UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Steineded How sad is this?

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

EDP2000 If this movie were released today, people would be outraged and call to have this movie banned, especially thinking about how sensitive this generation is. Anyways, "Soul Man" is about a college aged white male named Mark who dresses up in black face in order to attend Harvard Law School. Once immersed in a black student's life, Mark finds that people are less lenient than he imagined and more prone to see him as a black person instead of a fellow student. He meets a young African-American student named Sarah Walker, whom he first only flirts with; gradually, however, he genuinely falls in love with her. As it turns out, she was the original candidate for the scholarship which he had usurped, and now she has to work hard as a waitress to support herself and her son George while studying. Slowly, Mark begins to regret his deed, and after a chaotic day-in which Sarah, his parents (who are not aware of his double life) and his classmate Whitney, who is also his landlord's daughter, make surprise visits at the same time-he drops the charade and openly reveals himself to be white.C. Thomas Howell's acting is pretty good in this. I found the chemistry between C. Thomas Howell and Rae Chong Dawn very convincing. James Earl Jones' acting was very good. And Leslie Nielsen as Whitney's father was also pretty funny.Overall, Soul Man has a John Hughes-esque feel to it, and is up there with Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Weird Science. If you aren't easily offended, I recommend you check this out.

Zoooma This movie gets a bad rap but it's actually quite interesting in its portrayal stereotypes and racism. It's sad that it was made because there shouldn't be such stereotypes and racism in society. But the movie goes about having a laugh with it all while still showing the ignorance in people. C. Thomas Howell used to be able to act back then and he does a great job. There is fine acting all around particularly from James Earl Jones and Rae Dawn Chong. On the unfortunate side, Leslie Nielson was terribly underused and so out of character as a racist piece of crap. In the end, right prevails over wrong, we have a few laughs, and ponder the idiocy of racism.6.1 / 10 stars--Zoooma, a Kat Pirate Screener

D_Burke You can't talk about a movie like "Soul Man" without feeling your feet inevitably hitting a soap box. So let's get the film's controversy out of the way: Is it wrong for a white person like Mark Watson (C. Thomas Howell) to disguise himself as a black person? In most cases, yes. Is it wrong to do so to obtain a scholarship? In all cases, double yes. Does it make a bad idea for a movie? Not necessarily.The problem with "Soul Man" is not so much its premise as much as its execution. You have a white college student, Mark, from L.A. who learns that he and his friend Gordon (Arye Gross) have been accepted into Harvard Law School. The only problem is that even though he comes from a well-to-do family, his father decides not to support him financially. Mark tries every way to pay for his tuition and living expenses, including applying for financial aid, for which he is immediately turned down. I'm not so sure if that would happen in real life, but then again, I haven't applied to law school. Plus, anyone can apply for student loans, right? Regardless, Mark eventually comes across Harvard's only viable full-ride scholarship he can find, which happens to be solely for African-American students. In a fraudulent and risky move, he decides to turn himself black. He does so by taking tanning pills that increase the melanin in his skin, and dons a Jheri curl.There are two problems with this transformation: 1.) Howell does not look African-American at all when he darkens his skin. In fact, I thought he looked like an Indian-American with a really bad hair stylist. Yet, in this movie, no character seems to think for a second that this guy isn't black, not even Harvard Professor Banks (James Earl Jones), who seems way too educated to be fooled.2.) Most importantly, you never actually see Mark Watson come to the conclusion that posing as a black man is a good idea. The film just suddenly jump cuts from his vain attempts to seek financial support to his racial transformation, all with no explanation whatsoever. I wanted to see him take those pills and at least get an idea of what was going through his head. Also, why did he decide on a Jheri curl as a haircut? I would imagine that a Jheri curl, which already requires an ozone-killing amount of hair spray as it is, would be more difficult to maintain than simply shaving his head. John Howard Griffin employed the latter hairstyle choice while doing research for the novel "Black Like Me".I could go on about the character weaknesses of Mark Watson, such as the fact that he doesn't seem smart enough to mop the floors of Harvard Law School let alone be a student there, nor does he have the motivation. He made the dumb decision to attend Professor Banks' criminal law class simply because Professor Banks was "a brother". He doesn't seem to register how intimidating James Earl Jones is as a Harvard professor, whereas I got the impression immediately as Jones was taking attendance in his first scene.It's not C. Thomas Howell's fault that the Mark Watson character is the way he is, although his career suffered because of it. It's just that Mark should have been developed more, and not just be made a carbon copy of a member of the Delta Tau Chi frat in "Animal House" (1978). If Arye Gross's character was made that way, that's fine, but making both characters inept really ruins the base of the story.Otherwise, I actually liked the parts of the film where Mark begins to realize that racism is not something that just died after the 1960's. He does say at one point that, "This (the 1980's) is the Cosby decade! America loves black people!" Well, not so much. While racism is not as obvious as it was before the Civil Rights Movement, it's still alive and well even in liberal Massachusetts.I liked how Howell gets fazed little by little over two white classmates who like telling racists jokes to one another. I also thought his time in jail with unruly white disgruntled baseball players was stinging enough. The basketball montage (featuring Ronald Reagan's son, Ron Reagan) was also very funny.I thought most of the supporting actors were convincing. Rae Dawn Chong was charming as ever, although her career also fizzled after this movie for some reason. Leslie Nielsen was also good as Mr. Dunbar, a building superintendent who does not take kindly to his beautiful daughter's (Melora Hardin) attraction to black Mark. The scene when he envisions Mark as a watermelon-eating pimp who shouts "Whatchu lookin' at!?!" was biting, but funny.The fact that all these characters, black or white, were fooled by Mark being a black man is still what contributed to this movie's lack of credibility. Apparently also, not everyone was laughing at this movie either. Spike Lee and Eddie Murphy publicly denounced it. Then again, though, Richard Pryor reportedly found it funny.Films about characters who make bad choices are not necessarily bad choices for movie plots. This wasn't a bad idea for a movie, but it could have been stronger if vital pieces of exhibition were not skimmed over haphazardly. What results is a film that is not black or white, but too gray.

bkoganbing When Soul Man first came out it got razzed terribly for joking about a sensitive topic. I think the critics didn't quite get the film, they thought it was a racist attack on minorities.Set aside scholarships are private and what C. Thomas Howell does is attempt to defraud the givers of said scholarship by passing himself off as black. Picture if you will somebody like Fred Phelps endowing a scholarship to Bob Jones University, the only place I'm aware that would take his money, on someone that Phelps feels reflects his proper and God inspired outlook on the American scene.But it would be legal because it's Phelps's money to do with as he wishes. Now the endowers of that scholarship to Harvard meant it for someone like Rae Dawn Chong. So when Howell grabs it because his parents decide to make him pay his own way and he's too lazy to do it or heaven forfend, go to another law school he is defrauding her.That's the sum and substance of Soul Man. Of course in passing himself off as black, Howell makes a few unpleasant discoveries about himself and a lot of people around him. And of course there's that old Cupid thing with him and Chong.James Earl Jones makes the most intimidating law professor this side of John Houseman. Arye Gross gets the role of best friend and confidante in Howell's scheme and Melora Hardin who now occasionally plays the ghost of Trudy Monk on Monk is the spoiled rich girl who gets back at her parents by sleeping with minorities.Soul Man gets silly and a bit forced at times. But it's not deserving of all the knocks it's been given over the years.