Auteur Watch - Samad Davis

Durdy game, indeed!
...wow!  I DID work on this already!  Anyways, this guy's deserving of some treatment.  Sure, he's on the fringes, but on which side of them?  I think he's on the right side of the fringes... or maybe not, as his directing name is "Mody Mod."  Sorry, but all I can think of is that one speech in Ghost Dog.  I'm just racist that way.
To make things worse, Samad can't decide if he prefers comedy or drama.  Sometimes you have to pick just one, especially if you're on the fringes.  Why is that, incidentally?  Fight the future!  Fight something, anyway.  Everything when you're just starting out.  The very elements of nature seem to be against you.  The first directorial effort on the ol' IMDb C.V. is something called Comedy Only in da Hood..sorry, I guess I mean "Comedy Only in da Hood."  It's a video, and there's no external reviews to it on the IMDb.  And only one member of the cast has an attached picture.  Somehow these are not good signs.  In times like these, we have to turn to good old YouTube for results... not bad!  One way into my heart is a good impression; I don't know why that is.  It just is.  And yes, if Eddie Murphy was just a regular guy in the hood, he probably wouldn't last.  Sure, if you were cynical, you could say that Hollywood Shuffle already explored that territory, but I say keep at it, future comedians.  Damn the critics, full steam ahead.
After that came Durdy Game... sorry, another video. "Durdy Game."  Variety calls it "the ultimate example of reaping what you sow."  Well, they would know.  I'm more of a snob, and I kinda thought Fargo was that.  And of course, The Man Who Wasn't There, well... somehow the balance of what Ed Crane reaped as opposed to sowing seemed kinda way, way off against him, but maybe that's just me.  Maybe he was a bastard who had it coming to him.  In any event, the picture probably deserved a slightly better distributor than Xenon, I'm just saying.  I mean, with titles like "Stripper's Ball (Jenna Jameson)"... maybe they just saw the title and said "Okay, we'll do that one too."
But Mody Mod wasn't finished with the theme of games... few Hollywood directors are.  Michael Bay comes to mind for some reason.  In any event, he... I'm assuming it's a he... if it's a she, she's clearly not an inflexible feminist... Samad / Mody Mod traded way up and went for about as much gusto as they could muster with Three Can Play That Game... and YES, I actually knew that it's a sequel to Two Can Play That Game with Vivica A. Fox.  And she actually returned to do the sequel!  How cool is that?  For a Hollywood director struggling to make house payments, you better think that's cool.  I'll tell you what; even if this was just a video-only release, I won't change the italics.  And in terms of IMDb reviews, one out of three ain't bad, especially if the one is the latest and the greatest.
Sadly, Samad decided to stick to his second love: producing.  But who knows, maybe it's a first love now.  Producing has become a lot more glamorous, mostly because of that "PGA" credit after a producer's name.  See?  The money men can be a union too!  How do you like that?  Personally, I still kinda don't.  What next?  A "DGA" after every director's name?  After some 100 years of there NOT being?  Distasteful.