Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Film Review

Does Ripping Off The Return of The Jedi be considered Plagiarism if You Steal from The Same Franchise?

Ratings: 2 out of 5 Stars

Let me ask this question to you, my dear reader. How would you end a film franchise that has become a part of contemporary culture for forty-two years and has given us characters we have become fond of and quotable lines that have been uttered out of the mouths of politicians, scientists, rock stars and the everyday Jacks and Jill's? I would hope that you would give it a state of reverence, humility, some humbleness and some final bit of solemn inspiration. We, however, did not get that with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the final film to a franchise that helped define a couple of generations to believe in hope and a better future even for only two hours as you watched these stories being unfolded before your eyes. Princess Leia, never a Mary Sue or some damsel in distress, showed young girls what it meant to be a leader, to fight your own battles, and at the same time accepting help when she needed it instead of slapping a man's hand away from her. She gave everyone respect as they gave here. She was the role model when we weren't looking for role models. Han Solo, the wayward rogue traveler who started off with no allegiance to anyone, became the scoundrel who became the love for Leia and the love for us as we saw him as this big brother who would watch our backs when needed. Luke Skywalker, the name would become synonymous with a hero, a reluctant hero at best, who was filled with questions, angst, and uncertainty as he navigated the world and religion of being a Jedi.


We had become to worship these three principals. They weren't perfect, they were flawed and we liked that about them. They made mistakes and accepted the consequences. So why didn't I feel anything with this film? To begin with, all Star Wars film begins with a slow crawl laying out the preamble to the film. This always sets the impact of what is destined to come. As the crawl proceeded, I didn't feel connected to the story one bit. I found this strange and a bit perplexing. Had The Last Jedi corrupted and damaged my expectations where I just resigned those feelings to a simple, MEH? And so it begins.

As this film unfolded, Kylo Ren is up there on the screen. There is something about him that's been off-putting from the very start of this last Disney Star Wars trilogy. I figured out what it was. Darth Vader, the OG, never took off his helmet except when he needed maintenance. Kylo took off his helmet in The Force Awakens and we saw his face. When we saw it, the first thing that comes to mind is, "Hey, that's Bob and Linda's kid. He's a nice boy." Kylo Ren isn't bad, he's just irritated. Kylo Ren was never the apex predator villain that Darth Vader had become. You never bought into the notion that he was this big bad villain. At best, he was the pimple on Darth Vader's ass if you were to put him on a scale from a pimple to 1 to 10. There was never any mystery to Kylo. They made him too accessible this millennial villain light.

As we walk down The Rise of Skywalker corridors, Palpatine is brought back into the equation. But Palpatine was last seen in The Return of The Jedi and he was literally cooked away. But why, you ask? The only thing I can think of was that they ran out of ideas so they resuscitated a guy who, by all accounts, should have remained dead because this story has journeyed into the abyss of taking plot points from The Return of The Jedi. We were unwitting fools taken on a ride of false fulfillment on Anakin's journey to redemption in The Return of The Jedi. But wait, The Rise of Skywalker is not done appropriating from The Return of The Jedi.

We get to hear more from Palpatine with him telling Rey to "strike him down" and "feeling her hatred grow". Didn't he say that to Luke in The Return of The Jedi? Why yes, yes he did. Luke finds out that Vader is his father in the Return of The Jedi. Rey finds out that Palpatine is her grandfather in Rise of the Skywalker. Palpatine warns Luke that the fleet is in danger in The Return of The Jedi so that Luke can strike him down in anger. Palpatine tells Rey that the fleet is in danger in Rise of The Skywalker so that Rey can strike him down in anger. In The Return of The Jedi, the smaller rebel fleet was up against a much larger fleet. In Rise of The Skywalker, the much smaller rebel fleet was up against a massive larger fleet. You see the pattern here? This is what film critic, Grace Randolph, described as embarrassing, embarrassing, embarrassing. Palpatine is no longer the menace he once was and comes off as mild and hyperbolic. Plus, how did he amass such a large fleet in those years he was underground? Who built them and where was the workforce and base of operations? Ugh, more questions and not enough answers to the important ones.

The leaks about the script, as reported by the YouTuber, Doomcock, (all hail Doomcock), were on the money. This was a bad thing, not for Doomcock but for Kathleen Kennedy and company because someone within Disney's corporation must have felt angry, betrayed, disappointed, conflicted about how J.J. Abrams was treating the final installment to Star Wars. The strange thing is that they did have compelling stories they should have explored but didn't.

Finn, the ex-stormtrooper, had a compelling and interesting back story that was never given any discovery to. Finn was taken from his parents as an infant and grew up in servitude under The Order. His main job under The Order was that of a FUCKING janitor. Can anyone see that one, there is a parallel with the semblance of slavery, two, the only job a black stormtrooper can attain is that of a janitor, and that, three, there are some racist undertones and stereotypes in telling this story? Why did they never explore any of that story to see what was the catalyst that turned Finn around? Was he so low on the Order's job duties that a droid was more important and couldn't do his janitorial tasks?

