NEGROMANCER 2.0: Black Film

Showing posts with label Black Film. Show all posts

Monday, July 15, 2024

Review: "THEY CLONED TYRONE" Digs in the Past to Raise Hell Today

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 30 of 2024 (No. 1974) by Leroy Douresseaux

They Cloned Tyrone (2023)

Running time: 119 minutes (1 hour, 59 minutes)

MPA – R for pervasive language, violence, some sexual material and drug use

DIRECTOR: Juel Taylor

WRITERS: Tony Rettenmaier and Juel Taylor

PRODUCERS: Jamie Foxx, Charles D. King, Stephen “Dr.” Love, Tony Rettenmaier, Juel Taylor, and Datari Turner

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Ken Seng (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Saira Haider

COMPOSERS: Pierre Charles and Desmond Murray

SCI-FI/COMEDY/DRAMA and MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring: John Boyega, Teyonah Parris, David Alan Grier, J. Alphonse Nicholson, Tamberla Perry, Eric B. Robinson Jr., Trayce Malachi, Leon Lamar, Joshua Mikel, and Keifer Sutherland and Jamie Foxx

They Cloned Tyrone is a 2023 American science fiction comedy-drama and mystery-thriller from director Juel Taylor. After receiving a limited theatrical release, the film began streaming on Netflix on July 21, 2023 as a “Netflix Original.” The film focuses on a drug dealer, a pimp, and sex worker, who must uncover a bizarre mystery that seems to originate from an underground facility beneath their predominantly Black neighborhood.

They Cloned Tyrone focuses on Fontaine (John Boyega), a drug dealer living and slanging in the predominantly African-American, poverty-stricken, and crime ridden suburban neighborhood called “the Glen.” One night, Fontaine arrives at the hotel hideaway of the pimp, Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx), to get money owed to him. Slick freaks out when he sees Fontaine, who apparently had visited him the previous night just before being gunned down by Isaac (Eric B. Robinson Jr.), a rival drug dealer.

Fontaine does not remember the previous night's events, so Slick takes him to one of his ho's, Yo-Yo (Teyonah Parris), in order to confirm his claims of Fontaine's death. Yo-Yo does just that, but later, a series of eerie events thrusts the three onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy. But can a drug dealer, a pimp, and a ho really solve a mind-bending mystery that threatens not only their own neighborhood, but Black neighborhoods everywhere?

They Cloned Tyrone got lost in the glare of two of 2023's mega-box office hits, the movies Barbie and Oppenheimer. This month – specifically July 14th – is the one year anniversary of its limited theatrical release. I had been putting off seeing They Cloned Tyrone, so I thought now was a good time to do so.

In They Cloned Tyrone, co-writer-director Juel Taylor and co-writer Tony Rettenmaier make many references to American popular storytelling via the characters dialogue. However, the film's plot and narrative reference numerous previous Black speculative and genre films. They Cloned Tyrone's conspiracy around consumer products recalls the blaxploitation homage and spoof films, Undercover Brother (2002) and Black Dynamite (2009). Director Jordan Peele's Get Out (2017) and Us (2019) are spectral presences in They Cloned Tyrone's narrative, and I also see a passing resemblance to elements from Boots Riley's Sorry to Bother You (2018). The essences of two landmark 1971 films, A Clockwork Orange and Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song, as well as that of the 1988 cult classic, They Live, are in pungent evidence here.

Still, They Cloned Tyrone is an original. It is a gleeful comedy and satire of America. It also manages to be a bolder and more imaginative science fiction film than the pew-pew-pew, space opera epics that pass for modern sci-fi cinematic storytelling. Taylor and Rettenmaier are correct. The Founding Father's of the United States of America came up with some high ideals, but then, died and left us with the messy reality of a fractured disunited state of affairs. These two writers are among the few to plainly state via metaphor and allegory that for too long, Black people have carried the weight of fixing that mess and trying to make the experiment called America an actual thing.

The film has great production values all around, from cinematography and editing to art direction, costume design, and score. You might, dear readers, miss that because They Cloned Tyrone is such an engaging, crazy, lovable story driven by powerhouse performances. John Boyega, Jamie Foxx, and Teyonah Parris give killer performances, and if they were nepo babies, at least one of them (likely Foxx) would have received Oscar nominations for his or her performance here. Parris clearly has leading lady chops, which she wields in this film to make herself a co-lead rather than a supporting player. Foxx balances pathos and absurdity in making Slick Charles a wonderfully engaging and exceedingly likable character.

But John Boyega: let's be honest. His career in America has not exploded like that of his Star Wars sequel trilogy co-star, Adam Driver... and we know why. Boyega is every bit as good as everything that passes for the young Hollywood's A-list. Boyega disappears inside Fontaine and makes him not so much a tragic figure or even criminal for that matter. Fontaine's is the hero's journey even if he is not fair of hair and skin. Boyega has moments here that are most poignant and dramatic and that only an actor both talented and skilled can pull off.

Boyega makes They Cloned Tyrone more than satire, blaxploitation, horror, science fiction, and absurdist comedy. Boyega gives the film dramatic heft and weight. They Cloned Tyrone is memorable and is also one of 2023's very best films because John Boyega is one of a kind.

10 of 10

Monday, July 15, 2024

NOTES:

2024 NAACP Image Awards: 9 nominations: “Outstanding Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture,” “Outstanding Motion Picture,” “Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture” (John Boyega), “Outstanding Breakthrough Creative-Motion Picture” (Juel Taylor), “Cinematography in a Motion Picture” (Ken Seng), “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture” (Jamie Foxx), “Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture” (Juel Taylor), “Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture” (Juel Taylor and Tony Rettenmaier), and “Outstanding Stunt Ensemble-Television or Film”

2024 Black Reel Awards: 8 nominations: “Outstanding Lead Performance” (John Boyega), “Outstanding Supporting Performance” (Jamie Foxx), “Outstanding Screenplay” (Tony Rettenmaier and Juel Taylor), “Outstanding Ensemble” (Kim Coleman), “Outstanding Emerging Director” (Juel Taylor), “Outstanding Score” (Desmond Murray and Pierre Charles), “Outstanding Costume Design” (Francine Jamison-Tanchuck), and “Outstanding Editing” (Saira Haider)

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Sunday, July 14, 2024

Review: "SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAAD ASSSSS SONG" is Still Beatin' Some White Ass

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 184 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song (1971)

Running time: 97 minutes (1 hour, 37 minutes)

Rating: MPAA – X; re-rated R in 1974

EDITOR/WRITER/DIRECTOR: Melvin Van Peebles

PRODUCERS: Jerry Gross and Melvin Van Peebles

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Bob Maxwell

COMPOSERS: Earth Wind & Fire and Melvin Van Peebles

CRIME/DRAMA/ACTION/THRILLER

Starring: Melvin Van Peebles, Simon Chuckster, Hubert Scales, John Dullaghan, Johnny Amos, Mario Van Peebles, Megan Peebles, and Max Van Peebles

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is a 1971 action-thriller, drama, and crime film from writer-director Melvin Van Peebles. It is considered a seminal black exploitation film or “blaxploitation” film, being one of the first that kind. The film focuses on a Black man who goes on the run after brutally beating two police officers, with help from other marginalized people and outsiders.

After saving a black protester (likely a Black Panther) by brutally beating the two cops who were brutalizing the protester, Sweetback (Melvin Van Peebles), an apolitical sex performer goes on the run from the white pigs and other white law enforcement types. He heads for Mexico with help from the black community and disaffected Hell’s Angels, and he also meets many unique characters on the way to freedom.

