reviews Archives – Page 29 of 192

Review: ‘Strays’ (2023), starring the voices of Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher and Randall Park

August 17, 2023

by Carla Hay

Reggie (voiced by Will Ferrell), Maggie (voiced by Isla Fisher), Hunter (voiced by Randall Park) and Bug (voiced by Jamie Foxx) in “Strays” (Photo by Chuck Zlotnick/Universal Pictures)

“Strays” (2023)

Directed by Josh Greenbaum

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the comedy film “Strays” features a cast of dogs and a predominantly white group of people (with some African Americans and Latinos) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Four stray dogs band together to get revenge on the sleazy and abusive man who abandoned one of the stray dogs.

Culture Audience: “Strays” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and anyone who doesn’t mind watching intentionally vulgar comedies about adorable animals that have some sweetness with the raunchiness.

Reggie (voiced by Will Ferrell) and Will Forte in “Strays” (Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures)

The purpose of “Strays” is to disrupt the image that people have of movies where cute animals talk. It’s the “Jackass” of talking animal movies: crude, comedic camaraderie. If you can’t tolerate a lot of jokes about bodily functions, then avoid this film.

Directed by Josh Greenbaum and written by Dan Perrault, “Strays” has been very clear in its marketing that this movie is not a “family-friendly film” that’s appropriate for people of all ages. This is most definitely a very adult-oriented film for adults who aren’t easily offended when watching movies filled with cursing, gross-out scenes involving body waste, and explicit talk about sex. The fact that domesticated dogs who talk like humans are supposed to be the source of all this raunch is the whole point of the movie.

In “Strays” (which takes place in an unnamed U.S. city but was filmed in and around Stone Mountain, Georgia), viewers are first introduced to the movie’s narrator. He’s an optimistic and eager-to-please Border Terrier (voiced by Will Ferrell), who has lived his entire life with a loser named Doug (played by Will Forte), who never gave this dog an official name. Instead, Doug calls the dog horrible names that usually have the word “shit” in the name. (In real life, this Border Terrier is a female named Sophie.)

In the beginning of the movie, bachelor Doug is unemployed and living in a messy house. Doug spends his days and nights getting stoned and masturbating. A phone conversation between Doug and his mother reveals that Doug can’t live near a school that has children, which is the movie’s way of saying that Doug is a registered sex offender. Because the Border Terrier doesn’t know any better, he thinks Doug is a great person.

Doug likes to do something that the Border Terrier thinks is a game called “Fetch and Fuck.” Doug throws a tennis ball far away, so the Border Terrier can run off and fetch the ball. Doug only does this because he hopes the dog will get lost and never find his way back home. When the dog inevitably does find his way back home, Doug says out loud in anger: “Fuck!”

One day, Doug drives the Border Terrier several miles away, into the inner part of a big city where the dog has never been to before. Doug throws the tennis ball, knowing that this dog will be too far away to walk back to the house. Doug then drives away. Doug’s heinous plan works, and the Border Terrier gets lost.

While out on the street at night, the Border Terrier meets a rebellious and tough-talking Boston Terrier named Bug (voiced by Jamie Foxx), who sees how naïve this Border Terrier is and offers to teach him how to survive on the streets as a stray dog. (This Boston Terrier’s name is real life is Benny.) Bug calls this Border Terrier the name Reggie, since that’s the name that one of Doug’s girlfriends used to call this Border Terrier.

Bug tells Reggie that humans can’t be trusted and a dog’s life is better without having an owner because the dog has the freedom to do whatever the dog wants. Bug believes that humans “brainwash” dogs into thinking that dogs need humans. Bug also tells Reggie that stray dogs shouldn’t get too close to other dogs either, because all stray dogs should eventually learn to fend for themselves. Bug’s past is eventually revealed to explain why he detests humans. One of Bug’s quirks is that he is fixated on humping inanimate objects, including furniture (Sofia Vergara voices a character called Dolores the Coach) and lawn decorations.