Speaking of Finn, what was it that he wanted to tell Rey? The one thing we were anticipating to hear was never brought back into play after being teased twice in The Rise of Skywalker. Where was this heading? What we got instead was Rey appropriating Luke's last name, one of the confirmed leaks by Doomcock.

We miss Carrie Fischer and her passing is still felt in Rise of The Skywalker. All of her scenes were from the cutting room floor from The Last Jedi and it showed. A body double was used for the behind the headshots and scenes where she was interacting with people were a bit stilted and came off as poor because you could see the inserting of Carrie in the scene and it looked off. Carrie was too much of a key figure to merely just be dropped in a scene and come off as a cardboard cutout. Many of her scenes feel like an afterthought. No explanation was given as to why the character, Leia, died. She calls out Ben's name and she drops dead. I guess they really couldn't do much with that but to show it as an unceremonious death.

J.J. Abrams has appropriated certain lines from other Star Wars film down to an art. This film is replete with them. He has revisited more from Return of The Jedi with this film than he did with A New Hope with Force Awakens. They paid this guy a lot of money to be this lazy. Embarrassing.

I know you have to suspend believe but sometimes the science isn't there and the feats they are doing just don't meet the laws of physics. Case in point, Finn and a resistance fighter have just leaped off a star destroyer and onto the hull of the Millennium Falcon. The ship takes off with them running across the hull with them not getting blown off. How is this possible? Don't think too hard, we're supposed to not ask any questions.

The Mary Sue that is Rey can leap over a fast-moving TIE fighter while slicing off one of its wings, She can also leap up from a star destroyer to the Millennium Falcon like Superman. Oh, and how is Kylo able to force project himself into Rey's surroundings and take things from her? None of this is explained yet we get explanations for some of the most trivial of things with the exposition. The important stuff, well, never mind. Finding the Sith dagger was just way too easy. The death star made nonoperational in the Return of The Jedi still had the power to open a door, the Emperor's chair was still intact and only a portion of the glass was broken out after crashing from space.

We get to see Dark Rey in a dark hooded robe with a nutcracker lightsaber. Now, where have I seen this before where we see our original hero facing off on himself in a dark cave? Yeah, right.

Kylo feels the passing of Leia and all of a sudden he finds his humanity as Rey is piercing him with his lightsaber. She, being the Mary Sue that she is, heals him and saves his life with The Force. Are we supposed to accept the redemption of Kylo Ren and he returns as Ben Solo? Like I said before, he never was an apex villain, to begin with. Han returns as a Force Ghost per Doomcock. Ben is forgiven for murdering his father. All of this is a build-up to Rey battling Palpatine, he uses his force, she uses her force, yada, yada, yada, Ben comes to her aid, he's thrown into a pit, yada, yada, yada, she gains the upper hand with Palpatine, he dies, she dies, Ben crawls out of the pit, he revives her with the Force, she kisses him, why, she saw him kill his father, he dies.

You would think that they would wrap up some of the dangling threads that they purposely approached in the telling of the Return of The Jedi, uh, I mean, The Rise of Skywalker. We got nothing. Disney paid $4 billion for this property. It was supposed to be a continuation of the original three heroes to this franchise. What did they do, treat them like the bastard red-headed kids and brushed them aside to the point where the stories were unrecoverable and corrupted and alienated the very fan base that made Star Wars this cultural phenomenon. The bloom for this rose is gone now. The memory of the first trilogy is frozen in carbonite for us to preserve and treasure. Goodbye old friend. Rest in peace.

Jumanji: The Next Level — Film Review

Where in The World is The Second Act?

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Credited cast:

Karen Gillan … Martha

Dwayne Johnson … Eddie/Spencer

Madison Iseman … Young Bethany

Jack Black … Bethany / Fridge

Ashley Scott … Ashley

Danny DeVito … Eddie

Colin Hanks … Young Alex

Awkwafina … Ming

Kevin Hart … Milo / Fridge

Nick Jonas … Alex

Alex Wolff … Young Spencer

Rhys Darby … Nigel

Dania Ramirez … Flame

Danny Glover … Milo

Ser’Darius Blain … Young Fridge

Well, the holiday movie season is upon us. The studios are slowly rolling out their respective tent-pole movies with baited anticipation of visions of bountiful box-office revenue. I would say, not so fast. One of those highly anticipated holiday films that have been released is Jumanji: The Next Level. It is the followup to Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle, a re-imagining to the original Jumanji that came out on December 15, 1995, and starred the late great Robin Williams. Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle was a fun movie and a financial success that made in the USA: $404,540,171 on a reported $90,000,000 budget. With those types of numbers, a sequel would eventually come to fruition and it has. So how does the sequel fare?

