Farai Today » Movie Review

The 2010 Golden Globes Nominees announced & AFRICA reps!

farai — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:59:28 +0000

The 2010 Golden Globe nominations were announced by Justin Timberlake, Diane Kruger [Inglourious Basterds] and John Krasinski [The Office]. The Golden Globes recognize the best in feature film in twenty-six categories including the Cecil B. DeMille Award. Africa repped in several categories!

Justine Timberlake announcing the 2010 Golden Globes nominees!

Shout out to Chiwetel Ejiofor of Nigerian descent for his nod for Best Actor – Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for Television for the PBS Endgame. He played Thabo Mbeki.

Of course INVICTUS, the movie about South Africa’s Nelson Mandela, got three nods; Clint Eastwood for Best Director-Motion Picture, Morgan Freeman for Best Actor-Drama and Matt Damon for Best Supporting Actor-Drama.

South African native, Neill Blomkamp’s DISTRICT 9 got the Golden Globe nod for Best ScreenPlay-Motion Picture.

PRECIOUS got 3 nods as well for Best Motion Picture-Drama, Gabourey Sidibe for Best Actress-Drama and Mo’Nique for Best Supporting Actress-Drama.

Disney’s first film featuring an African-American princess, THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film. Shout-out to Anika Noni Rose, voice of the lead character, Princess Tiana, she went to my alma mater, FAMU!

See the full list of the 2010 Golden Globe nomination s here.

The 67th annual Golden Globe award show will air live on NBC at 8:00 EST on January 17th 2010 from the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, California.

Photo: Associated Press

Grammy Nods & News, Nelson Mandela’s former bodyguards speak & Tyler Perry’s new play “Madea’s Big Happy Family” tour info!

farai — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:39:39 +0000

Clint Eastwood’s latest movie, INVICTUS hits theatres nationwide next week Friday!

Yes, while I am still very geeked that Hollywood is telling a story about the iconic and much loved and admired Madiba [Nelson Mandela], I am still sobered by the fact that South Africans are not playing the prominent parts in the movie. “Aluta continua”

But…I am still geeked that OUR stories inspire the world!

Here’s an interview with Jason Tshabalala, the former head of Nelson Mandela’s security unit who says that “one of the keys things I learnt from Madiba is to be humble, to be simple, to be disciplined. And to respect people, no matter who they are. And also to smile.” -

Madiba is very inspiring to me and it is one of my life goals to meet him and sit at his feet….& learn!

Another interview with Linga Moonsamy, Nelson Mandela’s former bodyguard, “he always believed that sports had the capability, capacity to bring people together…South Africa is a sports loving nation and he capitalized on that“.

Nelson Mandela’s love for walking, “Madiba would walk the weirdest of hours and would walk for kilometers…” and on the excitement of the crowd at Nelson Mandela entering stadium at the World Cup “it was crazy, it is inexplicable. You actually felt the ground under your feet shaking, trembling because of that. People were sort of jumping up and down the grand stands, and you could just hear this, Nelson, Nelson, Nelson. It was amazing!”

Grammy nominations are in…check out the full list here!

Celebs stepped out in full force yesterday for the The Grammy Nominations Concert Live! at Club Nokia in Los Angeles.

LL Cool J was host of the event and Maxwell performed a tribute to Michael Jackson with the song “Lady In My Life” from the album Thriller, last night as part of the live Grammy Nomination telecast on CBS. Maxwell got six Grammy nods for “Pretty Wings” and his album “BlackSummer’s Night”…nice!

The Black-Eyes Peas also performed

Kudos to Beyonce for her 10 Grammy’s nominations including Album of The Year (I Am…Sasha Fierce), Record of the Year (Halo), Song of The Year (Single Ladies) & Best Female Pop performance (Halo). Behind Beyonce, is Taylor Swift, with 8 grammy nominations, followed by surprise, surprise….Kanye West with 6 nominations! Sean “Jay Z” Carter and Lady Gaga received 5 Grammy nods each!

Melanie Fiona & Iyanla [winner of Nigeria's Project Fame] in New York City

Jamie Foxx was nominated for 3, Ms. Keri “baby” Hilson was nominated for two and new to the music scene, Melanie Fiona was nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal (It Kills Me).

