Customer Reviews

Forbidden Fruits

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I think this is an excellent movie. I love to see movies were racism is addressed. I think this movie is well worth the buy. And for Mr Mingo that says "Crash" was unworthy of an Oscar. I'm sorry to say that he must live in a fantasy world or you must not be a man of color because racism is not subtle. I am a black woman who has also traveled to other countries and I must say that I experienced racism overseas but not like I experience it here just about everyday. I would say overall they did a good job w/ this movie

I have never heard of this film until I saw it on TVOne last night! I figured I'd watch it just to see what it was about. I hear that MI has the largest number od Arabic speakers (probably mainly Lebanese and because Canada is not far away) and of course that would make this story unique to the Detroit area and not so much for the reast of the country.

Every time I see one of these "others don't want to mess with blacks;let's figure out why" films, I always laugh first and then I look at the casting! In Mississippi Masalsa, they made sure they casted African-Americans darker than the chosen Indians. In Bend it Like Beckham, they did the same thing... I notice that when it comes to other "people of color" and their quest to win favor with whites, they make sure that they try to show a clear disctinction even when the lines can become blurred, as in the case of Indians vs. Africans.

In this film, at least there are a few varieties (skin tones) of blacks, buuut there only seems to be two varieties of Arabic speakers - yellow/Asiatic and white-styled! This is what makes it appear as if the two groups are further apart on the race scale than they actually are! In this film, we saw no black Muslims - Nation of Islam and orthodox. We saw no 'black' arab or a "darker" arab. All we saw were people who looked alike, but anyone familiar with arabs knows that they range from jet-black to European white! Given that, how could they just use the Lebanese/Syrian types? Those types are more European in mixture than most others arabs groups, save from Tunisians and northern Algerians.

I just hate casting likes this. It is like making a movie about black/Puerto-Rican tensions when PR's are just light-skinned blacks! This adds up to the usual hot topic of interracial dating. I think a better place for this question would have been to take this movie and film it in an arab country! The results could have been the same! So you have the usual people from opposite groups who want each other and their groups oppose it. On the Arab side, the darker female seem to oppose integration with black more than the lighter ones. Always happens in real life even with hispanics. They are already dark enough and they want to lighten up instead of darken up!

So, they go back and forth with two people from each group dating. They show the arabs terrorizing the blacks and calling them the "N" and the "A" word. The "N" word is, you know, and the "A" word means salve in Arabic. It is similar to being called the "N" word. They also go into the arabs owning all of the package stores and how the blacks want the drinks so badly that they do not care how much they are insulted. All in all, this was pro-Arab propaganda that only has an affect on those who live in MI.

In the end, I did not feel good about the arabs nor the blacks. I am sure that there are arab groups who want to stay away from blacks but given the history or arabs, I always ask can they really NOT mix with blacks? I mean, that is in their system as much as a native-American is in a Mexican! Instead of doing films about why others won't date blacks, they should do one about why others do not have a problem dating whites! Or better yet, how whites don't have much of a problem dating blacks but others do? Now THAT is something to think about!

The reason this movie isn't good isn't because it has a bad message. It has a general message that basically amounts to "Yes, even minorities can be racist, and we should stop that."

This is a good moral, I won't lie. That doesn't mean this is a good movie. It's not.

Terrible, TERRIBLE acting all around. There was one point where a Muslim mother was waving goodbye at her daughter through a glass door, and I honestly couldn't tell if she was glaring at her daughter's friend, or just mildly staring at the window. Other moments had me literally want to look around and see if these actors were reading their lines off of a giant cue card, they were delivered so poorly.