It’s an aggravatingly slow burn that redeems itself in the third act. As the film opens up, we find that Spencer is working at some retail store as a stock clerk who is lost in his own dark and gloomy future. He has isolated himself from his friends and home life is just as dreary as we are introduced to a new character, Eddie, played by Danny DeVito, as Spencer’s bitter and curmudgeonly grandfather. Eddie is sullen and angry at the world but we don’t understand why at this point. We assume that he has to live with his daughter because he is old and has to have someone watch over him. But soon we are being introduced to another new character to the sequel and that person is Milo, played by Danny Glover, Eddie’s former restaurant partner in earlier times. Milo has one blaring character feature or, depending on your point of view, character flaw, and that is, as Jerry Seinfeld once described, he’s a slow talker, an annoying slow talker at that.

But let’s get back to Spencer. He is despondent and has retreated to his basement to relive a glory day moment from his past. That past was playing the game, Jumanji, the now destroyed game console resting on his table. In the meantime, Spencer’s friends are concerned that nobody has stayed in contact with Spencer and they come to his home to see him. They meet Eddie, the curmudgeon, as Martha goes upstairs to find Spencer to no success. As they are waiting, they here a familiar sound emanating from the basement. They soon discover that Spencer has reentered the Jumanji game. So, in order to make the sequel work, it is decided that they must go back into the game as well to rescue Spencer. But this time instead of the old team being drawn into the game, Bethany is left behind and in her stead, Milo and Eddie are sucked up.

So now in this alternate universe, we find the originals in the form of Karen Gillan, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Dwayne Johnson. Martha is in Karen’s body but Fridge is in Jack’s body, Eddie is in Dwayne’s body and Milo is in Keven’s body. So that is the switch up. You would think that with two seasoned actors and veterans who’ve done comedy and timing exceptionally well that you’d think that this would be a slam dunk, but you would be wrong. The trailer for this film did sell the fact that Milo/Kevin did showcase some comedic moments but Eddie/Dwayne and Milo/Kevin just bog down this portion of the film. Milo and Eddie’s constant bickering is a distraction. Eddie/Dwayne is stubborn and a bit arrogant and doesn’t listen to anyone. Milo/Kevin is such a slow talker that when he describes what an animal is, by the time he gets to the most critical point, he places everyone in danger. Plus, he’s constantly repeating himself as if he’s suffering from dementia. Much later on after the Milo/Eddie bickering dissipates, we find that in a moment of sincerity that Milo has an illness and is facing death which is why he walks back into Milo’s life after 15 years.

In the midst of all of this, Martha/Karen and Fridge/Jack discover a pool of water that switches their personalities into the other's body. This discovery will become critical later down the line but at that moment, Fridge/Jack is in Martha/Karen’s body and he messes up and is returned back to his body. They do find Spencer only this time he’s in a woman’s body and we are introduced to a new character played by Awkwafina. In the meantime, Bethany is in the real world trying to get back to Jumanji. Flipping back and forth from the game to the real world was interesting. She finds herself at the home of Alex who was in the game for a long time. With his help, he and Bethany return to the game but her avatar is a horse while Alex returns as Nick Jonas. Now all of the players are in the game.

What was frustrating about the second act was the relationship between Eddie and Milo. Eddie’s stubborn and headstrong attitude and Milo’s slow-talking not only worked on the viewers' nerves but the characters as well as they voiced their complaint. Now I don’t know if the director was brave or clever for this disruption to go on for that long because you could see that the film was being pulled down with this constant battle. Just as you were about to give up on this film, Fridge and Martha find a body of water with the same properties as the water that switched their personalities. Soon Bethany, Milo, Spencer, Eddie, and Fridge enter the water and Spencer, Fridge and Bethany are in their respective bodies from the game and Milo is the horse and Eddie is Awkwafina.

Spencer/Dwayne has his confidence back, Fridge/Kevin has his acerbic wit and comedic timing again, Bethany/Jack is back in form as well. The third act has been reprieved for the better and the energy level rises up tenfold. On the one hand, you could commend Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson for effectively channeling Danny Glover and Danny DeVito’s essence that made them so annoying and then totally reversing those elements to their former selves.

Now the team is back to a more cohesive unit with everyone being in their respective avatars. At this point, it becomes a by the numbers action sequence but it is a good by the numbers action sequence that you’ve sat through for two hours. They vanquish the bad guy and they save Jumanji once again. As everyone gets ready to return to the real world, Milo opts to stay behind and live out his life as a horse. Eddie comes to the realization that Milo made the right decision to sell the restaurant and that their friendship had been more than just on the surface. Spencer realizes that isolating himself wasn’t beneficial to his self-esteem or to the benefit of others. Bethany’s unrequited feelings for Alex were muted as she was underage in the first Jumanji and he was much older plus he has a young daughter when she showed up at his door. Now that she’s legal, this wasn’t addressed at all and no wife was seen at Alex’s home. So I guess this bit of a subplot just was ignored.

