Martin Lawrence. Why?

[flight]

@RickJay

Lawrence is essentially the black Will Ferrell. If you can’t understand Lawrence, imagine how black people (and a lot of white people too, mind you) feel about Ferrell. Ferrell is essentially talentless and unfunny and really can’t act at all; his one schtick is the bizarre, pompous fool. Yet white audiences will apparently pay to see him play that one part, and they’ll pay by the millions.

So you are saying stupid black people see Martin Lawrence and stupid white people see Will Ferrell. Now it all makes sense.

[Starving_Artist]

I am by no way a huge fan of either Eddie Murphy (post-SNL, Trading Places and 48 Hours) or Martin Lawrence, but one night somebody in the house had a movie on that both of them were in and I sat down and watched it. I don’t remember the name of the movie, but they played convicts who were wrongfully convicted and spent nearly the rest of their lives in prison. As much as I hate to admit it, I thought they were both excellent.

[Turek]

@RickJay

Lawrence is essentially the black Will Ferrell. If you can’t understand Lawrence, imagine how black people (and a lot of white people too, mind you) feel about Ferrell. Ferrell is essentially talentless and unfunny and really can’t act at all; his one schtick is the bizarre, pompous fool. Yet white audiences will apparently pay to see him play that one part, and they’ll pay by the millions.

Us my crazy uncle used to say, I wouldn’t piss on either of them if they were on fire.

I sure as hell wouldn’t pay money to see them in a movie.

[Arwin]

@SpoilerVirgin

The cultural divide was really brought home to me by the bit that Chris Rock did about it at the Oscars. He interviewed black people “on the street” and asked them whether they had seen “Million Dollar Baby” or “The Aviator” (movies nominated for Best Picture), and none of them had. Then he asked whether they had seen “White Chicks” (a Wayans brothers movie popular with the black audience) and they all raved about it and said that it should have been nominated. Of course the bit was staged and/or edited, but it accurately portrayed the vast gap between the black and white movie audiences.

Of course, since the white folk don’t have any culture of their own, they are less likely to put up with white trash than the black folk put up with black trash.

Just kidding (I think …). One fun trivia I came across in this matter was when Prince came to the Netherlands expecting an all black audience, but getting a virtually exclusive white one; he had a lot of trouble hiding his shocked expression. That’s the typical fare here in Europe though, or at the very least in the Netherlands - we watch and get all sorts. Which reminds me how hilarious it was to see British shows being redone in the U.S. and vice versa, and getting to see both versions.

Fortunately there are a decent few black and white actors that go very well together. I like Tom Arnold in combination with Anthony Anderson, for instance. They usually end up with amusing dialogue, when left to their own devices.

Martin generally is casted into roles that have one layer of depth. And unfortunately, that top layer is a very shallow one. There are always people who’ll settle for that, but generally he is best put to use in movies where someone else balances him out sufficiently, like Bad Boys (which broke the ‘only get Martin when you can’t get Will or Eddy’ rule ).

[Wolfian]

@Starving Artist

I am by no way a huge fan of either Eddie Murphy (post-SNL, Trading Places and 48 Hours) or Martin Lawrence, but one night somebody in the house had a movie on that both of them were in and I sat down and watched it. I don’t remember the name of the movie, but they played convicts who were wrongfully convicted and spent nearly the rest of their lives in prison. As much as I hate to admit it, I thought they were both excellent.

Life. I never got around to watching it, but the ads were funny.

“There’s gonna be consequences and repercussions!”

[Hey_It_s_That_Guy]

Life is a surprisingly good movie, but incredibly poignant and sad, considering it was marketed as another raucous Eddie/Martin comedy.

[Little_Nemo]

Another thing many people don’t realize is that there’s essentially two tiers of movie production. In the top tier are the special effects movies - the ones that have car chases and explosions and flying things and New York City getting blown up etc. These movies have budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Then there are talking movies. These movies have people talking. Admittedly, sometimes what they’re saying is really stupid but they’re still mostly just talking. These movies have budgets of millions of dollars.

If a movie that costs $200,000,000 earns back $175,000,000 it was a failure. But a movie that cost $25,000,000 and earned back $35,000,000 was a success. You can make talking movies year after year and keep making profits despite not breaking any box office records.

[Skywatcher]

@flight

So you are saying stupid black people see Martin Lawrence and stupid white people see Will Ferrell. Now it all makes sense.

They don’t have to be “stupid” black people. See post #4.

[nivlac]

@RickJay

… Ferrell is essentially talentless and unfunny and really can’t act at all; his one schtick is the bizarre, pompous fool. Yet white audiences will apparently pay to see him play that one part, and they’ll pay by the millions.

Nary a truer statement has been made about Ferrell. I caught him in Bewitched the other night (wasn’t really there for Bewitched, but was killing some time before Batman began), and he was without a doubt the least talented actor in the movie. Nicole Kidman was surprisingly good. As to Martin Lawrence, I couldn’t stand him on TV and haven’t found him any funnier in the movies.