Review of "Amos and Andrew"

After watching all the "circus" around 2012 US presidential election, where both sides threw "racist" accusation left and right, I was reminded of this vastly underrated comedy of error from the 1993: "Amos and Andrew."

Seriously, if you want to have basic knowledge about racism in USA, just watch this movie.

The movie is about a famous African-american professor and playwright, Andrew Sterling, who just moved to an island in New England. Very unfortunate of him, his white neighbor mistook him for a thief when they saw him set his stereo-set. They called the police, and a trigger-happy officer shot him. Repeatedly. The police realized their mistake later, but it was too late. So, they tried to cover it up. They made a deal with a petty criminal named Amos O'Dell, forced him to take Sterling's hostage. Meanwhile, the neighbors who started all this mess were pissed since they felt that they deserved MORE attention from the media, so they contact all major medias and started a national crisis. When a black-reverend friend of Sterling saw this, he lead an angry-black mob to the scene. Of course we all know this couldn't end well for anybody ...

First, the main casts & characters. Both Nicholas Cage who played Amos O'Dell and Samuel L. Jackson who played Andrew Sterling, put beautiful performances. Cage really used his "lazy bum" persona to maximum effect here, while Samuel L. Jackson showed that he can acts in role other than "a tough mothafucka" that become his image in all his well-known movies.

Second, the supporting casts and characters. The inept policemen really cracked me up whenever they were on screen. One of them even painted his face BLACK before "kicking some shit." So does the racist neighbors. And their dog. Aaaah, their adorable WHITE dog is so CUTE!!

Third, let's talk about racism. Unlike other movie that used racism as its theme, "Amos and Andrew" escaped the "all blacks are victims and many whites are racists" cliché.  It depicted racism from BOTH the whites and the blacks, and showed how racism imploded BOTH sides. Oh yeah, despite being a criminal, Amos O'Dell is actually THE LEAST racist important character in this movie, while on the other hand, Andrew Sterling is arguably one of the most racist. And that reverend friend of Sterling was a certified bigot-idiot who ALWAYS feels victimized. This is what I dislike from "racism" discourse in the US: many blacks react against racism from the whites with their own racism. Sometimes, whites even feel compelled to reverse their racism by doing "positive" racism. Just ask any blacks or whites who voted for Obama ONLY because of his skin color. This movie eloquently pointed out that both sides can be racist, and both sides would end in fire, sooner or later, if they keep it up.

Oh, one last thing. Ironically Samuel L. Jackson actually gave his vote for Obama ONLY because of the similarity of their skin color. Looks like he really forget this movie.

In the end, this movie never lost steam. It cracked one smart joke after another, from the beginning until the end. Kudos for that. A solid 95 out of 100. Watch it, especially if you want to know about racism in USA.