Soon, Reggie is introduced to two of Bug’s closest dog acquaintances: Maggie (voiced by Isla Fisher) is an Australian Shepherd who is intelligent and has a super-keen sense of smell. She is a stray because her previous owners preferred to have a puppy. (In real life, this Australian Shepherd’s name is Elsa.) Hunter (voiced by Randall Park) is a Great Dane who is insecure and often fearful. Hunter trained to be a police dog, but instead he was placed in a retirement home to be a therapy dog for the elderly residents, and he ran away. (In real life, this Great Dane’s name is Dalin.)

This motley canine quartet then goes on a series of misadventures. All other animals in the movie do not talk. The only living beings that talk in the movie are dogs and humans. An English bulldog named Chester (voiced by Jamie Demetriou) makes a brief but memorable appearance as a neurotic dog who imagines that there is an invisible, electrical fence surrounding his front yard. The four strays also encounter a German Shepherd named Rolf (voiced by Rob Riggle), a K-9 police dog who trained with Hunter at the same K-9 academy.

Two other noteworthy dog characters in the movie are a philosophical Labrador Retriever named Gus (voiced by Josh Gad) and a feisty Chihuahua named Shitstain (voiced by Harvey Guillén), who is almost as combative as Bug. And when there’s a movie about stray dogs roaming around a city, there are inevitable scenes of the dogs trying to evade capture from the animal control officers. “Strays” also has some scenes that take place in an animal shelter, where an animal control officer named Willy (played by Brett Gelman) has a job that’s similar to a jail guard/janitor.

Dennis Quaid makes a cameo portraying himself as a bird watcher. Why is Quaid in this movie? Quaid is the star of 2017’s “A Dog’s Purpose” and 2019’s “A Dog’s Journey,” two sentimental dramas about a “talking” dog (voiced by Gad) who gets reincarnated and whose thoughts are heard in voiceover narration. Quaid and Gad being cast in “Strays” is obviously the “Strays” filmmakers’ way of poking fun at family-oriented talking dog movies.

For a great deal of the story, Reggie is denial that Doug abandoned him and that Doug is not a good person. When the truth finally sinks in with Reggie, he decides that he’s going to get revenge on Doug, with the help of his new stray dog friends. If anyone watching “Strays” complains about how unrealistic this movie is, the question must be asked: “What part of ‘talking dog movie’ do you not understand?”

The comedy in “Strays” is far from award-worthy, but it does bring some laughs, and it doesn’t try to pretend to be lofty art. The biggest flaw in “Strays” is an over-reliance on jokes and gags about defecation. However, the best parts of the movie have to do with the friendship that develops between these four dogs. Hunter has a crush on Maggie, so there’s potential for more than a friendship between them.

The expressions on these dogs’ faces are enough to charm viewers who like dogs, although obviously much of what is in the movie involves visual effects using computer-generated imagery. The voice actors also play their roles capably, with Foxx and Ferrell being the obvious standouts. As long as viewers don’t have skewed or misunderstood expectations for “Strays,” it can be amusing entertainment with some genuine, laugh-out-loud moments. It’s not the type of comedy for everyone, but neither is “Jackass.”

Universal Pictures will release “Strays” in U.S. cinemas on August 18, 2023.

Review: ‘Blue Beetle,’ starring Xolo Maridueña, Adriana Barraza, Damían Alcázar, Raoul Max Trujillo, Susan Sarandon and George Lopez

August 16, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Blue Beetle”

Directed by Ángel Manuel Soto

Some language in Spanish with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in the fictional U.S. city of Palmera City, the sci-fi/fantasy/action film “Blue Beetle” (based on the DC Comics character) features a Latin and white cast of characters (with a few African Americans and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Recent college graduate Jaime Reyes has his body invaded by a super-powered beetle scarab, and he becomes the superhero Blue Beetle, battling his evil former boss who wants the scarab to create an oppressive army of robotic enforcers.

Culture Audience: “Blue Beetle” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of superhero movies, the film’s headliners and adventurous stories about underrepresented people who are the stories’ protagonists.

