Keith David Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘Mufasa: The Lion King,’ starring the voices of Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Tiffany Boone, Mads Mikkelsen, John Kani, Preston Nyman, Thandiwe Newton and Lennie James

December 21, 2024

by Carla Hay

Mufasa (voiced by Aaron Pierre) and Taka (voiced by Kelvin Harrison Jr.) in “Mufasa: The Lion King” (Image courtesy of Disney Enterprises Inc.)

Directed by Barry Jenkins

Culture Representation: Taking place in Africa, the animated film “Mufasa: The Lion King” (a prequel to “The Lion King” movies) features a cast of characters portraying talking animals.

Culture Clash: The origin story of future lion king patriarch Mufasa is told, including how he battled a pride of lion invaders and was betrayed by his adoptive brother.

Culture Audience: “Mufasa: The Lion King” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of “The Lion King” franchise and animated films that are formulaic and don’t do anything innovative.

Kiros (voiced by Mads Mikkelsen) in “Mufasa: The Lion King” (Image courtesy of Disney Enterprises Inc.)

The animated musical “Mufasa: The Lion King” delivers the expected eye-catching visuals, but the story, dialogue and songs are underwhelming and tedious. This disappointing prequel lazily copies the formula of other “Lion King” films. Considering the large production budget and award-winning talent involved for “Mufasa: The Lion King,” this hollow film is an example of too many wasted and missed opportunities.

Directed by Barry Jenkins and written by Jeff Nathanson, “Mufasa: The Lion King” tells the origin story of royal lion Mufasa, who is a stereotypical heroic character. Mufasa died near the beginning of “The Lion King” movies, as seen in the 1994 original “The Lion King” movie and 2019 remake. Mufasa’s unexpected death (by falling down a gorge) made his son/only child Simba a runaway because Simba blamed himself for Mufasa’s death. Mufasa was actually murdered, and the killer went on the hunt to murder Simba. It’s assumed that most people watching “Mufasa: The Lion King” saw a “Lion King” movie that told Simba’s origin story. Anyone unfamiliar with Simba’s story will feel a bit lost and confused by the beginning of “Mufasa: The Lion King.”

“Mufasa: The Lion King” begins with a caption announcing that the movie is dedicated to actor James Earl Jones, the original voice of Mufasa in the previous “Lion King” movies. (Jones died in September 2024, at the age of 93.) “Mufasa: The Lion King” then has an opening scene showing that adult Simba (voiced by Donald Glover), his love partner Nala (voiced by Beyoncé Knowles-Carter) and their cub daughter Kiara (voiced by Blue Ivy Carter) are living as a happy family somewhere in Africa. An elderly, wise mandrill named Rafiki (voiced by John Kani), who was a trusted ally of Mufasa, notices that Kiara is afraid of an expected rainstorm.

Rafiki tries to comfort Kiara by telling her that Kiara’s legendary grandfather king Mufasa used to be afraid of storms too, when Mufasa was about Kiara’s age. Rafiki then tells Kiara the story of Mufasa when Mufasa was a child and a young adult. This story and flashback scenes are the basis of much of “Mufasa: The Lion King.” Returning characters from “The Lion King” movies are two of Simba’s wisecracking friends: goofy warthog Pumbaa (voiced by Seth Rogen) and sarcastic meerkat Timon (voiced by Billy Eichner), who hang around to listen to Rafiki’s storytelling about Mufasa.

Mufasa’s origin story is almost an exact replica of Simba’s origin story. Mufasa as a cub (voiced by Braelyn Rankins) had a happy childhood and was his parents’ only child, until he was separated from his biological family for years and had to find his own identity as a young adult. “Mufasa: The Lion King” has one of the same villains as the original “Lion King” story, but “Mufasa: The Lion King” adds another villain to elongate the already predictable plot. The main difference between the two origin stories is that Mufasa was separated from his family because of a natural disaster, while Simba was separated from his family because Simba ran away after Simba’s father Mufasa died.

In “Mufasa: The Lion King,” cub Mufasa was living in bliss with his parents Masego (voiced by Keith David) and Afia (voiced by Anika Noni Rose), whose goal was to find the promised land of Milele, so the family could live in Milele. Mufasa’s parents describe Milele as a paradise-like place where resources are plentiful and animals live in harmony in “the circle of life.” Milele is a place that some animals believe is real, while others think Milele is a mythical place that doesn’t exist.

The family’s plans to find Milele are interrupted during a flash flood that causes Mufasa to nearly drown in a cascading river. As a result of this flood, Mufasa is separated from his parents and can’t find them. A crocodile almost attacks Mufasa, but he is rescued by another cub named Taka (voiced by Theo Somolu), who is a prince of his pride of lions. Mufasa doesn’t know how to find his parents, so Taka (who is about the same age as Mufasa) takes Mufasa back to Taka’s home, which is a place called Pride Lands.

Taka’s parents—stern father Obasi (voiced by Lennie James) and compassionate mother Eshe (voiced by Thandiwe Newton)—have very different reactions to Mufasa. Obasi, who is very distrustful of outsiders, is reluctant to accept Mufasa into the pride. Eshe is more open to accepting Mufasa, especially when Taka openly expresses that he has always wanted a brother. (The utterly bland song “I Always Wanted a Brother” is performed in this part of the movie.)

Obasi tells Mufasa that Mufasa can only live with this pride of lions if Mufasa wins in a speed race against Taka. Mufasa wins the race because Taka deliberately lets Mufasa win—and Taka doesn’t let Mufasa forget it. Obasi also tells Taka never to trust Mufasa because Taka is Obasi’s rightful heir. It’s the first indication that although Taka wants Mufasa as a brother, Taka expects to inherit the kingdom from Obasi. Even with this “victory,” Mufasa s still treated with suspicion by Obasi, who orders that Mufasa has to spend time with the females of the pride.

“Mufasa: The Lion King” then has a series scenes showing that despite Obasi’s wariness of Mufasa, Taka went against his father’s wishes and became very close to Mufasa, who became just like a brother to Taka. The movie then abruptly segues to the young-adult phase of Mufasa (voiced by Aaron Pierre) and Taka (voiced by Kelvin Harrison Jr.), who are still the best of friends at this point in the story. They hunt together and protect each other.

However, there is some tension in the relationship because Mufasa has been outshining Taka because Mufasa has an extraordinary sense of smell, and Mufasa is overall more courageous than Taka. Mufasa is also considered more physically attractive than Taka: Mufasa has a full mane and is muscular, while Taka has a scraggly mane and is somewhat scrawny.

Mufasa’s keen senses are why he can detect the impending invasion of a group of villainous white lions called the Outsiders, led by the ruthless Kiros (voiced by Mads Mikkelsen), who want to take over the land occupied by Obasi’s pride of lions. Kiros has two sisters who are his warrior sidekicks: Akua (voiced by Joanna Jones) and Amara (voiced by Folake Olowofoyeku), who both have personalities that are indistinguishable from the other. You know what happens next: Mufasa and Taka join forces with the rest of their pride to fight against the Outsiders.

Meanwhile, a bit of a love triangle develops when Mufasa and Taka meet a young adult lioness named Sarabi (voiced by Tiffany Boone), who has two sidekick friends: young Rafiki (voiced by Kagiso Lediga) and a talkative hornbill named Zazu (voiced by Preston Nyman), who is Sarabi’s scout. Sarabi becomes a warrior ally to Mufasa and Taka. And even if you’ve never seen the original “Lion King” movie, it’s very easy to predict which lion brother will eventually win Sarabi’s love. Rafiki also has a special friend: a baboon named Junia (voiced by Thuso Mbedu), who will be forgotten by most viewers by the time the movie is over.

If the introduction of all these new characters sounds a bit overcrowded, that’s because it is. Sarabi’s brave-but-gentle personality is almost identical to Nala’s personality. Zazu is an utterly generic chatterbox. Kiros is every single cliché of a cartoon animal villain. Mikkelsen tries to give the Kiros character some sort of charisma, but his performance is hampered by drab dialogue.