As we tie up things in a somewhat neat little bow, the team is at Eddie and Milo’s old restaurant now called Nora. They are sitting at the table chatting up about things in general. Eddie comes in for the first time in years and finally meets the new owner played by a refreshing Bebe Neuwirth who looks fantastic. 

Meanwhile, Mom is at home with a repairman to fix something in the basement and the guy notices the game console. He begins to mess with the unit and as the scene cuts away, we’re back at the restaurant where a Jumanji ostrich runs by. All of a sudden, a full herd of ostriches run by while the gang is heading out. Is this a sign for a three-quell?

I can’t fully say that this was a bad film. The challenge is sitting through the moment where Kevin and Dwayne are Milo and Eddie. You do feel the film is being pulled down but the director is taking a chance knowing that these scenes are diminishing the energy of the film. Perhaps he may have allowed it to go on too long but the moment it’s over and the pacing returns to a comfortable normalization. Is it worth watching? Yes. Is it funny? Yes, in some parts. Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Dwayne Johnson do have their funny moments that are spaced out perhaps in greater distances than we would like but it’s there. So take the kids, it’s a good family movie.

Savannah Guthrie Doesn’t Fart in Public

The Health Issues Women are Facing When They Hold it In

There have always been debated issues between men and women ranging from politics, income equality, reproductive rights and on and on. It seems as if we are in a constant state of disagreement all the time and the divide even comes down the most basic of bodily functions, flatulence expression commonly known as farting. You fart, I fart, everybody farts fart. It’s a subject rarely spoken about in social settings. You’re at a meeting or a party or fancy dinner and within that crowd, someone is pooting out a silent but deadly fart. Was it you? Sure it was, we’ve all done it. I don’t have any scientific data but I do believe men fart more than women. Why? Because we find it comical when we release one, especially one that reverberates like an empty 55-gallon drum. You can see an example of this with the actor Chris Pratt in outtakes from his former show, Parks and Recreation. California politician, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D) allegedly ripped a massive fart while being interviewed by Chris Matthews on MSNBC. I say allegedly because there is a bit of controversy as to where the sound came from. But like they say, he who denied it supplied it and the other one is, he who smelt it dealt it.

But while men find farting as a punchline, not so with women. You don’t hear about women farting. It seems to be a universal taboo for women not to even remotely to produce a fart in public. They may have done it as a kid but as they’ve gotten older, their secret society of No Fart Club has spread from town to city to farm to every corner of the globe. The universal consensus is that it is unladylike to fart in public. But there are serious health consequences for women when it comes to suppressing their farts. Trying to hold in a fart can lead to a build-up of pressure and discomfort. Furthermore, a build-up of intestinal gases can trigger abdominal distension, with some gases being reabsorbed back into the body and exhaled out your mouth. Talk about the ultimate bad breath. that’s not all, holding it in too long can build-up of the intestinal gases that eventually will lead to uncontrollable farting. There is also a debate to be made that research is not clear on whether holding in your farts can also lead to the rise of pressure in your rectum that increases your chance of developing a condition called diverticulitis, small pouches that develop in the gut lining and become inflamed.

Did you know that men and women produce about the same amount of gas and averaged eight farts episodes (individual or a series of farts) in a 24 hours period? Like Dr. Oz has said, if you talk, you fart because we are constantly swallowing air. But while men only have one orifice to emitting farts, women, unfortunately, have two and have conditions they go through the elevates their concerns about farting in public. Here are conditions women endure:

PERIOD FARTS
Oh, the mysteries of womanhood that men will never know. Men have never heard of this but women have period farts. It is perhaps one of the worst smells coming out of a living body. It’s like a mixture of two four-month-old rotten eggs mixed in with fermenting cabbage and both have been percolating for 1,000 years when that flatulence is released. I am told it is the hottest fart known to the woman world that no man could ever possibly imagine. Because of prostaglandins, which are chemicals that tell women’s bodies to expel the monthly unused contents of their uterus, it is those chemicals that can’t quite stay on target, so they also affect the gut. It’d like a toxic cloud that leads to more spasms that turn into a nightmarish scenario. No wonder women were banished from social gatherings during those uninformed times.

‘FIBER FARTS’
We live in a time where diets are an in and out fad. One day it’s the Mediterranean diet the next it’s the lean beef diet. Because women eat a lot of vegetables, salads, and yogurt, especially those probiotic yogurts. Eating those high fiber foods produces those high fiber farts. You fart what you eat. A study found that women who ate high fiber foods and farts smell four times worse than a man’s fart. It’s hard to believe given the fact that men are big bean eater. After all, who hasn’t seen the campfire scene to Blazing Saddles? It’s a classic because it shows men turning farts into comedy gold or brown depending on your point of view. It is this movie that made it acceptable for men to fart without persecution. I don’t think Rep. Eric Swalwell will have any long term consequences with the alleged farting controversy. Women, however, must endure the aftermath of wanting to stay fit by downing their favorite yogurt. Like Liz Lemon said about Activia brand yogurt, “It’s yogurt that makes you poot.”

