Opening today, Soul Men features the final performance from Bernie Mac, who died unexpectedly on August 9. The movie also includes a cameo from Isaac Hayes, who died one day later. Both men join a long list of people whose last films were released after their deaths, a list that includes Brad Renfro, whose final performance, in The Informers, can be seen in theaters come next May.
Unlike some names on that list, Bernie Mac, whose voice can also be heard in the new animated sequel Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, isn’t likely to receive a posthumous Oscar nomination as a tribute to his final work. But as one of the most underrated comic actors of the past few years, Mac likely gives a great performance as soul singer “Floyd Henderson,” enough to fall in with the crop of posthumously released roles we’ve showcased below:
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We lost two great men last weekend, Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes. So, in a timely promotion of the upcoming film Soul Men, which costars Mac and features Hayes in a cameo, MTV has posted four new clips, including the one seen above of Hayes’ appearance (the clip won’t embed properly, so head to MTV to watch). Seeing the two late stars together (with Samuel L. Jackson) somehow doesn’t bring tears to my eyes, but I guess their deaths still haven’t hit me. Perhaps when Soul Men actually arrives in theaters November 14, or maybe when they’re included in the memoriam montage at the Oscars, I’ll appreciate this scene more.
While this clip is relatively short, the other three at MTV.com are pretty substantial, especially considering The Weinstein Co. (via Dimension) still haven’t released a trailer for the movie. My favorite is the first clip, which features an entire performance from Mac and Jackson at a country western bar. Of all the cool scenes that Samuel L. has been in, this one of him line dancing takes the cake. He may not be swearing or beating the crap out of anyone, but he’s the only person I’ve ever seen that doesn’t make the dance seem lame. It almost makes up for his other clip this week, in which he makes The Spirit look really lame.
As you surely are aware by now, over the weekend, both 50 year-old Bernie Mac and 65 year-old Isaac Hayes died. The former succumbed to pneumonia after several weeks of speculation over his health; the latter apparently collapsed whilst exercising at home. At first, the news––especially in regards to Mac––was greeted with shock. But by late Sunday, the two deaths had been conflated into a meme of jokes about how Samuel L. Jackson should, as one Tumblr put it, “head to his doctor tout de suite.”
Surely, some of the jokes were of the spontaneous, “Quick! Think of another middle-aged black man in the entertainment industry!” variety. But pretty much any of that was cut short when a number of bloggers received a press release from Daryl Toor, “CEO & Chief Awareness Officer” for AttentionPR. The subject of the email: Is Samuel Jackson Next? Death Comes in Threes.
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