Talk to Me (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD] by Kasi Lemmons, starring Don Cheadle, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Bruce McFee, Mike Epps, Peter MacNeill: DVDNear.com

Talk to Me (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD]

Talk to Me (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD]
by Kasi Lemmons

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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Bruce McFee, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Don Cheadle, Mike Epps, Peter MacNeill
Director: Kasi Lemmons
Brand: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAIN.
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 119 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-10-30
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios

Movie Reviews of Talk to Me (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD]

Movie Review: God bless CC and its vanilla suburbs
Summary: 3 Stars

Director Kasi Lemmons ("Eve's Bayou") tackles the true story of Petey Greene, the ex-con who became an immensely popular DJ, community activist, comedian and TV show host in the Washington D.C. market from the mid 1960s up until his death in 1984.

Don Cheadle (who co-produced) delivers another amazing performance, and grabs your attention from the get go, as we find Greene working his first DJ gig-broadcasting live and direct from the warden's office over a jailhouse P.A. system. Judging from his fellow inmates' reactions, it becomes clear that Greene has a natural gift, not only for being hugely entertaining, but perfectly articulating what his audience is thinking as well.

In 1966, Greene is released, and through a series of machinations (and sheer chutzpah) manages to ingratiate himself with Dewey Hughes (Chiwetel Ejiofor), program director of D.C. "soul" station WOL. Against his better judgment, Hughes puts his job on the line and gives the motor-mouthed hustler a shot in the air chair. Before long, Greene's daily delivery of candid ruminations on the social issues of the day and the urban black experience strikes a chord with the D.C. radio audience. The story then follows Greene's subsequent ventures into television, stand up comedy and social activism.

Unfortunately, the final third of the film gets bogged down in the type of biopic cliché that has ultimately demoted other potentially great films into garden-variety banality ("Bird" and "Ray" come to mind). The film is ultimately about yet another gifted performer squandering his or her potential through substance abuse and/or self sabotaging behavior. Haven't we suffered through enough of these predictable story arcs?

I would have liked to have seen a bit more attention to detail in the depiction of the radio station milieu. Let me confess upfront that this is a pet peeve because I have worked in the radio business since 1974, so I tend to get nit-picky about technical inaccuracies in radio-themed films. Oh, and by the way-if I see one more movie set at a radio station that features a scene where a DJ defiantly barricades himself inside the studio and continues to talk while Management and/or security guards struggle to force the door open, I'll rip off my headphones and run screaming into the sunset. It just doesn't happen (that often).

The supporting cast is good, particularly Taraji P. Henson, who portrays Greene's long suffering girlfriend, Vernell Watson, with much aplomb (and a nod to Pam Grier). Cedric the Entertainer hams it up rather amusingly as late night DJ "Nighthawk" Bob Terry (recalling Venus Flytrap on "WKRP"). Also with Martin Sheen, whose talents seem a bit squandered here as a cartoon character GM who gets to fume and sputter and pound the studio window whenever Greene's antics get too risqué and scream cornball lines like "What in the blue blazes do you think you're doing!?".

I want to stress however, that the film is worth watching for two major reasons. Cheadle and Ejiofor. They are both tremendously charismatic and talented actors, demonstrating an onscreen chemistry that I think could turn them into a Newman-Redford sized juggernaut, should they decide to work together again (with some better scripts, I hope).

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All Talk to Me (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD] Movie Reviews

Summary of Talk to Me (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD]

Academy Award® nominee Don Cheadle portrays the one and only Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene Jr. in this funny feel-good and inspiring true story. Ex-convict Greene talks his way into an on-air radio gig with program director Dewey Hughes (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his unprecedented "tell it like it is" style breaks all the rules while electrifying a city and bringing a nation together when it needs it the most. Also starring Cedric The Entertainer Taraji P. Henson Mike Epps and Martin Sheen Talk to Me tells the extraordinary story of an outrageous and beloved voice ready to shake up the world in the movie critics are hailing as "fresh and revelatory" (Carina Chocano Los Angeles Times). System Requirements:Running Time: 119 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/URBAN LIFE Rating: R UPC: 025195000338 Manufacturer No: 62100064

There's no doubt: Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor are two of the most dynamic actors around. In their hands, Talk to Me becomes as graceful as an Astaire-Rogers dance and as volcanic as heavyweight championship bout. In this true story set in the 1960s, Dewey Hughes (Ejiofor, Dirty Pretty Things, Inside Man) works for a Washington, D.C., radio station that's losing its hold on its urban audience. When ex-con "Petey" Green (Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda, Crash) blusters his way into the station's offices, Hughes rejects him at first, but soon suspects that this fiery loudmouth might be the spark the station needs. Thus begins a long, rocky relationship between two men who need each other for success and friendship, whose mutual career turns explosive on the set of The Tonight Show. Though directed with smooth confidence by Kasi Lemmons (Eve's Bayou), Talk to Me would be a fairly conventional biography were it not for its two lead performers. Cheadle and Ejiofor make both of these men complex and contradictory, wary and deeply caring, proud and aggressive but often self-defeating. They bring this slice of history--Green's career is deeply intertwined with the civil-rights movement--to crackling life. Giving them solid support are Martin Sheen (The West Wing), Cedric the Entertainer (Barbershop), and Taraji P. Henson (Hustle & Flow) as Green's sexy and assertive girlfriend, Vernell. --Bret Fetzer

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Talk to Me (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD]