It has been a long time since I’ve seen the first iteration in this franchise. I know I liked the movie well enough, back in 1999, that I had a VHS copy. It is a charming ensemble, full of young black talent about ready to pop. This was back in the early days of Taye Diggs, Mia Long, Sanaa Lathan, Morris Chestnut, Terrence Howard, Harold Perreneau, and Regina Hall. Malcolm D. lee broke onto the scene with an original work he wrote and directed, which was produced by Spike Lee’s production shingle. It wasn’t the only film from 1999 about black men and lifelong friendship, but it was the one that truly resonated with audiences. It made 34 million, which seems low, but by 1999 standards it was decent for a movie that opened in the doldrums of early fall. It outgrossed the August release of The Wood, another film with an all black cast starring Omar Epps, which opened a little earlier at the tail end of the summer.
this just is a smarter and better film. the cast is effortlessly charming and likable, and it feels like a sizzle reel for the stars of tomorrow. Morris chestnut seems especially well cast as someone with athletic prowess, but also a dominating charm that makes him perfect for his role as the presumptive groom (if this wedding can get off the ground). Diggs is the lead, as Harper, an author who has a new book that his friends are finding out is pretty semi-autobiographical, and secrets in their lives are revealed vicariously through the literary doings of fictitious characters.
this is the best this cast has been together, and it is something that never needed to become a franchise, but became one because the friendship between these actors feels genuine and flies off the screen. The audio description is something that definitely could be better. it is one that seems to be trying to meet the legal qualification of accessibility, by providing a few times in which it may offer some light description or context, but it frequently leaves you in moments that we know could be filled with something. Whether it can acknowledge a transition, an entrance or an exit, a reaction to something said, there are plenty of moments a more experienced audio description writer would have fleshed out. The characters aren’t really well described, which is oddly uncommon with a show led by a black cast. Typically, these movies have a greater depth of description and aren’t pulling back out of some misguided attempt to keep everything in some weird default neutrality. In a film that is decidedly a romantic comedy, the best described sequence is the bachelor party, where the strippers come in. Despite having a female narrator, it felt like we certainly had a male writer because he just found all the words needed suddenly for that sequence, where we seem to lack in more emotional moments.
It’s Valentine’s tomorrow, and it is also black history month. This is an all black cast, in a warm and fun film that despite 34 million, generated enough goodwill to continue to create opportunities for this cast to reunite over the years. If you haven’t seen The Best Man, aren’t you at least a little curious as to why something that seems so not ready to be a franchise, became one? The answer is really obvious if you watch.
fresh. Final Grade: A-, Audio Description: B-