Subtly? What's that? I know some of you want to excuse it with a "sometimes racism is blatant" but you know what? Not to this extent. Within the first half hour of the movie, you have two, maybe THREE actors say right to the screen, "BUT HOW WOULD MY PEOPLE RESPOND TO ME DATING [insert either black or chaldean/arabic race here]? YEAH, THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT". Within thirty minutes this happens. That's not "real life" that's called "very, very bad writing". Racism is blatant at times, yes. But there's a limit. And the fact that no one can go five minutes without mentioning race or religion (I think back to how every parent couldn't compliment a child of their race without adding religion into it, like "She's a good CHRISTIAN girl,"...with the director oh so subtly "implying with your you in the face with "unlike those filthy MUSLIMS, god I hate them") is...silly, to say the least. These people can't go get some ice cream without reminding the viewer that the their fudge bar reminds them of those disgusting black people.
And the lack of subtly doesn't just go for racism either. You know the rule 'show, don't tell'? It exists for a reason. Do not TELL me your feelings. I am not an idiot. I can read expressions. I can read people. "You know the only reason I hang out with [person] is because he's black/Arab and that pisses my dad off, right?" That is an actual line in this movie. Roll that around in your noggin. I lost count of the number of times characters just flat out said who and what they were ("I'm Chaldean, Catholic, and from the east," a girl said with no prompting whatsoever...just like every single other character would do). People do not do this. People ACT on how they feel, not spout their actions and motives as they are happening. If I'm angry at my father because he said he was going to take me to the movies and then decided not to, I'm not going to tell a friend talking about buying a TV, "By the way, I'm pissed at my father because he lied and take me to the movies like he promised. That's why I'm hanging out with Arabs now. Just so you know."

I'm really surprised by the number of people defending this movie. It's most definitely not deserving of five stars, even as a TV movie.

The overall hamfisted-ness of this movie is almost charming, really. The director clearly has no idea what he's doing, the actors are almost cringe-inducing. At one point my brother came in to watch this movie with me and he and I had a ball laughing at the shoddiness of it all. My brother is 14, with some of the worst taste in movies you can imagine, and he could see this movie for what it was: Entertaining for all the wrong reasons crap.

There's a good movie in this premise, there really is. The idea is that racism affects everyone, regardless of social class, religion, and skin color. That we should try to learn about others and their culture, rather than making assumptions based off of the media and one experience you had before. It is something a bit Michigan specific (shout out to my fellow Michiganders), The movie means well. It just didn't turn out into a great product. I give it an extra star because I had a good time listening to it in the background and laughing at some of the blandest delivery of what was intended to be emotionally charged lines.

This movie was outstanding. I love the message in the movie. Product came within a timely manner. I recommend this seller.

This was a really good movie. I think people should be able to fall in love with whoever no matter what race, ethnicity, cultural. We all could benefit from more movies like this.

A love story between an African American/Christian girl and an Arabic Muslim man, and the racial division between the two different cultures. This movie is a much purchase. This movie talks about issues that are tabu in our communities among blacks and Arabs such as interacial relationships. I think this movie is well worth the buy.

This movie is a much purchase. This movie talks about issues that are tabu in our communities among blacks and Arabs such as interacial relationships. The movie should be watched in our homes in order to bring dialog to the things that are never thought of or mentioned, but does occur and is often wondered.

This movie had horrible acting, no depth and clung to sterotypes like a baby clings to a bottle. All in all the movie was very cringeworthy...Definitely no bueno!

I read different reviews before purchase, for the price I decided to take the chance.I suggest that people should see and hear the message that this movie gives. The different cultures, the races and the reason why they couldn't get along.I am an African-American female and I am blessed that I was raised in a family that didn't judge to like or dislike a person because of their race, trust me in my time that was very hard. I was born in 1954 and that time was very hard, but my family teaching helped through all the race comments that I received.In this movie it even showed a minister, a man of God, it showed interesting comments about his thoughts. I loved this movie, because I understood the message it was trying to get over.and as adverse as our country is it's not time to judge the acting skills, the actors or anything of the source, just look pass all that and look at the message(not saying any of those things were bad) I just want you to look and listen to the message. Through the hard times I endured, I can smile this day I know Mexican-American kids that are friends of kids in my family call me Aunt,and kids in my family don't understand why they are tagged because of what they wear, I showed them the movie
I think this a great movie, just remember "The Message"

I really like how this movie touches issues on interracial couples and dating outside your religion