Melvin Van Peebles’ Sweet Sweetback Baad Asssss Song is considered by many people to be the film that ushered in the blaxploitation film wave. With its emphasis on fighting “the man” (the white power structure, in particular corrupt city officials and policemen) and graphic and gratuitous sex, the film is the prototypical blaxploitation film. However, there is likely no other film like this one in its portrayal of police corruption and the of the racist attitudes that prevail among white law enforcement officials.

Structurally, the film has a bare and simple plot, and the script is absent of story and character development. In a many ways, the film itself is more impressionistic than literal, while the theme is literally against white oppression and (evil) white cops. Van Peebles in collaboration with Earth, Wind, and Fire, the R&B group who would go on to have huge crossover success on the pop charts provide a constant musical backdrop for the film. So sometimes, this movie seems like an overly long music video. In spite of its narrative shortcomings, Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song is bold stroke in using film to not only communicate messages and ideas, but to also be used as a means of protest. The film is the work of an artist/firebrand; one must open up to feelings, experiences, emotions, and thoughts that are alien in order to get to the art, and when you get it, Sweetback will be like nothing else.

7 of 10

B+

★★★½ out of 4 stars

EDITED: Sunday, July 14, 2024

NOTES:

2020 National Film Preservation Board, USA: National Film Registry

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Thursday, July 4, 2024

Review: Original "BEVERLY HILLS COP" is Still Crazy and Cool

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 28 of 2024 (No. 1972) by Leroy Douresseaux

Beverly Hills Cop (1984)

Running time: 105 minutes (1 hour, 45 minutes)

MPAA – R

DIRECTOR: Martin Brest

WRITERS: Daniel Petrie, Jr.; from a story by Daniel Petrie, Jr. and Danilo Bach

PRODUCERS: Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Bruce Surtees (ASC)

EDITORS: Arthur Coburn and Billy Weber

COMPOSER: Harold Faltermeyer

Academy Award nominee

COMEDY/ACTION/CRIME

Starring: Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Lisa Eilbacher, Ronny Cox, Steven Berkoff, Jonathan Banks, James Russo, Stephen Elliot, Gilbert R. Hill, Art Kimbro, Joel Bailey, Bronson Pinchot, Paul Reiser, Michael Champion, and Damon Wayans

Beverly Hills Cop is a 1984 American buddy-cop film and action-comedy directed by Martin Brest and starring Eddie Murphy. This year (2024) makes the 40th anniversary of Beverly Hills Cop original theatrical release (specifically December 1984). The film was the first entry in what would become the Beverly Hills Cop film franchise. Beverly Hills Cop focuses on a cocky young Detroit cop who pursues a murder investigation in Beverly Hills where he must deal with a very different culture and a very different police department.

Beverly Hills Cop opens in Detroit, Michigan. There, we meet Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy), a plainclothes police detective. As the story begins, his unauthorized sting operation goes sour resulting in a disastrous high-speed chase. Axel's reckless behavior earns him the ire of his superior, Inspector Todd (Gilbert R. Hill), who threatens to fire him unless he changes his ways.

Axel returns to his apartment to find his childhood friend, Michael “Mikey” Tandino (James Russo). After doing a stint in prison, Mikey got a job as a security guard in Beverly Hills, California via a childhood friend of both Axel and Mikey's, Jenny Summers (Lisa Eilbacher). However, Mikey has gotten into something dangerous, and it costs him his life.

In spite of threats from Inspector Todd, Axel travels to Beverly Hills and visits Jenny at her place of employment, the “Hollis Benton Art Gallery.” There, he discovers that the gallery's owner, Victor Maitland (Steven Berkoff), is involved in something very shady, and that he also likely had Mickey killed. Meanwhile, Axel runs afoul Lt. Bogomil (Ronny Cox) at the local precinct of the Beverly Hills PD. Bogomil has two of his detectives, Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and Sergeant John Taggart, trail Axel. Can the street-smart Axel convince Rosewood and Taggart to help him discover exactly what Victor Maitland is doing? Or will Axel end up sharing the same tragic fate as Mikey?

It has been well over 30 years since I had watched Beverly Hills Cop in its entirety. As far as I can remember, I definitely saw it in a movie theater sometime in December 1984, likely with some or all of my sisters. I may have watched it once or twice more before the 1980s came to an end. In anticipation of the just released sequel, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (a “Netflix Original”), I decided to watch the first film again. Just for starters, the film's soundtrack is still perky, although a bit quaint. Harold Faltermeyer's score, especially the instrumental title tune/theme, “Axel F,” still seems pitch perfect for this movie, as if nearly four decades had not passed.

I wondered if I would like it as much as I did the first time I saw it, and I absolutely loved it back then. This film made Eddie Murphy, for a few years, the biggest star in Hollywood. Watching Beverly Hills Cop now, I feel as if I have fallen in love with it again. Beverly Hills Cop was originally meant to be a star vehicle for Sylvester Stallone and be a straight action film. Instead, it became an Eddie Murphy star vehicle, and a comic action film that has numerous funny moments, most of them executed by Eddie Murphy. Here, you can see what made Murphy a transcendent star; he has true movie star qualities and loads of charisma. Still, Judge Reinhold and John Ashton have their chances to be funny as Rosewood and Taggart, respectively. Of course, Bronson Pinchot as the museum employee, Serge, steals every scene in which he appears. He would go on to use this role to launch himself into television stardom.

As funny as Beverly Hills Cop is, it retains some of the edge that was probably in the early versions of its screenplay. The beginning of the film shamelessly displays the inner city ruins of Detroit. There are also multiple violent deaths, beginning with Mikey's, but I find that the excellent car chase scenes and gun battles are a bit of pop movie fun that balance out the poverty, deprivation, and violent firearm deaths that pepper this film.

Director Martin Brest, who made a career out of turning plain genre films into something just a bit more special, eagerly keeps his camera on his star. Brest records every last bit of Murphy's talent, star power, and comedy modus operandi on the way to making Beverly Hills Cop a cop movie like nothing audiences had seen before or have seen since. In spite of its sequels, Beverly Hills Cop remains one of a kind, and is surprisingly (at least to me) still crazy as heck and funny as hell.

8 of 10

★★★★ out of 4 stars

Thursday, July 4, 2024

NOTES:

1985 Academy Awards, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen” (Daniel Petrie Jr.-screenplay/story and Danilo Bach-story)

1985 Golden Globes, USA: 2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical” and “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical” (Eddie Murphy)

1986 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Score” (Harold Faltermeyer)

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Saturday, June 1, 2024

Review: "BAD BOYS FOR LIFE" Takes a Bit to Come to Life

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 24 of 2024 (No. 1968) by Leroy Douresseaux

Bad Boys for Life (2020)

Running time: 124 minutes (2 hours, 4 minutes)

MPA – R for strong bloody violence, language throughout, sexual references and brief drug use

DIRECTORS: Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah

WRITERS: Chris Bremner, Peter Craig & Joe Carnahan; from a story by Peter Craig & Joe Carnahan (based on characters created by George Gallo)

PRODUCERS: Doug Belgrad, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Will Smith

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robrecht Heyvaert (D.o.P.)

EDITORS: Dan Lebental and Peter McNulty

COMPOSER: Lorne Balfe

ACTION/CRIME/COMEDY

Starring: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Paola Núñez, Alexander Ludwig, Charles Melton, Kate del Castillo, Nicky Jam, Joe Pantoliano, Jacob Scipio, and Theresa Randle

Bad Boys for Life is a 2020 American action, crime, and buddy cop film directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, better known as “Adil & Bilall.” It is the third entry in the Bad Boys film series, which began with 1995's Bad Boys, and it is a sequel to Bad Boys II (2003). In Bad Boys for Life, Detectives Lowrey and Burnett, the “Bad Boys,” face off against a mysterious killer whose campaign of revenge is centered on Lowrey.

