---

When you have a sound clash, two sound systems battle records back and forth and the crowd decides the winner.  I’m going to put two films head to head and compare them. At the end, I will declare a winner. You can cast your vote in the ‘comments’ section. This is a recurring feature of the Screening Room we call…. FILMCLASH! To commemorate Valentine’s Day or whatever, I think we’ll be discussing black love films and romantic comedies all month. Or whatever.

So.

Written by Pam Gibson and journalist-turned screenwriter Nelson George, Strictly Business is the story of how a mailroom clerk (Tommy Davidson) teaches an Buppie (Joseph Phillips) a few things about love.  Boomerang, starring Eddie Murphy, written by Barry Blaustein and David Shefield, is about how upwardly mobile player Marcus Graham (Murphy) meets, Jaqueline (Robin Givens) a female version of himself, and gets caught up by the game. Both of these films were released in the early 90s, and neither age well. Boomerang, moreso than Strictly, for sure.

In terms of plot, both of these films may represent the, best, last black romantic comedies. These films are devoid of a lot of the coonage we’d see later in films like Sprung, How to Be a Player and Booty Call. Both films treat black people like complete human beings who live, who love, who hurt. We rarely, if ever, see the black man emote on-screen, so these pictures both get points for that. Also, they both note and comment on the next black middle class, and the dichotomous quandary they would face. Both of these films provide layered social commentary of their times. Strictly feels old, compared to Boomerang, but there is barely a year between them. Strictly definitely feels screened “in the moment,” like a snapshot of the times. Boomerang ages better. All in, you could buy both of these joints on DVD and not feel cheated.

Strictly fails as a vehicle for Joe Phillips, who has never found his groove as a leading actor. Ever. Comedian Tommy Davidson as the mail clerk in need of the “ups” is funny enough, if he ever made you laugh in the first place. But this is pretty much Halle Berry’s movie, who play’s Phillip’s love interest.  Berry looks as black she has ever looked onscreen in this film, and just a year later, when she would co-star in Boomerang as well, she would begin to look like she’d had some work done, whether she had or not. That is, her Caucasian features—her fair skin and skinny nose-seem more prominent in Boomerang. That’s not a knock, Hometown—it could very well be my imagination.

Powered by Eddie Murphy and Reggie Hudlin’s direction, Boomerang basically pushed everyone in it-including Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence and others-into the stratosphere.  One of the weirdest things about both of these movies is, we rarely see either of them on TV. This could be because of the pronounced dearth of white faces onscreen: it seems as if white folks are invisible in our world, and black folks are invisible in theirs. That piece isn’t so unusual. But films that feature a lot of cooning that are devoid of white folks seem to be in constant rotation. But these particular romantic comedies, where the black folks are human and dignified? Not so much.

Make of that, what you will.

This is probably a close FilmClash! because both of these films are good-to-great, for what they are. I think they are well-written, well-directed and socially significant-three qualities we don’t often see in tandem. I liked the Cosby-cum-my brother’s keeper, bootstrap message of Strictly. However, I have to give Boomerang the edge because I think this is one of the first black films of the 90s to really harness the power of the soundtrack and have it translate into box office and retail gold. Strictly tried, but it just didn’t flow.

What do you think? Vote in the comments section below. If we get 15 votes in two days, then the winner will go head to head with Martin Lawrence’s A Thin Line Between Love and Hate.

This story is filed under: Entertainment, The Screening Room

Read more like this in: boomerang, eddie murphy, halle berry, robin givens, strictly business