(Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection)

Exactly 54 years ago today, Imitation of Life, the legendary film about racial identity, was released in theatres nationwide. The film was adapted from Fannie Hurst’s novel and a remake of the 1934 original.

Imitation of Life told the story of Sarah Jane, a light-skinned Black girl (both of her parents were Black), who could pass for White, played by Susan Kohner. She dealt with extreme emotional turmoil, eventually rejecting her mother, played by Juanita Moore. The film also starred Hollywood legends Lana Turner and Sandra Dee.

In the 1934 original Sarah Jane was played by a light-skinned Black actress named Fredi Washington. In 1959, the Sarah Jane character was Susan Kohner, who was Mexican and Jewish. Both actresses in the 1959 version, Kohner and Moore, received Oscar nods for best supporting actress and Kohner won the Golden Globe.

Imitation of Life was a huge success for its time, garnering $6.4 million and being the ninth most successful film in 1959.  The film’s handling of race and the “tragic mulatto” character is a slice of American history for its era.

There have been talks for years about an Imitation of Life remake, but no word on who or when.  In 2010, a behind the scenes book was released on the movie, Born to Be Hurt: The Untold Story of Imitation of Life by Sam Staggs.

The most memorable scene from the movie was Annie dying and the iconic Mahalia Jackson singing at her funeral. Grab a tissue and check out the clip below!

(Photo: Universal Pictures)

Summary: Directed by Joseph Kosinski, Oblivion takes place in a post-apocalyptic New York City (It’s always New York isn’t it — can’t we ever get a post-apocalyptic Midwest?). Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) and his sexy, red-headed partner are attempting to control the remains of an alien invasion who destroyed the moons 60 years before, which caused devastation to the planet. But, as always, things are not what they seem. Who is the real enemy? The aliens? Jack Harper? Maybe it’s the self-imploding script.

Tom Cruise is arguably one of the greatest action stars Hollywood ever created. Minority Report, Mission: Impossible, War of the Worlds — even the films that suffer a beating by critics still perform well at the box office. Audiences can depend on Cruise for the adrenaline rush of his own stunts and the high-octane drama of beating the enemy. Oblivion is easily low on the list of Cruise’s action greats, but the film is still a thrill ride — even with a muddy storyline bogged down with anticlimactic plot twists.

First, the look of Oblivion is spectacular. The high-budget special effects paid off, which weren’t overstuffed with video game-ish CGI. Most action films today resemble a Playstation game versus a movie. The eye-popping flick is visually exquisite and you’ll never whisper to the person next to you, “That looks so fake!” However, Oblivion is fairly standard. The flick does its job but obviously Kosinski was going for the impact of The Matrix, Avatar or Mission: Impossible.

Oblivion misses the mark with a confusing, uneventful and eventually disappointing storyline. Talk of drones, scavengers and clones are tiresome — and trying to decipher the film’s ludicrous plot holes is pointless. Applying more and more logic to Oblivion only results in a less enjoyable film. Even though the movie wants to be a “deep” action flick, you’ll enjoy it more the less you think about logic. The Universal Pictures movie will more than likely earn solid numbers at the box office, but will probably disappear into celluloid oblivion in less than a month — but that doesn’t mean Cruise’s latest action effort isn’t a fun ride.

Oblivion is in theaters now.

(Photo: Sony Pictures)

Summary: A remake of the 1981 cult classic. Five twenty somethings (and a dog) — with no common sense — are trapped in a cabin in the woods.  An evil (and dead!) spirit with a love for profanity is hellbent on killing them all.  But of course one person must survive — blah, blah, blah…

Review: The Evil Dead is a cult classic.  But unlike The Texas Chainsaw Massacare (1974) 0r Poltergeist (1982), the horror film doesn’t stand the test of celluloid time.  Sami Raimi’s’81 version toed the line of camp with bad acting, awful special effects and ludicrous characters.  But the indie flick was in on the joke — the same can’t be said for the 2013 version.  Evil Dead (without “the”) is continuing the tradition of sucking the cinematic life out of iconic franchises.

