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SOUL MEN

With Samuel L. Jackson , Bernie Mac , Sharon Leal , Adam Herschman , Sean Hayes , Mike Epps , Isaac Hayes , John Legend , Jennifer Coolidge

Written by Robert Ramsey , Matthew Stone
Directed by Malcolm D. Lee

This is not the belated sequel to C. Thomas Howell's race swap movie Soul Man from the '80s...
Louis and Floyd (Sam and Bernie) were two old-school soul singers, once part of a successful trio back in the day. They split up when lead singer Marcus went solo, dropping them into obscurity - the one becoming a car wash chain owner, the other an ex-con. When Marcus dies, a show is organized in his honour with many special guest singers. Louis and Floyd are also invited. However, the two men are far from sociable - due to many years of head-butting, disagreements and some personal grievances (which adds to much of the plot further into thr movie). But, the two decide to swallow their pride and take a road trip from LA to New York for the slated Apollo show. Along the way the old personality clashes rear they ugly heads again, but as expected, they have to pull together. On their route they play low key shows to get back in the swing of things, ending up in many expected situations, some life threatening.
With some timeless soul flavoured tunes throughout, a welcome addition is a scene where they sort out a moronic rap wannabe who samples (read: “rip off”) one of their old tracks.
With a couple of good laughs (and several less so), this is no spectacular motion picture achievement, but what does make this an important movie is that it's one of the last to feature both Bernie Mac and the soul legend Isaac Hayes, before their untimely departure from this dimension.
Fans of John Legend will be glad to see him in the cameo role as Marcus.

3 / C
- Paul Blom


0 1 2 3 4 5 6
- A - B
- C


6 - Volcanic
5 - Blistering
4 - Hot
3 - Smolder
2 - Room Temp.
1 - Fizzled
0 - Extinguished

A: Multiple Viewing Potential
B: Deserves Another Look
C: Once Should Suffice

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