Heaven Ain't Hard to Find (2010)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Fantastic!

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

I thought this movie/play was really good. I like the poetic license and how it was also biblically based. I hope to see more plays like this regardless of the actors/actresses ethnicities. Most theatrical/drama work these days have no plot and are mindless. This work had a plot as well as comic relief. Thank God for movies like these! There is nothing about this movie I would change. The singing were great too. There is nothing like good music to warm the soul. This was very good work. Although the production costs were quite modest, the quality was not lacking. So many movie production costs millions and the quality is absent, but not this one.

After reviewing the play, Lord, All Men Can't Be Dogs I decided since I did mention in that review that Heaven Ain't Hard To Find is another black play that's also ridiculous, I need to give my review of it also. I don't like to be negative without giving specific reasons why. I also don't want to be called a Hater as they say these days, which is what some people call you when you criticize their work. I want to make it clear that I am far from being a Hater, I am actually pulling for my black filmmakers, whether it's the big screen or an independent film, all I want is the film to be good. It doesn't even have to be great, just at least be good and not comprised of stereotypes and buffoonery because I'm actually trying to get me a good collection of black films & plays you filmmakers. I promise you, when I pick up a black film I AM HOPING IT's GOOD, I don't want it to be a piece of crap that makes me frown and say "What the Hell" while I'm watching it. Also, I do have a great sense of humor and I do understand quality comedy, drama or whatever as long as there is a good story line and there was none in this play. With that said, Heaven Ain't Hard to Find was a real nightmare, I was just too outdone at what I was watching. I can't go into the entire movie because there's not enough space allowed but I thought with a seasoned actor in it, Clifton Powell, it just may be good. Well, it wasn't ! ! First of all, I like Clifton Powell's work and he played his role well even though the script was a mess. Sometimes I just have to separate the actor from the script if he/she is doing their part, but why these seasoned actors take part in these films & plays when they know the script stinks is beyond me. I'm thinking maybe they're doing favors or they just need to get paid because they have expenses just like everybody else. Anyway, back to this crappy play. In the very beginning of the play, an inmate was up for parole, he was in an office with two other men, one was the warden, the other was a guard. Within a matter of 10 minutes or so, after berating the inmate, the warden basically tells him in a nasty tone that he's not being paroled then he tells the guard to take him back to his cell. Unfortunately, the writer thought it would be funny to make the prison guard a buffoon when usually guards are serious, no nonsense characters. The warden walks out first and just that quick, the inmate, with his handcuffs on, knocks the guard out and the next scene shows him arriving at some church, walking with no handcuffs on asking for a job as a handyman at this church. This is when it all fell apart. I can't get into too many specifics because I'm running out of space. The budget was clearly tight because most of the movie was in this one church and the inmate kept singing songs out of the blue that weren't relevant to anything whatsoever. It was almost as if he was debuting for his singing career instead of telling a story in this film, which reminds me, there was no logical story. Okay, the escaped inmate is hired to work at the church by three women who turn out to be ghosts. Mind you, he walked to the church so he's still in town and he is an escaped convict who has been working there for a while, yet no police are looking for him. Let me just get to the worst scene of all and you'll have to see the movie for yourself to witness the nightmare I endured. Here it is, the guard who got knocked out shows back up in the play close to the end, but instead of showing up with the police to arrest the escaped convict who knocked him out and is working in town at a church, somehow the guard is now mentally challenged and is offering information on this guy in exchange for money. Yes, I said mentally challenged, he was speaking and walking and twisting his hand as if he was mentally challenged. What's up with using the same guy who played the prison guard as the mentally challenged guy, how does that work? I'm already disgusted because the entire movie was already a mess and all over the place with no point, but that was the last straw. After all of the foolishness that went on in this movie, at the end they tried to be serious and send a message. As I stated in a previous review, to try to be serious at the end of a film after the majority of it has been pointless and foolish is absurd. That's like Jerry Springer having the audacity to try to speak words of wisdom at the end of his show after all of that trash & foolishness has taken place. I'm running out of space so let me end with this, my black filmmakers, your goal should be to produce a quality film that both you and the viewers will be proud of. You cannot make an Ego Film that is only good to you so you can tell your friends & family you made a movie and so you can see your name across the screen. If you make a flop all you're doing is wasting your time, the actor's time and the viewer's time, and you're also losing money that you can't recoup because negative reviews result in no sales and you end up with a room or trunk full of unwanted DVDs. Please do better people.