One of the biggest problems with “Mufasa: The Lion King” is that even if you never saw any “Lion King” movie, it’s common knowledge in pop culture that Mufasa had a brother named Scar, who betrayed Mufasa and became a villain because Scar was jealous of Mufasa. In “Mufasa: The Lion King,” Taka is obviously the original name of Scar, although the movie tries to pay coy about it, as if it’s some big secret. Most viewers already know that Taka is a duplicitous villain, so there is no real surprise when the moment comes in “Mufasa: The Lion King” when Taka is revealed to be a villain.

“Mufasa: The Lion King” eventually shows how and why Taka’s name was changed to Scar, but this tidbit of information does not change the monotony of the story. The action scenes aren’t as thrilling as they could be. And the movie just can’t overcome the clunky and boring conversations. Pumbaa and Timon, the only “Lion King” characters with a lively rapport, are sidelined in “Mufasa: The Lion King,” which makes Pumbaa and Timon more annoying than amusing.

And unlike many other Disney animated musicals, “Mufasa: The Lion King” has absolutely no songs that are destined to be classics or winners of major awards. Lin-Manuel Miranda (“Hamilton,” “Moana,” “Encanto”) wrote the six original songs in “Mufasa: The Lion King” that have lyrics: “Milele”; “I Always Wanted a Brother” (co-written by Nicholas Britell, the composer of “Mufasa: The Lion King”); “Bye Bye”; “We Go Together”; “Tell Me It’s You”; and “Brother Betrayed.” None of these songs comes close to being as memorable as the Oscar-winning 1994 “Lion King” song: “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” written by Elton John and Tim Rice. Britell’s musical score for “Mufasa: The Lion King” is serviceable but not outstanding, compared to Hans Zimmer’s score for the original “Lion King” movie.

Here’s an example of why “Mufasa: The Lion King” has a poorly written screenplay: When elder Rafiki is telling the origin story of Mufasa, the movie cuts to interludes showing Rafiki being interrupted by Pumbaa and Timon, who complain and don’t understand why they aren’t part of the story too—even though Pumbaa and Timon didn’t even know Mufasa. Pumbaa also weirdly keeps guessing out loud if Taka is really going to be revealed as a young Pumbaa. It makes absolutely no sense. “Mufasa: The Lion King” director Jenkins won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for 2016’s “Moonlight.” We’ll never know how “Mufasa: The Lion King” would have been like if Jenkins also wrote the screenplay for “Mufasa: The Lion King.”

“Mufasa: The Lion King” is a prequel that expects viewers to know a lot about Simba’s “Lion King” story, which is why the beginning of “Mufasa: The Lion King” is so jumbled when re-introducing familiar characters. But at the same time, “Mufasa: The Lion King” also drags out the obvious “reveal” that Taka is really Scar, the villain lion who became an enemy of Mufasa and Simba. Everything else in “Mufasa: The Lion King” is really just a distraction that leads up to this reveal. The voice cast members are talented and do the best they can, but “Mufasa: The Lion King” is ultimately a shallow retread of 1994’s vastly superior “The Lion King.”

Walt Disney Pictures released “Mufasa: The Lion King” in U.S. cinemas on December 20, 2024.

Review: ‘The Prank’ (2024), starring Connor Kalopsis, Ramona Young, Meredith Salenger, Kate Flannery, Keith David and Rita Moreno

March 16, 2024

by Carla Hay

Connor Kalopsis and Ramona Young in “The Prank” (Photo courtesy of Iconic Events)

“The Prank” (2024)

Directed by Maureen Bharoocha

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the comedy film “The Prank” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Latin people, Asians and African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Two teenagers, who are in their last year of high school, spread stories about their physics teacher being a murderer, after she threatens to flunk them and the rest of the physics class.

Culture Audience: “The Prank” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Rita Moreno or teen-oriented dark comedies that have ridiculous plots.

Rita Moreno in “The Prank” (Photo courtesy of Iconic Events)

“The Prank” is a bad joke on anyone expecting it to be a good comedy. This awful dud has very few redeeming qualities, such as Rita Moreno, who deserves better than this garbage. The plot twists get worse as the movie fumbles along to a horrible ending.

Directed by Maureen Bharoocha, “The Prank” was written by Rebecca Flinn-White and Zak White. The movie had its world premiere at the 2022 SXSW Film and TV Festival. Considering that this sloppy and unfunny movie often looks like a student film, the filmmakers should consider themselves lucky that it was allowed at a high-profile and influential festival such as SXSW.

In “The Prank,” which takes place in an unnamed U.S. city, best friends Ben Palmer (played by Connor Kalopsis) and Mei Tanner (played by Ramona Young)—who just goes by the name Tanner—are just a few months away from graduating from West Greenview High School. (“The Prank” was actually filmed in California.) In the school’s social hierarchy of students, Ben and Tanner are somewhat outsiders. Ben is nerdy and uptight, while Tanner is a freewheeling mischief maker. In her free time, she likes to engage in computer hacking. Tanner has also recently concocted a scheme to sell fake IDs that she made for underage teens.

An opening scene in the movie shows Ben’s home, where several academic awards that Ben has won are displayed on walls. Ben is an only child who lives with his supportive mother Julie Palmer (played by Meredith Salenger), who is a recent widow, because Ben’s father died six months prior to this story taking place. His father’s death is just a plot device to give Ben a motive to achieve his immediate goal of attending his father’s alma mater university, as a way to emulate and pay tribute to his father.

Ben is very stressed-out because he will consider himself to be a failure if he can’t enroll in his father’s alma mater university. The problem is that Ben won’t be able to enroll in this university unless he gets a full academic scholarship, which directly hinges on him maintaining the excellent grades that he’s had for the academic year. Ben and Tanner are students in the same advance-placement (AP) physics class, which is taught by Mrs. Helen Wheeler (played by Moreno), who has a longtime reputation for being very tough and insulting—not just with her students but also with just about everyone.

One day, Mrs. Wheeler announces to the class (which has 28 students) that she knows that someone has cheated on the most recent exam that she gave. Mrs. Wheeler says that if the cheater does not confess before the end of the school year, then she will give everyone in the class a failing grade. The students are very upset, but no one comes forward to confess. By the way, Mrs. Wheeler always wears black leather gloves—a quirk that is poorly explained during one of the movie’s stupid plot twists.

Word quickly spreads around the school about Mrs. Wheeler’s controversial ultimatum. In the faculty lounge, a teacher named Mrs. Gutierrez (played by Betsy Sodaro, who starred in director Bharoocha’s 2021 comedy film “Golden Arm”) asks Mrs. Wheeler if Mrs. Wheeler is really allowed to flunk an entire class just because one person cheated on an exam. Mrs. Wheeler haughtily replies, “If I allow a cheater to succeed, then I’ve failed!”

What does the school principal have to say about this extreme tactic by Mrs. Wheeler? Principal Henderson (played by Keith David, in a thankless role that doesn’t get much screen time) unrealistically doesn’t have much to say about it, even though he should. He has a tension-filled relationship with Mrs. Wheeler because they don’t like each other very much. Even though Principal Henderson is Mrs. Wheeler’s boss, he seems to be a little bit afraid of her.

Meanwhile, Ben’s anxiety increases because he knows failing Mrs. Wheeler’s class will ruin his chances of getting the scholarship to his first-choice university. Tanner jokingly suggests that they get Mrs. Wheeler fired by spreading stories about Mrs. Wheeler being responsible for the disappearance of a missing student named Wayne Lambert (played by Alexander Morales), who had a reputation for being a heavy drug user. Tanner describes an elaborate plan where Tanner would create phony email messages and fake photos to make it look like Mrs. Wheeler was having a secret affair with Wayne.

Ben is very reluctant to go along with this idea. “Isn’t it illegal?” he nervously asks Tanner. But it’s too late: Tanner has already posted her fake “evidence” on various social media platforms, so that everything can go viral. It doesn’t take long for the local news media to pick up the story. Mrs. Wheeler’s defiant reaction is to proclaim her innocence and double-down on the threat to flunk her entire physics class, because she’s certain that someone in the class planted this story as revenge.