QUEEFS
I can understand that this can be a very sensitive topic but here goes. Women, you have a vagina. Your vagina is a wonderful thing, on occasion. Sometimes it gets angry. Other times it’s very pleasant. Sometimes it just doesn’t seem to cooperate when you start experiencing the dreaded vagina farts also known as ‘queefing’. It is not necessarily a ‘real’ fart but when it gets filled with air, it belches and sounds like a fart. This one occurs during sexual congress. Sometimes the vagina gets pumped with air and before you know it, it queefs on you. Your vagina can get filled with air from exercising, from your yoga lesson or just from moving around but for the most part, it gets filled with air from having sex. If you have not experienced it, it can be a bit embarrassing especially if the person you are looking at is staring down on you wondering what the hell that is? But it’s a natural process so don’t get bent out of shape, so to speak, or too embarrassed and continue with your sexual congress.

MENOPAUSAL FARTS
So you’ve reached that certain stage of your life where menopause has arrived. In addition to the mood swings and hot flashes, you have to contend with the fact that you are having menopausal farts. But you say you never heard of them. Well, Helen or Suzy, it’s because it’s new to me too. Menopause causes bloating and some serious gas production. Blame those on the hormonal change. Yes, it’s a bitch getting older and adding ‘Menzies’ farts aren’t helping the situation. So what is a granny suppose to do? I would say try Beano, that anti-gas tablet that reduces your farting prowess. But I’m not a doctor so check with your physician.

PREGNANCY AND POSTPARTUM FARTS
Only a woman knows what it’s like to be pregnant. The body goes through a hormonal change just as it does with menopause. Once again, it is this hormonal change that affects your body. It is those hormones that change her muscles by causing them to relax. Those relaxed muscles allow the cervix to widen to grow the baby and also relax the intestinal muscles. What does this mean? Well, it means that her digestion will become slower, food will ferment longer in her intestine, more gas will be produced, more pressure will build-up, and the ability to control one's bowels will become more difficult. She will become a farting machine.

Once she has the baby, the woman must endure the postpartum farts. It’s bad enough that you had to endure the mommy farts when you were pregnant but now you have one more round of farts that are really loud. It’s your body settling back into place. Your body cavity once housed a child the size of a watermelon. Press anywhere along your stomach and boom goes the dynamite.

So there you have it. Farting in a nutshell on why women need to fart more without the guilt. Since Hollywood is re-imaging all-female films, maybe they should do an all-female Blazing Saddle scene where it’s the women sitting around the campfire farting up a storm? Or someone should make a T-shirt with the slogan ‘The Future is Farting Females’? When I look at a woman like Savannah Guthrie, I see a woman who grew up with self-esteem issues being a tall gangling teenager. She lives a lie that is tightly wound. Farting in public would not be her forte. Unlike her colleague, Al Roker, who admitted that he pooped in his pants, an act that was probably precipitated by him trying to fart, Guthrie needs to let one fly. Nobody shamed Al from what I saw but maybe it’s different for women? It’s easier to see men farting and it’s much funnier.

Dolemite Is My Name: A Film Review

Eddie Murphy’s Comedy Muscle is Still Strong

Ratings: 4 1/2 out of 5 Stars

Cast

Credited cast:

Eddie Murphy …Rudy

Keegan-Michael Key …Jerry Jones

Kodi Smit-McPhee …Nick

Wesley Snipes …D’Urville Martin

Craig Robinson …Ben Taylor

Chris Rock …Daddy Fatts

Snoop Dogg …Roj

Tituss Burgess …Theodore Toney

Chelsea Gilson …Carrie Mills

T.I. …Walter Crane (as Tip ‘TI’ Harris)

Mike Epps …Jimmy Lynch

Da’Vine Joy Randolph …Lady Reed

Ron Cephas Jones … Ricco

Depending on how long you may have lived on this planet, we are blessed with over a thousand memories. Each memory is a world within itself. Memories can be happy, sad, tragic, awe-inspiring or any of the numbers of feelings we have. Music is a big part of our memories and even comedy. As a kid, I remember Rudy Ray Moore’s Dolemite, this outrageous caricature who didn’t fit into those conventional norms society was celebrating at the time. Dolemite was this underground take no prisoner comic. He was raunchy, he was vulgar, he was funny. He was not your Bill Cosby, sans rape convict. He was not your Richard Pryor. The closest I would say was that he was in the vein of Moms Mabley and Redd Foxx. Dolemite was this fixture in the predominately urban communities of the ’70s. Before there was the Internet or social media, his fame grew through word of mouth and whispers.

