EDITOR’S NOTE: For Ghz Rewind we like to dig in the archives and repost a nice diddy you might have missed
The movies we pick aren’t necessarily classics, but we like them anyway. We might like them even better if they were recast like this:
The Devil’s Advocate
Kevin Lomax is a hotshot southern lawyer who knows how to play the game. He gets the opportunity of a lifetime when he is offered a job with a law firm that promises many opportunities. He takes his wife to the Big Apple in hopes of a better life and a good job. He only finds himself on the receiving end of trouble when his boss is the Devil himself and has some treacherous plans up his sleeve for Kevin. — From IMDB.com
The Devil’s Advocate is one of those movies where the revelation that Al Pacino is no angel comes as no surprise. It’s more of a journey watching him go to work on Kevin (Keanu Reeves) and seeing all the schemes, plans, and string-pulling he was in charge of as they are slowly revealed. Plus, Al gets his yell on in an over-the-top damnation scene.
Kevin Lomax: Keanu Reeves / Morris Chestnut
Morris did well as a young career-driven lawyer in Two Can Play That Game. He has the look of a well-intentioned but still a little dirty dude. Your typical All African-American kind of guy who might be going to hell. It may be difficult to hear his lines over all the Oohs and Ahs from female members of the audience.
John Milton:Al Pacino / Morgan Freeman
We had to replace one Academy Award winner with another one (or at least a nominee), but unfortunately that leaves us with Sidney Poitier and Lou Gosset (both TOO old for the roles), Samuel Jackson–too predictable, “Training Day” Denzel, and Forest Whitaker, who even playing Idi Amin in Last King of Scotland just seems like too nice of a guy to be truly evil. Enter Morgan Freeman. He’s a talent, and he’s got to be chomping at the bit for a chance to break typecasting. The most magical Negro of them all might appreciate using his powers for evil for once. Besides, when was the last time you saw Morgan get any action on screen, let alone a menage?
Mary Ann Lomax: Charlize Theron / N’Bushe Wright
Now we need somebody who can play a strong woman, and N’Bushe has shown that again and again. But she has to lose it too — not N’bushe, right? Wrong, wrong. Check her out in a little movie from ’93 called Fresh, where she played a sympathetic heroin addict. WELL. And why not, the men need some eye candy too.
Mrs. Alice Lomax: Judith Ivey / Debbie Allen
The mama in the movie was all saved and going to church now, but as a teen, she got her freak on in one night of passion with a slick city boy—who was a little more than he seemed. Debbie looks like a Mama today, but we all know how she used to look on Fame (the movie and the TV show). So she’d be believable as a once-wayward saint, and way more relatable, too.
Christabella Andreoli: Connie Nielsen / Kerry Washington
Did I say eye candy? This character was brilliant, intriguing, a temptress. So we here at Grown Headz (okay, I) figured that the world needs more of Kerry Washington, not just looking good but looking DAAAmn good. Like in I Think I Love My Wife. Up until that movie she had always been cute, but after that movie the line of bruhs wanting to holla grew exponentially! In addition, she can be believable as an ambitious, big-time lawyer.
Check the trailer:
