The BlackTrack #50: Def by Temptation

[@BlackMediaManCave]

Please Excuse how raggedy the video quality is. Still getting the hang of this new green screen!

[@hellbend23]

Another great choice to review. It was such a an oddity to me when I saw it as a kid. I don't even think I got all the way thru it. I appreciate the recap. ❤

[@therealmarlonbellamy]

This is one of the reviews that i’ve been requesting. Thank you so much. This movie walked so Vampire In Brooklyn could run, Wes Craven used it as a vehicle for Vampire In Brooklyn due to Kadeem Hardison being in it, it scared the crap outta me when i was kid & i didn’t rewatch it until i reached adulthood. I like it now & it has a positive message. My family rented this movie from the local movie store & it came on HBO a lot. I would not enter the room when my cousins watched it. Fun Facts: James Bond III & Kadeem Hardison were also in Go Tell It On The Mountain. The woman who threw her drink in Dougy’s face was Michael Michele. Her & Bill Nunn were in New Jack City as well. Jasmine Guy was supposed to play the succubus. Cynthia Bond could have been a scream queen & the female equivalent of Tony Todd. People say that Minnie Gentry is the great grandmother of Terrance Howard. The second bar tender played by Guy Davis is the son of the late Ruby Dee & Ozzie Davis & he was in Beat Street. The married man was played by Rony Clanton. He was in The Education Of Sonny Carson, Juice & The Godfather Of Harlem. This movie was banned in video stores because people were afraid that black people would riot.

[@WillPooleNYC]

I knew the bartender looked familiar!! So many dope extras in this flick. Thanks for the info Bro👍🏾

[@therealmarlonbellamy]

@@WillPooleNYCYou’re welcome bro. I love taking deep dives into movies.

[@WillPooleNYC]

@@therealmarlonbellamy Me too🫡 Also Minnie Gentry is Terence Howard’s grandmother, he lived with her in LA as she introduced him to acting and Hollywood. She’s one of the leads in the underrated “Comeback Charleston Blue”. I’d love to see a review of that one also, it’s the middle edition of the Harlem Trilogy written by Chester Himes. (Cotton Comes To Harlem, CCB, A Rage in Harlem). It’s on KZbin👍🏾⭐️

[@therealmarlonbellamy]

@@WillPooleNYC Thanks for the info.

[@nicolesherman8974]

Oooh, I’m excited for this video! I watched this movie last month for spooky season lmao. You can tell that James Bond III (the director) was inspired by Spike Lee considering the way Def by Temptation is reminiscent of She’s Gotta Have It the way the movie basically takes place in one neighborhood, which is somewhere in Brooklyn. According to Ernest Dickerson, James Bond III was in charge of he wanted in his film which isn’t surprising since almost half the cast was in School Daze and worked with Spike Lee at some point. (Kadeem Hardison, Bill Nunn, Sam Jackson, the director James Bond III, and John Canada Terrell, best known as Greer in She’s Gotta Have it). Fun fact: the brownstone where K (Kadeem Hardison) stays at was once Laurence Fishburne’s. Since both Fishburne and Kadeem Hardison were in School Daze, I thought it was cool Laurence hooked up Kadeem by allowing him to stay in his former brownstone. I thought the movie was okay. Cynthia Bond should have been our Black scream queen because I thought she was excellent. This movie definitely spells out first time director since the transitions and editing were clunky. I do enjoy the religious allegory placed in the film. I wish Joel’s character wasn’t the stereotypical church kid, who is naive and unaware of the secular world. For me, I would give Def by Temptation a 3 1/2 out 5.

[@therealmarlonbellamy]

Fun Facts: James Bond III & Kadeem Hardison were also in Go Tell It On The Mountain & James played the son of a preacher in that movie as well.

[@ThePrettyArcher]

Your commentary on the "package" had me in tears 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@SpidermanSav]

That TV scene always got me as a kid. Something about that Ronald Reagan head always creeped me tf out

[@StruggleReviewzTV]

This is my movie Bill Nunn is a riot!😁

[@mortalkombatarcadelover4479]

Fun Fact: Def by Temptation was filmed in 1988 months before some of the cast and crew went to work on Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing. The film was released two years later due to struggling finding a distributor. The film’s executive producer (Kevin Harewood) said New Line Cinema was one of the distributor to film the movie but eventually turned it down. Even though James Bond III worked with Samuel, and Bill Nunn on School Daze, Bond III personally cast Kadeem Hardison, everyone else was cast by people from Hush Productions.

[@ReeReeDaLovely]

A+ this movie spoke truth! It's disjointedness makes it great!

[@DaUnapologeticKoolBruhdah]

Great commentary! 👏🏿✊🏿

[@WillPooleNYC]

Great film and even better review. James Bond was a child actor from the Fish who Saved Pittsburgh & the AIDS victim was the lead in the Education of Sonny Carson which definitely deserves a review. I’d give the film a solid B but I’m here for all your hard work and thoroughly entertaining research. 👍🏾👍🏾

[@FriendlyNeighborhoodGeek99]

Another great video! Ive never seen or heard of this movie definitly up my ally!

[@therealmarlonbellamy]

It’s streaming on tubi, Peacock & Prime

[@JeaneGraye83]

I've never seen this movie, but after watching the review... I may have to find it and take a look at it. The commentary is comically hilarious as always😅. Thank you for uploading this!

[@therealmarlonbellamy]

It’s streaming on tubi, Peacock & Prime.

[@ThePrettyArcher]

Yayyyy I was waiting for this!!😊

[@bobbybr38k3r8]

So this is where that line came from 2:44

[@nicolesherman8974]

I forgot to mention this last video, but I wonder if you heard of the very slept on movies of 90s which is Just Another Girl on the IRT. It would be interesting if you decided to Black Trak since the movie is still relevant today. Also, you should check out I Like it Like That, a movie that came out the same year as Crooklyn which follows an Afro Latina and her family living in 1990s Bronx. Okay I’m done lol, but hopefully one day you cover the movie Fresh. Would love to hear your thoughts.

[@mortalkombatarcadelover4479]

I think Troma was only involved with the Temptress’s head exploding when the filter part happened. I wish James Bond III talked about what happened behind the scenes.

[@TG5455]

"I swear this was the set for every '80s R&B music video." Or a Janet Jackson music video in the '90s. 😆

[@coolkenny6961]

your funny bro in this video.

[@marcelrobinson]

I’m sorry, but Freddie Jackson has always been the poor man’s Luther Vandross to me.

[@WillPooleNYC]

They both from Harlem🤷🏾‍♂️

[@GenX7119]

Welp almost had a subscriber...smh

[@biglee8832]

Ok ok I see you!! 💪🏾💯💪🏾