GUEST CRITIC #60: Get On Up

As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me.  As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there.  Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy.  Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering.  In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.

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TODAY’S CRITIC: Lafronda Stumn

Lafronda Stumn is a student at Madisonville Community College and intends to graduate with an Associate's degree in Associate of the Arts. She plans on earning a Bachelors Degree in Motion Picture Studies and English at Wright State University. Her favorite Directors are Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Spike Lee, and her favorite actors are Al Pacino, Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, and Halle Berry. Lafronda contacted this page looking for a place to get published and I enjoy giving people that very kind of opportunity. This is her 27th guest review for Every Movie Has a Lesson. Welcome as always, Lafronda!

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HER REVIEW: Get On Up

James Brown had been a contentious personality in later years. He was an accomplished musician and dancer of course, but his addiction to PCP, his spousal abuse, and tax disputes soil his image. The biopic movie Get On Up by director Tate Taylor who commanded The Help dips into the details of the story of the illustrious soul superstar.

The film begins in 1933 where James Brown’s mother leaves him and his dad after a private discord. He was moved and developed by a bordello matron played by Oscar winner Octavia Spencer. Later on, at age 17, he spent time in jail. In confinement, James took up with another prison mate Bobby Byrd (Nelsen Ellis) who sings in an choir. After their discharges from the penitentiary, James came to live with the Byrd Family. 

As a proceeding, Brown joins Byrd’s group and develops into the high points in his career. His tax problems, two marriages, and up-and-down relationship with Bobby Byrd fill much of Get On Up. The movie does an outstanding job of moving back and forth between time periods without confusing the audience. 

In expansion, many places stand out like when James Brown sings in a studio audience and realizes that he is the sole black man in the environment amongst many white faces. There is a scene where he is in Vietnam singing for the servicemen. He is on an enormous plane that has hit amongst the battle going on in Vietnam. There is also an early scene where Brown threatens a woman who uses the toilet that only James Brown uses at his headquarters. Lastly, there is a point where he meets his mother after many years, and how Brown attempts to absolve his mom's abandonment of him.

However, there are parts that only graze the totality of his narrative. Jill Scott plays his second bride, one punched by Brown at one stage. There is no mention later on of his abuse of Scott’s role. They appear to not acknowledge the harm he applied to his original bride. Toward the resolution of the film, where Brown was addicted to PCP, there was no reason shown which prompted his addiction and how he vanquished it. The film leaves many unsettled questions that warranted a three-hour film as opposed to a 140 minute one.

Overall, Get On Up stands as a brilliant achievement by Chadwick Boseman. The actor hooked the singer’s sound, dance, and idiosyncrasies to pin a dead-on impersonation of James Brown. He is the key reason you should look at this motion picture. His presentation was not simply impressive but deserved Oscar consideration for Best Actor that year. Jill Scott, Dan Aykroyd, and Nelsen Ellis give outstanding performances as well, even if the motion picture was too chicken to inquire further into Brown's darker view.

RATING: ***

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CONCLUSION

Thank you again, Lafronda! You are welcome anytime. Friends, if you see a movie that I don't see and want to be featured on my website, hit up my website's Facebook page and you can be my next GUEST CRITIC!

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MEDIA APPEARANCE: Guest on the "Kicking the Seat" live YouTube recap for "Wandavision" Finale

The finale of Disney+’s WandaVision did not disappoint the team of “Earth’s Mightiest Critics.” The spectacle was there, as well as the depth, closure, and little springboards for the future. For the past two months every Friday night, host Ian Simmons of Kicking the Seat led a live WandaVision “wecap” on YouTube. This week, he welcomed myself, Emmanuel Noisette of E-Man’s Movie Reviews, David Fowlie of Keeping it Reel, and Mark "The Movie Man" Krawczyk of the The Spoiler Room Podcast for all the talk. Enjoy me, the painted up Albino Vision fool. See you all again in two week for Ian’s “Mission Report” YouTube series to cover The Falcon and The Winter Solider.

