Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

JLRVancouver Three generations of a struggling black family living in a small Chicago apartment in a deal with a sudden financial windfall. Based on Lorraine Hansberry's ground breaking play and staring most of the stage cast, "Raisin in the Sun" is a poignant portrayal of conflicting values and hopes in poor family, both between generations and between genders. Sidney Portier is excellent as Walter, a young father who feels trapped in a servile and dead-end job who sees the insurance payout as an opportunity to go into business, as is Claudia McNeil as his mother, the beneficiary of the settlement who dreams of buying a house for her family. McNeil also brings the perspective of the struggles and sacrifices that brought the family to their modest but dignified lives and who bristles when the younger children complain about their lot. Diana Sands is also very good as daughter Beneatha, a university student for whom the settlement would cover medical school tuition. Beneatha also represents the growing involvement of black youth in racial-politics and interests in their African origins. Ruby Dee rounds out the cast as Walters' pregnant and desperate wife. The story is driven by the conflicting values of the characters with some references to the external issues, such as racism (as personified by a community representative (John Fiedler) who tries to convince the family not to move into his neighbourhood). For a story dealing with such sensitive and politicised issues, the film is refreshingly not heavy-handed, preachy, or self-righteous. I am very much an outsider with respect to the film but found it entertaining, thought-provoking, and very well done.

mark.waltz It's hard enough to make it in this world as a white man without money, let alone being a black man on the outside looking in. For the superb Sidney Poitier, he's imploding inside his insecurities of being a failure in the eyes of his family and be able to truthfully call himself a man. He's married to the hard working Ruby Dee who loves him with all her soul, but a distance she doesn't understand has grown between them. Poitiers's sister (the enigmatic Diana Sands) is also striving to better herself, attending medical school and trying to "express herself" with a variety of hobbies she dumps once bored with them. A slap across the face from family matriarch Claudia McNeil after taking the Lord's name in vain only briefly wakes her up. This is a black family in changing times losing their way, and it's up to the no-nonsense McNeil to bring them all back together. Repeating her Broadway role and commanding every moment on screen, Claudia McNeil is award worthy as the heart and soul of her family. She loves her two children unconditionally but no longer understands them. That's why she has made Dee her confidante and training to take over as head of the family. A scene where she sentimentally talks about her dead husband reveals the truth inside the soul, admitting the man's imperfections, but loving him long after he's dead just the same.The plot line surrounds the fight over an insurance check McNeil is waiting for, with Poitier spending somebody else's money even before they get it. Poitier wants to buy a liquor store, while McNeil wants to buy a house so the family (which includes Poitier and Dee's young son, Stephen Perry) can move out of the slums. But this creates many issues, not of which the least is the white neighbor's desperate attempts to prevent them f on moving in. A timeless tale of how dreams exist in everybody's life, no matter the age, this has had two hit Broadway revivals since the beginning of the millennium, spawned an unofficial sequel ("Claybourne Park") and even been musicalized. It is a powerful character drama where a man is revealed to have not really grown up, the women who strive to help him even when it seems that he's beyond help. McNeil may not like what her children become, but her nurturing heart pulls the family together. A climactic breakdown in Poitiers's character may be the wake-up call he needs to become a real man, just like a wake-up call that sobers up a drunk. This is one of the all time classics and one that deserved more award attention in 1961 than it got.

Lee Eisenberg Daniel Petrie perfectly adapts Lorraine Hansberry's play about an African-American family in 1950s Chicago. We see how the desperation of their existence drives every member of the family to do rash things, and how they have to fight racism every step of the way.Watching the movie, it struck me how "A Raisin in the Sun" must have looked when it debuted on Broadway, and then in cinemas. You see, this movie depicts not only an African-American family, but also a man from Africa, who helps the sister start thinking seriously about her heritage, and so she begins saying things that I would have expected to hear from Malcolm X. Moreover, the husband (Sidney Poitier) asks the sister's friend about why he wears "faggoty-looking white shoes". By that point, how many movies had employed derogatory language, much less anything about homosexuality? Without a doubt, this has to be seen as one of the movies representing the new path that cinema was taking in the 1960s, focusing more on real-life issues than escapism. And it is definitely one that I recommend. Also starring Ruby Dee, Diana Sands, Claudia McNeil, Roy Glenn, Louis Gossett, Ivan Dixon and Stephen Perry.

MarieGabrielle The American dream,and the loss of it, this film is relevant on many levels, dealing with financial strife,racism,dis-equity among working classes.It is more relevant even today, as people in America are seeing their houses devalued,loss of once stable jobs,and the struggle to endure.Claudia McNair is simply superb as the grandmother, and glue which holds the family together. Sidney Poitier is Walter Lee, who is stocking all of his hopes in the 10,000.00 his mother is getting, from the deceased fathers life insurance policy.Beneatha is the younger sister, attending premed in college with her own dreams and aspirations, which her mother and sister-in-law Ruth (superb performance by Ruby Dee), have difficulty understanding. A related scene when they burst out laughing as Beneatha takes up yet another hobby to express herself,the women's issues that were at the forefront during the 1950's and 1960's are evinced, as well as the racism issues,and unequal treatment.An odious role with John Fiedler as a racist member of the Klyburn Park Homeowners Association,trying to pay off the family to not purchase a house in his neighborhood.Overall excellent performance by Poitier as a young man trying to make his mark in a hostile society,this film is classic,must see.10/10.