Mrs. Wheeler’s reaction enrages Tanner, who then encourages people to think that Mrs. Wheeler not only murdered Wayne but also other students from the school who have gone missing over the years. The planted stories spiral out of control, thanks to irresponsible media people who don’t do any real investigations. A few of the TV reporters state on the air that they believe that Mrs. Wheeler is probably a murderer because she was mean to them when she was their teacher. The school’s biggest student gossip Phillip Marlow (played by Nathan Janak), who is obsessed with social media, also enthusiastically spreads the stories.

Ben, Tanner and Phillip are the only students who are given memorable personalities in the movie. Most of the other people at the school who have lines of dialogue are hollow, one-dimensional characters. Loretta (played by Kate Flannery) is a server at the school’s cafeteria. Tanner has an ongoing gripe that Loretta will only serve an allotted two strips of fried chicken per person for each lunch meal. When Tanner complains to Loretta about this serving limit, Loretta says she’s just following the cafeteria rules. A school janitor name Joe (played by Jonathan Kimmel) shows up at awkward times.

Tanner’s despicable actions and Ben eventually going along and participating make these two misguided students very difficult characters to like, even though “The Prank” obviously wants viewers to root for Ben and Tanner. But then, “The Prank” goes off in moronic directions in trying too hard to redeem Ben and Tanner for what they did to ruin Mrs. Wheeler’s reputation. The last third of this wretched story almost becomes a parody of a horror movie.

“The Prank” tries to be clever in ways that don’t really matter. Helen Wheeler is a play on words for the phrase “hell on wheels.” And gossipy student Phillip Marlow acts like he’s some kind of detective in trying to investigate the murder accusations against Mrs. Wheeler. Will a lot of viewers of “The Prank” really care that his name is spelled almost like famous fictional detective Philip Marlowe? No.

Moreno seems to be having some campy fun in portraying the obnoxious and sour-tempered Mrs. Wheeler. However, the performances from the younger cast members are often amateurish and very irritating. It might seem like an advantage to have a talented, Oscar-winning cast member such as Moreno in the movie, but when most of her co-stars aren’t even close to having Moreno’s level of acting skills, this discrepancy actually makes the movie look worse. What really makes “The Prank” an utter failure is the disjointed and idiotic screenplay, which stinks up the screen more than Mrs. Wheeler’s nasty attitude ever could.

Iconic Events released “The Prank” in select U.S. cinemas on March 15, 2024.

Review: ‘A Snowy Day in Oakland,’ starring Nicole Ari Parker, Kimberly Elise, Deon Cole, Evan Ross, Tony Plana, Michael Jai White and Loretta Devine

March 24, 2023

by Carla Hay

“A Snowy Day in Oakland”

Directed by Kim Bass

Some language in Spanish with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Oakland, California, the comedy/drama film “A Snowy Day in Oakland” features a predominantly African American cast of characters (with some white people and Latinos) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: After a bitter breakup from her boyfriend/business partner, an affluent psychologist moves her office from an upscale part of San Francisco to a working-class community in Oakland, where she and her services get curiosity and skepticism from people in the community.

Culture Audience: “A Snowy Day in Oakland” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and movies with formulaic but well-meaning scenarios about relationship problems and social-class prejudices.

Kimberly Elise in “A Snowy Day in Oakland” (Photo courtesy of People of Culture Studios)

“A Snowy Day in Oakland” looks like a made-for-TV movie instead of a movie worth seeing in cinemas. The predictable schmaltz of this fairy tale is elevated by the talent of the charismatic cast members. There are enough good qualities to make it watchable.

Written and directed by Kim Bass, “A Snowy Day in Oakland” is a little too overstuffed with characters who are mostly underdeveloped. However, some of the better-developed characters stand out enough to carry the movie and keep it interesting to viewers who have tolerance for this type of lightweight entertainment. The movie’s jokes are hit and miss, but the comedy that works the best in “A Snowy Day in Oakland” has to do with authentic observations about relationships and people’s various perceptions of psychotherapy.

“A Snowy Day in Oakland” begins with a well-dressed and attractive woman turning heads and immediately causing gossip when she walks down a business street in a working-class community in Oakland, California. She’s looking at a vacant office space that is available. Three of the businesses on this street are a barber shop/beauty salon, a bodega and an Afro-centric clothing store. Because of her designer clothes and because she is driving a well-kept Mercedes, the people on this street can immediately tell that she doesn’t live in this community.

This stranger who has come to Oakland is LaTrice Monroe (played by Nicole Ari Parker), a psychologist/therapist who had her office based in a ritzy part of San Francisco, but she is now moving her office to this lower-income part of Oakland. Flashbacks show that LaTrice is making this move because she had a bad breakup with her British boyfriend/business partner Grant (played by Sean Maguire), a psychologist/therapist who shared office space with her. LaTrice caught Grant cheating on her in the office with one of his female clients.

LaTrice spent some of her childhood in this Oakland neighborhood but moved away to Connecticut when she was about 9 or 10 years old, because her father got an executive job at an unnamed company. (In these childhood flashbacks, Jasmyn Renee Coleman plays a young Latrice; Candis Woods plays LaTrice’s mother; and Joshua Shipman plays LaTrice’s father.) LaTrice now wants to go back to her Oakland roots. But will she be welcome in this community?

LaTrice’s father became such a successful businessperson, she spent most of her life living with wealth. How rich is LaTrice’s father? When he finds out that LaTrice is moving her office, he offers to helicopter some cash over to her to help her get a new start with her business. LaTrice politely declines the offer. (Keith David and Jackée Harry have quick cameos as LaTrice’s present-day parents.)

Inside the barber shop/beauty salon, the two owners—a divorced couple named Davis Witherspoon and Theona Witherspon—have very different reactions to seeing LaTrice through the window. Davis (played by Deon Cole) looks at Latrice with lust, while Theona (played by Kimberly Elise) looks at LaTrice with suspicion. Theona comments that LaTrice looks like she might come from the wealthy San Francisco neighborhood Nob Hill, which has the unflattering nickname Snob Hill. LaTrice has “Snob Hill written all over her,” Theona says with a scowl, while also mentioning that LaTrice looks “too expensive” to be a customer at this salon.

Theona also scolds Davis for leering at LaTrice. Davis insists that he was just admiring LaTrice’s car, but he’s not fooling anyone. It’s later revealed that Theona and Davis were married for 11 years and have been divorced for 15 years. Theona dumped Davis because he cheated on her multiple times. And she’s still very bitter and heartbroken about the divorce, but she tries to hide it by acting tough with Davis. Meanwhile, Davis is hiding his own hurt too, because he didn’t really want to get divorced.

Oakland is in a part of California where it doesn’t snow. The title of “A Snowy Day in Oakland” comes from a catch phrase repeated multiple times in the movie: “It’ll be a snowy day in the middle of an Oakland summer before that ever happens.” Theona says it near the beginning of the movie when she makes a comment that “it’ll be a snowy day in Oakland” before she would ever think about marrying Davis again.

The owner of the Afro-centric clothing store, which is called Nubian Queen, is a young entrepreneur named Rodney Mali (played by Evan Ross), who designed all the clothes in the store. Rodney is the first business owner to greet LaTrice when she moves her office into the vacant space next to his store. Rodney is friendly, but he’s got some problems. His store is financially struggling, because he hasn’t been getting the sales he was expecting, and he’s behind on his rent.

Viewers later find out that LaTrice paid for a one-year lease in advance, which makes her arrogant and greedy landlord Marquis King (played by Reno Wilson) very happy. Marquis likes to announce and remind his tenants (and anyone else who’ll listen) that he owns all the buildings on this street. Marquis is very close to evicting Rodney, unless Rodney can come up with the money that he owes Marquis in a short period of time.

