Forest Whitaker - See how they do?

Wassup, Y'all!

Hey - with all the Oscar buzz surrounding Forest Whitaker's knock out role as Idi Amin in the movie 'The Last King of Scotland' why is it that you can't find that bad boy in the first theater? It's been out in 'limited' release since September of last year but apparently gripping subject matter and Oscar worthy performances don't merit Borat sized openings (2,711 theaters vs. 113 for King). See how they do, y'all? That would be a state of affairs aptly referred to as WHACK!...

Ever since I peeped the trailer to this joint I've been waiting to get a ticket, my customary back row seat, some popcorn, Twizzlers and a cherry Icee to see my boy Forest transform himself into the former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. Word is that Don Cheadle's Hotel Rwanda performance didn't have a thing on him (peep that trailer and tell me I'm lyin'...). Same for Leonardo DiCaprio's take on Howard Hughes in The Aviator - both Oscar nominated performance by the way.

Old school Merle Streep hit it on the head during her Golden Globe acceptance speech for her role in The Devil Wears Prada where she found it hard to swallow that her 'commercial' film landed in every multiplex known to man, while other smaller (King's budget was just $6 mil - I think LeBron's Nike commercials cost more than that!) but more 'artistic' films landed in obscure joints with names like 'The Music Box' or 'Piper's Alley'.

At any rate, I'm just happy that the Hollywood Foreign Press, SAG and academy members either see these films directly or get nomination DVDs so credit can go where credit is due. Appropriately, Forest (seen here on the Globe red carpet with his boo Keisha) took home the Golden Globe for Best Actor in A Motion Picture. The smart money is for him to repeat the feat at both the SAG Awards and Academy Awards.

If so, maybe those knuckleheads at Fox Searchlight Pictures will do everyone a favor and send that bad boy back out in a wider release. I suspect since they'll make more money in the deal that chance of that happening are good since the only color that really matters in Hollywood is green (how else to explain the new generation of blaxploitation flicks like Soul Plane, Phat Girlz, Waist Deep, blah, blah, blah??). (Note: in fact, USA Today is reporting this morning that King - as well as a whole crop of smaller, artistic films - will get a wider release. Starting this Friday it's expanding to 487 screens...gee, a whole 374 more screens. Gee...still 2,224 screens behind Borat...let's repeat - WHACK!).

Yo Forest - even though I ain't seen ya - I'm still feeling you, homey! Congrats and see you at the Oscars, man!

Peace@Least,

Tyrone