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COLUMN: What Happens in Vegas Lives On in the Movies

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What Happens in Vegas Lives On in the Movies

by Kevin Gardner

Las Vegas is synonymous with wild times, gambling, hidden regrets and, sometimes, crime. Is it any wonder that Sin City has become one of Hollywood's favorite film locations? Set a story in the gambling capital of the world and the script almost writes itself! Of the many films set in this desert mecca, here are a few that capture the many facets of the city that never sleeps.

Hangover

This movie is the wild party trip to Vegas you've always dreamed of - on steroids. It relates the misadventures of 4 friends who have gathered in Vegas for a bachelor party and goes completely off the rails from there. After a drunken evening, one of the group goes missing and the rest have no memory of what happened. For the rest of the movie, the friends retrace their steps, slowly discovering the outrageous events of that wild night and trying to find their missing friend. It's a wild ride of a movie with some real belly laughs and a few heartfelt moments as well. If you're planning a similar trip in the future, you might find yourself in need of a few good Las Vegas criminal defense attorneys before you're done.

Ocean's 11

You may not know it, but this film has actually been made twice. The original was made in 1960 and starred a whopping 5 members of the Rat Pack, including Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and the king of cool himself, Frank Sinatra. The Rat Pack was a group of Hollywood heavyweights known for their suaveness, hard partying and womanizing. Ocean's 11 was the perfect venue for this tight-knit group. It told the story of a group of friends who planned and executed the robbery of several of Las Vegas's top casinos.

Flash forward nearly 40 years, and director Steven Soderbergh made the decision to gather a new generation of dashing Hollywood actors to remake the film. Starring the likes of George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Don Cheadle, and Matt Damon, the movie was a huge hit. It paid homage to the original Rat Pack and celebrated the glamour and sophistication of Las Vegas at its best. If you're looking for style, humor and a great story, you can't go wrong with this one. If you really love it, it inspired two sequels that you might want to check out as well.

Leaving Las Vegas

This film is a deep dive into the seedier side of a city where all that glitters is definitely not gold. The lead characters are a suicidal alcoholic played by Nicholas Cage and a kindhearted prostitute played by Elizabeth Shue. The film gives an unflinching view into the hopelessness of depression and alcohol dependency and the power of unconditional love. Cage won Best Actor awards at both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes. Shue was nominated for Best Actress by both organizations. Leaving Las Vegas is difficult to watch and isn't for those looking for something light, but the film techniques and the acting make it worth putting on your list of films to watch.

Showgirls

This is the saga of a ruthless showgirl who will stop at nothing to claw her way to the top, losing her friends, her morals and her humanity along the way. This movie has become famous for being so unrelentingly bad that it has become a cult favorite. The acting is over the top, the dialogue is awful, the story itself is pointless and it was so widely panned that it effectively destroyed the lead actress's career. You must watch it at least once!

Las Vegas is a city that has many faces. It's simultaneously opulent, sophisticated, seedy, ruthless, wild and exciting. Nothing can compare with enjoying a Vegas weekend in person. If you can't get away to experience the real thing, mix up some martinis, dress up in your fanciest clothes and spend an evening with friends watching some of these great movies.

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MOVIE REVIEW: Coming 2 America

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COMING 2 AMERICA-- 3 STARS

Back in 1988’s Coming to America, what became the “our song” for Prince Akeem Joffer of Zamunda and Lisa McDowell of Queens was the smoky 1958 ballad “To Be Loved” from “Mr. Excitement” Jackie Wilson. Shove aside all the wild characters, makeup tricks, and zany antics on display, and the third verse of Wilson’s song says it all about the true beating heart underneath:

“Some wish to be a king or a queen

Some wish for fortune and fame

But to be, truly, truly, truly loved is

More than all of these things”  

We came for the laughs and surely got them, but what holds that comedy classic higher than usual is its true-blue love story. For Eddie Murphy to play a romantic lead of courtship principles and decency, instead of the slick lothario type that made him a bankable megastar, lifted his charm and that of the movie as well. The upright pursuit of “a woman to arouse my intellect as well as my loins” is inherited for a new era with Coming 2 America. Don’t worry, we still get the wild and zany too.

