Carmen: A Hip Hopera (2001) (TV)

Director:

Robert Townsend

Writer:

Michael Elliot (written by)

Release Date:

8 May 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Musical | Drama

Plot:

Carmen, a seduceful aspiring actress seems to lead trouble everywhere she goes. But when a hard-nosed cop...

Plot Keywords:

Actress | Tragic Love | Melancholy | Remake Of Remake | Hip Hop

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Mekhi Phifer	...	Hill
Beyoncé Knowles	...	Carmen Brown
Mos Def	...	Lt. Miller
Rah Digga	...	Rasheeda
Joy Bryant	...	Nikki
Wyclef Jean	...	Fortune Teller
Da Brat	...	Narrator
Jermaine Dupri	...	Pockets
Bow Wow	...	Jalil (as Lil' Bow Wow)
Casey Lee	...	Blaze
Reagan Gomez-Preston	...	Caela
Sam Sarpong	...	Nathaniel
Troy Winbush	...	Sgt. Tony Porter
Fred Williamson	...	Lou
Yuri Brown	...	Nori

Also Known As:

Carmen Brown (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence, sensuality, and drug content.

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Carmen Productions

Quotes:

Blaze: Hello, I'm Blaze. But my friends call me Case...
[Carmen cuts him off]
Carmen: I know who you are. I'm Carmen.
Blaze: Nice to meet you.
Carmen: Nice to meet you.
Blaze: So what's a fine lady like you doing in Philly? Small town masquerading as a big city.
Carmen: I won't be here for long. See I have dreams... plans.
Blaze: I wanna hear about 'em.
Carmen: [sucks teeth] Pssh. No, you don't.
Blaze: No, really. I'm interested.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Remake of Carmen Jones (1954)

actually quite good

Robert Townsend for me was not the ideal choice to make this, nor would I have used Beyonce Knowles as my first choice to play the lead Carmen Jones in this updated version of Bizet's classic opera 'Carmen'.

In the films defence I will say the music was great,and she may not act that well but Beyonce can sing people and she looks hot. Remixing some of the original Carmen score worked really well and Mekhi Phiffer was as always very good. On Mos Def I will say he is a peculiar guy, sometimes it seems he is acting real good, all laid back and sometimes it seems as if he is heavily stoned and cannot remember his lines!

Overall the concept of remaking Carmen into this MTV hip hopera was a very good idea and I think it worked well, given most of the cast were non actors.