Customer Reviews

Brown Sugar

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan, my favorite actor and actress coming together, it has to be good! But you don't need to know either one of these two to love "Brown Sugar". This movie involves two adults that grew up as best friends but later realised that they were in love with eachother, it raises a question of whether a man and a woman can be friends without sexuality being in the way but at the same time it goes beyond that; having a lover as a best friend is as good as it gets. What makes this movie good is the trouble these two best friends go through to realize how they feel about each other but that's not a bad thing, it just helps them realize how they truly feel. Most movies would just show the physical attraction between two people but Brown Sugar shows you two people understanding eachother in every way possible. It is truly the best romantic movie that I have ever watched, it's not only touching but it has humor along the way which makes it open to a lot of different audiences. The delivery was great, no surprise there, if I didn't know better I would think it was a true story. Beautiful movie!

This movie was sort of an outcry to musicians to stop this mess that is out now. So called hip hop and rap have been run amok, has been ever since the demise of 2pac and biggie. Lost even more when Jam Jay took the loss shortly after the movie's release. What this movie stands for on top of that though, is that you have to stand up for what u want. Taye and Sanaa wanted each other, but let it slide for quite a while. Even put up with a marriage and an engagement before the two realized they were meant to be more than friends. Even with all that the underlying meaning of the whole thing was that hip hop/rap sucks now. Sanaa even says "what's the differance between loving someone and being in love with them? The same as the differance between hip hop and rap. Loving someone is just saying the words." Just like rap is meaningless b.s. and hip hop was an entire movement, way of life and emotion. Rap is garbage and it's making everyone else look like crap too. But I like the movie. and I love what it had to say in a roundabout way.

I am sorry. I loved the cast and I tried with all my heart to feel what the film was about but this was the most boring film I have seen in a long time! With actors like Taye Diggs and Queen Latifah I expected at least some tip-top comedy wisecracking. I nearly fell asleep the first five minutes and I tried my darnest to stick with the movie but I quit watching after the first hour. I couldn't hang on any longer. This is a very boring movie. I don't know what the heck went wrong. The dialogue is pointless and goes nowhere. They talked on and on about nothing! I kept waiting for some sparks to fly instead I ended up slapping myself to keep from dozing. Sanaa Lathan and Taye Diggs are talented but they have no chemistry whatsoever. Queen Latifah was wasted and...the movie was just plain pointless. It tries to be the Love Jones of the millennium but it doesn't even come close. Love Jones had charisma Brown Sugar doesn't do anything at all. It doesn't make you care about the characters or if they end up together. You just keep wishing it would go a little faster. I've stood in DMV lines that were more exciting then this! At least the DMV lines moved eventually. Don't hate me folks because I tried to give this film the benefit of the doubt but something wasn't working. I can't recommend this to anyone. This was supposed to be like Sleepless in Seattle, oh you'll sleep all right. If you must watch it, watch it on Cinemax like I did. Don't dare spend any money on this. I pray you can get through it. Wow this was boring! I can't say it enough.

I like the movie as far as the relationship of Dre and Sidney. I liked how they based their relationship of friendship around
Hip-Hop! They kept it real as far as that goes as well as unique. The acting was on point. The movie also reminded me of my past relationship with my Ex-boyfriend. So I naturally had a instant connection with Brown Sugar the first day I saw it in the theater. So I definitely recommend this movie. It's a good one to add to a video collection!

A ... urban romance, "Brown Sugar" blurs the line between love and hip-hop, examining, with sharp humor, the courtship subtleties among upwardly mobile black Americans. The movie is also a commentary on the state of rap music, a half-baked "real is truth, gimmick is whack" tribute that eats up far too much screen time and dilutes some of the chemistry between the movie's six principals.

Taye Diggs is Dre, a record-executive-in-training smitten with hip-hop journalist Sid (Sanaa Lathan), and she with him, since grade school, when they made eyes over a rap song. Neither admits the attraction and for Dre there's a drop-dead lawyer named Reese (Nicole Ari Parker) waiting in the wings for a marriage proposal. Sid is stung, and she falls for an NBA player, Kelby (Boris Kodjoe), a smooth, get-what-I-want rapper-on-side. Rounding out the sextet is Queen Latifah as Sid's mouthy best friend, and Mos Def as a talented emcee Dre would like to promote on a new label. His own.