With a cast of unknowns, the Fede Alvarez-directed film is offensively bland with cartoon-ish gore, simpleton characters and the worst of horror film clichés: tripping in the woods, stupidly entering creepy basements, brunettes possessed by evil and the lone Black character meeting their maker sooner than everyone else. The flick includes random throwbacks to the original, but Evil Dead stands alone as its own terrible film — it’s demonic possession meets torture porn.

As someone who appreciates the horror genre, making a good horror film is no easy task.  Audiences are immune to scares, therefore, the film needs a solid plot and characters you root for — someone a few rows behind me shouted, “Kill ‘em off already!”   It’s not enough to slap CGI blood on screen with screaming pretty people in crisis.  There is actually a craft to making a solid horror movie, redundant plots and inexcusable predictability equal another trite disaster.  The worst moment: A cursing demon who spat: “Kiss me you dirty c***!” and “Come down here so I can suck your c***, pretty boy!” The lines gave the audiences more giggles than creeps.

The plot, score, special effects and cinematography were all deadpan. As for the unknown actors — well, you’ve got to start somewhere. In one bloody scene, the leading lady cried, “It was so horrible! It was so horrible!” Girl, I know how you feel — that’s exactly what I said when the credits rolled.

Evil Dead is in theaters today.

(Photo: Overbrook Entertainment)

In the early 1970s, Angela Davis was a household name, not for dancing, singing or sports, but for her politics — she was public enemy number one. Davis was an open Communist with ties to the Black Panther Party (never a member, despite reports), intelligent, unapologetic and armed with the most dangerous weapon — knowledge.

Davis’ knowledge was so powerful that she was barred from teaching at any university in the State of California. The Birmingham, Alabama native became a political prisoner after being accused of involvement in the 1970 kidnapping and murder of a California judge. All of the controversy — none of which Davis brought upon herself — made her a global symbol for political prisoners. In the end, she was loved more than she was hated from people of all walks of life.

Directed by Shola Lynch, Free Angela and All Political Prisoners is a superbly executed doc from a political and emotional perspective. This is the first (and probably last) time Davis spoke about her trial, which eventually resulted in the acquittal from an all-white jury in June 1972.

Lynch presents the human side of Davis’ story with candid interviews from Davis, her family and historians. Free Angela is not a doc packed full of social agenda. Lynch goes to the core of Davis’ story, rising above politics. Davis was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitive List and wasn’t always the tough as nails, afro-wearing revolutionary we’ve seen in archival footage. She was a woman in love, on the run, fighting for her life and doubtful of a corrupt justice system. Her journey to freedom is fascinating to watch with the polish and intimacy created by Shola Lynch, who also directed the superb Chisholm ‘72: Unbought & Unbossed.

Most importantly, Lynch showed how Angela Davis ripped the door off the hinges for women and people of color who refuse to crumble under injustice. After watching Free Angela and All Political Prisoners, audiences will walk away rejuvenated, thankful and, surprisingly, proud of their country. Angela Davis’ journey is truly an all-American story. Being an American is not based on religion, race, gender or sexual orientation, it’s the willingness to walk in the legendary footsteps of the icons who fought for our right to exist.

Free Angela and All Political Prisoners opens in select cities on April 5.

(Photo: Warner Bros Pictures)

Summary: A family of sort-of-kind-of witches settle in South Carolina so their teenage girl can transition into “light” or “dark” on her 16th birthday.  But a boy comes along and the two fall in love, which is a n0-no in witch land. Their fate is at risk because teenage love and witchcraft don’t mix.