In the Netflix film, Dolemite Is My Name, Eddie Murphy takes on the titular role that polishes this apple of comedy in such a way that introduces the rest of the world to this comedic genius. We are taken on this journey of self-discovery as this man finds his own abilities and trusts his own instincts opening up to this world of ribald humor.

As the film opens up, there is a mood and feel to it that sets the tone of the era and that is the soundtrack. There was a style of music during that time of films of which the blaxploitation era evoked. If you can recall Superfly or The Mack, it was that sound that lingered through these films and Dolemite doesn’t shy away to bring you to that time. The only problem I had was with a Sly & The Family Stone piece where you could tell it was digital. I would have preferred that it would have been analog just to hear the needle on the grooves and the sound of the hissing coming from the record player. But Eddie Murphy owns this role. He is not just convincing, he seems to submerge himself into the part and as each minute passes, we get to understand this pure genius that was Rudy Ray Moore in all of his unconventionality.

As an MC at a local nightclub, Rudy’s style of comedy is not working. His day job is being an assistant manager at a record shop. The record shop serves as a pivot point for Rudy as this is where Ricco, a down on your luck alcoholic, comes in look for some spare change and a rhythmic ability to curse with poetry. Rudy takes note and later seeks out Ricco and from the film narrative, pays Ricco to recite every filthy limerick he knows. When you see that, you have to wonder after all this time that Ricco never received any recognition for being the inspiration behind Dolemite for it was him who, for the better part, created the Dolemite persona.

The film doesn’t address this part and instead moves forward with Rudy donning the Dolemite caricature at the nightclub. He gets on stage and becomes the unofficial warm-up act to the band and he kills. I must say that I found a lot of what Eddie/Rudy Ray did was a flashback to my youth. As a former head comedy writer, the selling feature was the rhythmic cadence to Dolemite’s delivery. Once you’ve mastered that cadence, you can never go wrong. Rudy Ray found that rhythm and the race were on.

But stand up wasn’t the end goal for Rudy Ray. He wanted to sell albums and he accomplishes this by pressing his own albums after being turned down by a company for being too vulgar. Rudy was the pioneer of selling his body of work from the trunk of his car, a practice many unpublished rappers had to do in the day to sell their ware. Soon record labels made note of his climbing record sales and he found a home. This was another climb on the ladder for Rudy Ray. But Rudy Ray wanted more.

After going to see the movie, The Front Page, a Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon movie, Rudy Ray and his friends didn’t understand the movie and couldn’t understand why people were laughing. Rudy Ray decides then and there that he wants to make a movie. It is here that the bulk of the film is devoted to Rudy Ray pursuing this dream.

The supporting cast is excellent by the way. Craig Robinson, as Ben Taylor, gets to showcase his musical and singing abilities. Tituss Burgess, as Theodore Toney, is very convincing as a nervous, full of anxiety personality. Mike Epps, as Jimmy Lynch, is the kind of friend, a supportive friend, that you need when every avenue is blocked. Da’ Vine Joy Randolph, as Lady Reed, is the gold standard and this should be her breakout role. She’s excellent and shows the kind of strength black women at that time demonstrated. Wesley Snipes, as D’Urville Martin, is the surprising role of them all. He’s funny, he’s narcissistic, he’s on the verge of always being combustible. When awards season comes about, they should receive a slew of nomination from SAG, the Golden Globes, Oscars, etc. they were just that great.

The thing about this film was that it became a story about obstacles. With each obstacle that Rudy Ray faced, somehow he managed to overcome that obstacle through sheer determination and by the happenstance of where he was and the surrounding environment. Eddie Murphy did a commendable job of not only showing the humor of Rudy Ray but also the side roads he had to take to get to that destination. Rudy Ray demonstrated this quiet confidence but had to put on this obtuse bravado to sell himself. He was never a pimp, he just acted like one. The brightly colored clothes were just a uniform for the public and for the business and for the act. His intimate conversation with Lady Reed was raw and honest and their duet was funny and good. They made a wonderful country western song that will never see the light of day on any Nashville radio playlist.

Rudy Ray, with all of his opportunities, was only known in the urban communities. He wasn't a nationwide household name like other famous comics like Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Foxx, or Cosby. He never made it to the late-night talk show circuit. What he did contribute was the style of comedy rap which birth rap music. He’s known as the godfather of rap. His brand of comedy was also instrumental in giving us the comics of the ’80s like the shock comedy of Andrew Dice Clay, Sam Kinison and even Eddie Murphy himself. Comedy is never in a vacuum, it’s forever expanding with its tentacles. 

As far as entertainment goes, I’d rate this alongside Dave Chappelle’s Sticks & Stones as good entertainment value.  Every new comedy act has an origin story that reaches back to Carlin or Mably or Moore or Lenny, we just never know. At the end of the film, Eddie says a final goodbye to his brother, Charlie Murphy, as the film is dedicated to him. You know that Charlie would have a hand in contributing to the making of this film. Thanks, Charlie. 