Bad Boys for Life opens in Mexico at the Santa Maria Ixcotel Prison. There, Isabel Aretas (Kate del Castillo) escapes with the help of her son, Armando (Jacob Scipio). Isabel is the son of the late cartel kingpin, Benito Aretas, and she wants revenge against the men who helped take down her husband twenty-four years ago. Armando, a highly-skilled criminal, savvy fighter, and vicious killer, is the instrument of her revenge.

One of those men is Detective Lt. Michael “Mike” Lowrey (Will Smith), and Armando comes close to killing him. Mike is a hard man to keep down, and he wants payback. His boss, Captain Conrad Howard (Joe Pantoliano), wants Mike to let a new, tech-driven police unit, called “AMMO” (Advance Miami Metro Operations), hunt the shooter. Mike doesn't like that, especially as his former girlfriend, Lieutenant Rita Secada (Paolo Nunez), is head of AMMO. Even worse, Mike's longtime partner, Det. Lt. Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence), has retired and wants to stay that way. But when things get worse, will the Bad Boys be forced to unite for one last ride?

I still laugh at the fact that the film that became 1995's Bad Boys was originally written for actor-comedians, Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz. Bad Boys would go on to become a signature entry in the filmographies of both eventual Oscar-winning actor, Will Smith (King Richard), and Martin Lawrence, who would go on to star in such films as Big Momma's House (2000) and Wild Hogs (2007). The duo eventually reunited for 2003's Bad Boys II. Because the fourth entry in the Bad Boys series, Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024), is about to be released, I decided to go back and watch and review the one film in the franchise that I had not seen in its entirety, Bad Boys for Life (2020).

A close friend told me that he thought Bad Boys for Life was bad. I did find the first hour to be rather poorly developed. After all, Lowrey and Burnett seem pretty slow in figuring out that the shootings of Lowrey and others are obviously related. All these veteran cops and young, smart, new-school law enforcement are working on this case, and they are as clueless as can be.

However, in the film's second hour, directors Adil & Bilall make the most of their creative cohorts, especially their stunt coordinators, lighting department, and film editors in order to deliver a film that is fast-paced and slickly violent. The filmmakers also bring out all of the colors and life in both the Miami and Mexican locations Adil & Bilall do their best to summon the spirit of Michael Bay, the director of the first two films. I wonder what he thought of the new directors' homage to his style. I must say that Adil & Bilall eschew Bay's over-the-top theatrics for a slick visual, action style that is more focused on the characters than on sweeping shots and a deafening score and soundtrack.

In some ways, Bad Boys for Life is this series' best entry. Yes, Martin Lawrence looks a little pudgy in the face, but his comic timing and humor eventual rev up. Will Smith still looks lithesome and on the edge. While it starts clunky, Bad Boys for Life doesn't show its age, but it does show that – surprisingly – there is still life in these cinematic bad boys.

7 of 10

B+

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Saturday, June 1, 2024

NOTES:

2021 Image Awards (NAACP): 1 win: “Outstanding Motion Picture” and 1 nomination: “Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture” (Will Smith)

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Review: "BAD BOYS" Has Had a Surprisingly Long Life

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 113 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Bad Boys (1995)

Running time: 119 minutes (1 hour, 59 minutes)

MPAA – R for intense violent action and pervasive strong language

DIRECTOR: Michael Bay

WRITERS: Michael Barrie, Jim Mulholland, and Doug Richardson; from a story by George Gallo

PRODUCERS: Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Howard Atherton

EDITOR: Christian Wagner

COMPOSER: Mark Mancina

ACTION/COMEDY/THRILLER/CRIME

Starring: Martin Lawrence, Will Smith, Tea Leoni, Joe Pantoliano, Tcheky Karyo, Theresa Randle, Marg Helgenberger, Nestor Serrano, Julio Oscar Mechoso, Saverio Guerra, Michael Imperioli, and Karen Alexander

As usual, a cog in the Hollywood system had written an action/comedy for Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey, two funny white men. Perhaps, the white studio bosses never thought of persons of colors playing the parts and playing them not only well, but also better than the actors of the default skin color. By happy accident, two tremendously talented comic actors, who also happened to be men of color inherited the parts, and, thus was born Bad Boys. Lord knows, we can never again think of Lovitz and Carvey, two milky-white Americans, as proper for these roles, not that there’s anything wrong with one’s skin color being that white.

Bad Boys is a 1995 American buddy-cop film and action-comedy directed by Michael Bay. Bad Boys focuses on two savvy, Black detectives who try to protect a witness to murder while also investigating the theft of heroin from their police precinct’s evidence room.

Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) and Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) are two hip detectives; at least they seem cooler than their Miami PD colleagues, but they can take the heat that comes with their job. As the film begins, they’ve already made a major heroin bust, but a gang of well-equipped thieves breaks into the precinct’s evidence room and steals the dope. Obviously, the raid is an inside job, so the precinct takes the blame. Burnett and Lowrey’s Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano) feels the heat and returns it to the boys, putting the onus on them to find the dope. Making matters more complicated, they get saddled with protecting Julie Mott (Tea Leoni) a murder witness somehow connected to the smack thieves.

According to stories from the set of Bad Boys, director Michael Bay, Lawrence, and Smith hated the script, so they ad-libbed a lot of the dialogue. This was Bay’s first feature film, but he’d made a name for himself directing music videos for Tina Turner and “Wilson Phillips” (among others) and commercials for Nike and Budweiser (among others). Bay brings all the visual flair and clichés you could expect from music videos: quick-cut editing, dark alleyways full of steam, sexy chicks, and hot cars. He mixed in car chases, tremendous explosions, cartoonish violence, and gunfights with hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Smith and Lawrence brought the comedy and the hip sensibility to play the characters so over the top that you’d think they were heroes right out of a comic book. It works to an extent. Bad Boys is a very funny, exciting, and visually agile action movie.

If anything, it’ll be remembered for its African-American leads, unusual for an cop buddy movie/action flick. Beyond that, Bay introduced his over the top visual style that he would bring all his heart-pounding, action vehicles: slow motion camera buzzing around a posing action stud, panoramic shots of the sky, narrow escapes from devastating fire balls, etc. Bad Boys is pleasant and fun, nothing important, but it stands out in the white bread world of Hollywood action romps. Certainly, Lawrence and Smith are more believable as renegade cops than say, Josh Hartnett or Ben Affleck.

6 of 10

★★★ out of 4 stars

Edited: Friday, June 28, 2024

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Thursday, April 18, 2024

Review: "MEA CULPA" May Be Tyler Perry's Craziest Movie... Yet

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 19 of 2024 (No. 1963) by Leroy Douresseaux

Mea Culpa (2024)

Running time: 120 minutes (2 hours)

MPA – R for strong sexual content, graphic nudity, language, some violence and drug use

WRITER/DIRECTOR: Tyler Perry

PRODUCERS: Will Areu, Tyler Perry, Angi Bones, and Kelly Rowland

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Cody Burmester (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Larry Sexton

COMPOSERS: Amanda Delores and Patricia Jones

DRAMA/THRILLER

Starring: Kelly Rowland, Trevante Rhodes, Nick Sagar, Sean Sagar, RonReaco Lee, Shannon Thornton, Kerry O'Malley, Arianna Barron, Connor Weil, Maria Gabriela Gonzalez, Paul Ryden, Ava Hill, and Angela Robinson

SUMMARY OF THE REVIEW:

--Tyler Perry's Mea Culpa could be titled Tyler Perry's I Want to Screw My Client

--The first half of the film is a slow-burn (slightly dull) romantic thriller; the second half is an explosion of WTF moments

--Despite poorly developed and under-utilized characters and middling dialogue, Mea Culpa is a typical shameless Tyler Perry guilty pleasure – that I found somewhat pleasurable.

