Carmen : Hip Hopera

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.

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.

After watching this movie on MTV I came away with one feeling, disappointment. The music is the movie was pretty good, but was lacking a bit in production value. Robert Townsend's direction of the spoken dramatic scenes were very well done, but he tried to be too flashy during the musical numbers. The music should be an extension of the action we see on screen, and should not be cut off from everything else. The music sequences were poorly visualized and at an hour & 20 minutes the movie was just too short. The acting was good, and the story was updated very well. As far as cautionary tales go, this movie was far from the best I've seen, but it was also far form the worst. I give it a 5 out of 10.

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.

As a avid lover of opera, my first reaction was one of distaste-- a stuck-up response, I'll admit. My thoughts were like many others: Where does MTV get off screwing around with once of the most beloved operas of all time?

I did decide to watch it however, trying to keep an open mind. I was actually rather pleased by the performances and really taken with the style of filming. It didn't try to be something it's not (which I can really appreciate). It's edgy quality was sensitive enough to the original story that I found myself actually enjoying the production. Not being a fan of rap or hip hop in general, I was surprised by how much I was NOT offended. You can even hear small bits of Bizet's music weave in and out of the fabric. It had it's week moments, and was by no means a great movie, but it was unique, and I can appreciate that. I can also appreciate how this type of "hip hopera" may actually reach some people who would never think of watching traditional opera (just as I had never considered watching a rap artist sing over Bizet's melodies). I recommend this movie because of it's uniqueness and because it honestly wasn't all that bad!