The bodega, which is called Barrio USA, is owned by Jesus Salgado (played by Tony Plana), a Cuban immigrant with some health problems. Jesus operates the store with his young adult daughter Angelica (played by Claudia Zevallos), who is expected to take over the business after Jesus is no longer able to work. Jesus and Angelica are curious about LaTrice, but they initially keep their distance from her.

Another regular on this street is Jeanette Ellis (played by Loretta Devine), a mail deliverer for the U.S. Postal Service. Jeannette is talkative, outspoken and very gossipy. She likes to brag about her son, who is a special agent for the FBI. Jeanette is supposed to be the funniest character in the movie, but her constant loud-mouthed antics can easily get irritating.

Someone else who is frequently on this street is an aspiring rapper in his late teens named Dwayne (played by Donis Leonard Jr.), whose rapper name is Glock 9. Dwayne/Glock 9 sells his CDs to people in the neighborhood. When he goes into the barber shop/beauty salon to sell his CDs, Theona graciously buys a CD, but Davis is rude and dismissive to Dwayne.

A nearby church has an upstanding reverand named Darius Carter (played by Michael Jai White), who used to be a professional football player, but his football career ended a lot sooner than he wanted, for reasons revealed in the movie. The organist at the church is Mrs. Keys (played by Marla Gibbs), who is like a sassy mother figure to many people in the church. LaTrice attends a service at the church for the first time, and she continues to turn heads and cause gossip.

When the word gets out that LaTrice is a psychologist who is opening an office on the street for therapy counseling, most people are skeptical that the business will succeed in this community. “Black people don’t talk about their real problems!” Jeanette declares. Dwayne/Glock 9 tells LaTrice that people in the community won’t trust her, because she comes from a wealthy family and doesn’t have any “street cred.”

LaTrice’s ex-boyfriend Grant shows up at her new office and begs her to get back together with him. He also thinks it’s a bad idea for her to set up her office in this community. Grant says to Latrice: “You want to throw away everything we had to play witch doctor to these people?” Latrice replies, “These people are my people.” And then, Latrice chases Grant out of her office.

It isn’t long before some of the community skeptics let down their guard and end up getting counseling from LaTrice. It’s implied that LaTrice is offering her services at a much lower rate than what she charged when she worked in San Francisco. And so, LaTrice starts to hear about all of these new clients’ problems and offers them some advice. But will they take that advice?

A flaw with “A Snowy Day in Oakland” is that it tries to do too much with some of the supporting characters in its 92-minute running time, but a lot of these subplots just end up being flimsy and not very substantial to the story. There’s a subplot about Darius having to decide whether he will stay a pastor at the church or take a job offer to coach football at Florida State University. Another subplot is about Jesus disapproving of his daughter Angelica flirting with a young white cop named Officer Daniels (played by Jay Jablonski), who is a frequent customer in the bodega.

The movie also occasionally fumbles jokes about race relations. In a not-very-funny sequence, a ditzy and rich client of LaTrice’s named Shelby (played by Arden Myrin), who is white, suddenly becomes fascinated with the Afro-centric clothing in Rodney’s store. It’s supposed to be amusing that Shelby (who has some of the worst lines in the movie) goes from looking like a Barbie doll to looking like Erykah Badu, as Theona sarcastically remarks when she sees Shelby in clothes bought from Rodney’s store. However, this “cultural appropriation” gag is mishandled and becomes very stale when it’s repeated awkwardly.

“A Snowy Day in Oakland” starts an interesting subplot and then leaves it dangling, because it’s introduced so late in the story. It’s about Rodney not feeling accepted by his father, who is never seen or heard from in the movie. It’s implied that Rodney is estranged from his father and might not be in contact with him anymore.

According to Rodney, his father thinks it’s too effeminate for a man to pursue a career in fashion design. And when Rodney was a child, his father expected Rodney to play sports, but Rodney was more interested in his mother’s clothes. Dwayne/Glock 9 asks Rodney if Rodney is gay, but Rodney doesn’t answer the question, because Rodney’s sexuality is irrelevant to how his work should be judged.

However, this subplot about Rodney’s troubled relationship with his father just brings up questions that the movie never bothers to answer. What kinds of sacrifices did Rodney make to pursue his fashion dreams? Is he interested in reconciling with his father? And what about Rodney’s mother, who is never seen or heard from in the movie? These unanswered questions just make Rodney’s character look underdeveloped.

“A Snowy Day in Oakland” is at its most interesting when showing what happens in the volatile relationship between ex-spouses Theona and Davis. Elise gives the best performance in the movie, as someone with a lot of emotional baggage that she finds very difficult to unpack. Some of the characters in “A Snowy Day in Oakland” are shallow caricatures, but Theona is the movie’s most realistic character.

“A Snowy Day in Oakland” is truly a mixed bag. Some moments are very corny, such as when LaTrice envisions herself on her therapist’s couch and talks to herself like a therapist. There’s also some very heavy-handed melodrama involving Dwayne/Glock 9 in the last third of the movie. And the movie has a rushed scenario that wraps up Marquis’ storyline in a very phony-looking way.

Other moments in “A Snowy Day in Oakland” are heartfelt in the drama, or genuinely funny in the comedy, thanks largely to cast members such as Elise, Parker, Devine, Cole and Gibbs, who are all very skilled at having the right timing in their dialogue. To its credit, “A Snowy Day in Oakland” is not pretending to be a masterpiece. It’s the type of movie that can be mildly enjoyable, if a viewer wants to watch harmless entertainment that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

People of Culture Studios released “A Snowy Day in Oakland” in select U.S. cinemas on March 17, 2023.

Review: ‘Nope,’ starring Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer and Steven Yeun

July 20, 2022

by Carla Hay

“Nope”

Directed by Jordan Peele

Culture Representation: Taking place in Santa Clarita Valley, California, the sci-fi horror film “Nope” has a racially diverse cast of characters (African American, white, Asian and Latino) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A brother and a sister, who work together on a horse ranch, join forces with a Fry’s Electronics salesman to visually document an unidentified flying object (UFO) in their area.

Culture Audience: “Nope” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of filmmaker Jordan Peele and stars Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer, but this frequently monotonous and unimaginative movie is an unfortunate case of hype over substance.

Steven Yeun in “Nope” (Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures)

Does the sci-fi horror flick “Nope” live up to the hype? The title of this disappointing bore says it all. It’s a rambling, disjointed, self-indulgent mess that does nothing innovative for movies about UFOs. It’s obvious that writer/director/producer Jordan Peele got this movie made without anyone stepping in to question the very weak and lazy plot of “Nope,” and to ask for a screenplay rewrite to make drastic improvements that were desperately needed.

After the memorable originality of the previous two movies that Peele wrote and directed (2017’s “Get Out” and 2019’s “Us”), “Nope” looks like a movie that was made from a half-baked, unfinished screenplay draft that got greenlighted simply because Peele had enormous commercial and critical success with “Get Out” (which won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay) and “Us.” “Nope” was filmed for IMAX screens, but having a bigger screen doesn’t always make a movie better. Considering all the outstanding and classic movies about UFOs, “Nope” has the substandard story quality of a UFO movie that was thrown together for a fourth-tier cable TV network or a direct-to-video release. Yes, “Nope” is that bad.

One of the reasons why “Nope” fails to live up to the hype is because before the movie’s release, the plot was shrouded in secrecy, as if “Nope” were some kind of masterpiece whose details dare not be leaked out, in order not to reveal a brilliant plot. There is no brilliant plot or even a clever plot twist in “Nope.” It’s just a tedious, badly structured movie about some people who see a UFO in the sky and decide to visually document it because they think it will make them rich and famous.

Too bad it takes so long (not until the last third of the movie) for any real action to take place in “Nope,” which should have been an exciting sci-fi horror film, but it just drags on and on with no real substance. Just because “Nope” has some Oscar winners and the big-budget backing of a major studio, that doesn’t automatically mean that the movie is going to be good. Peele is capable of doing much better movies (as evidenced by “Get Out” and “Us”), but “Nope” just looks like a cynical cash grab from filmmakers coasting on Peele’s previous successes.