Mea Culpa is a 2024 drama and legal thriller from writer-director Tyler Perry. The film is a “Netflix Original,” Perry's fourth for the streamer (as of this writing), and it began streaming on Netflix February 23, 2024. Mea Culpa follows an ambitious criminal defense attorney who takes on the case of an artist accused of murder, which only further complicates her own dysfunctional marriage.

Mea Culpa introduces Chicago-based defense attorney, Mea Harper (Kelly Rowland). She and her husband, Kal Harper (Sean Sagar), are having marital difficulties, made worse by Kal's overbearing and interfering white mother, Azalia (Kerry O'Malley). Forced to financially support the two of them because of Kal's professional and personal problems, Mea decides to take on the defense of an accused murderer. Acclaimed portrait painter, Zyair Malloy (Trevante Rhodes), has been charged with the murder of his girlfriend, Hydie (Maria Gabriela Gonzalez). Her body is missing, but there is enough blood evidence in Zyair's loft, where he lives and paints, to get him charged with murder.

The problem is that Mea's brother-in-law and Kal's older brother, Raymond “Ray” Harper (Nick Sagar), is the assistant district attorney who is prosecuting Zyair's murder case. Also complicating matters is that Zyair does not respect boundaries and wants to f**k Mea. Eventually, Mea will have to admit “mea culpa,” but that might not save her from the myriad conspiracies that surround Zyair Malloy and this case.

Mea culpa is a Latin phrase that means “my fault” or “my mistake,” and it is also an acknowledgment of having done wrong, a wrong that could have been avoided. It's my fault that I love Tyler Perry's work so much because otherwise, I would not have watched Mea Culpa. Make no mistake, however; loving Tyler Perry films, no matter how crazy they are, is not a wrong. Mea Culpa may be Perry's craziest non-Madea film to date, being even wackier than Temptations: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor (2013).

Mea Culpa is quite enjoyable, especially the second hour of the film. Critics tend to fault Perry's screenwriting, but the plot for Mea Culpa isn't any more nonsensical than a host of legal and erotic thrillers from the past five decades. I'm thinking of Body Heat (1981), Presumed Innocent (1990), and Primal Fear (1996), to name a few. If Mea Culpa had been released around a quarter-century ago, it would have been considered a clone of the classic erotic thriller, Basic Instinct (1992).

Where Perry's writing shows weakness is the dialogue and character development. If the actors in this film seem average or mediocre to you, dear readers, I would bet it is because they are trying to build convincing characters while mouthing stiff, unimaginative dialogue. The film's actual plot and action is not anywhere near as bland as the dialogue. In fact, when this film finally explodes in the second half, even bad dialogue can't keep Mea Culpa's cheesy, shameless melodrama and violence from being its trashiest and most glorious self. The shame of it is that there are some very interesting characters who are not fully realized and who would have made much the action in this film seem plausible, at the very least. Perhaps, Mea Culpa should have been a miniseries instead of a film.

I must say that Mea Culpa may be Tyler Perry's most beautifully photographed film; kudos to director of photography, Cody Burmester. The cinematography captures Kelly Rowland's unappreciated beauty, and when she gets nude, the camera celebrates her fineness. Yes, Trevante Rhodes as Zyair Malloy is also fine, and the camera suggests that his big muscular body also comes with... an impressive endowment. Yeah, the sex scene between Mea and Zyair is kinda funny, but they look so good pumping and bumping and grinding.

With Mea Culpa, Tyler Perry does unleash “strong sexual content, graphic nudity, language, some violence and drug use” as the “R” rating declares. However, Perry's first almost NC-17 makes me love his work even more, and it makes me hope for future movies like Mea Culpa or even better. I'll say “mea culpa” if I'm wrong and be happy about it.

6 of 10

★★★ out of 4 stars

Thursday, April 18, 2024

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Thursday, February 15, 2024

Review: "SURROUNDED" Takes a Different Path to the Wild West

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 9 of 2024 (No. 1953) by Leroy Douresseaux

Surrounded (2023)

Running time: 101 minutes (1 hour, 41 minutes)

MPA – R for violence and language

DIRECTOR: Anthony Mandler

WRITERS: Anthony Pagana and Justin Thomas & Andrew Pagana

PRODUCERS: Jason Michael Berman, Aaron L. Gilbert, Derek Iger, Anthony Mandler, Ade O'Adesina, and Letitia Wright

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Max Goldman (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Ron Patane

COMPOSER: Robin Hannibal

WESTERN/DRAMA

Starring: Letitia Wright, Jamie Bell, Jeffrey Donovan, Michael K. Williams, Kevin Wiggins, Brett Gelman, Luce Rains, Andrew Pagana, Augusta-Allen Jones, Herman Johansen, Keith Jardine, C.M Petrey, Austin Rising, and Tony Sedillo

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SUMMARY OF THE REVIEW:

--Letitia Wright can make audiences put aside her most famous role – that of Shuri in Marvel's “Black Panther” films – and accept her as a 19th soldier who can defend herself with a gun and take on any man trying to get the best of her.

--Although it lacks the epic scope of the great American Western films, Surrounded is riveting and intense.

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Surrounded is a 2023 Western drama film directed by Anthony Mandler and starring Letitia Wright, who is also one of the film's producers. After debuting at the Sun Valley Film Festival in April 2023, MGM released the film digitally (VOD) on June 20, 2023. Surrounded focuses on a former former Buffalo Soldier who travels west to lay claim on a gold mine, only to end up playing guard to a dangerous, captured outlaw.

Surrounded opens in the year 1870, five years after the end of the Civil War. Mo Washington (Letitia Wright) is a former Buffalo Soldier. [This was the nickname given to U. S. Army regiments that were primarily comprised of African-Americans and were formed during the 19th century to serve on the American frontier.] Mo arrives in Brushwood Gulch, New Mexico, the last stop on the edge of the Wild West.

Mo has a secret. He is actually a she. Mo is a former slave, who after becoming a freedwoman, disguised herself and became a soldier. After leaving the army, she travels west to take possession of a gold claim in the Territory of Colorado. Mo books passage on a stagecoach, but some time after departure, the coach is attacked by a group of “road agents” (marauders) led by the infamous Thomas “Tommy” Walsh (Jamie Bell).

After a chaotic fight, Mo is left to guard the captured Tommy Walsh, who tries to convince her to set him free. He has buried somewhere in the area the $120,000 that he and his gang stole during a recent bank robbery. So many sinister figures want him – from members of his gang to bounty hunters and assorted bandits. Now, Mo finds herself surrounded, and she must survive everyone who is coming for Walsh. Most of all, she must survive Tommy's wily ways.

Surrounded is a surprisingly intense Western drama made all the more intense that the lead character is a Black woman pretending to be a Black man in a world that hates both. Add racism and also racial elements and Surrounded is... surrounded by intensity. This is an unusual scenario for an American Western film, but Cathay Williams was a real-life African-American woman who disguised herself as a man and served out west in the U.S. Army from 1866-68 during the Indian Wars.

Like the film's tone, Letitia Wright is intense – quietly so – as the no-nonsense and devout Mo Washington. Wright makes everything in her performance seem genuine and convincing, from the way Mo dresses to her ability to wield large pistols. Wright is best known for playing the role of Shuri, the Wakandan princess in Marvel Studios' Black Panther (2018) and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022). In Surrounded, however, Wright made me forget Shuri and accept her as 19th century Black woman who survives slavery, the tragic deaths of her parents, and her time as a Buffalo Soldier.

