maria_rojas-caleno I think this movie was pretty good. The film had some pretty good adaptation of the play and gave decent details on it. However, there was some changes. for example, in the play the Youngers never leaves the apartment and on the film they do. On the other hand, this is good because it gave a better understanding of what was like living in the late 1950s. Also, the film gave a better understanding of the racism that the Youngers suffered by changing the plot. I think that the movie was engaging and emotional, i would definitely watch it again.

jaded125 After reading the Lorraine Hansberry play, one would expect this film to be a grand portrayal of a struggling black family in the 1950's. What one gets is a poor adaptation of an amazing play. If Lorraine Hansberry were still alive, she'd kill over taking Sydney Poitier with her. The choice to have P. Diddy in the film in any capacity was a fluke, giving him the lead role was an even greater fluke clearly credited to an aneurysm. He completely overacted the role and made it hard to believe that this was based on Hensberry's play. Let's just face Sean Combs, you're almost as bad at acting as you at dancing. And considering you've been doing the same move since the 90's please stay off my screen. In addition to poorly casting what should've been the moving role of Walter Younger, Kenny Leon then apparently threw the play completely out the window and cast a far too old Sanaa Lathan to play Beneatha. Granted I believe Sanaa Lathan is a fine actress, she was too old to even be considered for the lively optimistic Beneatha. I spent half the movie asking why this grown woman was behaving like a child. The only commendable casting was Phylicia Rashad as Lena and Audra McDonald as Ruth. They were a beauty to watch and the only reason I didn't give this film a 0 rating. Overall I'd only recommend watching this film if you want to see how NOT to perceive this play or if your cable goes out and this movie just so happens to be on your Netflix queue.

Karlknight I would have given it 10 stars but Diddy Combs couldn't act opposite the other actors cast in the movie. He was just out of his league. The rest of the cast was great. He should of played a lesser role and cast someone else with an acting background to play Walter. Walters character was too complex for his skill set. He tried too hard and doesn't know how to bring out his emotion naturally, he tries to push it out. Overall the movie is a great movie. The women in the movie just smoothly flow as though they are not acting but really lived in that time period. The facial expression of the women and the body language during the scenes speak volumes and the words they speak just add to the depth of their characters. Diddy does have some great flashed of acting such as when he tells his family he is going to take the money from the white man and they should move. The next scene with Ms Rashad and Ms Lathan where she tells Ms. Lathan not to judge Walter so harshly is mind blowing. The movie sets where great, the costumes were great and the writing was great. John Stamos was his usual good performance. I do wish the African would have had more scenes he also didn't seem like he was acting or playing a character and you forget you are watching a movie and think you are looking at real life. If this movie doesn't evoke many emotions within you, it is not the movie but you are emotionally constipated because it is very deep and makes you think. You leave changed after watching this movie.

vchimpanzee In 1959 Chicago, the Younger family lives in a small apartment with cockroaches and other problems, although they have done their best to make it look nice.Walter works as a chauffeur for a white family that doesn't seem to acknowledge him as a human being. He is tired of "Yassir" and "Nossir" and wants to start his own business with friends Bobo and Willy.Walter's mother Lena works as a maid and is loved by the little girl she cares for, but she can quit that job now since she is getting a $10,000 life insurance check after the death of her husband.Walter's wife Ruth does people's laundry and raises their son Travis. Walter's sister Beneatha also lives with them, sharing a room with her mother. Travis sleeps on the couch in the living room.What is the best way to spend the insurance money? Beneatha could use it to go to medical school. She is in college now, and she has two potential romantic partners--George, who comes from a rich family and is about as black as Carlton Banks, and language professor Joseph Asagai, who wants to teach Beneatha about Africa.But Walter wants to open a liquor store. Imagine how that will go over with his devout Christian mother. Lena sees a great opportunity to move into a better neighborhood. But the people next door to the house she finds are all white and don't want blacks moving in.For the most part, this movie came across as the quality production ABC told us it was. The characters are strong and have values, but the question is how much will circumstances cause them to question those values.Phylicia Rashad will surely be mentioned at Emmy time. She was outstanding, showing so much emotion when the time came to do it. It's the first time I ever saw her play a truly black character. I had to look closely to make sure it was actually her. Up until now, she has played attractive, young-looking women who could have been any ethnic group but happened to be dark-skinned.Audra McDonald also did a very good job, and she was quite good-looking even here, with such a nice smile.David Oyelowo showed so much passion for his heritage and for teaching the woman he cared about to have the same passion.Not to take anything away from her performance, but Sanaa Lathan just got on my nerves. Perhaps that means she was doing everything right.Sean Patrick Thomas did a good job showing another side of black culture; in the 1950s most blacks did not have money, and despite having dark skin, he seemed out of touch with the problems of his race, quite content with life.Sean Combs didn't quite give the impression of quality that ABC had led me to expect. He was good, but almost always so bitter. I can't blame the writing, because Sidney Poitier played the role, and we all know he would have done a magnificent job with it. But Combs was good enough. Bill Nunn had one fine scene as Bobo. He was in several other scenes, but he lived up to the promise of this film.I liked John Stamos a lot on "Full House" (in fact, he was the reason I started watching the show in the first place). I liked him here. But surely not everyone will. He seemed out of place in this type of production. It was like watching Uncle Jesse facing Aunt Becky and trying to weasel out of having behaved in a racist way, mainly by explaining it was everyone else who wanted him to do it. But he was not threatening at all. This is certainly worth seeing.