It’s been thirty years since Akeem (Murphy) brought home and married his American-found Queen Lisa (Shari Headley). He’s been blessed-yet-cursed with three daughters. Zamundan law, still stewarded by an ailing King Jaffe (James Earl Jones), demands only male heirs carry on the royal bloodline, no matter how worthy and perfect Akeem’s oldest daughter Meeka (KiKi Layne of If Beale Street Could Talk) may be. One prospect of filling that position would be an arranged marriage between Meeka and the son of General Izzi (a game Wesley Snipes) of the neighboring Nextdoria. As a believer of true love, Akeem declines that offer leaving Zamunda prone to a hostile takeover from its warmonger rival.

Alas, a long-held secret known by King Jaffe and buried by Akeem’s best friend and advisor Semmi (Arsenio Hall) reveals that Akeem sired an American son during a drug-addled one-night stand with the bar hussy Mary (Leslie Jones, formerly of Saturday Night Live) back in New York before he met Lisa. That 31-year-old man now is Lavelle Junson (Jermaine Fowler of Judas and the Black Messiah), the rightful heir to the throne after his father and ahead of Meeka. When Akeem and Semmi retrieve him and Mary to merge his “aristocratic-blended family,” the ways of Africa and the ways of America collide again, only on the other side of the Atlantic this time around. 

LESSON #1: HEAVY IS THE HEAD THAT WEARS THE CROWN-- Akeem’s restaurateur father-in-law Cleo (John Amos) drops the Shakespearean riff to describe the problems of family and country that beset Akeem. He is less cruel than his father, which makes him a better man, but a more challenged leader. Lavelle walks right into the next arranged marriage, this time with General Izzi’s rapturous daughter Bopoto (multi-talented performing artist Teyana Taylor) over the natural connection he gains with the common royal groomer Mirembe (newcomer Nomzamo Mbatha). If Akeem were to bargain and broker for the same kingdom-saving betrothals that he himself escaped and rebelled against decades ago, then he would fail as a father in spite of perceived national survival. What’s right for the country isn’t always right for family.

LESSON #2: ESCHEWING ROYALTY FOR REALITY-- Calling some of Coming 2 America a duplication of this lesson’s theme from the original film would be more than fair, but that, hijinks and gags aside again, is the core of this loosey-goosey parable since the onset. The ultimatum to “do things differently” is agreeable ground to retread. In the first film, the borough of Queens needed a little high-minded pride from Zamuda and, this time around, the cavalier kingdom needed a little American swagger.

Spending the bulk of its time in the fictional Zamunda was a stylistic boon for the sequel directed by Craig Brewer of Dolemite is My Name and Hustle & Flow. Familiar characters are given splashy new settings, looks, and moves, chiefly provided by kitschy production designer Jefferson Sage (A Simple Favor), Oscar-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter (Black Panther), and energetic dance choreographer Fatima Robinson (Dreamgirls). Considering the borderline senior citizen age of many involved, this movie really shakes its ass to be lively and look damn good doing so.

LESSON #3: LIKABLE CHARACTERS GO A LONG WAY-- While the superficial finery may shimmer and sparkle, it’s the bright and smiling personalities audiences come to see in Coming 2 America. Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall smooth their own wrinkles while adding the heavy makeup again of a few more to bring back all of their madcap creations that we still quote 33 years later. All of the returning old favorites are here as well as a few surprises. Simply put, likeable characters go a long way and these two films are filled to the fish-of-water gills with them. 

The edge of the comedic machete harvesting all the low-hanging fruit planted by the six writers sharing story and screenwriter credit on this sequel is regrettably dulled from the R-rated coarseness of 1988 and its different time and temperament. But zingers still zing, thanks to the likable performers and characters. When they’re having fun, we’re having fun. To call back again to Jackie Wilson, the silly glee of this movie evokes the refrained lyric of “Oh what a feeling to be loved!” That’s all this movie is trying to do and that’s just fine.

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MOVIE REVIEW: Raya and the Last Dragon

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RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON-- 4 STARS

LESSON #1: TRUTH IN FICTION-- Seeing Disney’s Raya in the Last Dragon calls to mind a fundamental principle of fiction outlined by famed graphic novel storyteller Neil Gaiman in a session of his MasterClass course. To him, “one of the central tools of literature is using the ‘lie’ of a made-up story to tell a human truth.” Speaking on the vitality of creating memorable stories with their deliberate takeaways, Gaiman doubles-down to add:

“What we're saying is we are using lies. We're using memorable lies. We are taking people who do not exist and things that did not happen to those people in places that aren't, and we are using those things to communicate true things to kids.”