Surrounded is filled with good performances. Fellow British actor, Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot), has excellent screen chemistry with Wright, and Bell is quiet good as a Western character, bringing complexity and eccentricity to the standard murderous Western outlaw and bank robber. Surrounded is also the final film appearance of the Emmy Award-nominated actor, Michael K. Williams, who died in 2021. Here, he makes the most of his small role as Will Clay, so much so that I wish that he had a bigger role in the film.

Surrounded is a surprisingly riveting film. Early on, it seems as if it doesn't really have the energy to rise above being a mere historical drama and become a true Western film. It does and eventually hits its stride, although I wish the film had focused on some of the interesting characters outside the Mo Washington-Tommy Walsh dynamic. Surrounded is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Vudu.

B+

7 of 10

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Thursday, February 15, 2024

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Friday, February 9, 2024

Review: "A MADEA HOMECOMING" Doesn't Come Out Quite Right

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 6 of 2024 (No. 1950) by Leroy Douresseaux

A Madea Homecoming (2022)

Running time: 105 minutes (1 hour, 45 minutes)

MPA – PG-13 for crude sexual content, language, and drug references throughout

WRITER/DIRECTOR: Tyler Perry

PRODUCERS: Will Areu and Mark E. Swinton

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Taylor Randall (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Larry Sexton

COMPOSER: Philip White

COMEDY/DRAMA

Starring: Tyler Perry, Cassi Davis, David Mann, Tamela J. Mann, Gabrielle Dennis, Brendan O'Carroll, Jennifer Gibney, Brandon Black, Isha Blaaker, Candace Maxwell, Geneva Maccarone, and Amani Atkinson

A Madea Homecoming is a 2022 African-American comedy-drama from writer-director Tyler Perry. It is the 12th film in the Madea film series. The film is a Netflix original and was released to the streaming service on February 25, 2022. In A Madea Homecoming, family drama erupts and secrets are revealed during the celebration of Madea's great-grandson's college graduation.

A Madea Homecoming opens in Atlanta, Georgia. Mabel “Madea” Simmons (Tyler Perry) is preparing for the arrival of her extended family. Uncle Joe (Tyler Perry) is criticizing people, and Mr. Brown (David Mann) is about to set himself afire while preparing the barbecue pit. It is a special time for Madea's daughter, Cora Simmons (Tamela J. Mann), because of the impending arrival of her daughters, Laura (Gabrielle Dennis) and Ellie (Candace Maxwell). Laura's son, Timothy “Tim” Marshall (Brandon Black), is graduating from college. He is traveling to Madea's house with his best friend and fellow graduate, Davi O'Malley (Isha Blaaker), for a large family dinner before graduation day.

But there are some surprises arriving, also. Tim has a secret to tell his family. Laura has a secret. Laura's divorce attorney, Sylvia (Geneva Maccarone), has a secret. Richard (Amani Atkinson), Laura's ex and Tim's father, has a secret to tell, although Madea doesn't want him at her house. Davi has a secret. Davi's great-aunt, Agnes Brown (Brendan O'Carroll), and Agnes' daughter and David's cousin, Cathy Brown (Jennifer Gibney), have a secret. They're coming to Madea's, but they weren't invited. And it isn't a secret that Betty Ann Murphy a.k.a. “Aunt Bam” (Cassi Davis) is usually high, and everyone else may have to get high to make it through the family drama that is about to erupt.

2019's A Madea Family Funeral was supposed to be the final film in the Madea film series, but I ain't complaining. A Madea Homecoming is similar to A Madea Family Funeral in that it features a large cast of new extended family members that many of us didn't know that Madea had. Unfortunately, the 2019 film is better put together than A Madea Homecoming.

First, it should be noted that A Madea Homecoming is a crossover with British-Irish sitcom, “Mrs. Brown's Boys,” which is headlined by the character, “Agnes Brown,” played by Irish actor, Brendan O'Carroll. Agnes Brown has been called the “Irish Madea,” but because this is my first encounter with O'Carroll and his character, I can't say otherwise. Truthfully, neither the Agnes nor Cathy characters really add that much to A Madea Homecoming, but they are a pleasant addition, at least.

A Madea Homecoming has many, many very funny moments, but the film seems too long and too much of a rehash of scandals that have appeared in earlier films in the series. The main plot and subplot feel more flat and dry than lively and funny. The most consistently funny part of this movie is Madea Beyoncé parody that runs over the end credits, and Madea in a blonde Beyoncé wig singing off-key with the “Marcella Band” is delightful.

When I reviewed A Madea Family Funeral in 2021, I said that if it were indeed the final Madea film, I could say that the series went out on a relatively high note. Madea returns on an off-key note with A Madea Homecoming, and it isn't the final Madea film. Coming sometime in the future is Madea's Destination Wedding.

5 of 10

C+

★★½ out of 4 stars

Friday, February 9, 2024

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Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Review: Prime Video's "THE UNDERDOGGS" is Vulgar, Funny and Holds The Titty

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 5 of 2024 (No. 1949) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Underdoggs (2024)

Running time: 96 minutes (1 hour, 36 minutes)

MPA – R for pervasive language, sexual references, drug use, and some underage drinking

DIRECTOR: Charles Stone III

WRITERS: Danny Segal and Isaac Schamis

PRODUCERS: Kenya Barris, Mychelle Deschamps, Jonathan Glickman, Constance Schwartz-Morini, and Calvin Broadus (Snoop Dogg)

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Mitchell Amundsen (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Paul Millspaugh

COMPOSER: Joseph Shirley

COMEDY/SPORT

Starring: Snoop Dogg, Tika Sumpter, Mike Epps, Elias Ferguson, Jonigan Booth, Caleb Cm Dixon, Adan James Carrillo, Alexander Michael Gordon, Kylah Davila, Andrew Schulz, Thom Scott II, Kal Penn, Kandi Burruss, Tony Gonzalez, Terry Bradshaw, and George Lopez

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SUMMARY OF THE REVIEW:

--Snopp Dogg is excellent is this truly funny sports comedy.

--This film has a lot of profanity and bad behavior, and their reference to sex acts and sex organs is plentiful. It's family comedy that is not appropriate for viewing, unless the family is a bit daring.

--The Underdogg's scatological tale of a washed up, arrogant coach and a group of kids who know mostly disappointment does not come across as corny or phony. The Underdoggs keeps it real, perhaps, too real sometimes.

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The Underdoggs is a 2024 sports comedy film from director Charles Stone III. The film is an Amazon “Prime Original” that began streaming on “Prime Video” January 26, 2024. The Underdoggs follows a washed-up former professional football player who decides to coach a peewee football team as way to regain his fame only to learn some important live lessons.

The Underdoggs opens at the “California High School State Championship 1997.” Jaycen "Two J's" Jennings (Elias Ferguson) is the star wide receiver at Long Beach Polytechnic High School, and by catching the “Hail Mary” pass thrown his way, he wins the state championship for his school. Jaycen goes on to be a star professional football player, but his ego eventually gets him tossed from the professional ranks.

Now, Jaycen Jennings (Snopp Dogg) is a washed-up ex-professional football star – an arrogant washed up former football star, and the days of being “Two J's” are behind him. Still, he is desperately trying to hang onto fame, hopefully by landing a plum gig hosting his own Fox Sports TV show. However, Jaycen hits rock bottom when he is sentenced to community service after an accident.

Eventually, he finds his way to the Los Angeles County Community Outreach Program, where he decides to coach a peewee football squad, a group of poor kids known as “the Green Team.” Jaycen, however, sees this as a chance to get what he wants, but will he be forced to really give these kids what they need – a coach that cares?

