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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Showtime Ent.
Salesrank: 52661
Released: December 16, 2003 |
| Our Price: $7.70 |
| Used Price: $2.54 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Good Fences reunites Goldberg and Glover for the first time since their now classic pairing in Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple in 1985. This is a story of an upwardly mobile yet dysfunctional black family who find themselves standing at the lily- white gates of the American Dream. They come to discover that nothing in life is just black and white and that the road to a better life may just be another path of struggle and survival.
Good Fences Reviews:
Good Fences 
2008-12-01 - I think is a good movie about racism with in the black community again one another
Thought-provoking in a way similar to "Crash" but not as well told 
2007-06-17 - Desperate Housewives meets The Jeffersons meets Crash
This is a movie you'd only watch in order to provoke a discussion about race and society and ambition, and since it's set in the past, even that discussion is of limited value. It isn't a well-told story, the plot jumps from vignette to vignette without a clear connection. Gradually you 'get' what's going on but the story is never fleshed out. It's more a series of snapshots that you're left to fill in the blank spaces between.
As others noted, the description on the back of the DVD case is totally off the mark - this movie is not at all funny or a comedy unless you like making fun of people with narrow stereotypical caricatures. I did not laugh once. Good Fences (a complete misnomer of a title, there are no fences in the movie, but I'm nit-picking) does have some very strong points as you observe what the two main characters are willing to do to themselves in the pursuit of a so-called better life; this element would be the basis for a very meaningful discussion and the reason why I gave the movie two stars instead of one.
The movie is rated R and definitely deserves it. There is frontal nudity and the seduction of a teenage boy, both completely unnecessary to the plotline. Hanging is portrayed, spousal abuse is intimated, bigotry runs rampant, drug abuse and other criminal behaviors are mixed into the suburban cauldron in a lame attempt to keep the plot interesting. Mostly I just ended up feeling sorry for the actors at being stuck in such a bad production. If the movie were recut it could be very powerful. As it is, you can assume that they slapped the "non-stop hilarity" label on the back of the DVD in a desperate attempt to get people to watch it. Go see Crash and watch The Jeffersons instead.
So Sorry... 
2006-08-29 - Yes, I'm afraid I can't agree with any of the reviews above, except that they are all right in saying that this movie certainly is not at all funny. (The only funny thing, in fact, is Whoopi Goldberg's absurd glasses.) This movie is a real snore. It doesn't start anywhere, and it doesn't go anywhere. It's too long and it pieces together all kinds of different scenes without any kind of rationale. The idea of the cost of upward mobility is interesting, but the execution is flawed, and I can understand why more people haven't heard of this movie.
Actually 3 1/2 
2006-08-14 - I agree this was not a comedy. The story of the black man that makes it far enough to where he is suspicious of other blacks living on his block was interesting. He actually set a house on fire so a black neighbor wouldn't buy it. I really enjoyed the curious white women also. The grocery store scenes were also quite interesting.
Towards the end when Glovers daughter had the blond hair and the contacts, I was saying damn, look how far things have gone. Wonder what daddy would have thought. As for the end, I wonder, did Mable ever tell Ruth what happened with the house. I liked the movie but have seen better ones with a similar plot.
True To Life!
2005-01-05 - I thought this movie was a comedy when I got it,but it is a far cry from that. Although there are some lighthearted moments in it, this is a heartfelt film.
Whoopie Goldberg and Danny Glover play a black family. Glover had a disturbing past with bigot whites in his youth. His determindation to make something of himself pays off and soon he and his family are living on easy street. However, things are not as they should be. This movie shows, I believe, that we must all be true to ourselves, rich or poor, black or white, we are happiest when we do not try to be what others what us to be.
No one can be happy when they surpress their true desires and try to live the way they feel others think they should.If we respect one another, try to live peaceable our world would be a much happier place to live in. I feel this was the basic of the movie and they did a very job in showing that.