Elpidia Carrillo, George Lopez, Xolo Maridueña, Belissa Escobedo and Damián Alcázar in “Bue Beetle” (Photo by Hopper Stone/Warnet Bros. Pictures)

“Blue Beetle” sometimes gets trapped in a familiar superhero formula, but the movie’s comedic charm, rollicking style and authentic chemistry among the cast members are a winning combination. As an origin story, “Blue Beetle” won’t rank among the very best for superhero movies based on DC Comics, because there are a few too many superhero movie stereotypes in “Blue Beetle’s” action scenes. However, “Blue Beetle” has enough uniqueness and charisma in its characters that will give this movie a loyal fan base.

Directed by Ángel Manuel Soto and written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, “Blue Beetle” tells the story of 22-year-old Jaime Reyes (played by Xolo Maridueña), an optimistic recent college graduate who has returned to his hometown of Palmera City, a fictional U.S. city based partially on El Paso Texas. DC Comics’ “Blue Beetle” stories have more than one person who is the character of Blue Beetle: archaeologist Dan Garrett (a character that debuted in 1939); inventor Ted Kord (debuted in 1966); and Jaime Reyes (debuted in 2006), a Mexican American who lives in El Paso.

In the “Blue Beetle” movie, Jaime (who is the first person in his family to graduate from college) has come back home to live in a family household that is going through some drastic changes. Jaime lives with his supportive parents Alberto Reyes (played by Damían Alcázar) and Rocio Reyes (played by Elpidia Carrillo); Alberto’s sassy mother Nana Reyes (played by Adriana Barraza); Jaime’s 17-year-old outspoken sister Milagro “Millie” Reyes (played by Belissa Escobedo); and Alberto’s eccentric brother Rudy Reyes (played by George Lopez).

Soon after arriving home, Jaime finds out that the family will be moving out of the house in the near future because the family can no longer afford the house rent, which has “tripled” due to gentrification. The family’s auto body shop is going out of business. Alberto is also recovering from a recent heart attack. Jaime is shocked to hear this news and asks why his family didn’t tell him sooner. They say it’s because they didn’t want anything to distract Jaime from his studies at school.

Jaime is hopeful that his college degree will help him get a job that pays enough to get the family out of these financial problems. He’s also hoping to go to law school someday. “I’ll get the money to save this place,” Jaime confidently tells Milagro. She isn’t so sure this goal will be as easy as Jaime thinks it will be. In the meantime, Jaime and Milagro work in sanitation and groundskeeping at Kord Industries, a massively successful technology corporation whose specialty is security.

The leader of Kord Industries is the ruthless and cruel Victoria Kord (played by Susan Sarandon), who took over the company after her brother Ted Kord disappeared. Ted inherited the company from his father. Victoria is still bitter and jealous that Ted got this inheritance. The opening scene of “Blue Beetle” shows Victoria and some of her minions discovering something near an asteroid that has fallen on Earth. Victoria gleefully says, “I’ve been looking for this for 15 years!”

Viewers later see that what they found is a blue beetle (about the size of a hand) called the Scarab, which has extraordinary powers and a mind of its own. Victoria wants the Scarab for a new Kord Industries invention: One Man Army Corps, a group of super-powered robots described as “the future of private policing.” Victoria’s brooding, hulking henchman named Conrad Carpax (played by Raoul Max Trujillo) is her most-trusted right-hand man to do her dirty work. Victoria’s leading scientist who works for her is Dr. Sanchez (played by Harvey Guillén), a long-suffering employee who experiences some of Victoria’s noticeable racism.

Not everyone is happy with Victoria’s plans for One Man Army Corps. Ted’s smart and independent daughter Jenny Kord (played by Bruna Marquezine), who is in her early 20s and is originally from Brazil, is the complete opposite of Victoria, when it comes to their outlooks on life. Jenny cares about humanity, the environment, and having socially responsible and ethical business practices. Jenny suspects but can’t prove that Victoria is behind her father Ted’s disappearance. (Jenny’s mother died years ago.)