That is beautifully blunt, and undeniably correct, wisdom from Gaiman. That’s everything from the wildest fairy tales to most present realistic fiction of the given era. To be specific to the film at hand, that’s damn never every Disney classic too. But the “lies” work because memorable stories dazzle and impress eyes and hearts at the same time. Nestled in a completely foreign realm of magic and myth, the real-life parallels woven into the high fantasy of Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon couldn’t ring louder or truer if it stole every bell in the record-holding Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin. The movie hits the premium tier of Disney+ on March 5th.

Raya and the Last Dragon divulges the tumultuous history of the splintered land of Kumandra. Five centuries earlier, the unified magic of powerful guardian dragons extinguished the amassed destruction brought on by rolling, smoky Druuns, a horde of all-consuming miniature plagues that turned the people they enveloped into stone. It cost all the dragons their lives, save one, a dormant legend named Sisu. All that remained was a gem of their residual magic now protected by the royal family bloodline that leads the land of Heart.

Heart’s success and perceived favor, currently stewarded by Chief Benja (TV star Daniel Dae Kim), has led the other neighboring regions to madly covet and constantly target Heart to steal that precious jewel. Benja has recently anointed his spirited daughter Raya as the next projector while he seeks diplomacy with the other tribes to unite Kumandra again. When that peace offering event is exploited with betrayal and ruined by the return of the Druuns, the gem is broken and its divided parts are confiscated by the other ruling powers.

Six years pass and the now-adult warrior Raya (Star Wars cast member Kelly Marie Tran) seeks to summon Sisu and reconstruct the absconded shards to purge the Druuns once more. What she finds is the quirky dragon embodied by comedienne Awkwafina (The Farewell) that isn’t the most immediate paragon hero. Raya also acquires a growing rabble of converted helpers and merry followers while dodging the adversarial pursuits of Namaari (Gemma Chan of Crazy Rich Asians), a fellow warrior princess with not all that dissimilar aims to her own.

LESSON #2: DEALING WITH TRUTH ISSUES-- The warring geographic opponents of Raya and the Last Dragon are tormented with lacking trust. They’ve either witnessed betrayal, perpetrated it, or been sold it by generational strife. Too many of them are done trying to give trust to get trust despite when cooperation is so clearly their best chance at survival. One mantra coming out of the film from the writing team of Crazy Rich Asians screenwriter Adele Lim and Vietnamese-American playwright Qui Nguyen is to “stop, learn, and trust.” If ending the confrontational natures wasn’t hard enough, gaining the empathetic and educational angle is even more difficult, yet still essential.

LESSON #3: THE EMPOWERMENT OF FAITH-- The dragons and all the surrounding magic can count as deities and miracles within Raya and the Last Dragon, but, as Gaiman’s above statements would support, the true empowerment of sustained life and community comes from people. The support and success that comes from unified hope and actions of people coming together is second to none. That’s when humanity, even a fictionalized one, believing in each other is at its best. 

In both strength and weakness, Nguyen and Lim lay the trust talk on mighty thick. That totem is a rightly appropriate one to convey, but great parables are richer and deeper when they can offer more than one adage. The complementary threads of parents and their heirs, broken friendships, and selflessness are weaker in expression than that big narrative cable of trust. Add the chatterbox blend of modern vernacular and humor spun by Awkwafina as the persona who harps the most about trust and Raya and the Last Dragon can come across as slightly too effusive. Luckily, she’s a hoot and doesn’t reach anywhere close to Eddie Murphy territory.

What shores up the thematic exuberance is the virtuous pride taken in the movie’s creation. The directing duo of Big Hero 6 Oscar winner Don Hall and Blindspotting director Carlos Lopez Estrada and the massive team of department contributors behind Head of Story Fawn Veerasunthorn (Ralph Breaks the Internet) have saturated this animated film in glorious artistic finery fit for the biggest and loudest silver screen. Swelled by a strong score from composer James Newton Howard (his first Disney work in 18 years), the elemental styles of Raya and the Last Dragon borrow gratifying and opulent inspiration from the nations of Southeast Asia. No compass or map can take you to a Kumandra on this Earth, but that doesn’t matter. The fantastical is right here to enjoy.

