Destination Planet Negro
Film
Review
by Kam Williams
Goofy Spoof
of Fifties Sci-Fi Flicks Explores Issue of Race in America
It is 1939,
and we find a committee of African-American leaders seeking a
solution for the "Negro problem." The group agrees that
blacks seem permanently relegated to second-class status because of
lynchings, Jim Crow segregation and racial discrimination.
After
dismissing such solutions as emigrating to Europe or going back to
Africa, they are pitched on a plan by Dr,. Warrington Avery (Kevin
Willmott). He suggests that African-Americans attempt to colonize
Mars, and turn the red planet into a virtual utopia where they will
be entirely free from white oppression.
And
wouldn't you know, a spaceship has already been built and George
Washington Carver (George Forbes) has developed an atomic rocket fuel
made from peanuts and sweet potatoes. The crew volunteering for the
maiden voyage consists of Dr. Avery, his daughter Beneatha (Danielle
Cooper) and their pilot, Captain Race Johnson (Tosin Morohunfola).
The three
astronauts blastoff, travel through space and eventually crash on the
surface of what they believe to be a distant star. However, only
after christening it "Planet Negro," do they gradually come
to realize that they've time-traveled to the future and landed back
on Earth in present-day Kansas City.
There, the
trio is in for quite an awakening, between discovering that the
United States has an African-American president and that blacks now
use the "N-word" as a term of endearment . "Where we
come from, that's what they call you right before they kill you,"
Dr. Avery explains to B-12 (Trai Byers), a rapper ostensibly
oblivious of the slur's ugly legacy.
Written and
directed by and starring Kevin Willmott, Destination Planet Negro is
a goofy spoof of the B-movie genre that's basically played for
laughs. Yet, it simultaneously serves as a sophisticated satire that
makes some thought-provoking observations about American culture
`along the way.
In that
regard, it is reminiscent of Willmott's own C.S.A.: The Confederate
States of America, a brilliant, alternate-reality comedy which
speculated about what the country would be like today if the South
had won the Civil War. As for Destination Planet Negro, it's also
highly recommended, provided you're in the mood for a campy,
low-budget sci-fi whose cheesy special effects are more than offset
by a profusion of insightful social statements.
Excellent (4
stars)
Unrated
Running time: 98 minutes
Distributor: Candy Factory Films
To see a trailer for Destination
Planet Negro, visit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXHmOxa0wX4
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