Very well executed

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

From my favorite movies..

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

This movie, the cast, the acting, the rap lyrics and the raps and rappers in this flick DO NOT disappoint!! I immediately LOVED this film, loved the cast and loved every song in this film. Everyone in this film, starting from Lil' Bow Wow right on through to the rest of the cast make this film well worth seeing and hearing. The rap lyrics are some of the most clevor I've ever heard... and the raps are a lot of fun when you get into the characters and the plot. I loved this film. Don't let anyone ever tell you to avoid a film you haven't seen yet, and don't believe a word of it when someone trashes any film. Who knows if they even have seen it? Rent... no BUY this movie TODAY. You'll be glad you did!

In my opinion, this movie was done quite well. It's story goes along pretty well with it's original opera version by Georges Bizet. But Lil Bow Wow was a bad idea, he was just there for product placement in my opinion, and the song sang with him when they are in prison doesn't occur in the real opera (Don Jose sings by himself), but the song's meaning is similar. The only thing that vexed me is the fact that the ending is different that the "Real" ending in the opera. I won't give any spoilers but both are done well and Da Brat narrating was a good idea. The lead parts (Beyonce and Mekhi) are done exceptionally well with Beyonce playing Carmen beautifully, capturing especially the sexuality and Mekhi capturing the emotion and love.

I really liked this one. I thought they did a great job of updating the story to the present day in a clever, believable way. I'm not a particular fan of hip-hop, either. There were some really clever lyrics (my favorite was the argument scene), yet the original score does underlie the whole thing. I liked it much better than "Carmen Jones," the 50s version of "Carmen" which degenerates into Broadway schlock at times.The man who played the evil cop did a really terrific job, and I hear he's usually a singer, not an actor. The supporting roles were really well interpreted and the people who played them well-chosen. I very much enjoyed the fortune teller, who seemed really ominous with his voodoo/Jamaican aura. The leads shined.My main gripe with the whole thing was the camera work, which was rather distracting at times. For example, there is a meta-commentary at the beginning and end of the movie, a rap done by a woman, and the camera constantly changes angles and splits into multiple images of the artist. I'd have much preferred a straight shot so that I could pay attention to what she's saying and her body language, which were good.Overall, I loved it and will see it again.

I'm in my 60's and I live far from any exposure to African-American culture. I always found Rap to be pretty annoying. But I stumbled across this on cable, and I really liked it. It helps that "Umbrellas of Cherbourg" is one of my all-time favorite films, and this had a very similar flavor. One refreshing feature of the film was the authenticity of the language. It always irritates me to see black kids in the ghetto (movie version) speaking something that sounds too close to acting-school English. The cast of this fiom, apparently, did not consist of trained actors who enunciated clearly in a ghetto-esque parody, but people who live and talk in that culture all the time, and it sounded real. At the same time, it was not so steeped in arcane under-culture talk that I could not understand it. So, 5 stars out of 5 for overcoming the language problem that mainstream films are so challenged by. I'd have liked more music---quite a bit of the dialogue was spoken in normal conversation---a lot more could have been put to music, since the commitment had already been made to use that device. I think the pace of the musicalized dialogue was very, very well done in terms of matching body language. Nobody seemed uncomfortable with the exchanges, or impatient for the imposed rhythm to catch up with the reaction. A neat job. Overall, this is a finely-tuned, slick vehicle that works. Whatever you think of African Americans or their music or their culture, this is a nice film that will perhaps endear you to this charming entourage.