Over the course of the movie, Jenny and Victoria clash in a number of ways. Anything that Victoria wants to do, Jenny wants to dismantle. Jenny isn’t afraid to openly defy her domineering aunt, who becomes infuriated and vengeful when she sees how far Jenny is willing to go to stop Victoria from Victoria’s nefarious plans. Early on in the movie, Victoria snarls to Jenny: “You are nothing to this company. You are a brat … Your father abandoned this company, and he abandoned me.

At first, Jaime is eager to impress Victoria. When Jaime sees Victoria on the company property, he tries to get her attention, but Victoria doesn’t even notice Jaime and other low-paid workers at the company. Milagro is with Jaime when he tries and fails to get Victoria’s attention. Milagro comments to Jaime: “We’re invisible to people like that.”

It isn’t long before Jaime and Jenny meet when Jenny is at Kord Industries headquarters. Jaime’s attraction to her is immediate. Jenny plays it cool, but it’s obvious that she will be Jaime’s love interest. Perpetually skeptical Milagro thinks that Jenny is out of Jaime’s league and tells Jaime, Milagro assumes that Jenny is just another spoiled rich kid who wouldn’t want to associate with people in the Reyes family. Through a series of events, Jaime will cross paths with Jenny until they both find out that they have a common goal.

Jaime and Milagro get fired after Jaime tries to defend Jenny during an argument between Jenny and Victoria. Later, Jenny (disguised as a Kord Industries lab worker) steals a security key card to gain entrance to the lab where the Scarab is being secretly kept. Jenny then takes the Scarab, which she knows Victoria needs to make the One Man Army Corps. However, Dr. Sanchez (who was not in the lab during this theft) comes back and sees the Scarab has been stolen and quickly gives a security breach alert.

The Kord Industries building goes on a security lockdown, but Jenny quickly gives the Scarab (which is in a box) to an unwitting Jaime, who is headed for the exit with other visitors, who have been told to evacuate the building. Jenny tells Jaime that what’s in the box is an important secret, and she warns him not to open the box. But, of course, as shown in the “Blue Beetle” trailers, Jaime opens the box when he’s at home with his family.

The Scarab enters Jaime’s body (painfully), and he becomes the Blue Beetle, a superhero with physical characteristics of a giant beetle and a blue superhero suit of armor. This transformation is shown in the “Blue Beetle” trailers, so there’s no mystery about it. After the Scarab melds with Jaime’s body, he can hear the voice of the Scarab as being an entity called Khaji-Da (voiced by Becky G), who gives Jaime/Blue Beetle advice on what to do when he’s in superhero mode.

The rest of “Blue Beetle” goes through a lot of over-used superhero movie motions of “we have to save the world from an evil villain.” However, thanks to engaging dialogue (some of it is hilarious, some of it is hokey) and a likable rapport between the Reyes family members, “Blue Beetle” can be very enjoyable to watch. It’s suspenseful and dramatic in all the right places.

Maridueña, who was previously best known for his supporting role as Miguel Diaz in Netflix’s “Cobra Kai” karate drama series, gives a star-making performance in “Blue Beetle.” He perfectly embodies Jaime’s amiable personality, which is a mixture of hopeful, curious and insecure about what he perceives as his shortcomings. Maridueña also adeptly handles the wide range of emotions that Jaime goes through in the movie.

It should come as no surprise that Lopez, who has a long history in comedy, gets the best and funniest lines in the movie as Uncle Rudy, who just happens to be an underappreciated tech whiz. Barraza as Jaime’s seemingly mild-mannered grandmother also has a few moments to shine in ways that aren’t too surprising, since the movie keeps dropping hints that there’s more to Nana Reyes than being a kind grandmother. Alcázar, who portrays the easygoing Alberto, has some well-acted heartfelt moments in scenes between Alberto and Jaime, who inherited is father’s positive attitude.