Review: Teen love fantasy flicks are all the rage. From Twilight to Hunger Games, these movies pull at the heartstrings of young girls and annoy the eyeballs of everyone else outside of the demographic. That said, the first Twilight and last year’s Hunger Games were somewhat enjoyable. Twilight was an accidental phenomenon and Hunger Games‘ commentary on media, fame and class was surprisingly interesting. Based on the book by the same name, Beautiful Creatures clearly wants to be the next teen franchise epic, which makes the Richard LaGravenese-directed film calculated and terribly predictable.

Beautiful Creatures is not the fault of the actors (although the majority of the southern accents are embarrassing) or the cartoon-like special effects, it’s a terrible screenplay that is a toxic mix of Beetlejuice and Mean Girls. From the yawnfest build up to laughable one-liners — “Love is a risk for anybody!” — even if you lower your standards to teen-dream melodrama (similar to Twilight), Beautiful Creatures is far from spellbinding.

The only saving grace is the female lead, Lena (Alice Englert), is not the powerless damsel in distress like Bella Swan from Twilight. She is not giving up her soul for Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich). The message of independence is a bit more palatable. Unfortunately, the film and the actors’ bland chemistry need movie-making magic to create the next Edward and Bella. Of course fans might balk at the Twilight and Beautiful Creatures comparisons, but it’s impossible to not notice the goal for a cash cow.

Acting giants Jeremy Irons, Viola Davis and Emma Thompson give Beautiful Creatures some thespian creditability. Nonetheless, even this trio of screen perfection can’t save a calculated, snooze-inducing and unoriginal heap of film-making. Don’t be surprised if the film doesn’t resonate with its target demographic.

Beautiful Creatures is in theaters today.

(Photo: Universal Pictures)

Summary: Sandy Bigelow Patterson (Jason Bateman) hunts down a crafty criminal (Melissa McCarthy) who steals his identity.  The two form an implausible bond.

Review: Melissa McCarthy is a refreshing “It” girl in Hollywood. She is talented, attractive, but not the norm for Tinsletown. However, the Oscar nominee’s shining star is not immune to a bad movie — which is exactly the result in the annoyingly ludicrous Identity Thief.  As most road trip comedies go, McCarthy and Bateman fight, love, fight again and reconcile with eye-rolling clichés.

An audience must suspend disbelief in most comedies, but Identity Thief was wildly illogical — ruining the film’s handful of chuckles. Directed by Seth Gordon and written by Craig Mazin, it’s one of those films where you scratch your head and whisper to the person next to you, “This doesn’t make any sense. Why don’t they just …” fill in the blank.  For example, McCarthy’s thievery crosses state lines — she resides in Florida and Bateman is in Colorado.  Law enforcement (one being the always smooth Morris Chestnut as Detective Riley) cannot pursue her, so Bateman volunteers to go to Florida (leaving his pregnant wife and two kids behind) to abduct McCarthy with handcuffs and bring her back to Colorado where she’ll magically be inspired to confess.

Why not call the credit card company?  Hire a lawyer?  How would abducting someone across state lines be possible or legal? Oh! And Bateman only has one week to complete the impossible task or his boss will fire him for his deteriorating credit rating (he works in the financial industry and somehow he wasn’t intelligent enough to not give his social security number over the phone to McCarthy, who was fishing for victims).  This is just one example of an unfunny jumble of absurdities.

McCarthy stumbles along with stereotypical big girl shenanigans: loud, eating, hyper-sexual and can’t find a man. Bateman plays his usual — all American family man who is shaken up by an edgy sidekick. While the two work well on-screen, the awful script guts out the comedy. T.I. and Morris Chestnut have disposable roles.

A scoop of one-liners, McCarthy’s likability and the polished comedy chops of Jason Bateman cannot save Identity Thief.  Hollywood is in a comedy recession; making a laughable comedy is as hard as making a scary horror movie.

Identity Thief is in theaters now.

