A Raisin in the Sun

So I DVR'd A Raisin in the Sun and then watched it over the weekend. It was laughable. Now I'm a fan of the play, the original movie, the theme, the message, you name it. However this latest manifestation was horrible. I blame a few people, most of all Diddy.

Now I get that he wants to be an actor now, but he's not up to the level of actor to pull of a complex role like that. He however was executive producer of the movie, so he can cast who he likes. He unfortunately did not cast the best actor for the part, just his favorite one.

Secondly Sanaa Lathan was cast as Diddy's younger sister. Stop the presses Sanaa is fine as frog's hair, but she is pushing 40, and playing a girl who is 19 or 20. It did not work. Now my friend Jossette argued that Stacey Dash played a high school senior when she was 29. True. However Stacey looked the part. She looked young and sounded young. Sanaa did not. Her acting was supurb, her age was not.

I know I can play young characters.
In Alien 5 I'm going to play a fetus.

Again Diddy's character of Walter Lee is about 25, but Diddy is 40! If a 25 year old dude gets taken in a confidence scam, that's bad, but if a 40 year old dude gets taken in the same scam that's laughable. He deserves it. Secondly the story is a coming of age tale, at 40 you should have come of age a long time ago.

Never, ever trust a man with a well manicured mustache.

Luckily for Diddy, Phylicia Rashad and Audra McDonald had stellar performances. They saved what was otherwise a 3 hour turd (why did they stretch out the story for three hours?). Even John Stamos delivered on his supporting role as the racist neighbor. The performances of Stamos, Rashad, and McDonald only highlighted the inadequacy of Diddy's lackluster performance. (Also note that Sanaa looked as old if not older than McDonald!!!! Bad casting. You could have easily called Stacey Dash, her calendar is wide open.)