Soul Man

Surprisingly, this movie isn't as racist as its blackface premise would lead you to believe. However, it is often unsurprisingly just as unfunny and cringeworthy as you would expect. Seemingly, the movie genuinely tries to teach a "mile in another person's shoes" type message with its attempts to poke fun at offensive racial stereotypes, but it's just never very clever. However aside from the attention grabbing premise, the love story and the rest of the movie just feel too generic 80's rom/com.

Pretentious "social significance" comedy that doesn't grate on your nerves *too* badly

"Holy shit..." should've been the tagline.

Essentially a modern day blackface routine. I can't believe this even got made.

It's pretty unbelievable that this was made in the 80's, and there's no way it would be made today. Still, I actually think that the intentions were good, but they failed miserably and ended up enforcing racial stereotypes instead of preventing them. Howell's makeup isn't even remotely convincing, and you'll feel sorry for the actors he's interacting with. If you remove the gimmick, it's actually a pretty standard 80's teen comedy which might at least provide you some nostalgia.