Summary: Sisters are left on their own in a cabin in the woods after their psycho father tries to kill them. A ghost looks after the sisters for five years until they are discovered — so much for a search and rescue team! The ghost, known as Mama, is a bit protective over the little darlings and has a past of her own.

Review: Jessica Chastain is the “It” girl in Hollywood with her award-winning performance in Zero Dark Thirty. However, there is a different Chastain in Mama — an up-and-coming actress in a D-rated horror flick who probably had no idea she would become Tinseltown royalty when signing up for this celluloid yawn-fest. Presented by Guillermo del Toro and first-time director Andres Muschietti, Mama is monotonous ridiculousness.

Channeling the atrociousness of Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, one can tell Mama will be a dud within the first 15 minutes: a crazed daddy, a lone cabin in the snowy woods, a ghost that flies around like a Disney villain and Jessica Chastain’s Carol Brady meets a Mary J. Blige circa 1994 wig. Plus, a disconnected plot of a jealous ghost who attaches herself to two abandoned children.

The disaster of Mama is not any fault of Jessica Chastain — she is barely promoting the film. One can imagine she hopes the movie will quietly disappear as she snags her well-deserved Oscar. But even in this terrible flick, Miss Jessica is still fun to watch. She bounces around as a rock ‘n roll chick and girlfriend of the uncle who finds the disturbed sisters. The trouble with Mama is due to a humdrum script, roll-your-eyes special effects and zero scares. For first-time director Muschietti, hopefully there is more we can see from him — no one could’ve made Mama a good movie and no one should’ve tried.

Unimaginative and far from scary, don’t believe anyone who tells you Mama is worth your money or time.

Mama is in theaters today.

(Photo: Lionsgate)

Summary: A follow-up to the 1974 original (even though there was already a follow-up in 1986), a surviving infant of Leatherface’s kin doesn’t know she is related to the family of serial killers. After they all die off, Heather (the beautiful Alexandra Daddario) is now a teenager who is left a massive mansion with only the sadistic Leatherface — her cousin — still kicking. Will Leatherface accept his lil’ cousin and her teen-dream friends or will they get the iconic chainsaw?

Review: Texas Chainsaw 3D is the sixth installment of Leatherface in drag and the absolute worst: illogical plot, bland scares and trite horror flick shenanigans. The pretty people in crisis bounce around in midriffs, boobs jiggling, booties shaking and repeatedly falling while being chased by the chainsaw-yielding madman — if Leatherface were a real person he would chainsaw through any movie studios that tried to give this battered franchise another reboot. Out of respect for all horror fans — leave The Texas Chainsaw Massacre alone!

There is no way to reinvent the story — it has been massacred of any horror movie fun. Actually, the plot of Texas Chainsaw 3D might’ve functioned better if it wasn’t attached to the franchise. Clearly, the creators tried to satisfy the necessities of being connected to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which only resulted in farfetched twists and unexplainable plot holes. For example, if this is the sequel to the 1974 original, then how can the surviving infant be a perky-bosomed gal in her early twenties with horny BFFs? She would be nearly 40!

Texas Chainsaw 3D is Tremaine “Trey Songz” Neverson’s debut film and he gives fans what they want when he pulls a Taylor Lautner and is shirtless in his first scene. Ignoring the bad movie, the “Neighbors Know My Name” singer is a solid actor.  It was wise to get his feet wet in a comfortable supporting role — even if the film is a dud.  There will be more to come from Mr. Songz on the big screen.

That said, Texas Chainsaw 3D is pointless, atrocious on every level and gives horror films a bad name.

Texas Chainsaw 3D is in theaters today.

This year in film focused on epics (Lincoln, Cloud Atlas, Les Misérables) with movies clocking in nearly three hours yet not saying much. That could be why this was a rough 12 months at the box office. However, there were a handful of memorable movies, which may have took some digging to find.

Check out my fourth annual list for the best films of 2012 (click on the quote to go directly to the review).

