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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Salesrank: 61453
Released: October 16, 2001 |
| Our Price: $8.83 |
| Used Price: $7.98 |
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
You've been Coffy-tized, Blacula-rized and Superflied. Now prepare to be glorified, unified and filled-with-pride with this "breakthrough film" (Variety) that delivers "enough solid laughs forany audience" (Boxoffice)! With "a combination of seriousness and warmth that is rare in anyfilm" (Players) and a sense of family that anyone can relate to, "Five on the Black Hand Side" is "a wisely entertaining film" (New York)! In the Brooks family, Papa may rule with an iron fist but Mama's about to slap him down with her open hand! Tired of being told what to do and when to do it, she goes to war! Swapping her old housedress for army green duds and combing her tidily coiffed head into a ceiling-scraping 'fro, she takes to the roof on strike until her browbeating, penny-pinching, gas-passing husband agrees to meet her bill of rights!
Five On The Black Hand Side Reviews:
More Corn & Cheese Than A Bag Of Cheetos Mixed With Doritos 
2009-09-13 - Anyone in their right mind, especially a black man/woman would find this movie degrading and insulting. This is coming from someone who is not black, but watches this movie set black people back 100 years. From the domineering husband to the fake African homage. Then to top it off, they make black people seem like they have no sense at all.
I mean, you got the father, who talks in a fake English accent. Then the mother who acts like a total victim in the whole movie. Plus add the recluse brother and the political activist brother, especially with their constant bickering and you have got another civil war type movie, only modern and black. The people who made this move need to crawl back in a cave and stay there.....
Groundbreaking is not the word. 
2008-08-01 - Most blacks I know love this movie, even the most Europeanized. It is the first film that I am aware of to depict such a pro-African mindstate for African Americans. How groundbreaking this was in 1973 is lost to the people of today who can not comprehend the extent of anti-Africanism in American culture and what it was like for these first years when African Americans formally became full citizens in America. This film has yet to be followed up as it drowned in the mist of blaxploitation.
Though I'm sure some African Americans out of touch will not get this movie, but it is interesting to note that the only person who rated it low on here was icebergslims, who I know to be white, though many of his reviews show an interest in Africana studies. Many of his reviews are spot on and insightful, though his distance from the experience is evident and an obstacle to depthful comprehension.
However, because the black experience is experienced and not read about or watched on TV or even from black friends, there is an ineffable reality of the black existence in america that has aspects of it that are esoteric to the black community. Such esoteric experiences are common in any marginalized group. It crosses over to gender or sexuality,etc. For example, no matter how much I respect women there are many things about there existence I wont get, simply because I am not one. Likewise, some nonblack people will be unable to get the lure of Five on the Black Hand Side. Sure they know there is a meaningful message but it does not overide the "corny" aspect of the film. Corny because it's not full of the typical dolemite, of which Icebergslims admits to be a great fan of, or richard pryor bambozzled humor? To the liver of black experience it is the subtleties of the experience revealed in the film (even as a man I cried when the mother looked at her new afro in the mirror, and said,"is that me?")that no amount of black research will make nonblacks sensitive to.
That being said, this is such a powerful movie. Watch it not to be thrilled with great acting or even plot, heck, not even message. Instead be moved by the spirit of Five on the Black Hand Side.
Well meaning but dated and corny movie
2007-04-08 - Being a fan of obscure quality African American cinema I figured I would give Five on the Black hand Side a try. After buying the title and attempting to sit through the movie 1.5 times, I found it rather dull and boring and overly corny. The movie lacks the energy and charisma that other African American classics like Cooley High have. Alot of the humor seems forced and invokes very little laughter.
The movie definately presents African Americans in a positive light compaired to other 70's African American films. Unfortunately, the movie just has no entertainment value and its black consciouness does not help the movie above it's lethargic flow. I really wanted to support or like this movie on the merit of the issues presented but I simply could not. I am sure themes presented in the movie could possibly be done with a more entertaining result.
Perhaps its because of a generation gap since the movie was done well before my birth? Somebody that lived in the seventies era might enjoy it much more than myself.
"A Time of Innocense"
2007-04-07 - This film harks back to a time when africentricity was woven into the psyche of the younger generation. Blackness informed all of their life decisions and defined their aesthetic. This is definitely true of the younger generation in this film. Another dynamic at play in this film is a sort of intergenerational upheaval. Some members of the older generation were reconsidering their long held beleifs on what it meant to be Black in America while the rest of the older generation stood firm staunchly defending their fossilized ideals. So if you're in the mood to see a comedic family film with a post sixties revolutionary air view "Five On the Black Hand Side" and breathe in the culture!
Somebody Give me Five on the Black Hand Side!!!!!
2005-08-11 - I had a chance to see this movie over this past weekend and I must say I found this movie very funny and at the sametime very powerful. I had saw a little bit of the movie like a month ago and from the little part I saw I thought the movie was boring until I found out that my girl Ja'Net DuBois (I'm a huge fan of hers!!!) was in so I had to see it again and once I saw it from beginning to end I feel in love with the movie. The interactions b/w Ruby and Stormy Monday were funny as heck and Mr. Brooks attitude towards his wife was just straight NASTY!!!! I'm glad that Gladys had came to her senses to tell Mr. Brooks that she wasn't going to take his stuff nomore and that she was out if he didn't start treating her like a human being instead of like an animal so I was glad that he got his stuff together too. Sad to say that its men out there who treat their women like the way Mr. Brooks does Gladys in the movie and much worser and there is many women who doesn't have the courage that Gladys had to tell him enough was enough. Anyways I also enjoyed Marvin and Gails wedding it was a very beautiful wedding and my girl Stormy Monday a.k.a Ja'Net DuBois looked so Beautiful in her dress and her hair was cute had all the men looking at her when she made her toast but all in all I really enjoyed this movie alot!!!!
