A “sexy” movie is more than a movie that just has two people performing the horizontal mambo with heavy breathing. There needs to be passion, there needs to be raw emotion and even sometimes there needs to be love. If there are words to be spoken between the two beings, they need to have strength and feeling. For me personally, I also need a good selection of lingerie. Seriously though, I wondered if those elements would be found in A Good Day to be Black & Sexy or if it would just be an excuse to stick a good looking black woman on the cover.
The movie is a collection of 5 short films (one with two parts) directed by Dennis Dortch. The short films have a range of “sexy” subjects. Reciprocity is the story of Tony (played by Brandon Valley Jones) who goes down on his girl, Jeanette (played by Kathryn Taylor). However, Jeanette does not want to return the favor. The second story is called Her Man. Helena (played by Chonte Harris) and D’Andre (played by Marcuis Harris) have just finished making love and he gets a phone call that he needs to go to work. Helena doesn’t want him to go which leads to a discussion about their “relationship”.
The third story is called Tonite and is split into two parts. One in the middle and one closer to the end in between Reprise & American Boyfriend. It mainly follows the tale of Tamala (played by Mylika Davis) who is having her birthday on what appears to be July 4th. She is in a car with Jabari (played by Allen Maldonado) and they are sharing a meal and some pictures. Jabari reveals that he didn’t get her anything and he tries to get himself some. Tamala pushes him off and Jabari shows his true colors by giving her the ultimatum of having sex or walking back home on her own two feet. She would choose the latter. The story would resume with her picked up by her two bandmates Meagan (played by Natalia Morris) & Jill (played by Alias Sherrod).
The next story is Reprise and has a fairly simple plot. Candi (played by Nana Hill) wants to perform backdoor sex with Russell (played by Kareem J. Grimes) and he does not. Hilarity ensues. The final tale is called American Boyfriend and is the only one that actually qualifies as multi-racial. Jasmine (played by Emily Liu) has a secret that she does not want to reveal to her Chinese parents (played by Raymond Ma and Dana Pan). She has a boyfriend named Jesse (played by Alphonso Johnson). Jesse is not only black but he also happens to be hiding in her bedroom. Mass hilarity ensues.
One would think with five stories that there would be a boatload of material to watch and enjoy. The problem is that there are really only two stories that have any depth of material: Tonite & American Boyfriend. The other three stories are either too short or lack real interest. American Boyfriend is really the best story as it has a good dose of humor and some real sexiness and good emotion between the couple of Jasmine and Jesse. Tonite also has a great story but I kinda got lost on the “sexy”. Reprise also succeeds on the sexy mostly due to the performance of cover girl: Nana Hill. But it is over so quick, that she doesn’t get to show off her talent. I like most of the actors & actresses (except for the ones in Her Man), but to me the stories were a mixture of good and bad. It would be better served if they cut Her Man and Reprise (and re-inserted Nana Hill somewhere else) out and made the others longer to match.
Video
The dvd is presented in 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen. The film quality is fair but is hurt mostly by the fact that the majority of the scenes are in the bed, in the dark. Even Tonite most of the time is spent in a dark car which doesn’t help either. It’s sometimes difficult to tell what is going on. When you deal with dark skinned actors, you have to adjust the lighting. In a lot of places, they simply didn’t do that.
Audio
The audio is in English 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital sound. All talking here, and it stays almost of the time in the center channel. There are only a few effects that use the surrounds such as fireworks or maybe for a split second because the actor is off-screen. The dialog is clear, it is just one of those movies where 5.1 and 2.0 make little difference. Subtitles are provided in Spanish.
Special Features
- Automatic Trailers: The Great Buck Howard, What Just Happened, & HD Net.
- Behind the Scenes 27:31: The usual behind the scenes extra, this one focuses on all of the stories and introduces us to each major character. We also learn the RuPaul acting technique of how not to get aroused. The chemistry between the couples is pretty fun to watch. Nana Hill is an absolute hoot to watch, I just love accents. There is even a discussion about spooge and a whole lot of fake orgasms at the end to finish it off. Lame jokes, got to love it.
- Auditions 23:10: A montage of auditions to pick through. Good stuff, the roles seemed to come easy.
- Deleted Scenes 7:40: There are alternate endings for Reprise and Tonite (part 2). Neither should have been used. In addition, there is another deleted scene for Tonite (part 2) where the three girls are rapping. That would have explained the whole band thing they neglected throughout the entire sketch.
- Reciprocity (Live on Stage) 12:25: The first film performed on some stage in front of an audience. It actually is a lot funnier on stage and does more with less words than what they filmed.
- Soundtrack 0:43: A promo for the soundtrack, it has this whole seventy’s vibe to it.
- Merchandise 0:30: This starts off with a free catalog ad which we assume is fake followed by display of their website where you can really take a look at the goods they have to offer.
Final Thoughts
A Good Day to be Black and Sexy is a very decent effort by Dennis Dortch. The main issue is that it falls short. There are some good stories such as Tonite and American Boyfriend and there is a lot of “sexy” in the various sketches. But more often than not, it ends being dull and either too short or too long in the outcome. The extras are only missing a commentary of some sort or perhaps more interviews in the allotted time frame. I only have one question, and this might be a simple one. Why is the kissing pixilated in American Boyfriend? My only guess is that one or both of the actors were under-age. However, it is just a very odd moment when the rest of the film there is explicit language and some good doses of nudity (though not as much as you would think). That aside, you have a very average movie that could have done more with emphasis on three stories instead of five.
