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  • Man, I absolutely love Sidney Poitier. "In the Heat of the Night", is an all-time favorite that I watched last year. So, sorry to hear of his passing.

  • I did enjoy the three Virgil Tibbs movies, but my favorites are To Sir with Love and Blackboard Jungle.

    I also enjoyed The Wilby Conspiracy (1975), an anti-Apartheid movie also starring Michael Caine and Persis Khambatta of Star Trek The Motion Picture (1979).

  • Was her vow of celibacy on record for that movie, too?

    Man, Poitier was a presence. He took over any movie he was in.

  • Captain Comics said;

    Was her vow of celibacy on record for that movie, too?

    Definitely not, and neither was Sidney's. (and she had lots of hair)

  • "...my favorites are To Sir with Love and Blackboard Jungle."

    My favorite is Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.

  • It just so happened that last weekend, we watched Guess Who, which takes the premise of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and inverts it. That is, instead of a Black man meeting his fiancee's limousine liberal parents -- and, by his mere presence, forcing them to confront if they really, really are going to live up to what they purport to believe -- it's a white boy meeting Black parents. 

    The white boy (notice, I did not say "man") is played by Ashton Kutcher. And the Black father is Bernie Mac.

    Why did we even bother? Well, it was late, and sometimes in a 500-channel universe, a dumb comedy is your best least objectionable option, if you don't want to see another Law & Order rerun (which I don't; I'm still on my self-imposed moratorium on cop shows). 

    Ashton Kutcher, it need not be said, is no Sidney Poitier. Even when Poitier played a teenager in The Blackboard Jungle,* he was more of a man than Kutcher ever will be.

    *The Blackboard Jungle is based on the novel by the same name by Evan Hunter, also known as Ed McBain, author of the 87th Precinct series. 

  • "Guess Who, which takes the premise of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and inverts it."

    When I read that I thought it sounded like an interesting premise, then you mentioned Aston Kutcher and I remembered it. (I never actually saw it.) Thanks for confirming I was correct in giving it a pass. Was it Gene Siskel or Roger Ebert who said that Hollywood shouldn't remake the good films, but the bad ones? I still think that sound like an interesting premise if done right

  • We found Guess Who to be less terrible than at first blush the longer it went on (damning with faint praise, I know). One thing in its favor is that it doesn't re-tell the story from Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and tells its own story. Also, it makes more of the culture clash between the would-be son-in-law and the insanely overprotective father, which Bernie Mac does very well.

    How insanely overprotective? Ashton comes to visit for the weekend during which Bernie and his wife are celebrating their 25th anniversary. Within minutes, Ashton does something stupid enough that Bernie kicks him out and takes him to a hotel -- where he made a reservation months prior just because he knew he wouldn't like him (but then, it is Ashton Kutcher). Unfortunately, every hotel in town is booked up because of a Shriner's convention, so Bernie puts Ashton up in his basement ... and sleeps in the bed with him ... and padlocks the door.

  • Bernie Mac was a joy to watch. I almost want to see it, but not enough to seek it out.

  • On the other hand, a few years ago we saw Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? adapted into a stage play. In the lead was Malcolm Jamal Warner, all growed up, and he was fine, although of course he didn't have Sidney Poitier's gravitas (but who does?).

    I have my issues with Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?, and although the play was well done, it didn't fix any of them. One in particular: the prospective son-in-law is charming, handsome, cultured, educated, polite, accomplished, a humanitarian, a doctor, a widower who is saving himself for marriage (seriously!); he's so wonderful, on what ground could the fiancée's parents possibly object to him? We know, don't we?

    But my objection is: What, exactly, does the other half of this couple bring to the table? She's ... a blonde? 

    Maybe that's the point, that he has to be so all-fired magnificent that he makes Jesus Christ look like Satan's evil twin, but all she has to do is ... be a blonde. It didn't sit right with me when I first saw the movie, and still doesn't. It may be because I didn't see it when it was released in 1967, and I wouldn't have been old enough to appreciate it anyway. 

    But, I suppose, there are a lot of people who revere Guess Who's Coming to Dinner because it may have opened their eyes in the way Spencer Tracy's eyes were opened in the story. For my part, I came away baffled and a little disgusted that we were supposed to think it's a great triumph that the man proved he was good enough for the girl, when I wasn't convinced she was good enough for him

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