is rake money from the minority youth of America and continue to feed their minds with this negative garbage that is the street life.

I'll end with anothe rone of the GF's quotes:

"I guess when we go home after this I should pop out a few babies and get ready for my housekeeping job."

Quoted Text So my challenge to all you writers that come from different ethnic backgrounds, is to be proud of your heritage.  Write positive things about your people and history.  Don't be lazy and just go along with what stereotypes say about your people.  Give them some positive attributes to show your people's moviegoers that what you see on the news and in other movies isn't how you have to act.

Uhm, how is it any less lazy to write "good" things about your ethnicity then write a stereotype? People of any given ethnicity or heritage are both good and bad, writing only good things is just as blatant racism as what you're campaigning against.

Secondly, how can you take pride in your ethnicity? You didn't choose to be white/black/Asian etc. You didn't DO anything to accomplish being white or black.

Should I be proud that I'm white? Shouldn't I be proud of my actions? Of what I accomplish; what I choose to stand up against? Making race a culture is a social contrivance and detrimental to fighting racism.

I haven't seen the movie, but I saw the trailer and argueably the film looks terrible, but I doubt I would hate it for the same reasons as you.