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May 2006

Somthing New Review

By Kam Williams

Somthing New Review

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Cast: Sanaa Lathan, Simon Baker, Mike Epps, Donald Faison, Blair Underwood, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Alfre Woodard, Golden Brooks, Taraji P. Henson, Earl Billings
Director: Sanaa Hamri
Rated PG-13 for sexual references
Running time: 100 minutes
Studio: Universal Studios Home Video
Format: Widescreen, NTSC
Run Time: 100 minutes
Features include:
-An Introduction To The Film By Blair Underwood
-The Do’s and Don’ts of Dating Introduced By Blair Underwood – How close are men and women in their concepts of dating? In this humorous featurette, hear what the cast of Something New has learned in their years of being on the dating scene.
-The Making of Something New – Behind-the-scenes with interviews from the cast and crew.
   

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Blind Date Leads to Black-White Love in Cross-Cultural Comedy

Kenya (Sanaa Lathan) is an ambitious overachiever with a great job at a top accounting firm. Her girlfriends, a judge, a pediatrician and a banker, are just as successful. And now that she’s just bought her own home in an exclusive section of Los Angeles, the only thing Kenya’s missing is a man to share her practically-perfect picture life with. But because she’s African-American, she is well aware of the statistic which indicates that 42% of black females are fated never to marry. So, she finds herself on weekends sitting around commiserating with similarly-situated sisters about their dire prospects for a satisfying social life. This is the point of departure of Something New, a delightful romantic romp which suggests that Kenya’s problem is that she’s limited her options by
waiting for an IBM, meaning an Ideal Black Man, instead of considering dating a dude of a different color. Fortunately, she does manage to meet Mr. Wonderful in spite of herself, after agreeing to a blind date.

As soon as she meets Brian (Simon Baker) the sparks start to fly. Yet, she loses her composure, solely because he’s white. So, the picture establishes a palpable tension between the lovebirds as the relationship deepens, and as loved ones learn of their liaison.

But the cozy couple gradually forgets about superficialities as they deal with more meaningful differences. Mixing mirth with more sophisticated moments, Something New ultimately triumphs primarily because of the easy-going screen chemistry generated by Sanaa Lathan and Simon Baker.

For they are quite convincing in conveying the idea that this workaholic ice princess’s reservations and skepticism would prove to be no match for the earnestness of a handsome, laid-back landscaper with enough passion, persistence and patience to melt her heart and to turn all their friends and family completely colorblind.