Soul Man

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Soul Man

October 24, 1986

New World

Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi

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DVD

B-

This is a well-intentioned, often funny movie that doesn't deserve its bad reputation.  That said, it's also an implausible mess with plot-holes enough to fill the Albert Hall.  Let's talk about genres, because the movie manages to be both formulaic and unsatisfying.

I know, you're thinking Sci-fi?!  How is this science fiction?  It's unrealistic, but it is sort of set in a recognizable world, particularly LA and Boston.  Remember though, how does C. Thomas Howell's character Mark become "black" in order to get a scholarship?  He takes tanning pills that seemingly instantly darken his skin and curl his hair.  (The make-up job is poorly done, not just in that he's no more "black" than Prince Naveen in The Princess and the Frog, but that it's inconsistently applied, so that the tone varies from scene to scene, like the green make-up in Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.).  Mark gets the tanning pills from a druggie friend of his but there's no magical transformation scene, or even a clear explanation.  I can't help thinking that an entirely different movie could've been made in the '80s about the friend, with the tanning pills being just one of his many wacky inventions.

Instead we get several other subgenres of comedy: raunchy college sex comedy (although the sex and nudity happen offscreen); a social-consciousness comedy where the writers seems as naive and as unaware of consequences as the protagonist; and of course a romantic comedy with only one kiss between the central couple, not to mention an unresolved issue or two.  (Nineteen-year-old Howell does convincingly play infatuated with 25-year-old Rae Dawn Chong, which is easy to do, since one, she's stunning, and two they fell in love during the filming, although they were married and divorced within four years.)

Luckily, the movie is also a buddy comedy, and Mark has a loyal buddy in Gordon, played by 26-year-old Arye Gross, who'd later be Ellen's TV buddy on These Friends of Mine.  Gross has great comic timing and he manages to make his character sympathetic, even if it's the equivalent of Hamburger: The Motion Picture's Fred Domino.  (That he's to my taste a heck of a lot better-looking than Howell, particularly blackface Howell, Gross resembling Julian Lennon, especially when he wears a scarf, doesn't hurt.)  I probably would've gone with a C+ on this if not for Gross

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As in Morons from Outer Space, James B. Sikking isn't onscreen much but still plays a pivotal role, here as Mark's father who cuts him off financially.  John William Young, who plays the banker, had recently been Prestopopnick in Hamburger, while Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who plays Lisa here, was in another '86 movie, Hannah and Her Sisters.The rest of the cast is eclectic to say the least, including as it does James Earl Jones, Pink Lady's Jeff Altman, and a 28-year-old Ron Reagan, Jr.  (There are a couple gentle jokes about Reagan, Sr.)  Also, Leslie Nielsen shows up in my movie collection again, 17 years after his relatively straight-man role in How to Commit Marriage, in the interval having done Airplane and Police Squad.  This part isn't that broad, but he does play a rich bigot with no redeeming features.  His biggest scene is a sort of rip-off of Annie Hall, as he and his family imagine Mark fitting various over-the-top stereotypes.  (Oh, and I have to note that he's playing the father of a girl who tells Mark that she doesn't see it as a matter of black and white but shades of gray.  Presumably 50 of them.)

Scott L. Treger, who has an uncredited role as a Harvard basketball player, would also be uncredited as Connie's beach date in Back to the Beach.  Wally Ward, who's Barky Brewer here, would have another alliterative character in The Invisible Kid, as Milton McClane.  Donald Hotton, who plays Mr. Wicher, would be Minister in Hot to Trot.  Amy Stock-Poynton, who's Girl in Bed in the opening scene, would be Bill's young stepmother in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

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