Making matters worse, the talented cast members of “Nope” are stuck portraying hollow characters with vague backstories and a lot of cringeworthy or monotonous dialogue. Keke Palmer’s Emerald Haywood character is the only one in “Nope” who comes close to having a fully formed personality, but her character is quickly reduced to being a bunch of one-note soundbites and wisecracks. Everyone else in “Nope” is written as an incomplete sketch.

Characters in “Nope” end up working together in implausible ways. “Nope” also telegraphs way too early which character will have the big “heroic” scene during the inevitable showdown in the movie’s climax. The movie’s visual effects are adequate, but definitely not spectacular for a movie concept of this scope. Intriguing subplots are dangled in front of the audience, only to be left hanging. And many of the action scenes have some horrifically subpar editing.

And why is this movie called “Nope”? It’s because during certain scenes that are supposed to be scary, one of the characters says, “Nope,” as in, “No, I’m not having this right now.” It’s supposed to be an engaging catch phrase, but it’s really very tired and unoriginal. Most of the so-called “comedy” in “Nope” is fleeting and often falls flat.

An early scene in “Nope” (which takes place in California’s Santa Clarita Valley) shows Emerald Haywood and her older brother OJ Haywood (played by Daniel Kaluuya) on the set of a TV commercial, where they have been hired as animal wranglers. OJ and Emerald have inherited a horse ranch called Haywood Ranch (in the desert-like Agua Dulce, California) from their deceased father Otis Haywood Sr. (played by Keith David, who has a flashback cameo), a groundbreaking horse wrangler who worked on a lot of Hollywood productions. The Haywoods rent out their horses in a family business called Haywood Hollywood Horses.

The siblings’ mother is not mentioned. Don’t expect to find out how long Otis has been dead. Don’t expect to find out why OJ and Emerald have a ranch with about 10 horses, but they’re the only workers on the ranch. (It’s very unrealistic.) Don’t expect to find out if OJ and Emerald really love their ranch jobs or if they’re just doing it out of family obligation. These are some of the many reasons why “Nope” is so frustratingly shallow and poorly written.

On this particular TV commercial (what the commercial is for is never stated in “Nope”), OJ and Emerald have a black horse named Lucky that has been hired to be in the commercial. The horse is being filmed indoors, in front of a green screen. It’s OJ and Emerald’s job to handle the horse and tell people on the set how to interact with the horse.

OJ and Emerald have opposite personalities. OJ is quiet and introverted. Emerald is talkative and extroverted. Kaluuya, who gave a compelling Oscar-nominated performance in “Get Out,” plays a dreadfully dull character in “Nope.” It’s not Kaluuya’s fault. The character was written that way. And it’s a waste of Kaluuya’s talent.

Emerald is so talkative that she gives a mini-lecture to all the assembled cast and crew members about how the very earliest moving picture is considered to be Eadweard Muybridge’s 1887 loop of cards titled “Animal Locomotion, Plate 626,” the very first scientific study to use photography. “Animal Locomotion,” an early example of chronophotography, featured an unidentified black man riding on a horse.

Emerald then asks the assembled group if they happen to know the name of the man who rode the horse. No one knows, of course. Emerald than proudly states that the man was actually an ancestor of Emerald and OJ, and his last name was also Haywood. There’s no way to verify if what Emerald is saying is true. And the people on this set don’t really seem to care. They just want to get the job done for this commercial.

There are some racial undertones to the cast and crew’s bored reaction to Emerald’s story, since OJ and Emerald are the only African American people on this set. It might be Peele’s way of showing that people who aren’t African American are less inclined to care about African American history. OJ seems slightly embarrassed and annoyed that Emerald is telling this story to people who obviously aren’t interested. Emerald also uses this moment to announce to everyone that she’s available for work as an actor, filmmaker, stunt person and singer.

The cinematographer for this commercial is a jaded elderly man named Antlers Horst (played by Michael Wincott), who will end up encountering OJ and Emerald again much later in the movie. Also on the set is actress Bonnie Clayton (played by Donna Mills), whose job is to interact with the horse. Although it’s nice that the “Nope” filmmakers hired former “Knot’s Landing” star Mills for this movie, because she doesn’t get enough work that she deserves, her role really is a cameo, with screen time of less than five minutes.

Emerald and OJ advise everyone on the set to remain calm around Lucky. And it’s at that moment you know things are going to go wrong. Lucky gets nervous about something and starts bucking and lunging in a way that’s dangerous. Because the horse is deemed unfit to be on this set, Emerald and OJ are fired. OJ says that they need this job, but the decision has been made to let them go.

OJ and Emerald then go to Jupiter’s Claim, a California Gold Rush theme park owned and operated by Ricky “Jupe” Park (played by Steven Yeun), a former child star who often acts as a show emcee at this theme park. Jupe is married and has three sons, ranging in ages from about 7 to 12 years old. Jupe’s wife Amber Park (played by Wrenn Schmidt) works with him at Jupiter’s Claim. Their sons Colton Park (played by Lincoln Lambert), Phoenix Park (played by Pierce Kang) and Max Park (played by Roman Gross) have brief appearances in the movie.

OJ decides that he’s going to sell Lucky to Jupe. Emerald is upset by this decision, but OJ reassures her that he plans to buy Lucky back when he has the money to do so. It’s a transaction that OJ and Jupe have done before, so Jupe is aware that his ownership of Lucky will probably be temporary.

Jupe knows about OJ’s financial problems and has been offering to buy OJ and Emerald’s ranch, but so far the offer has been declined. Later in the movie, OJ explains he’s not willing to give up Haywood Ranch because he wants to continue his father’s legacy: “He changed the industry. I can’t just let that go.”

It’s during this horse-selling transaction scene that viewers find out a little bit more about OJ and Emerald. OJ is the main caretaker and operator of the ranch. Emerald considers the ranch to be her “side job,” but she doesn’t really have a permanent career, because she jumps around from job to job as her main source of income. Emerald is also the “partier” of these two siblings: She likes to vape and is open about her fondness of smoking marijuana.

The siblings have some unspoken resentment about responsibilities for the ranch, as well as unresolved feelings about the death of their father. Later in the movie, Emerald confesses to OJ that when they were children, she was jealous when their father asked OJ to help train a Haywood family-owned horse named Jean Jacket, a horse that Emerald says she hoped would be the very first horse she would train and own. Get ready to roll your eyes: Later in the movie, the outer space entity in “Nope” is given the name Jean Jacket.

Emerald is openly queer or a lesbian, because she often dates women she works with or meets through her jobs. OJ mildly scolds Emerald about it because he thinks it’s unprofessional for her to mix her love life with her work life. Emerald brushes off his concerns. Meanwhile, as an example of how “Nope” doesn’t have a lot of character development, nothing is ever mentioned about OJ’s love life or anything about his life that isn’t about the ranch.

As for Jupe, he has an interesting background that is sloppily explored in “Nope.” Jupe’s main claim to fame as a child actor in the 1990s was playing a supporting character named Jupiter in a big hit movie called “Kid Sheriff” and then starring in a TV comedy series called “Gordy’s Home,” which was on the air from 1996 to 1998. In the meeting that Jupe has with OJ and Emerald, Jupe shows them a secret room where he keeps “Kid Sheriff” memorabilia. Jupe proudly mentions that a Dutch couple paid him $50,000 just so the couple could spend a night in this room.

Jupe’s experience with “Gordy’s Home” is what led him to quit being an actor. In “Gordy’s Home,” Jupe played an adopted child in a white family of two parents and an older sister. The family had a pet chimp named Gordy, and a lot of the show’s comedy revolved around this monkey’s antics.

Something shocking and traumatic happened one day while filming an episode of “Gordy’s Home.” And as an adult, Jupe still doesn’t want to talk about it, based on how he reacts when it’s quickly mentioned in a conversation between Jupe and OJ. What happened on that fateful day on the set of “Gordy’s Home” was big news. And this incident is shown as a flashback in “Nope.”