Victoria obviously represents corporate greed that’s out of control. Sarandon plays this villain role to the hilt, but Victoria might not impress some viewers who like superhero movies to have chief villains with superpowers. “Blue Beetle” also has some commentary and observations (but not preaching) about racism, such as a scene where Jaime goes to a Kord Industries reception area, because he has a meeting with Jenny, and the snooty receptionist (played by Brianna Lewis) automatically assumes that Jaime is a delivery person.

The visual effects in “Blue Beetle” are perfectly fine, but they’re not going to win major awards. Some of the action scenes are clumsily staged and could have been better, in terms of visual style and how events unfold in the screenplay. A mid-credits scene in “Blue Beetle” hints that a certain character will be in a “Blue Beetle” sequel, while the end-credits scene in “Blue Beetle” is a bit of fluff that has no bearing on any DC Comics movie. Overall, “Blue Beetle” is a solid superhero movie that doesn’t have a lot of originality in its “good versus evil” story, but the movie has appealing messages about family unity during tough times that can resonate with audiences of many different backgrounds.

Warner Bros. Pictures will release “Blue Beetle” in U.S. cinemas on August 18, 2023.

Review: ‘Jailer’ (2023), starring Rajinikanth

August 15, 2023

by Carla Hay

Rajinikanth in “Jailer” (Photo courtesy of Sun Pictures)

“Jailer” (2023)

Directed by Nelson Dilipkumar

Tamil with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Chennai, India, the action film “Jailer” has an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A retired police office goes after a criminal who caused harm to his son.

Culture Audience: “Jailer” will appeal primarily to people who want to watch a formulaic and stale action movie.

Vinayakan in “Jailer” (Photo courtesy of Sun Pictures)

“Jailer” is yet more of the same type of long-winded revenge action tale with fake-looking stunts, mediocre-to-bad acting, and an absurd plot that doesn’t look believable. How many more movies does this world need about a retiree who becomes a vigilante? Apparently, for the filmmakers of “Jailer,” there’s not enough of these types of movies.

Written and directed by Nelson Dilipkumar, “Jailer” (which takes place in Chennai, India) follows the same old tired formula of retirement-age man who’s out to avenge something that’s happened to a loved one. In the case of “Jailer,” the vigilante on the loose is retired police officer “Tiger” Muthuvel Pandian (played by Rajinikanth), who goes on his rampage in ridiculous and over-the-top ways.

Tiger’s son Arjun Pandia (played by Vasanth Ravi) is an assistant police commissioner who was investigating a gang leader named Varman (played by Vinayakan), when Arjun suddenly disappeared. Arjun’s colleagues tell Tiger that Arjun probably went somewhere to commit suicide. Tiger doesn’t believe any of it, so he sets out to find the truth.

The rest of this 168-minute movie is a dreary and mindless slog of predictable things that Tiger does to get his form of justice. There is absolutely no originality in the movie, which has unimpressive acting. “Jailer” is perhaps an appropriate term for the movie, since anyone stuck watching it until the very end might feel like it’s being imprisoned in a cinematic hell.

Sun Pictures released “Jailer” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on August 11, 2023.

Review: ‘OMG 2,’ starring Akshay Kumar, Pankaj Tripathi and Yami Gautam Dhar

August 15, 2023

by Carla Hay

“OMG 2”

Directed by Amit Rai

Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Mahakaal, India, the comedy/drama film “OMG 2” has an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: After his teenage son gets in trouble for masturbating in a bathroom stall at his school, his father sues the school district to teach sex education in the school.

Culture Audience: “OMG 2” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and comedy/dramas that tackle sensitive social issues.

Akshay Kumar in “OMG 2” (Photo courtesy of Viacom18 Studios)

“OMG 2” stumbles a bit in the last third of the movie with a very clumsily staged plot development. However, this memorable drama has a timely message about sex education in schools that shows both sides of the issue in a compelling courtroom setting.

Written and directed by Amit Rai, “OMG 2” takes place in Mahakaal, India. It takes a while before movie gets to the trial that is at the heart of the story. Before then, viewers see what caused this legal dispute.

