THE OBENSON REPORT

Covering Cinema From All Across The African Diaspora

See Robert Downey Jr Swearing Like A Black Man

For those who don't know, a "red band trailer" of a film is a trailer that does not adhere to MPAA guidelines for motion picture advertising for all audiences, meaning it will likely include foul language, violence, sexual, or otherwise "objectionable imagery" (Gotta protect the kids, right?). It's usually preceded by a red band, which reads "The following PREVIEW has been approved for RESTRICTED AUDIENCES ONLY by the Motion Picture Association of America."

Obviously, Tropic of Thunder is an R-rated film. Below is the red band trailer released just yesterday. We get to see Robert Downey Jr in black face and an afro, spitting out curse words like "muthafucka" in his best imitation of how us black men supposedly speak. The early buzz on this one is overwhelmingly positive, as fan-boys are drooling in anticipation of its release, which won't be until August.

3 comments:

  1. The Wendilicious Wonder said...
     

    Hmm... I hope there's more to this film than just RDJ doing black, as I can see that party-trick wearing thin after a very short while...

    Apparently though, the movie is supposed to be a critical spoof of Hollywood and its high fallutin ways... So, who knows.

    I must say, I laughed out loud at Ben Stiller's character getting stabbed by his new son! :D

  2. The Obenson Report said...
     

    I still don't know how I feel about RDJ's "black man" schtick in this film. I haven't seen it yet, obviously, but I'm a little weary of what the results of this could be. I realize it's meant to be a critique of some kind of the Hollywood casting machine, but it's a delicate area that could really backfire if not handled with some sensitivity. The role was actually originally written for a black actor, but was then re-written to cast RDJ, probably because they thought it would be funnier and likely more controversial.

    I've heard that pre-screenings of the film were overwhelmingly positive and scored well with black audiences, so, I suppose that's a good sign. We'll see! Ben Stiller supposedly worked on this film for at least 10 years!

  3. Anonymous said...
     

    I have a feeling that a lot of people will run out to see "Iron Man" play a black man.

    It will be interesting to see how it does at the b.o.

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