The Great White Hope & Chris Rock: Never Scared

The Great White Hope has very strong performances from James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander. You can tell that Jones is comfortable in the role, and it makes perfect sense when you know that he played the role on Broadway before, which won the author, Howard Sackler, a Pulitzer and a Tony. It also features a horrible Uncle Tom's Cabin musical. In Hungary. The entire thing is just depressing, because this all comes down to a bunch of white racists tearing a black man down for being better than the whites at something (in this case, it's boxing). Fight the power! It's based on Jack Johnson's life, which really makes me want to see that Ken Burns movie, Unforgivable Blackness. Or, maybe I could just watch The Civil War another time. That always makes me happy. Man, I've seen that so many times. What a great theme song.

Chris Rock: Never Scared wasn't nearly as good as his earlier work. It's still funny, but it feels like retreads of other comics and his earlier work. Shame about that. Plus, his yelling style just gets on my nerves now.