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Thursday, April 9, 2009

Movie Review:The Seat Filler


Well I came across this film on my Netflix queue, because it was a recommended movie and it was a watch instantly film, so I said “Hey, why not.” In this movie Duane Martin (remember him? Mr. Tisha Campbell) is Derrick a man trying to find his way in life and LA. He has a law degree and MBA, but alas no job. That means crashing at his friend’s apartment and taking the bus.

In order to get some extra cash to pay for his classes that prepare him to take the California State Bar Exam he becomes a seat filler. You know one of those people that sits in empty seats at award shows whenever someone goes to the bathroom, doesn’t show up, etc. While sitting in a seat at a music award show he meets R & B singer Jhnelle (played by Kelly Rowland in a major acting stretch), who literally falls into Derricks arms when she breaks a heel. They strike up a conversation and she sees what a nice and good looking guy Derrick is. However, Jhnelle doesn’t realize Derrick is merely a seat filler and thinks he is actually in “the business”.

Jhenelle sees Derrick at another awards show and thinks he is in fact Alonzo Grant the man whose seat he is filling. Derrick keeps up the charade of being Alonzo Grant, who is a powerful entertainment lawyer, because he is afraid that Jhnelle will find out that he isn’t rich, powerful, or drives a sports car. Derrick also goes to such great lengths as “borrowing” a Bentley, posing at Alonzo Grants office, and pretending to be a VIP at the club. Also while he is dating Jhnelle he starts missing his bar exam classes and he has to deal with her jack ass of a playboy ex-boyfriend (Shemar Moore playing a soap star. Once again an acting stretch).

Ok. So let me say I really watched this movie because Shemar Moore is in it, and I still have my high school-girl crush on him. I looked at the imdb page and saw it was released in 2004 and I wondered “Why didn’t I hear about this movie before?” I’ll tell you why. It went straight to DVD because this movie isn’t all that great. It had not one, not two, but three writers which include Duane Martin, Tisha Campbell-Martin, and Mark Brown to write this? Plus as a Romantic Comedy its “Comedy” really missed. DeRay Davis is the so called comic relief as Derricks friend EJ, who I didn’t find funny so much as annoying. Every time he cracked a joke I thought “Could you please SHUT UP!!!!”

The movie had potential with an interesting premise with the whole seat filler aspect (and honestly I wish I could be one to earn a little extra cash), but its just totally a by the numbers romantic comedy and entirely predictable. Don’t even get me started on Kelly Roland. As pretty as she is, I kept thinking as I watched her perform her songs in the movie “She ain’t no Beyonce!” She just doesn’t have that OOOMPH, IT, RAZMATAZZ that some popular perfomers’ have.

Even as much as I want to support my Black Romantic Comedies, I just cant stand behind this one. It seemed to drag on even at a mere 1 ½ hours. Now everyone has a different opinion and if you want to check it out and see for yourself then I say go ahead, but don’t come back whining to me that you want that 90 minutes of your life back.

I give it 1 ½ out of 5 tickets.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed the movie. Lighten up a little bit. The plot was excellent. However, it was poorly executed. At least 3 out of 5 tickets.

Mari said...

Never saw this movie but judging by the incredibly poor movie poster artwork...or lack of artwork...I'd say this movie sucks!! God, you can tell that Kelly's head was clearly taken from another image and just pasted on a body that may not even be hers! Can you tell it too!! BTW: great review, very nicely written!