I am shocked by how much I really like The Underdoggs. Of course, the screenplay by Danny Segal and Isaac Schamis (from a pitch by Snoop Dogg and fellow producer, Constance Schwartz-Morini) revisits familiar territory. The tale of a fallen coach, mentor, or role model and his team of poor kids, outcasts, and assorted misfits has played out in such films as The Bad News Bears (1976) and Role Models (2008). The Mighty Ducks (1992), which is referenced in The Underdoggs, is apparently a similar film, but I have never seen it (nor have I ever wanted to).

I have been a long-time fan of Snopp Dogg, and perhaps because of serendipity, he is perfect as an actor is this story of underdogs. I like that the film allows Jaycen to stay true to himself while also evolving, but the children also keep it real while learning to take pride in themselves and in their efforts. In this way, The Underdoggs is a perfect, lesson-heavy, family film, but...

The Underdoggs is rated “R” by the MPA for “pervasive language, sexual references, drug use, and some underage drinking,” and alla' that shit is actually in the film, sometimes in large quantities. There is even a funny “disclaimer” at the beginning of The Underdoggs that basically says that today's children use the same profane words spoken in the film. Perhaps, the filmmakers' argument is this is indeed a thoroughly modern family-friendly film. I think the “F-bomb” is said in The Underdoggs seemingly more than one hundred times. So its appropriateness will vary from family to family, respective of decorum and personal tastes. I have to admit that I was uncomfortable with the amount of profanity and bad behavior in this film, but...

I still laughed a lot. The Underdoggs is uproariously funny. I think Mike Epps as Kareem, Jaycen's friend who becomes his assistant coach, and Tika Sumpter as Cherise Porter, who was Jaycen's high school girlfriend, make the best of characters that are not that well written. Epps is always a scene-stealer in everything from comedy to action to horror, and he grabs all he can here. Sumpter makes Cherise an effective moral check on Jaycen's selfishness.

In the end, I feel totally comfortable recommending The Underdoggs to adult and older teen viewers. It is one of the funniest films of the new year, so far. I think some young viewers will be crazy about The Underdoggs, whether their parents approve or not.

A-

7 of 10

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Tuesday, February 6, 2024

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Friday, January 26, 2024

Review: "THE BOOK OF CLARENCE" - Black is Beautiful and So is Enlightenment

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 3 of 2024 (No. 1947) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Book of Clarence (2024)

Running time: 129 minutes (2 hours, 9 minutes)

MPA – PG-13 for strong violence, drug use, strong language, some suggestive material, and smoking

WRITER/DIRECTOR: Jeymes Samuel

PRODUCERS: Shawn Carter (Jay-Z), James Lassiter, Tendo Nagenda, and Jeymes Samuel

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Rob Hardy (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Tom Eagles

COMPOSER: Jeymes Samuel

COMEDY/DRAMA/RELIGION

Starring: LaKeith Stanfield, Omar Sy, Anna Diop, RJ Cyler, David Oyelowo, Michael Ward, Alfre Woodard, Teyana Taylor, Caleb McLaughlin, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Eric Kofi Abrefa, Chase Dillon, Babs Olusanmokun, Benedict Cumberbatch, James McAvoy, and Nicholas Pinnock

The Book of Clarence is a 2024 comedy-drama and religious film written and directed by Jeymes Samuel. The film focuses on a wayward man who decides to capitalize on the rise of Jesus by also declaring himself to be “the Messiah.”

The Book of Clarence opens in Lower Jerusalem, the home of the “Gypsies,” in the year 33 A.D, and it introduces a young man named Clarence (LaKeith Stanfield). He is down-on-his-luck and is drifting in life. He spends time selling weed with his close friend and sidekick, Elijah (RJ Cyler). Their latest scheme is a chariot race against Mary Magdalene (Teyana Taylor), which goes disastrously bad. In turn, that puts Clarence and Elijah deep in debt to a local crime boss, Jedediah the Terrible (Eric Kofi Abrefa), who threatens their lives if he isn't paid in 30 days.

Meanwhile, Clarence's twin brother, Thomas (LaKeith Stanfield), is one of the 12 Apostles that follow Jesus of Nazareth (Nicholas Pinnock). After failing to make inroads with his brother's associates, Clarence decides to capitalize on Jesus and the rise of messianic figures by declaring himself “the Messiah.” Clarence does not believe in the existence of God, but he finds success by preaching “knowledge over belief.” Soon, Clarence has a large number of followers, and they are making him wealthy. But then, something happens...

The Book of Clarence is not as partisan as Mel Gibson's 2004 masterpiece, The Passion of the Christ, nor is it Black-centric and anti-racist in the way director Jean-Claude La Marre's The Color of the Cross (2006) is. In The Book of Clarence, Jesus is a Black man, but the narrative isn't really about Jesus being black. The people of Jerusalem are black, but that just seems to be the way it is supposed to be – nothing special or deliberate. Also, I don't think the film ever refers to them as Jews or Hebrews (as far as I can remember).

The Book of Clarence's plot and themes, which are soft and muddled in the film's middle act, seem to converge on the notion of enlightenment, not the movement “Enlightenment, but as a state of knowledge and understanding. Clarence, who pushes knowledge over belief, gets the lesson that knowledge without understand is empty, the equivalent of “faith without good works is dead.” The Book of Clarence unveils these messages and ideas, not with seriousness, but with sly wit and also with subtle digs at oppression, racism, and imperialism – for good measure.

That aside, the thing that most impresses me about The Book of Clarence is that writer-director Jeymes Samuel presents a film in which Black people are so very beautiful and alluring in all their varying dark and brown shades, all the textures and styles of their hair, and all the shapes, contours, and statures of their bodies. Yet in spite of its allusions to white oppression, as all the Roman characters are white, The Book of Clarence treats having an all-Black cast play the characters in a story set in the time of Jesus as an utterly normal thing. It's about time; British, Irish, and American actors have been frontin' in Biblical films as if that is an entirely normal thing. [Even if Jesus was Caucasian, he wasn't white...]

Jeymes Samuel fills his film with outstanding performances, especially LaKeith Stanfield's powerful, eccentric, turn as Clarence. It is too late in his career to discover Stanfield as a revelation; we been knew he was good. He makes Clarence's awkward, bumbling, stumbling journey to enlightenment seem like a real, tangible thing. I feel Clarence's evolution in my head and in my imagination.

Also, David Oyelowo knocks the film on its ass as the back-handing John the Baptist, much the way Alfre Woodard upends notions of Jesus Christ's mother, Mary, as “Mother Mary” later in the film. Teyana Taylor throws her beauty at us as Mary Magdalene, and Anna Diop digs out the awkward layers of Varinia, Clarence's love-interest. And RJ Cyler gives a best supporting actor type performance as Clarence's best friend and partner, Elijah.

The Book of Clarence isn't perfect. Its plot staggers and lurches at times as it moves towards its explosive final act, which is filled with breath-taking miracles and shocking plot twists. The film apparently was originally scheduled for a theatrical release in September 2023, but ultimately made its only 2023 appearance via its world premiere at the 67th London Film Festival. So as fate... or God would have it, The Book of Clarence is the best film of 2024 – thus far.

8 of 10

★★★★ out of 4 stars

Friday, January 26, 2024

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Friday, October 20, 2023

Review: "BLACULA" Can't Stop, Won't Stop Rising from the Grave

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 47 of 2023 (No. 1936) by Leroy Douresseaux

Blacula (1972)

Running time: 93 minutes (1 hour, 33 minutes)

MPAA – PG

DIRECTOR: William Crain

WRITERS: Joan Torres and Raymond Koenig

PRODUCER: Joseph T. Naar

CINEMATOGRAPHER: John M. Stevens (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Allan Jacobs

COMPOSER: Gene Page

BLAXPLOITATION/HORROR/ROMANCE

Starring: William Marshall, Vonetta McGee, Denise Nicholas, Thalmus Rasulala, Gordon Pinsent, Charles Macaulay, Emily Yancy, Lance Taylor, Sr., Ted Harris, Rick Metzler, Logan Field, Ketty Lester, Elisha Cook, Jr., Jitu Cumbuka, Eric Brotherson, and The Hues Corporation

Blacula is a 1972 American blaxploitation vampire horror and romance film directed by William Crain. Originally released by American International Pictures, the film was a hit and inspired a wave of blaxploitation (black exploitation) films, including its own sequel, Scream Blacula Scream. Blacula focuses on an 18th century African prince-turned-vampire who awakens to find himself in modern day Los Angeles.

