Carmen: Uma Ópera Pop

Carmen is a hip hop remake of the classic film Carmen Jones. The film stars Beyonce from Destiny's Child as Carmen. Carmen is an actress trying to make it with the love of Mehki Pfefier. But Mos Def a dirty cop stands in the way. This is one of the best hip hop movies since Krush Groove.

I'm in my 60's and I live far from any exposure to African-American culture. I always found Rap to be pretty annoying. But I stumbled across this on cable, and I really liked it. It helps that "Umbrellas of Cherbourg" is one of my all-time favorite films, and this had a very similar flavor. One refreshing feature of the film was the authenticity of the language. It always irritates me to see black kids in the ghetto (movie version) speaking something that sounds too close to acting-school English. The cast of this fiom, apparently, did not consist of trained actors who enunciated clearly in a ghetto-esque parody, but people who live and talk in that culture all the time, and it sounded real. At the same time, it was not so steeped in arcane under-culture talk that I could not understand it. So, 5 stars out of 5 for overcoming the language problem that mainstream films are so challenged by. I'd have liked more music---quite a bit of the dialogue was spoken in normal conversation---a lot more could have been put to music, since the commitment had already been made to use that device. I think the pace of the musicalized dialogue was very, very well done in terms of matching body language. Nobody seemed uncomfortable with the exchanges, or impatient for the imposed rhythm to catch up with the reaction. A neat job. Overall, this is a finely-tuned, slick vehicle that works. Whatever you think of African Americans or their music or their culture, this is a nice film that will perhaps endear you to this charming entourage.

Poorly acted, unconvincing "modern" adaption of Bizet's classic opera. Saddled with a two-dollar production look and a cast of (with the exception of Phifer) unprofessional actors. One fairly interesting bit is a few parts which actually set Bizet's music to raps, which only works intermittently. Inferior to both the original and Oscar Hammerstein's similarly overblown 1950s adaption (filmed, if I remember right, memorably by Otto Preminger).

All fans of musicals should avoid it, even though it holds out the promise of being a new type of musical. All fans of hip hop should avoid it, because it forces a cast that is incredibly talented in musical areas to act with hokey dialogue and no direction. It should especially be taken on for taking Mos Def, a genius of lyrics, and making him rap to mediocre lines written by some bozo the clown.

Townsend should really be taken to the cleaners over this, and in the future he should probably be advised to look the other way when offered TV productions with a look like my mama's basement (and she hasn't got one, folks).�

I tend to agree with the two earlier posts. While the opera is well updated, there is something lacking in the script. The music is excellently produced, and while I am not a fan of hip hop, the music does tend to portray the feelings of the characters. I'm pleasantly suprised over the acting, as I find that many musicians can't act nearly as well on screen as they can in their videos. The director did an excellent job, although the sometimes cheesy-ness of the music scenes does take away from the over-all visual feeling of the movie. The colours are vibrant and real, and you feel for the characters at moments, but sometimes yr just as lost as this movie seems to be. However lost it may be though, it would be worth watching if yr bored.. or doing yr homework as I am. I wouldn't be suprised to see Beyonce Knowles do more film work later. :)

This movie was a very good start for MOS DEF for beyonce she should stick to singing. As you watch the movie mos def (Frank Miller)took the whole movie to a different level, while beyonce's acting killed to whole movie, through out the movie it seems she is reading the script word by word. If you like freestyle rap and a TV-movie plot this a very good movie but I WARN YOU beyonce's acting might force you to change the channel.