Somewhere Rudy Ray is still in my head as a paraphrase this little limerick attributed to him.

The sparkling stars kiss the sparkling sky

The sparkling moon kiss the sparkling sky

The sparkling wine kiss the sparkling glass

And you, my friend, can kiss my…

See, Rudy Ray just stays with you.

Terminator: Dark Fate

A Fate Worse Than Desired — A Film Review

Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars

Cast

Credited cast:

Mackenzie Davis …Grace

Linda Hamilton …Sarah Connor

Edward Furlong …John Connor

Arnold Schwarzenegger …The Terminator

Gabriel Luna …Terminator

Natalia Reyes …Dani Ramos

Some films have the aurora of a pedigree. If the film is anywhere being good and has a followup successful sequel and critical acclaim, this honor is bestowed on them. The director is applauded, the writer is applauded, the cast is applauded. The audience is accepting of this and after a period of time, we place such film on this pedestal and shelf because we have relegated it to the position where any attempt to recapture that moment would be an offense to the hearts and minds of those who placed it there. Terminator: Dark Fate, is a movie that proves that revisiting a proven franchise is not always a pleasant experience. In the opening scene of this film, we find human skulls and a field of skeletal remains on a beach. As the scene continues, there are more human skulls as one roll down a hill of bones. We’ve seen this before in previous Terminator movies. Does this film attempt to remind us or just plain ran out of ideas to stimulate the audience with this rehashing of a plot point? This was your first sign of the repeating narrative that will be Terminator: Dark Fate.

James Cameron wrote this and Tim Miller directed it. These are two of the most high profile director and writer in the business. Somewhere in this collaboration, no joy was achieved in the making of this film. After the bones scene, the film quickly jumps into the time-traveling naked bodies of Grace, played by Mackenzie Davis and the Terminator, played by Gabriel Luna. The pacing for the first act is swift but it comes with perils to the storyline. The primary casualty is who is Grace and how did she get the enhancements to her body? Her backstory is convoluted as we see no technology being introduced to her body other than conventional first aid. The new Terminator is also a mystery. We got a full understanding of what the T-800, the original model, was about and the T-1000 was an enhanced dream bot of the highest order, liquid metal over a chassis. This newer version of the Terminator was lacking the sophistication of its predecessors and was enhanced with crude edges and jagged lines layered with a pewter finish. Gone is the silver metallic structures that came from the T-800 and T-1000.

The Terminator franchise has always been about a matriarchal figure. Sarah Connor played once again by Linda Hamilton, returns as the wounded mother figure after grieving the loss of John Connor from a successful assassination by a T-800. She’s a tortured woman living with the consequences and blaming herself for letting her guard down that caused the death of her son. It is this anger that fuels her rage throughout this picture. But is it too much rage? Gone and buried is the Sarah Connor from the original. Sarah had some warmth to her human existence. There was innocence that is now gone and replaced with unrivaled hate. Her undisputed hate for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 character is over the top and there is a question about this T-800 that also left with a perplexing identity crisis.

As we were told in the original Terminator, “Listen. Understand. That Terminator is out there. It can’t be reasoned with, it can’t be bargained with. It doesn’t feel pity of remorse or fear and it absolutely will not stop. Ever. Until you are dead.” So why is this Terminator living with a family and pretending to be a dad? Did he all of a sudden he has an emotion chip like Star Trek’s Data? Did someone rewrite his code to be kinder and gentler and be a hugging cyborg instead of a choking you to death cyborg? This take on the plot is completely illogical. If anything, this model Terminator should have deactivated himself after completing his task. By all things canon, he still should have remained a human killing cyborg. Was the rule book thrown out? Oh, and by the by, he goes by the name of Carl and he’s in the drapery business. He’s also behind the covert messages that he’s been sending to Sarah.

The object of the new Terminator obsession is Dani Ramos played by Natalia Reyes. The film leads you to believe that she is birth some new challenge to the future cyborgs but there is something that doesn’t track. Sure, you suspect that Grace may be the offspring to Dani because Grace is being cagey with answering Sarah’s questions. Still, after all is said and done, the surprise is revealed and it’s a nothing burger of a plot device. Unlike John Connor who led a resistance movement, we are lead to conclude that Dani would do the same thing but as with any group, an eventual leader will rise to the occasion.

So what was the point of all of this? Was it a self-serving interest from Grace’s point of view? After all, we accepted the premise that Grace had orders to follow but was any dispatched? There were some scenes that defied any logic what so ever. In one scene, the new Terminator is pursuing the group in a helicopter while they are on-board a C-5 transport plane. He crashes and gets another plane and catches up with them. How is this possible? It isn’t for you would have to suspend your belief on the laws on aerodynamics and physics.

