The Expendables is turning out to be a very fateful title. Because of scheduling problems, Forest Whitaker has had to pull out of Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables, a sort of buddy movie about a team of missionaries sent to South America to overthrow a dictator. Fine, so what respectable black actor does Stallone get to replace Whitaker: Laurence Fishburne? Dennis Haysbert? Chiwetel Ejiofor? Don Cheadle? Omar Epps? Or do you get, Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson to replace him? Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson whose latest dramatic turn involved narrating a sex tape in a wig and talking like he'd been punched in the larynx? Good decision, Rocky.
I know that if you're climbing a ladder and you slip, it's normal to fall a couple of rungs, but The Expendables just gave up and settled for the floor.
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I won't blame just Stallone. This has been a ridiculous trend in Hollywood for far too long. Hollywood is more interested in hiring black celebrities than it is cultivating black acting talent. Singers, athletes, rappers, etc. The film industry folks can't get enough of those folks when there is a black role. In the mid to late 90s a half decade was lost to young black acting talent as the folks making movies tried to make stars out of folks like DMX. Hell, why is Will I Am in the upcoming Wolverine flick? This is beyond crazy.