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Baadasssss!

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Baadasssss! (2004)

90%
90%
82%
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90 %
Reviews Counted: 104 Fresh: 94  Rotten:10 Average Rating: 7.4/10
 
Consensus: An entertaining and intriguing tribute to a father from his son.
 

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Runtime: 1 hr 49 mins

Theatrical Release: May 28, 2004 Limited

Box Office: $289,955

Synopsis: In "Baadasssss!" Mario Van Peebles pay tribute to his dad, pioneer black filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles. The Movie dramatically recounts the saga of what his father went through more than 30 years ago when Melvin decided to go against every grain in American filmmaking to make his breakout hit,... In "Baadasssss!" Mario Van Peebles pay tribute to his dad, pioneer black filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles. The Movie dramatically recounts the saga of what his father went through more than 30 years ago when Melvin decided to go against every grain in American filmmaking to make his breakout hit, "Sweet Sweetback's Baad Asssss Song." Following the success of his directing debut, "The Watermelon Man," made for a Hollywood studio in 1970, Melvin decides against all conventional wisdom to make a movie about a black street hustler turned revolutionary running from racist cops. And the only way to do this is with independent financing. He doesn’t stop there, though. Melvin insists on a multiethnic crew. To throw the then-white unions off the scent, he pretends he is making a porno. Every step is an uphill battle: raising money, crewing up, losing financing, recasting when SAG won’t sign off, running out of money, then refusing to submit the film to the all-white MPAA ratings board, meaning an automatic X rating. After sinking his heart, soul and family money into the project, Melvin discovers that only two theaters in the United States will play such a film. Encouraging Melvin are his white co-producer Bill (Rainn Wilson), his long-suffering secretary Priscilla (Joy Bryant), Clyde (David Alan Grier), a black porn producer anxious to break into films where people wear clothes, his Latino B camera crew operator Jose (Paul Rodriguez) and his even longer-suffering girlfriend Sandra (Nia Long). -- © Sony Pictures Classics [More]

Genre: Education/General Interest

Starring: Joy Bryant, Ossie Davis, David Alan Grier, Mario Van Peebles, Nia Long

Director: Mario Van Peebles
Screenwriter: Mario Van Peebles
Producer: Mario Van Peebles
Composer: Tyler Bates

DVD Info

Release:

Sep 14, 2004

[DVD Details]

Buy It On DVD

Reviews

 
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Ratings Image
3.5/4

Click to read the article

Full Review | comment Comment
07/14/07
Joe Lozito
Big Picture Big Sound
Ratings Image
N/A

A loving, even moving, homage to a man whose influence still reverberates today.

Full Review | comment Comment
03/01/07
Lewis Beale
Film Journal International
N/R

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Full Review | comment Comment
06/24/06
Time Out
Ratings Image
4/5

Slick tribute a family affair

Full Review | comment Comment
01/14/06
S. James Wegg
JWR
Ratings Image
2/5

Click to read the article

Full Review | comment Comment
06/25/05
Empire Magazine
Ratings Image
A

It is so refreshing to see a film with not one wasted second, beautiful acting, and a total understanding of its source material.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/17/05
Bill Clark
FromTheBalcony
N/R

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Full Review | comment Comment
05/31/05
BBC
N/R

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Full Review | comment Comment
05/13/05
Sydney Morning Herald
Ratings Image
2/5

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Full Review | comment Comment
03/05/05
Ethan Alter
NYC Film Critic
Ratings Image
4/5

Wit, energy, heart and soul!

Full Review | comment Comment
01/26/05
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall
Ratings Image
A

Informative, compelling, dramatic entertainment.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/25/05
Robert Roten
Laramie Movie Scope
Ratings Image
4/5

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Full Review | comment Comment
12/06/04
J. Robert Parks
Looking Closer
Ratings Image
B-

A personal film shot from the heart.

Full Review | comment Comment
09/14/04
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ratings Image
4/5

Who knew Mario had this much passion and creativity in him? A great tribute to his father's obsessive brilliance.

Full Review | comment Comment
09/10/04
Jimmy O
Film Snobs
Ratings Image
N/A

both as an atmospheric, often funny look at the wild world of independent moviemaking and as a surprisingly touching story of father/son bonding.

Full Review | comment Comment
09/09/04
James Sanford
Kalamazoo Gazette
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C+

Disappoints in being so decorous, but it's still a good yarn; though Mario has always been too stolid as an actor, he surrounds himself here with some reliably good turns.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/29/04
Nick Davis
Nick's Flick Picks
Ratings Image
B+

... so charged with love and a kind of astonished admiration that it would be small and unkind to dwell on its moments of clumsiness.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/25/04
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
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3/4

The most intriguing portions of this drama involve tales of how the elder Peebles circumvents the system in order to keep the camera rolling.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/20/04
Jon Niccum
Lawrence Journal-World
Ratings Image
N/A

It's an exhausting, and exhaustingly pleasurable, entertainment.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/01/04
David Denby
New Yorker
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
B+

Compelling both as a chronicle of guerrilla filmmaking and as a son's movie about his father, it presents a clear-eyed, warts-and-all view of artistic obsession.

Full Review | comment Comment
07/23/04
Marc Mohan
Oregonian
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Around the Network

• Baadasssss! at Rotten Tomatoes
• Baadasssss! at IGN
• Baadasssss! at AskMen
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