Vivek (played by Aarush Varma) is a teenager in high school who is curious about sex. Hs current worry is that his penis is too small. He’s so gullible that he gets scammed into buying pills that he is told will make his penis larger.

One day, Vivek ends up going in a bathroom stall at the school to see if his penis has gotten larger. He ends up masturbating in the stall. Vivek is horrified to learn that someone recorded a video of him masturbating, and the video has gone viral. Vivek goes on a downward spiral.

Through a series of events, Vivek’s religious father Kanti Sharan Mudgal (played by Pankaj Tripathi) blames the school for not giving enough counseling or protection for Vivek for this violation of privacy and for not teaching sex education in the school. Vivek ends up suing the school district to have sex education classes in the school.

Akshay Kumar has a very awkward-looking role in the movie as Lord Shiva’s messenger, in what are supposed to be scenes that are very comedic or overly sentimental. This role seems forced, just so Kumar could be in the movie. Despite some flaws in the story, the best part of “OMG 2” when it shows the trial, which has some amusing scenes when Kanti clashes with defense attorney Kamini Mahesh (played by Yami Gautam Dhar), who is feisty about her politically conservative opinions. This trial doesn’t just put the school district up for judgment but also society’s attitudes about teaching teenagers about sex.

Viacom18 Studios released “OMG 2” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on August 11, 2023.

Review: ‘Fool’s Paradise’ (2023), starring Charlie Day, Ken Jeong, Kate Beckinsale, Adrien Brody, Jason Sudeikis, Jason Bateman, Common and Ray Liotta

August 11, 2023

by Carla Hay

Kate Beckinsale, Charlie Day and Ken Jeong in “Fool’s Paradise” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions)

“Fool’s Paradise” (2023)

Directed by Charlie Day

Culture Representation: Taking place in the Los Angeles area, the comedy film “Fool’s Paradise” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans Asians and Latinos) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A mostly mute man goes from being patient at a psychiatric facility to impersonating a famous actor while also hanging out with a con-man publicist.

Culture Audience: “Fool’s Paradise” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, because their name recognition is the only thing that this embarrassing dud has going for it.

Charlie Day and Adrien Brody in “Fool’s Paradise” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions)

“Fool’s Paradise” is more like viewer’s hell, for anyone expecting this comedy to be funny. It looks like the type of flop whose all-star cast members are there because the director begged them to be in his movie, instead of the screenplay being good. Not only is “Fool’s Paradise” painfully unfunny, but it’s also relentlessly boring.

Written and directed by Charlie Day, “Fool’s Paradise” is Day’s feature-film directorial debut. Day has made a name for himself by mostly doing comedies on TV and in movies. (He’s one of the stars of the long-running comedy TV series “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”) You’d think that someone with all of these years of experience in comedy would’ve learned how to make an entertaining comedy film. “Fool’s Paradise” looks like a movie directed by a complete amateur who convinced several famous people to be in the movie.

There isn’t much to the rambling and garbage plot of “Fool’s Paradise,” which takes place in the Los Angeles area. Day portrays two characters in the movie: the constantly confused main character Latte Pronto and look-alike difficult actor Sir Thomas Kit Bingsley. Someone who buzzes around like an annoying insect in the movie is a con man named Lenny (played by Ken Jeong), who has decided he’s going to convince people that he’s a publicist in the entertainment business. Much of “Fool’s Paradise” is about the silly antics that happen after Lenny meets Latte.

“Fool’s Paradise” begins by showing Lenny in a tense meeting at a diner with an unnamed comedian (played by Andrew Santino), who is furious because he hired Lenny to introduce him to agents and managers, but Lenny hasn’t delivered on that promise. Lenny makes weak excuses, but this angry client has had enough of Lenny and fires him on the spot. With no more clients to deceive, Lenny goes on the hunt for his next scam victim.