However, the way this flashback is dropped into “Nope” is so random and out-of-place, it’s very mishandled. This flashback is then never referred to or explained again in the movie. It’s a suspenseful scene, but it almost has no bearing on the overall story of “Nope” and seems to be in the movie only for some shock value.

It doesn’t take long for “Nope” to show the UFO (a generic-looking saucer-shaped object), which is first seen by OJ when he’s at the ranch. After he tells Emerald about it (his description is vague, because OJ is written as someone who’s barely articulate), Emerald immediately thinks they should try to film the UFO so they can get rich and famous from the footage.

And so, Emerald and OJ go to Fry’s Electronics to stock up on video surveillance equipment. Fry’s Electronics and the company logo get so much screen time in “Nope,” it’s brand placement overload. (All of this promotion of Fry’s Electronics in “Nope” is not going to do Fry’s Electronics much good anyway. In real life, Fry’s Electronics went out of business in 2021, the same year that “Nope” was filmed.)

At the store, OJ and Emerald meet sales clerk Angel Torres (played by Brandon Perea), who is overly talkative and curious about why OJ and Emerald are getting so much video surveillance equipment. Angel correctly guesses that it’s because OJ and Emerald want to film a UFO, but OJ and Emerald deny it. Angel also happens to be the Fry’s employee who delivers the equipment and helps install it. And you know what that means: Angel eventually finds out the truth, and he teams up with OJ and Emerald in their quest.

Angel is prominently featured in “Nope,” but he’s another example of an underwritten character in the movie. Viewers will learn nothing about Angel except that he was recently dumped by an actress ex-girlfriend named Rebecca Diaz, who was in a relationship with him for four years. Angel overshares this information the first time that he meets OJ and Emerald while lamenting that Rebecca broke up with him to star in a TV series on The CW network. OJ and Emerald don’t care, and neither will viewers of “Nope.”

Angel also goes on a mini-rant about how he doesn’t like how UFOs are now expected to be called UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena), because he likes the term UFO more. And once again: OJ and Emerald don’t care, and neither will viewers of “Nope.” Angel isn’t too annoying, but he will get on some viewers’ nerves because of his condescending, know-it-all attitude.

Without going into too many details, “Nope” makes some weird decisions on what technology is used to visually document the UFO. Even with a lot of modern digital technology at their disposal, the people in this UFO-sighting group use some very outdated and clunky cameras that require film. The explanation provided is very phony and overly contrived.

Apparently, the “Nope” filmmakers thought it would like cool to have the characters using retro cameras that require film, even though film could be ruined a lot easier than digital footage. It makes no sense, except to add unnecessary hassles for the people trying to visually document this UFO. And yes, there’s a scene where a camera’s film needs to be inconveniently changed at a pivotal moment.

It should come as no surprise that the alien life form that’s hovering in the sky abducts living beings. The way this alien life form looks is not very original at all. However, even these abduction scenes are handled in an idiotic way in “Nope.” And none of it is truly terrifying.

There’s a scene where 40 people are abducted at the same time, but the abduction is mostly suggested and shown in brief flashes. This mass abduction makes the news. However, “Nope” has no realistic depictions of the huge investigations and military reactions that would ensue, or how much of a circus the abduction scene would be for the media and curiosity seekers.

When Emerald goes back to the abduction scene later in the movie, the place is deserted, and she has free access to the place, with no law enforcement, military, security personnel or media in sight of this notorious crime scene. It’s all just so stupid. And it’s very easy to predict which characters will survive during this mess, based on how often and how close the alien life form “chases” certain characters out in open fields (making them easy targets), but the alien life form never abducts them.

But the worst plot hole of all is that viewers are supposed to believe that for a certain period of time, only OJ and Emerald have witnessed this giant UFO that appears numerous times in the sky and would actually be seen for miles. It’s as if the “Nope” filmmakers want viewers to think that the only people who can see the UFO in the sky during these times are either at the ranch or looking at the ranch’s closed-circuit live surveillance footage, which Angel does because he’s nosy. It’s pathetic storytelling.

“Nope” also has pretentiously titled chapters, such as “Ghost” (named after the ranch’s white horse that doesn’t do anything but run away and come back a few times), “Clover,” “Gordy” and “Jean Jacket.” There’s not a consistent through line for these chapters, which are as haphazard as a mismatched jigsaw puzzle. The chapter titled “Gordy” is the one that shows the tragic incident that happened on the set of “Gordy’s Home.”

“Nope” has a few moments that effectively build tension for viewers to wonder what’s going to happen next. (There’s also a fake jump scare scene that would have been more interesting if it were real jump scare in the story.) But as a horror movie, “Nope” fails miserably to be frightening. There are parts of this movie that are so boring, some viewers will fall asleep. Don’t expect “Nope” to give a reason or a purpose for any life forms that come from outer space. In fact, don’t expect “Nope” to have a reason to exist other than to make blockbuster money and fool people into thinking that it’s a high-quality, entertaining movie.

Universal Pictures will release “Nope” in U.S. cinemas on July 22, 2022.

Review: ‘The Seventh Day’ (2021), starring Guy Pearce, Vadhir Derbez and Stephen Lang

April 10, 2021

by Carla Hay

“The Seventh Day”

Directed by Justin P. Lange

Culture Representation: Taking place in New Orleans and briefly in Baltimore, the horror film “The Seventh Day” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some Latinos, Asians and African Americans) representing Catholic clergy and middle-class citizens.

Culture Clash: Two Catholic priests who hunt demons try to perform an exorcism on a 12-year-old boy who’s accused of murdering his parents and 16-year-old sister.

Culture Audience: “The Seventh Day” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching dull and mindless horror movies about exorcisms.

Guy Pearce in “The Seventh Day” (Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment)

An exorcism patient who’s strapped to a bed probably has more fun than anyone who watches this tedious train wreck of a horror film until the movie’s very ludicrous end. “The Seventh Day” (written and directed by Justin P. Lange) also has an awkward mix of experienced, more talented actors with less-experienced, less-talented actors whose lack of talent further lowers the quality of this already substandard movie. It’s the type of forgettable horror flick that’s heavy on gore but unbearably light on an interesting, well-crafted story.

“The Seventh Day” begins with a flashback to Baltimore on October 8, 1995. A middle-aged priest named Father Louis (played by Keith David) is getting ready to travel somewhere with a priest in his 20s named Father Peter Costello (played by Chris Galust), who is Father Louis’ protégé. The two priests are going to an exorcism in Baltimore on the same day that Pope John Paul II was visiting the city. (The movie includes archival footage of this visit.)

Father Louis says in a voiceover: “It chose today of all days. The Holy Father, a mere stone’s throw away. I suspect that’s no coincidence.” What is the “it” that this priest is talking about? The demon that these priests are hunting, course.

Father Louis then tells Father Peter: “I fear that this one will be different from the others. This one seems to have a purpose.” Too bad this movie doesn’t seem to have a purpose except to badly recycle ideas from other exorcism movies.

And then Father Louis says, “Soon, Peter. I promise. I have complete faith in you.” This is the type of simplistic dialogue that’s littered throughout the movie. Viewers of this dreck will soon lose faith that it will get any better.

Father Louis and Father Peter are overseeing the exorcism of a boy named Nicholas “Nicky” Miller (played by Tristan Riggs), who’s about 12 or 13, with Nicky’s parents (played by Heath Freeman and Hannah Alline) also in attendance. Nicky is strapped to a bed. Because Father Louis is training Father Peter to be an exorcism master, Father Peter is leading this particular exorcism session.

As Father Louis says the Lord’s Prayer, the lights in the room start to flicker. And then little Nicky starts to talk like a man trying to sound like a demon. A possessed Nicky blurts out this insult to Father Peter: “You look lost, you dumb animal! You should find yourself a new shepherd!” Is this demon supposed to be terrifying or is this demon trying out someone’s rejected lines in a stand-up comedy insult act?