Folks are justified in celebrating the cultural representation that Raya and the Last Dragon redeems. It is a dignifying bonus to the “magic of fiction” presented again by Neil Gaiman in that MasterClass. Applying Gaiman to this movie, Raya and the Last Dragon matches his notion of fiction “giving you something big and true and important that you might not otherwise get. And you can carry it in your heart, and you can tell it to your children and your children's children. That’s the kind of effect received here and felt no matter your demographic.

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MEDIA APPEARANCE: Guest on the "Kicking the Seat" live YouTube recap for "Wandavision" Episode 8

The penultimate eight episode of WandaVision took us into the literal and figurative basement of our two female magic-using witches for a deep dive into their origins and motives. This is the last volleyball bump-and-set for a spike of an anticipated finale next week. Every Friday, Ian Simmons of Kicking the Seat hosts a live WandaVision “wecap” on YouTube. This week, Ian brought in myself, Emmanuel Noisette of E-Man’s Movie Reviews, and David Fowlie of Keeping it Reel as the “Earth’s Mightiest Critics” stable to talk about all the theories and implications. One more to go! Catch us every Friday at 8:30pm CST! Here’s our chat for Episode 8:

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INFOGRAPHIC: Motor Movies and Their Real-World Motoring Offenses

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Motor movies and their real-world motoring offenses

Cinema is the perfect escape from reality. The appeal is obvious, especially right now – why wouldn’t you want to swap our overcast skies and countless hours indoors for exotic locales and ridiculously addictive action sequences?

And yet, at the same time, we want to know exactly how these movies would work in the real world; could James Bond really get away with being undercover every time, despite looking exactly the same and doing it for the best part of a century?

We can’t answer that one, but we can tell you just how impractical – and illegal – the most exciting motor-related movies and their car chases are. Roughly. Keep scrolling for a breakdown on some of cinema’s biggest films on four wheels, and how much jailtime and licence endorsements the stars would’ve racked up.

Cinema’s most popular movies to feature car chases

Starting with Avengers: Endgame in top spot, we worked down through the list of highest-grossing films and picked out the biggest flicks with car chases. Considering the initial top ten was made up of six films from the Fast & Furious and James Bond franchises, we’ve went with the most successful of each.

Captain America: Winter Soldier, another from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, leads the line with the longest jailtime and highest number of motoring offences – 34 to be exact, with more than five of them for every minute of the car chase we watched.

Despite making the third-highest figure at the box office, The Dark Knight Rises features the second-lowest number of motoring offences with only 15. Mind you, he still ends up with nearly 120 points and nine years in prison.

How do they compare to the classics?

As an average of several car chase top tens, we found The French Connection to be the most popular. Fitting, too, as the film’s main car chase features some of the highest figures for number and rate of motoring offences – putting it in third place overall. Not bad for a film that turns 50 this year.

In fact, only one of the films in our list was filmed after the 90s – The Bourne Supremacy. Despite our findings marking it as the ninth-most popular, it’s only just beaten to the title of most motoring offences by one other. There are 22 of them in all, accruing 182 points in the process.

Gone in 60 Seconds – the ’74 original, not the Nicholas Cage remake – just about beats it on that front, with 203 points and a baffling 6.2 offences per minute of the film’s climax.

On average, the more recent films have a higher number and rate of motoring offences and points. But, going by their combined £3.9bn takings, they’re doing something right – it seems modern audiences prefer more explosions and action than the classic counterparts.

How we worked it out

Looking at box office data (The Numbers) and several car chase top tens (Fandango, Insider, Mental Floss, Money and Little White Lies), we were able to pick out the highest-grossing and most popular motor movies.

We then sat through each of the film’s main car chases and tallied the motoring offences and penalties, as per The Highway Code. Comparing these figures with the duration of each chase gave the offences per minute. 

For more features of this sort and general automotive news, bookmark the Car Lease Special Offers blog.

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