Blacula opens in 1780, in Transylvania at Castle Dracula. The African prince, Mamuwalde (William Marshall), has traveled there with his wife, Luva (Vonetta McGee), to seek the help of Count Dracula (Charles Macaulay) in suppressing the African slave trade. Dracula refuses and after some insults and violence, he bites Mamuwalde and curses him to an immortal existence as the vampire, “Blacula.” He imprisons Mamuwalde in a sealed coffin in a crypt hidden beneath the castle, where he also leaves Luva to die.

In 1972, Blacula emerges from his coffin and begins a reign of terror and death. However, he is shocked to discover a young woman named Tina Williams (Vonetta McGee) who looks exactly like his long-lost Luva. Initially hesitant, Tina warms to Blacula, who introduces himself as Mamuwalde. In turn, Tina introduces him to her sister, Michelle Williams (Denise Nicholas), and her boyfriend, Dr. Gordon Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala).

A pathologist for the Los Angeles Police Department, Dr. Gordon has been investigating the deaths of people whom he suspects are victims of a vampire. Teaming with LAPD's Lieutenant Jack Peters (Gordon Pinsent), Gordon must discover the force behind these deaths before its too late, even as Tina finds herself irresistibly drawn to Mamuwalde / Blacula.

I have seen Blacula several times, but I had previously not attempted to review it. I have seen several “Black vampire films,” but I have previously only reviewed Spike Lee's Da Sweet Blood of Jesus (2014), although I have not seen the film it remakes, Ganja and Hess (1973). Of course, I have reviewed all the films in New Line Cinema's Blade franchise that began with 1998's Blade.

When I discovered that Blacula was available on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) via Spectrum On-Demand, I decided to view it again with an eye towards writing a review. I must say that I'd forgotten how good the music is, especially the funk score by conductor, composer, and record producer, Gene Page (1939-98), which was one of the first of its kind for a vampire film. The songs: three performed by the pop-soul trio, The Hues Corporation, and one by the short-lived L.A. soul group, The 21st Century Ltd., are quite nice.

Something I noticed for the first time is that Blacula depicts a world in which African-American professionals are equal to their white peers. In fact, it isn't even a question that they are not. For instance, Dr. Gordon Thomas is respected and his orders are followed without question. The only time that his opinion is questioned involves the obvious – telling people that there is a vampire loose in Los Angeles and that he is murdering people. Obviously, a blaxploitation film would feature a cast of black leads, but the film isn't really about them being “Black.” Blacula, in a way, is a movie about humans fighting the forces of darkness; this time, the lead vampire killer is a black man. Sometimes, I got the feeling that Blacula was almost nonchalant about the characters being African-American.

Of course, Blacula could not pass as an ordinary vampire film when the late, great stage, television, and film actor, William Marshall (1924-2003), played the title role. Marshall doesn't play Mamuwalde as a victim, which he is (of Dracula); rather, he is a man (or creature) awakened to new circumstances, and as he did in his former life (based on assumptions), will live it to the fullest. I like that Mamuwalde / Blacula is a man who gets what he wants. Perhaps, that is what makes Mamuwalde so memorable to African-American audiences. He isn't a tragic or misunderstood monster; he is a king.

I have believed for a long time that given the space and runtime, Blacula's screenwriters, Joan Torres and Raymond Koenig, with William Marshall adding his ideas, could have made a greater film. Still, William Crain's deft directing and Allan Jacob's precision film editing allow Blacula to breeze past its shortcomings. I love Blacula, obviously, and I can't wait to see it again.

B+

7 of 10

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Friday, October 20, 2023

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Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Review: "THE EQUALIZER 2" is Brutal and Personal

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 40 of 2023 (No. 1929) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Equalizer 2 (2018)

Running time: 121 minutes (2 hours, 1 minute)

MPAA – R for brutal violence throughout, language, and some drug content

DIRECTOR: Antoine Fuqua

WRITER: Richard Wenk (based on the television series created by Michael Sloan and Richard Lindheim)

PRODUCERS: Antoine Fuqua, Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, Tony Eldridge, Mace Neufeld, Alex Siskin, Michael Sloan, Steve Tisch, and Denzel Washington

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Oliver Wood (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Conrad Buff IV

COMPOSER: Harry Gregson-Williams

ACTION/CRIME/THRILLER

Starring: Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Ashton Sanders, Orson Bean, Bill Pullman, Melissa Leo, Jonathan Scarfe, Kazy Tauginas, Garrett A. Golden, and Sakina Jaffrey

The Equalizer 2 is a 2018 action movie and crime thriller directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Denzel Washington. It is a sequel to the 2014 film, The Equalizer.” Both films are based on the television series, “The Equalizer,” which was created by Michael Sloan and Richard Lindheim and was originally broadcast on CBS from 1985 to 1989. The Equalizer 2 finds Robert McCall out to make the people who murdered someone he loves pay for their crimes with their lives.

The Equalizer 2 opens on a train headed to Istanbul, Turkey. Robert “Bob” McCall (Denzel Washington) is about to serve his unflinching brand of justice on man who kidnapped his daughter in order to punish his ex-wife. McCall still lives quietly in Boston, where he works as a Lyft driver and assists the less fortunate, the exploited, and the oppressed. Among the people he is currently helping include Samuel “Sam” Rubinstein (Orson Bean), a Holocaust survivor trying to recover a painting of his sister, Magda, who died in a Nazi death camp. Lately, he has taken an interest in Miles (Ashton Sanders), a troubled African-American teen who lives in the same apartment building. Miles has tremendous artistic talent, but he is also being recruited by a violent, drug-dealing street gang.

However, the big action is in Brussels, Belgium. There, Robert's friend and former DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) colleague, Susan Plummer (Melissa Leo), is investigating the apparent murder-suicide of DIA “agency affiliate” and his wife. That investigation costs Susan her life. McCall begins investigating Susan's murder with the assistance of her colleague and his former DIA teammate, Dave York (Pedro Pascal). Determined to avenge Susan's murder, McCall will have to go deep into his past and risk endangering people very close to him.

With his Oscar-winning turn in 2001's Training Day, Denzel Washington proved to be a convincing bad guy. With 2010's The Book of Eli, Washington showed that he could be a bad-ass, kick-ass, action hero with fancy martial arts-styled moves. The first take on The Equalizer allowed Washington to blend hero and anti-hero in a visceral mix. So in anticipation of The Equalizer 3, I decided to see The Equalizer 2, of which I have seen bits and pieces on television over the past few years.

In the original film, the screenplay by Richard Wenk had McCall constantly in peril or made it seem as if he were in danger even when he was not. Wenk returns for the sequel and delivers a script that adds compassion to the standard revenge thriller. McCall can be a gentle soul helping a teen go through growing pains that are filled with danger, and he can lend a kind ear to an old man whose current quest could be the real thing or the result of a failing memory crashing from the accumulation of data over a long life. On the other hand, McCall will also break a mutha down to the blood and bone if he deserves such a reckoning, even if it means killing him.