10. Beasts of the Southern Wild

(Photo: Courtesy Court 13 Productions)

“The film with the biggest heart of 2012. ”

9. Flight

(Photo: Paramount Pictures)

“Cinematically, the best moment is a terrifying plane crash scene that is sure to haunt frequent travelers.  What Psycho did for motel showers is what Flight will do for the ‘friendly’ skies.”

8. Argo

(Photo: Warner Bros Pictures)

“Directed and starring Ben Affleck, this is J.Lo’s ex (sorry, I couldn’t resist) at his film-making  best. Slick, polished and enough suspense to keep viewers interested, Argo deserves accolades this awards season yet is still accessible to the average audience.”

7. Bully

(Photo: Sundance Institute Documentary Fund)

“An intense examination of bullying from the perspective of the victims.”

6. Middle of Nowhere

(Photo: Forward Movement Pictures)

“A heartbreaking but teachable story about love and the morbid sacrifices we make to find it.  If you walk out of Middle of Nowhere with no feeling then you are missing some soul.”

5.  The Paperboy

(Photo: Benaroya Pictures)

“The Paperboy will get the respect it deserves years later. One day, film schools will dissect the movie and marvel at the flick’s wondrous deconstruction of race, gender and class.”

4. Marley

(Photo: Cowboy Films)

“Marley will go down in cinematic history as one of the greatest music documentaries of all time. The first must-see movie of 2012.”

3. How to Survive a Plague

(Photo: Public Square Films)

“A brilliant blueprint on how to spark a revolution. The activists who were highlighted in this film are American heroes to us all — gay, straight, black, white, male or female.”

2. The Central Park Five

(Photo: Florentine Films)

“The execution of the story is flawless, detailing an injustice that jailed innocent men who only got media attention when they were labeled criminals — not when they were proven to be innocent.  The documentary is fascinating yet sobering to watch. Well over 20 years since the incident, the film’s story is unfortunately still relevant.”

1. Django Unchained

(Photo: Columbia Pictures)

“Django Unchained thunders across the big screen as a fireball of celluloid flawlessness. I will not argue the trite debate whether the film is or isn’t that hot-button word: racist. Racism is The Central Park Five, the execution of Troy Davis and wannabe cops who “stand their ground” to unarmed Black boys — not a Hollywood film, which is meant for entertainment and includes some of the most respected and intelligent Black actors of today. Quentin Tarantino’s greatest work since Pulp Fiction and, undoubtedly, the best film of 2012.“

(Photo: Warner Bros Pictures)

Summary: Based on a true story, CIA specialist Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) hatches a creative plan to free six Americans held hostage in Iran. They pose as a movie crew scouting Iran as a possible shooting location for the fictional high-budget sci-fi film Argo.

Review: The story of Argo is so unbelievable that it would have to be a true story for it to work on camera. Is it possible to pose as a movie crew to free six hostages? Well, Argo proves it is true only with Hollywood on your side. Directed and starring Ben Affleck, this is J.Lo’s ex (sorry, I couldn’t resist) at his film-making best. Slick, polished and enough suspense to keep viewers engaged, Argo deserves the accolades this awards season yet is still accessible to the average audience. However, with Lincoln, Les Miserables and Zero Dark Thirty, Argo will get lost this season.

Written by Chris Terrio, the story takes place in 1979. It is almost comical to watch Affleck and team  with the thick mustaches, campy suits and big eyeglasses of the ’70s — the only element missed were some disco beats. But the setting is another example of the polish Argo possesses. Each scene smoothly moves to the other, building tremendous tension. It’s quite an accomplishment, especially if you know how the story ends. That said, even if you know the history-making ending for the six American hostages, the suspenseful journey of Argo is worth the watch. Furthermore, the Warner Bros. film is much more cohesive and skillful than the other “epics” released this year — Argo only clocks in at a two-hour running time and tells a much better story than the films that over-stuff audiences with nearly three-hours.  Editing is an art form!