I do not know why this film was ever made in the first place? It’s not like there was a huge demand to revisit this picture. The first two should have been an over and done situation. There was some humor that was supplied by Arnold but it wasn’t enough to keep this film from sinking into the abyss of failure. Sometimes going back to the well is only laced with rancid water. C’est la vie.

Zombieland: Double Tap: Film Review

Not a Home-run but a Solid Three Base Hit

Rating: 3½ out of 4 stars

CAST:

Credited cast:

Zoey Deutch … Madison

Abigail Breslin … Little Rock

Emma Stone … Wichita

Woody Harrelson … Tallahassee

Jesse Eisenberg … Columbus

Rosario Dawson … Nevada

Bill Murray … Bill Murray

If you want to just clear your mind of the constant onslaught of the Democrats revving up impeachment hearings for the current sitting president or having to deal with Hong Kong protesting or what’s going on in Turkey, I recommend you going to see Zombieland: Double Tap. This is the overdue sequel to the original film, Zombieland. The original stars, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg, and Abigail Breslin, all return to reprise their role and they didn’t lose a step in picking up where these characters left off. The plot generally stays the same but this time around we get some new characters and some new lingo like “Murraying”, more on that later. Of course, you know this film is going to be a hoot when the Columbia Pictures Torch lady uses said torch to beat off some invading zombies during the credit roll.

In this particular venue, the film picks up with Eisenberg giving us a narration. Jessie’s narrations aren’t particularly pleasant to the ears. I would have preferred Emma’s or Abigail to do the voice-over narrations. This, for me, was the only thing that made this journey a bump in the road. Putting that aside, we forge ahead. In the narration, plot points are established and one of them is that there is a new apex zombie that has evolved. It’s harder to kill. You can’t just shoot it in the head and think you’re done. No, you have to shoot it twice in the head, double-tap, hence, the leading title to the movie. This is established early on in the film but it’s not the leading narrative.

The leading narrative is the relationships of the four lead characters. They’ve been together for a while now and being together has it’s growing pains mainly for the women in this collective. One, Little Rock, wants to be dating but her pick of candidates only wants to eat her brain and they are dead. The other, Wichita, feels the weight of being in a long term relationship with someone with an eccentric personality and who is, let’s whisper it, a nerd, not that there is anything wrong with that. Tallahassee is the father/Uncle/Big Brother figure of the bunch but he’s no Ward Cleaver by any stretch of the imagination. There is a sense of respect given to him within the group. They trust his decision with their lives.

Little Rock and Wichita take off after Wichita turns down an offer of marriage from Columbus. And Little Rock takes off from Wichita after some hippy guy, Berkeley, shows up on the road and persuades her to go with him to his commune.

This film doesn’t take itself seriously at all when you saw the Torch Lady swinging for the fences at the beginning. After all, everybody is named after a U.S. city in this sequel and the tongue is firmly planted in that cheek. You’d think that they were some sort of band of covert spies with those names. That is what makes this film so fun. Each new character that gets introduced along the way has a city or state name. There is Madison, Berkeley, Albuquerque, Flagstaff, and Nevada played respectively by Zoey Deutch, Avan Jogie, Luke Wilson, Thomas Middleditch, and Rosario Dawson. Each brings its own set of misadventure with them that doesn’t bog down the premise. There is no perfect person in this bunch, no Reys or Captain Marvels or Mary Sues, just your slightly off-centered and just slightly embarrassing people filled with farts.

The third act builds up to a nice action sequence that really shines with that sense of dread and anticipation as the showdown with a contingent of apex zombies make their attack on Berkeley’s hippy compound. If it wasn’t for the fact that Little Rock was there, you’d want the zombies to make a meal out of this group. But since our protagonists are in the line of chomping, we want to root for the good guys. There is plenty of action leading up to this including a battle between Albuquerque and Flagstaff that was pretty intense. Nobody should take this movie as seriously as some SJW critics took to Joker with the sort of prejudicial maliciousness unfairly heaped upon it. Zombieland: Double Tap is straight-up slapstick and cartoon violence. Even when Flagstaff and Albuquerque are turned into zombies, that is done with humor. Zoey Deutch is good in the role of Madison as this ditsy survivor who becomes a love interest for Columbus and a thorn in the side for Wichita. That dynamic was done in such a good way that it was refreshing to see and without the usual tropes that come with a three-way relationship. There is no hidden agenda, inter-sectionalism, identity politics, nothing that would lend itself to any sort of controversy. Just go in for the 1 hour and 39 minutes and just let go. The last scene of the movie will make you smile is a flashback scene with Bill Murray and NBC weatherman, Al Roker, it’s just stupid fun. Roker and Murray have become this comedic duo in another reality but who is the straight man? “Murraying” by the way, is when you mistakenly kill someone when you think they are a zombie. Poor Bill Murray.