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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (May 11, 2016)
Page 8 The Skanner May 11, 2016 Arts & Entertainment FILM REVIEW: ‘Captain America: Civil War’ Clutttered, Over- Ambitious Action-Adventure ‘Apprentice’ Winner Explains His Opposition to Trump Candidacy By Kam Williams For The Skanner News D Avengers split into factions over whether or not they should abide by governmental regulations in ‘Captain America: Civil War’ By Kam Williams For The Skanner News A fter overkill during an Avengers mission gone horribly wrong in Lagos, Nigeria exacts a terrible toll in terms of collateral dam- age, the U.S. Secretary of State (William Hurt) calls the team of superheroes on the carpet. He proceeds to chew them out for behaving like vigilantes with unchecked power, before suggesting they agree to be supervised in the fu- ture by a United Nations panel. While a remorseful Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) is willing to submit to the Anti-Hero Registration Act, Captain America (Chris Evans) is much more suspicious of these Sokovia Accords ratified by 117 nations. Next thing you know, the Avengers have split into fac- tions over whether or not they should abide by the governmental regulation. What ensues is a visually-capti- vating battle royal in which the al- lies-turned-adversaries inexplicably fight each other rather than resolve their ethical differences civilly. What does that tell you about whether they might need to be reigned in? Among those siding with Iron Man are Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), War Machine (Don Cheadle), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Vision (Paul Bettany) and Spider-Man (Tom Holland), And Captain America’s free- dom lovers include Winter Soldier (Se- bastian Stan), Falcon (Anthony Mack- ie), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Ant Man (Paul Rudd), Fans of the franchise are certain to delight in seeing so many of their fa- vorite superheroes together in the same episode. Regrettably, that is both the primary strength and weakness of this 13th installment in the Marvel Cin- ematic Universe series. For co-direc- tors Anthony and Joe Russo (“Captain America: Winter Soldier”) have clut- tered the screen by introducing and then failing to develop over a score of prominent characters, unless engaging in combat counts. Too bad they couldn’t come up with anything more interesting for the shat- tered, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. confeder- acy to do besides battling each other. Clocking in at two and a half hours, even the eye-popping special f/x-tend to gets a little tedious once the wow fac- tor wears off. An underwhelming exercise in sound and fury strictly for brains on pause. Fair H Rated PG-13 for extended sequences of violence, action and mayhem in English, German, Rus- sian, Romanian and Hau- sa with subtitles Running time: 146 min- utes Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures r. Randal Pinkett has established himself as an entrepreneur, speaker, author and scholar, and as a leading voice for his gener- ation in business and technology. He is the founder, chairman and CEO of his fifth venture, BCT Partners, a mul- timillion-dollar management consult- ing and information technology solu- tions firm headquartered in Newark, NJ. Dr. Pinkett has received numerous awards for business and technology excellence including the Information Technology Senior Management Fo- rum’s Beacon Award, the National Society of Black Engineers’ Entrepre- neur of the Year Award, and the Na- tional Urban League’s Business Excel- lence Award. He has been featured on “ Apprentice.” Raised in New Jersey, Dr. Pinkett is a proud mem- ber of Alpha Phi Alpha Fra- ternity, and attends First Baptist Church in Somerset, NJ, where he Dr. Randal Pinkett resides. He is happily mar- ried to his wife, Zahara, and they are the proud parents of their daughter and two sons. Dr. Pinkett firmly be- lieves that “for those to whom much is given, much is expected,” so through- out his endeavors, he places great em- phasis on his desire to give back to the community. Recently, Dr. Pinkett and several To people who keep wanting to dance around the question of whether he’s racist, sexist or xenophobic, let me suggest that he has a pat- tern of this kind of behavior nationally televised programs such as The Today Show, Live with Kelly and Michael, Nightline and CNN. In 2009, he was named as a potential candidate for Lieutenant Governor of New Jer- sey. Dr. Pinkett is the author of Campus CEO: The Student Entrepreneur’s Guide to Launching a Multimillion-Dollar Business and No-Money Down CEO: How to Start Your Dream Business with Little or No Cash and co-author of Black Faces in White Places: 10 Game-Chang- ing Strategies to Achieve Success and Find Greatness, which was named one of the Best Black Nonfiction Books of 2010 by the Los Angeles Sentinel. He holds five degrees, including a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University, where he com- peted as a high jumper, long jumper and captain of the men’s track and field team; a M.S. in Computer Sci- ence from the University of Oxford in England; and a M.S. in Electrical Engineering, MBA, and Ph.D. from MIT. Most notably, he was the first and only African American to receive the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship at Rutgers University and was the first, African American winner of Donald Trump’s reality television show, “The other “Apprentice” alumni held a press conference to voice their oppo- sition to Donald Trump’s candidacy. Here, Randal explains why he feels Trump is unfit to be President. Kam Williams: Hi Randal, thanks for the time. How you been, bro? Dr. Randal Pinkett: I’ve been bless- ed, my brother, I’ve been blessed. How are you? KW: Great! How’s the family? RP: Everybody’s well, my friend. Thanks for asking. How’re things on your end? KW: Let’s get down to business. Five years ago, Donald Trump pointed at his picking you as the winner of “The Apprentice” as proof that “He’s the least racist person there is.” What does it mean that you are now saying he’s unfit to be president? RP: I find his use of me as his de- fense against allegations of racism as not only absurd but as also misguid- ed. Consider the history of our rela- tionship, particularly my finale on “The Apprentice” when I expressed concerns then and, maybe my opin- ion now, that his decision to ask me to share the title was ei- ther racially insensitive or just straight racist. To display that behavior to- ward me, the only person of color he’d ever hired on the show, and to then say I’m the evidence that you’re not racist means that your privilege has so sufficiently blinded you that you don’t see the insidiousness of what you did then or of what you’re saying now. KW: How do you feel about his reaction to the six of you, calling you “failing wannabes?” RP: [Laughs heartily] His reaction was un-pres- idential, petulant and sophomoric. Read the full interview at TheSkanner.com