Meanwhile, at a psychiatric facility, two unnamed doctors (played by Peter Mackenzie and Christine Horn) decide that they have to discharge one of the patients at the facility. The first doctor says about this hapless patient (played by Day): “The patient is a nobody. He has no family or friends. He has the mind of a 5-year-old or a Labrador retriever.” The doctor adds that the state won’t pay for any of Latte’s therapy, “so we’re going to put his ass on the first bus downtown.”

While this displaced man is now homeless walking on a street, he’s spotted by an unnamed producer (played by Ray Liotta), who is driving by and immediately notices that this person on the street looks identical to hard-drinking actor Thomas. The producer is frustrated because Thomas has been acting like a spoiled, alcoholic diva on the set of the producer’s latest movie, which is a Western.

The producer decides to meet this stranger and hire him as Thomas’ double whenever Thomas is too drunk to work. Even though this stranger seems incapable of telling anyone who he is, the producer decides to go through with the plan. The producer invites the stranger to be on the movie studio lot. During a lunch with the stranger, the producer orders someone to get him a “latte, pronto.” And that’s how the stranger begins to call himself Latte Pronto.

The problem? Latte has lost his ability to speak. That’s supposed to be the movie’s main gimmick, but “Fool’s Paradise” is so stupid, it does away with that gimmick by showing that Latte is mute, except when he has to deliver his actor lines when he’s impersonating Thomas. His co-star in the movie is Chad Luxt (played by Adrien Brody), who plays the villain character Black Bart in the producer’s Western movie.

Before the movie can be completed, Thomas is found dead from self-asphyxiation. At the producer’s urging, Latte takes over Thomas’ identity completely, in order to finish the movie. The producer doesn’t want to lose his investment in the film. Latte then begins to live the life of a movie star, including having Lenny as his publicist. Also in Latte’s entourage are an agent (played by Edie Falco), an attorney, a stylist and an intern (played by Shane Paul McGhie).

An actress named Christiana Dior (played by Kate Beckinsale) starts off in the story as Chad’s girlfriend, but she dumps Chad to marry Latte. Christiana is a shallow trophy wife and one of the worst-written characters in “Fool’s Paradise.” Jason Sudeikis has a brief supporting role as a movie director. Jason Bateman makes a cameo as a special effects technician.

John Malkovich and Tom O’Rion portray wealthy businessman brothers Ed Cote and Dartanon Cote, who are heavly involved in political campaigns. It’s an obvious spoof of the real-life Charles Koch and David Koch. Hip-hop star/actor Common has a small supporting role as a homeless guy named The Dagger. Most of the characters in “Fool’s Paradise” do not have names.

There are some really awful movies where you can tell that at least the cast members were having fun. That’s not the case with “Fool’s Paradise,” which is the type of dreadful misfire where the principal cast members look like they know they’re stuck in a horrible movie, and they all (including Day) give lackluster performances. The sluggish pacing makes this cinematic cesspool of bad comedy even worse. The only good thing that might come out of “Fool’s Paradise” is that if Day directs another movie, hopefully he’ll learn from this colossal failure of creativity, and he won’t make the same mistakes again.

Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions released “Fool’s Paradise” in U.S. cinemas on May 12, 2023. The movie was released on digital and VOD on June 2, 2023.

Review: ‘The Last Voyage of the Demeter,’ starring Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham and David Dastmalchian

August 10, 2023

by Carla Hay

“The Last Voyage of the Demeter”

Directed by André Øvredal

Culture Representation: Taking place in 1897, mostly on a ship sailing from the Carpathian mountain range in continental Europe to London, the horror film “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” (based on a chapter in Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” novel) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with one black person and one Asian person) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: The people on a ship that’s carrying livestock for a sales transaction find out too late that a vampire named Dracula is on the ship.

Culture Audience: “The Last Voyage of Demeter” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of stories about Dracula or other vampires, but this violent flick drags on with underdeveloped characters and lot of boring repetition.

Martin Furulund and Javier Botet in “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” (Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment)

Considering the large number of vampire movies that exist, “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” is as creatively comatose as a vampire victim drained of blood. It takes entirely too long to get to any real action in this story, which is a dull mess of clichés. The movie has a talented cast, but they can’t save this disappointing movie that’s the equivalent of a sinking ship.