It might be bad comedy, not horror, because Nicky then shouts, “Smile like you’ve never done before!” His face (through some cheesy visual effects) then contorts into a bloody grin that would make “It” evil clown villain Pennywise laugh at the absurdity of it all.

All hell then breaks loose. The crucifix necklace around Mrs. Miller’s neck is snatched away by an unseen force quicker than a drag queen can snatch a wig. The crucifix is thrown across the room, right into the jugular veins of Father Louis’ neck. This injury then causes Father Louis to bleed to death, right there in the room, in the time it would take for Pennywise to let out one of his famous giggles. That was quick.

But that’s not all. Nicky’s skin on his arms starts to burn until his whole body bursts into flames. It’s one of the more gruesome scenes in the movie. Meanwhile, the Pope is visiting “a mere stone’s throw away” in Baltimore, and no one in the room bothers to ask, “Where’s the Pope when you need him?”

“The Seventh Day” then fast-forwards to the present day in New Orleans. Father Peter (played by Guy Pearce) is now a jaded, middle-aged clergyman. He’s in a meeting with an unnamed archbishop (played by Stephen Lang), who wants Father Peter to train a young priest named Father Daniel Garcia (played by Vadhir Derbez) to become a master exorcist. Father Daniel is called into the room, not knowing that he’s about to become an exorcist protégé.

As the archbishop explains to Father Daniel, they are part of a small secret society of Catholic clergy who still provide training on how to perform exorcisms. According to the archbishop, the Vatican adopted a negative attitude toward exorcism and stopped teaching exorcism rites. And now, only a “handful, no more than a dozen” Catholic clergy secretly train for and perform exorcisms.

The archbishop tells Father Daniel, “You need to know that Father Peter trained with the very best. And I feel, in my heart, that I’m putting you into the right hands.” The archbishop describes the late Father Louis as the “most revered” exorcist in this secret society. The archbishop, who knows about the botched exorcism that killed Father Louis, conveniently doesn’t tell Father Daniel about this messy tragedy.

The archbishop might feel that he’s putting Father Daniel in the right hands, but Father Peter isn’t as open to the idea of taking on this new trainee. At first, Father Peter is cold and condescending to Father Daniel and treats him more like an altar boy who’s supposed to do errands. At one point in the meeting, Father Peter orders Father Daniel to go across the street to get Father Peter some coffee.

And so begins Father Peter and Father Daniel’s training session, where they travel by car together in search of some pesky demons to expel. It has all the makings of a formulaic movie about a cynical and gruff older cop who’s assigned to mentor/train a naïve and eager-to-please younger cop—except that Father Peter and Father Daniel have crucifixes, not guns, as their weapons.

One of the first things that Father Peter tells Father Daniel is that he doesn’t like wearing a formal clergy uniform because it can intimidate some of the people with whom they interact. Father Peter’s preferred fashion style makes him look more like an angst-filled, scruffy liberal-arts college professor, with a well-worn plaid blazer and a chain-smoking habit as part of that image. It takes a little while for Father Daniel to loosen up in his wardrobe choices, but he eventually starts to wear more casual clothing when he’s with Father Peter, except when they want to use their priesthood to get certain privileges.

As they spend more time together, Father Peter warms up to Father Daniel and opens up a little bit more to Father Daniel about his past. He tells Father Daniel about the horrific exorcism of Nicky Miller and that Nicky burst into flames and died. Father Peter says that he’s still haunted by this tragedy. Meanwhile, Father Daniel won’t tell Father Peter much about himself. When Father Peter asks Father Daniel why he wants to become an exorcist, Father Daniel doesn’t really give an answer.

Before Father Peter and Father Daniel find out about the big exorcism that they have to do in this story, there’s a nonsensical scene of the two priests encountering a demon at a run-down area where homeless people live. They stop in the area, since Father Peter seems to know a homeless charity worker named Helen (played by Robin Bartlett), who is there to distribute some food.

Upon arrival, the two priests see a homeless man named George (played by Acoryé White) chanting out loud while standing over a cylinder garbage can whose contents have been lit on fire. As Father Peter and Father Daniel get closer to the man, Father Daniel brings out a rosary and prays. George reacts as if Father Daniel is the crazy one.

Suddenly, Helen cries out in pain and a wind-like explosion happens that knocks everyone out except for someone who’s become possessed by a demon. (Take a wild guess if it’s George or Helen.) The two priests manage to exorcise the demon in the most mundane and predictable way possible. There’s really nothing terrifying about this scene. Besides, there’s another exorcism in the movie that’s supposed to be scarier but it’s even more ridiculous.

Charlie Giroux (played by Brady Jenness) is a 12-year-old boy who’s going on trial for the murder of his parents and 16-year-old sister. For now, he’s being kept in solitary confinement in a juvenile detention center. And so, Father Peter and Father Daniel naturally want to find out if this boy is possessed by the devil.

They use their status as priests to visit Charlie at the detention center. However, Father Peter thinks Father Daniel should learn how to do these interviews on his own, so Father Peter usually waits outside while Father Daniel talks to Charlie. Thus begins a tiresome and repetitive slog in the movie: Father Daniel does a series of interviews with Charlie, who tells the priest that he keeps having visions of strange men crawling on his chest until he can’t breathe. At one point, Charlie does the inevitable hissing “demon child” attack on Father Daniel, just in case it wasn’t clear that Charlie needs an exorcism.

There are also some distractions to stretch out the already thin plot. Father Daniel suddenly shows that he’s got psychic abilities, so he’s able to vividly see what happened in the Giroux house and what led up to the murders. And so, that leads to scenes of Father Daniel being a ghost-like voyeur in the house, where he spies on some family arguments. It explains the type of relationships that Charlie had with his father (played by Major Dodge), his mother (played by Stephanie Rhodes) and his sister Nellie (played by Evangeline Griffin) before the murders happened.

And there’s a very unnecessary and badly written scene of Father Peter and Father Daniel interviewing some kids, who are around Charlie’s age, at a hangout called Skate City, where the priests and the kids use a ouija board. And somehow, even though these two priests are not psychiatrists or lawyers and have no reason to be involved in Charlie’s murder case, Father Peter and Father Daniel have convinced the cops to let them watch while the police interrogate Charlie.

Longtime actors Pearce, Lang and David have considerable talent that is wasted in this junkpile movie. Fortunately for David, who has the unfortunate role of a priest killed by a crucifix necklace, he isn’t in the movie for very long. Lang has a mediocre supporting role that only gets a few scenes.

Pearce seems to know he’s in a terrible movie and makes an effort to bring some personality to a character that’s written as very hollow. Father David has a much more lackluster personality. Together, Father Peter and Father David are a dreadfully monotonous duo.

This horrendous movie is made worse by Derbez’s wooden acting and Jenness’ hammy over-acting. And because Derbez and Jenness share several scenes together, it makes for a lot of embarrassingly bad moments that are hard to watch. A more effective director should have been able to prevent this clumsy mismatch of actors by making better casting choices.

“The Seventh Day” writer/director Lange makes the same mistakes that a lot of directors of terrible horror movies make: They spend more time on violent mayhem and visual effects (none of which are that good in this film) and neglect the elements of telling a captivating and suspenseful story. The casting in this movie doesn’t work well, and there’s a plot twist which is predictable and obvious to anyone paying attention. It might be hard to pay attention though because “The Seventh Day” is so mind-numbingly boring that it might put people to sleep.

Vertical Entertainment released “The Seventh Day” in select U.S. cinemas and on digital and VOD on March 26, 2021.

Review: ‘The 420 Movie’ (2020), starring Daniel Baldwin, Kelley Jakle, Lindsey McKeon, Aries Spears, Keith David, Krista Allen and Verne Troyer

April 10, 2020

by Carla Hay

Daniel Baldwin in “The 420 Movie” (Photo courtesy of Sky Republic Productions)

“The 420 Movie” (2020)

Directed by Rob Johnson

Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional Humbolt County (not the real-life Humboldt County) in California, the stoner comedy “The 420 Movie” has a predominantly white cast of characters (with some African Americans) representing the middle-class who are all connected in some way to marijuana.

