Rock The Paint (2005/Allumination DVD)
Picture: C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Feature: D
When it
comes to dealing with race issues, Phil Bertelsen’s Rock The Paint (2005) is a drama that thinks it can deal with race
issues in the highly convoluted story (by Dallas Brennan, who is in some
alternate world on the issue) about a single-father and his two male children
whoa re in for a life change. They are
white, but the brothers love Rap music and the older Josh (Douglas Smith) is
excellent at basketball. Then a
convoluted script twist has them leaving their cornfield home for a tough urban
neighborhood.
Josh must
play with all African American players, many of who are bigoted and angry,
though in this film, there seems to be hardly any exceptions leading to a
shockingly racist and predictable tale of both brothers being constantly
attacked. Josh never expects to be
punched early on when shooting hoops, but the “hits” just keep on coming in the
worst way.
This
reaches his height when the younger, underage brother is serious about becoming
a Rap singer and is left alone with an older black male running the recording
studio. Of course, he is beaten and
likely raped until he lands up in a coma!
The message of the film is any white person, especially with interest in
sports and pop culture dominated by African Americans, will get beaten, punched
and even killed no matter what. Making
the white characters Jewish only adds insult to the outright stupidity of the
whole mess.
The title
(said not so ominously by the end) is about the paint on basketball courts by
playing so well. I’m just glad it did
not mean some of the players were followers of radical Islam and intended to
bomb the gym, but I guess I should not give these guys any ideas for a sequel!
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is a little phony looking, color limited
and has detail issues, as produced in 1080i HD.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is serviceable at best, but can be harsh on
the high end. The Wyclef Jean music (how
did he get involved in this?) is not immune to this. Extras include cast/crew audio commentary,
deleted scenes and a behind the scenes featurette.
- Nicholas Sheffo
