Thursday, January 10, 2008

Life of Brian redux

Amnesiac is watching American Gangster, a film about living the American dream Harlem druglord-styley in the early 1970s.

Everything is superfly.

She is sitting next to a Philippino maid and her assorted Arab charges. All are eating Doritos.

Just audible over their incessant crunching is a particularly tense scene between dreamy Denzel and the magnificant Idris Elba (who, IMDB tells me, is from Hackney. Hackney, incidentally, was once the north London version of Croydon but some time around 2004 turned into TriBeCa, giving hope to us all).

In this scene druglord Denzel is involved in a confrontation with young upstart Elba who, in a previous scene, had the temerity to try and tax him - cos Denz was in his yard, innit.

The confrontation takes place in front of a fruit stall. Remarkably, the scene of a load of pineapples doesn't detract from the tension.

HACKNEY MASSIVE ELBA: Yo man, yo want money from ME? Shiiiit man, no etc etc.

OLD BUT STILL FIT DENZEL: [Takes out a pistol and applies it to Elba's forehead while doing that unsmiling smile he does]

HACKNEY MASSIVE ELBA: Yo man, you gon' shoot me in front of aw dese people, muthafucka?

OLD BUT STILL FIT DENZEL: [Bang]

All hell breaks out on screen, people screaming, running, knocking pineapples over etc.
Cut to Hackney Massive Elba prostrate on the pavement, covered in blood, with a big hole in his head, before returning to dishy Denzel.

PHILIPPINO MAID TO KID, LOUDLY: HE'S A BAD BOY. A VERY BAD BOY.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

My god. Who takes the kids and the maid to an R-rated movie?!

Anonymous said...

Lol, innit like :)

Jester said...

I really enjoyed this flick, and Denz's performance as the stoic, calculating, cautious gangsta. He was surprisingly subtle as opposed to his usual devouring of the space around him!

Indeed "hee abery bad boe"