The Equalizer would be a standard revenge thriller if its avenger were portrayed by just any other movie star, but Denzel Washington is a consummate professional and charismatic actor. That means he can deliver the meat and potatoes and the art to every performance – whether it is Shakespeare on stage or Hollywood entertainment product destined for the multiplex. In this second film, Washington super-charges his performance in order to make the personal so personal that it is murderous.

Director Antoine Fuqua plays Washington's skills for everything he can get out of this brilliant actor. Fuqua is an impressive director in his own right, especially when it comes to dark, violent, dramatic thrillers, such as Shooter (2007). Together, Fuqua and Washington deliver in The Equalizer 2 a film that slightly surpasses the original. I find myself endlessly fascinated by it because The Equalizer 2 is a really good thriller.

7 of 10

A-

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

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Sunday, March 19, 2023

Review: What's Love Got to Do With It" - The First Time the Oscars Screwed Angela Bassett

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 13 of 2023 (No. 1902) by Leroy Douresseaux

What's Love Got to Do With It (1993)

Running time: 118 minutes (1 hour, 58 minutes)

MPAA – R for domestic violence, strong language, drug use and some sexuality

DIRECTOR: Brian Gibson

WRITER: Kate Lanier (based on the book, I, Tina, by Tina Turner and Kurt Loder)

PRODUCERS: Doug Chapin, Barry Krost, and Kate Lanier

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jamie Anderson

EDITOR: Stuart Pappé

COMPOSER: Stanley Clarke

Academy Award nominee

BIOPIC/DRAMA/MUSIC

Starring: Angela Bassett, Laurence Fishburne, Jenifer Lewis, Chi McBride, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Phyllis Yvonne Stickney, Pamela Tyson, Khandi Alexander, Penny Johnson, Richard T. Jones, James Reyne, and RaéVen Kelly

What's Love Got to Do with It is a 1993 biopic and music film directed by Brian Gibson. It is an adaptation of the 1986 autobiography, I, Tina, by Tina Turner and Kurt Loder and is also based on the life of American music icon and Grammy Award-winning recording artist, Tina Turner.

The film takes its name from Tina's 1984 hit single, “What's Love Got to Do with It,” which was a Billboard magazine “Hot 100” #1 single. What's Love Got to Do With It the movie is a fictional depiction of Tina's professional and personal life with her former husband, the late Ike Turner (1931-2007), who was a musician, bandleader, record producer, singer-songwriter and Grammy Award winner. The film follows Tina Turner's life from her upbringing in rural Tennessee (early 1950s), through her rise to music stardom and her abusive marriage to Ike Turner (1960s-70s), and finally, to her career revival as a solo artist (early to mid 1980s).

What's Love Got to Do with It introduces Anna Mae Bullock (Angela Bassett). In 1958, she moves to St. Louis where she reunites with her elder sister, Alline Bullock (Phyllis Yvonne Stickney), and her mother, Zelma Bullock (Jenifer Lewis). Not long after her arrival, Anna is taken by Alline to a nightclub at East St. Louis where she sees a performance by “Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm.” Ike Turner (Laurence Fishburne) is a charismatic bandleader, and Anna, who likes to sing, wishes she could perform with his wild band, the Kings of Rhythm.

When she finally gets a chance to perform onstage with Ike and his band, Anna impresses him with her singing and her exuberant stage presence. Ike offers to mentor Anna and to produce her music, and he gives her the stage name “Tina Turner.” In time, Ike and Anna develop a close relationship and eventually marry. The musical act, “Ike & Tina Turner” (the “Ike & Tina Turner Revue” when performing live) become stars, but Ike has a dark side. He is addicted to narcotics and is violent and abusive. And Tina feels the brunt of his physical abuse. Will Anna/Tina find the courage to break away from him and forge her own career path?

Until recently, I had never watched What's Love Got to Do with It in its entirety. I decided to watch it in anticipation of Angela Bassett hopefully winning the “Best Supporting Actress” Oscar at the recent 95th Academy Awards (March 12, 2023) for her performance as “Queen Ramonda” in Disney/Marvel Studios' hit film, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Unfortunately, Bassett did not win, nor did she win the “Best Actress” Oscar for which she was nominated 29 years ago for her performance in What's Love Got to Do with It?

The shame of it is that in the case of What's Love Got to Do with It, it is Bassett's performance, along with Laurence Fishburne's, that carries this film. Quality wise and in terms of production and execution, What's Love Got to Do with It is a theatrical film that plays like a television movies. Had What's Love Got to Do with It been a TV movie it would have been a much-talked about “television event,” but the end result would have been an elevated melodrama.

The film's direction, by the late Brian Gibson (1944-2004), emphasizes spousal abuse as style over the substance of plot and character. The screenplay, written by Kate Lanier (who is also one of the film's producers), suffers from what plagues many biographical films and celebrity biopics. That is the problem with time. Rather than focus on a specific and pivotal moment in time, What's Love Got to Do with It, like other biopics, covers multiple decades. By my estimation, the film covers roughly 1950 to 1983. The first depiction of Ike abusing Tina is about 55 minutes into the movie, but one of the supporting characters states that this particular incident isn't the first time Ike has hit Tina. So basically, the film skips over key early moments in Ike and Tina's tumultuous relationship. [Both Tina and Ike apparently were not happy with the accuracy of this film.]

What's Love Got to Do with It is elevated because of the performances by both Bassett and Fishburne, as well as those of the supporting cast. Jenifer Lewis proves once again why she is a national film treasure as Anna's mother, Zelma. The shamefully underrated and underutilized Vanessa Bell Calloway shines in important and key moments of this film. Laurence Fishburne does more than just make Ike Turner a monster. He deftly conveys Ike's bitterness and resentment and especially his sense that he has never really gotten what he deserves in terms of financial success, record sales, and industry credit for what he contributed to both the art and business of popular music.

The treasure in What's Love Got to Do with It is, of course, Angela Bassett. The real-life Tina Turner's voice was dubbed into this movie for the scenes in which Bassett's Turner has to sing. Still, Bassett offers a richly crafted fictional version of Anna Mae Bullock/Tina Turner. Her emotions resonate, and her joy and happiness, love and pride, and fear and sorrow come across as genuine. In this film's quiet, reflective moments, Bassett seems as if she is really thinking Tina's thoughts. That alone should have earned Bassett an Oscar win back on March 21, 1994 at the 66th Academy Awards. What should have made Bassett a shoo-in is the physicality of her performance and the way she transformed her body for the role. It's all superb: the dancing, posing, and movement on stage; how she mimics the real Tina Turner's facial expressions on stage and when she sings; and the way Bassett carries herself and moves through the trials and tribulations of her life offstage as Ike Turner's wife.

Let's be honest; What's Love Got to Do with It would work better as a TV miniseries. Let's be real; if Angela Bassett were a white actress, she would have won an Oscar already, probably for What' s Love Got to Do with It. Not having an Oscar does not change the fact that Bassett has been one of the most versatile and charismatic actors of the large and small screen. Bassett has also given commanding performances and has been a dominating presence in a number of supporting and small roles in popular films released over the better part of the last four decades. Although Bassett has not received her Oscar crown, her performance in What's Love Got to Do with It remains her crowning achievement … in a career that should have had more of them since then.

7 of 10

B+

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Sunday, March 19, 2023

NOTES:

1994 Academy Awards, USA: 2 nominations: “Best Actor in a Leading Role” (Laurence Fishburne) and “Best Actress in a Leading Role” (Angela Bassett)

1994 Golden Globes, USA: 1 win: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical” (Angela Bassett)

1995 Image Awards (NAACP): 1 win: “Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture” (Angela Bassett); 3 nominations: “Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture” (Laurence Fishburne), “Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture” (Jenifer Lewis), and “Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture” (Vanessa Bell Calloway)

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