Though Diggs and Lathan are the fated couple of "Brown Sugar," co-screenwriters Mike Elliot and Rick Famuyiwa - who also directed - are smart enough to offer Dre and Sid realistic, appealing alternatives. Reese and Kelby are imperfect matches for the respective leads, but their flaws aren't immediately revealed, and when coupling cracks begin to deepen, the blame bleeds to both sides. Parker - memorable as a bit player in "Boogie Nights" and "The End of Violence" - is particularly good as an ambitious-yet-ultimately-decent uptown girl looking to introduce Dre to the society's upper crust. A very good scene at a New Year's Eve dinner party argues, persuasively, that best friends share some moments spouses never will. Lathan works a variation of her beautiful nerd performance in "Love and Basketball," while Diggs, again, is literate and smooth.

"Brown Sugar" is a quieter, more observant picture than some of its predecessors, and yet it doubles as a hammy, idealistic treatise on hip-hop; the movie opens with a series of documentary interviews as current rap artists recount the moment they first fell in love with the music. The script then talks around the subject - casting Queen Latifah and Mos Def is apparently message enough - while failing to indict a music industry that essentially leaves the future of the artists in the hands of one radio station - Hot 97 - to decide who gets airplay, and who doesn't. The movie takes great pains to scold sellouts and one-hit wonders without aiming its arrow at the point-of-entry corruption that rewards such behavior.

But no matter. "Brown Sugar" projects a mature realism on love reaching beyond the limited hip-hop plot. It's a credit to the director, and the performances, that as Dre and Sid unthaw to one another, it's about more than a collection of verses over beats.

Sadly the only worthy performances are by Taye Diggs and rapper Mos Def. I kept expecting this movie to go further but it ended up feeling like a long soap opera. There was no much love and not enough hip-hop. The story and "dialogue" was so predictable at times I could (LITERALLY) say what each character was actually going to speak from their mouths next. Now if that's not predictable I don't know what is. Queen Latifah should have been used more as comic relief becuase the main love "story" was so horrible. And the sad part is, this film is talking about how hip-hop is becoming too commercial and who can not but notice how the totally marketed this movie for its soundtrack. The only good parts are the extras like Erykah Badu's best song everr "Love of My Life (Featuring Common)" the video and "Brown Sugar" by Mos Def w/ Faith Evans. I can't believe they were complaining about being commercial in the music biz and this movie/soundtrack was extremely commercial! If you want a less commercial and FUNNY black comedy check out "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" or for a love story check out "Love Jones." I believe this movie used to be called "Love and Basketball" (boring!) Avoid at all costs.

I enjoyed this movie, but I got tired of them mentioning Hip-Hop a lot. It was nice to see all of those old school rappers and them mentioning the old songs, it brought back memories, but after a while it was like...Okay enough already. Overall, Taye Diggs was wonderful (not to mention gorgeous), and Sanaa Lathan was just as fabulous. She's becoming one of my new favorite actresses.

Brown Suger is one of the best movies that I have watched.
Its great message about real Hip Hop attracted me into buying the DVD.
The cast is perfect, and the plot is exciting and refreshing.
Sanaa Lathan is beautiful and plays the part perfect.
If you love Hip Hop, buy it.

Every time I see her she is pining for someone. First it was Wesley in Disappearing Acts (an HBO movie), then Omar Epps in Love and Basketball, and now Taye Diggs in this one. May I add, she was pining for Taye in the Best Man, too, and this movie is nothing but Love and Basketball part 2, only Sanaa's character's name is Sidney, the ball has been replaced with hip-hop, and Omar replaced by Taye, spiced with a little Nicole Ari Parker, Boris Kodjoe, and Her Highness Queen Latifah. Sanaa, you need a new agent, and get yourself some new scripts. Or at least a new, fresh leading man. The movie is entertaining enough, but no originality, used storyline, and Taye is not convincing in his love for hip-hop. You can tell his "flava" is about as rehearsed as the script. The soundtrack KICKS ASSSSS though!

A predictable romance

A light satire on commercial hip-hop with an implausibley successful rap duo who are painfully unfunny.

Successful African-American characters are mostly uninteresting, one-dimensional, except for Taye Diggs' character, who is the conflicted manager of a pop-rap record company that embraces commercial value over keepin' it real artists.