Culture Clash: A corrupt mayor and his two adult daughters come up with a “get rich quick scheme” to sell high-grade marijuana and electronic marijuana cigarettes to help pay off his debts.

Culture Audience: “The 420 Movie” will appeal primarily to people who want to watch a low-budget, lowbrow pothead comedy that’s also low on humorous content.

Lindsey McKeon and Kelley Jakle in “The 420 Movie” (Photo courtesy of Sky Republic Productions)

“The 420 Movie” starring Daniel Baldwin and directed by Rob Johnson—not to be confused with “The 420 Movie,” the 2009 stoner comedy written by, directed and starring James Blackburn—is as mindless and poorly made as you would expect it to be. But since it’s an obvious stoner comedy, people who are interested in seeing the movie should already what they’re getting into if they decided to end up watching. (“420” is slang for marijuana.) And since many people see stoner comedies in an “altered” state of mind, how much someone thinks this movie is funny might depend on someone’s level of sobriety when watching the film.

Just like a lot of stoner comedies, “The 420 Movie” features potheads trying to get out of a messy situation because of money and/or their drug activities. Baldwin is Edgar J. Hightower, a widowed, marijuana-loving mayor of the fictional Humbolt County, California (not to be confused with the real-life Humboldt County, California), which is a working-class suburban area that’s somewhat rural. How much does he love pot? One of his campaign promises was that he would make marijuana legal in the county if he got elected.

He kept his promise, and marijuana has become a booming business where the mayor lives. The movie shows that many people grow marijuana in their backyards and openly smoke weed in public. This is the kind of movie whose idea of a sight gag is showing an old lady smoking a joint while gardening.

But the mayor has a gambling problem, which has caused him to lose his fortune, and he’s now living in a trailer with his two daughters, who are in their early 20s. Sarcastic brunette Mary (played by Lindsey McKeon) recently left college in New York to come back to Humbolt County and work in her father’s marijuana dispensary shop. Bratty blonde Jane (played by Kelley Jakle), Mary’s young sister, opted not to go to college and instead decided to work in the shop. Their father Edgar has been trying to increase business for the shop and his Hightower Marijuana Farms, by filming a TV ad campaign, which is shown in the beginning of the movie.

To make matters worse for his financial problems, Edgar has embezzled the county’s budget money to fund his addiction to gambling and prostitutes. And he’s also racked up major debts by paying $2 million for a Mexican army to help protect his marijuana business, since he’s not about to limit himself to just selling marijuana legally when there’s more money to be made by selling it illegally. Krista Allen has a supporting role as Edgar’s assistant Ruth, who looks and acts more like a “Real Housewives” trophy wife than someone who’s supposed to work in an office.

The two Hightower sisters have an ongoing sibling rivalry. Jane insists that she’s the “genius of the family,” while Mary disagrees. They often bicker, but they’re able to put teamwork to good use to come up with a possible solution to their father’s money problems. Mary has concocted a liquid THC formula that can be made into different flavors, while Jane has invented an electronic marijuana cigarette. They figure that the combination is bound to make them a lot of money.

The dispensary shop has two young employees who are enlisted to help Mary and Jane test their new product—Boogie (played by John Bain) and Roofie Amy (played by Stacy Danger), who got her nickname for her high physical tolerance for drugs, including not even being fazed by ingesting roofies, also known as “date rape drugs.”

Boogie is leading a double life. He still lives with his parents, who apparently don’t know what he really does for a living. When he leaves home to go to work, he’s dressed in a conservative suit and tie and carries a briefcase as he says goodbye to his parents. But as soon as he’s out of their sight, he changes into hip-hop street gear. And his car has a bumper sticker on it that says “White Republican and Proud,” but he covers it with a bumper sticker that says “Obama” on it when he goes to work. This is what is supposed to be the movie’s idea of “funny.”

Meanwhile, Edgar is feeling the heat from people he owes money to all over the place. One of the people he’s in debt to is Chief Ironweed (played by Keith David), an African American with a tiny percentage of Native American heritage who, by taking Edgar’s corrupt advice, was able to get control of the local Native American casino by playing up his very dubious connection to the Native American community. Edgar has racked up $270,000 in debts to Chief Ironweed’s casino.

Someone else who’s putting pressure on Edgar to pay up is a local gang leader called Tito the Terrible (played by Verne Troyer), who’s always accompanied by two unnamed henchmen. One of the cronies is a wannabe rapper (played by Aaron “Shwayze” Smith) who repeats almost everything Tito says (much to Tito’s annoyance), and the other henchman (played by Lee Larson) is a tattoo-covered goon who is the “strong and silent” type.

Tito and his thugs go to Edgar’s office to demand a cut of not only Edgar’s next 420 crop but also a cut of the marijuana crops of everyone in Humbolt County. The total haul for Tito will be enough to cover the $5 million that Tito wants from Edgar. (Troyer died in 2018, which tells you how long ago this movie was made.)

Mary and Jane eventually find out about their father’s massive debts, and they come up with the idea to rush the marijuana e-cigarette to market. But first, they need to test how strong it is. The movie culminates at a house party where Mary, Jane, Boogie and Roofie Amy go to do the testing, by charging $25 per hit. Also at the party is Mary’s ex-boyfriend Curt (played by Cody Kasch), whom she dumped because he cheated on her with his stepsister. And novelty rapper Riff Raff (playing himself) is at the party too.

“The 420 Movie” was written by Michael Anthony Snowden, who’s best known for working with the Wayans Brothers on 2001’s “Scary Movie 2” and 2004’s “White Chicks.” Just like those other films, “The 420 Movie” isn’t really about having a clever plot, but instead it’s about having a series of gags that are strung together in the hopes that it will resemble a plot. “The 420 Movie” doesn’t take itself too seriously, but the funny jokes (even the “so dumb it’s funny” jokes) are very few and far in between.

Most of the laughs in “The 420 Movie” don’t come from the main characters, but from Aries Spears, who has a supporting role as Patrolman Watkins, an African American cop who practices “reverse racism” by harassing innocent people if they are white. The Patrolman Watkins character is so over-the-top with his foul-mouthed and outrageous actions that Spears essentially steals every scene, even though he’s only in the movie for about 20 minutes.

The Watkins character (who smokes a joint when he pulls over motorists in traffic stops) is such a buffoon that he can’t be taken seriously. The character is obviously a way to poke fun at bigots who use race as a reason to take out their personal frustrations on others. It’s too bad that “The 420 Movie” didn’t feature the Watkins character more because it would’ve resulted in a much funnier film.

Overall, most of the other actors in the movie do a passable but forgettable job in their roles. “The 420 Movie” has some outside meta references in the film that are brief and aren’t very inventive. There’s a scene when Edgar is on the phone, with Mary and Jane in the room, and he says, “I’ve got Uncle Billy, Uncle Alec and Uncle Stephen on hold.” (It’s an obvious reference to Daniel Baldwin’s famous brothers.) And in a scene with Troyer, who’s best known for his Mini Me character in two “Austin Powers” movies, Tito holds up his pinky finger in a crook like the “Austin Powers” character Dr. Evil.

The obviously low budget for “The 420 Movie” was put to good use in casting, hair and makeup, but not put to much good use in cinematography and sound mixing, which are uneven and very amateurish. There’s a scene with Mary and Jane at a swimming pool, and the cutaway editing in the scene has very bad mismatched lighting. There are some noticeable audio problems throughout the movie, and the soundtrack choices (mostly hip-hop) are extremely predictable. As it stands, “The 420 Movie” is not the worst stoner comedy ever made, but if you’re looking for a movie in this genre that’s really worthwhile, there are so many better options, such as “Dazed and Confused” or the first “Friday” movie.

Sky Republic Productions released “The 420 Movie” on digital and VOD on April 7, 2020.