The Grammy Awards will be handed out January 31, 2009 in Los Angeles…

And in some Tyler Perry news…Tyler will play the title character in his new play Madea’s Big Happy Family, which will begin a 2010 national tour on January 4th, according to an announcement on his blog. Here are the tour dates & cities…

Denver, CO – January 4 – Pepsi Center

Colorado Springs, CO – January 5 – World Arena

Sacramento, CA - January 7 – Arco Arena

Seattle, WA – January 9 – Key Arena

Portland, OR – January 10 – Memorial Coliseum

San Diego, CA – January 12 – Sports Arena

Fresno, CA – January 13 – SMG

Oakland, CA – January 15-16 – Paramount Theatre

Los Angeles, CA – January 19-24 – Kodak Theatre

Florence, SC – February 2 – Civic Center

Raleigh, NC – February 3-5 – RBC Center

Fayetteville, NC – February 6 – Crown Coliseum

Charlotte, NC – February 7 – Cricket Arena

Macon, GA – February 9 – Macon Centreplex

Charleston, SC – February 10-11 – North Charleston Coliseum

Columbia, SC – February 12-13 – Colonial Life Arena

Augusta, GA – February 14 – James Brown Arena

Winston-Salem, NC – February 19-20 – Veterans Memorial Coliseum

Nashville, TN – February 25 – Nashville Municipal Auditorium

Memphis, TN – Febuary 27-28 – Orpheum Theatre

Chicago, IL – March 2-6 – Arie Crown Theatre

Dallas, TX – March 12-14 – Nokia Theatre

Milwaukee, WI – March 16 – US Cellular Arena

Hartford, CT – March 19-21 – The Bushnell Theatre

Dayton, OH – April 6 – Nutter Center

Cincinnati, OH – April 7 – Cintas Center

Louisville, KY – April 8 – Freedom Hall

Savannah, GA – April 13-14 – Savannah Civic Center

Atlanta, GA – April 15-18 – Fox Theatre

Baltimore, MD – April 22-25 – Lyric Theatre

Philadelphia, PA – April 27-May 2 – Liacouras Center

* More cities will be added…I am not mad at Tyler for testing out his material before he makes them into movies…that’s like double the income! Make that paper Tyler! I know, I know…at what cost? You can’t get mad at his formula though…just sayin’!

Cheers,

Exclusive Footage of PRECIOUS movie screening in Hollywood: Oprah, Tyler Perry, Mo’Nique, Mariah Carey, Gabourey “Gabby” Sidibe

farai — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:26:27 +0000

From my good friend in L.A., Brent Lowe last night. He attended the screening of the Oscar-worthy movie, PRECIOUS yesterday evening at the Mann’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California.

Actresses Mo’Nique & Gabourey “Gabby” Sidibe on the Red Carpet

He front-rowed this event and was able to get some really good footage of Oprah, Tyler Perry, Mo’Nique, Mariah Carey, Gabourey “Gabby” Sidibe being introduced by director of the movie, Lee Daniels…

Gotta love those Flip Video Camcorders!

Thanks Brent, you rock!…

Photo: The YBF

Clint Eastwood’s new movie INVICTUS – Inspiration from South Africa!

farai — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:11:11 +0000

This movie has ‘10 Oscars written all over it if I may say so myself!

Clint Eastwood is directing the inspirational movie Invictus, a feature film based on the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela who was President of South Africa at the time [played by Morgan Freeman] joined forces with the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, Francois Pienaar [played by Matt Damon] to help unite their country.

I absolutely adore the craftsmanship of Clint, Morgan & Damon! They produce stellar work. My only contention with this movie [& biopics of Africans etc] is that there has to be equally talented South Africans / Africans that could have played the leading roles…I’m just saying! One it gives work to the actors in South Africa. Two it allows South Africans to tell the world their story….it’s their story, right? Three is allows South Africans to own the story [the pain, the flaws etc] as well as share in the glory [triumphing over social ill such as apartheid is no easy feat], after all it was them [Black, White & everything in between] that gave life to this body of work…

Morgan & Damon on the movie set of Invictus.

Ok, back to the movie. So the story goes that newly elected South African President Mandela [a devoted rugby fan] knows his nation remains racially and economically divided despite the demise the apartheid system. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa’s underdog rugby team [the then much-despised & whites-only supported] Springboks as they make an unlikely run to the 1995 World Cup Championship match. The screenplay [formerly titled "The Human Factor"] was penned by native South African writer Anthony Peckham, based upon the book Playing the Enemy written by John Carlin. Anthony Peckham also wrote the script for the Denzel Washington movie, The Book of Eli.

Actor Morgan Freeman speaks at the inaugural Mandela Day at Radio City Music Hall on July 18, 2009 in New York City. This was a fun concert & celebration of the legacy of the man affectionately known as Madiba [Nelson Mandela].

My thoughts are that Morgan may snag a Best Actor Oscar nod for this & Matt may get an Oscar nod for Best Supporting Actor [cannot really see them going up against each other on this movie.]…Clint, Best Director & Best Picture for the movie…Oh the thought of it! I simply cannot wait to see how Hollywood will respond to this at the Academy Awards next year!

The movie Invictus will open in theaters on December 11th, 2009. Here is the trailer of the movie…

Ahh, there is something so magical about Nelson Mandela…

Cheers,

Photo: Zimbio / Getty Images