Directed by André Øvredal and written by Bragi F. Schut and Zak Olkewicz, “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” is based on the chapter “Captain’s Log” in Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel “Dracula.” Making an entire movie based on only a book chapter can either limit the movie when mishandled or open up a lot of innovative possibilities from filmmakers with enough imagination. Unfortunately, “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” is hampered by a limp plot that’s essentially just a checklist of people on a ship getting attacked by the evil vampire Dracula on the ship. This vampire (played by Javier Botet) looks more like the alien-like Nosferatu as it was orginally conceived, rather than the elegant Count Dracula.

The movie begins in Whitby, England, on August 7, 1897. On a stormy night, two coast guard men in raincoats find a deserted schooner, with a dead man tied to its wheel. The man has a crucifix in his hand. In his pocket is a bottle, with a rolled-up piece of paper inside. It’s a journal entry log that warns of danger. Suddenly, an unseen force attacks the two coast guard men.

The movie then does a flashback to July 1897. A cargo ship called The Demeter is about to set sail from the Carpathian mountain range (which spans from Bulgaria to the north and Romania to the south), with the final destination to London. The cargo consists of several livestock animals, such as goats, pigs and chickens. Viewers soon find out that the schooner with the dead man originally came from The Demeter.

Right before The Demeter is about to set sail, several men who were hired to be crew members on the ship end up quitting when they hear that the ship will be leaving after the sun sets. The leader of this superstitious group says that the group will only leave if the ship sails before sunset. The ship’s first mate Wojchek (played by David Dastmalchian), a Polish immigrant who grew up as an orphan, tries to convince the men to change their minds, but they stand firm and then leave the harbor.

The Demeter then leaves with a very understaffed crew, which will soon find out how dangerous this voyage will be. The evil vampire Dracula starts attacking people on the ship, one by one. Everything that you think will happen in this movie does happen, because it’s a rote rehash of other vampire flicks, except it takes place on a ship in 1897. And if there’s a lone survivor in the story, you can easily predict who it will be.

In addition to first mate Wojcheck, the other people on this fatal voyage of The Demeter are intelligent British physician Clemons (played by Corey Hawkins), level-headed Captain Eliot (played by Liam Cunningham), Captain Eliot’s curious 8-year-old grandson Toby (played by Woody Norman) and a mysterious stowaway named Anna (played by Aisling Franciosi), who is found in a comatose state with bloody welts and bites all over her body. Clemons has to give her blood transfusions to keep her alive.

Other people on the ship are four crew members: a dependable Romanian named Olgaren (played by Stefan Kapicic); reliable second mate Larsen (played by Martin Furulund); loudmouth Petrofsky (played by Nikolai Nikolaeff); and youngest crew member Abrams (played by Chris Walley), who has a special bond with Larsen. All four of these crew members don’t say much that’s worth remembering after watching the movie. During a meal around a dining table the men talk about going to a brothel, and they have a laugh when Toby tells them that a brothel is where women take off their knickers.

Also on the Demeter is the ship’s ultra-religious cook Joseph (played by Jon Jon Briones), who is originally from the Philippines. Joseph gets very offended when he hears people curse, because he thinks cursing is a serious sin. Someone should’ve told Joseph that he picked the wrong job, working with a bunch of sailors. He is also highly superstitious.

Not much happens for the first 20 minutes of the movie. Viewers find out that Toby is in charge of looking after the animals. This voyage is going to be Captain Eliot’s last voyage before he retires. Soon after The Demeter sets sail, Captain Eliot tells Vojchek that he wants Vojchek to be his successor. Vojchek, who sees Captain Eliot almost like a father figure, is flattered by this decision.

Captain Eliot keeps the ship’s log. His written entries are occasionally read aloud as voiceovers in the movie. These entries start off as very routine, but then the entries become more alarming as more disturbing things happen on the ship. It’s all so formulaic.

It’s explained early on in the movie that Clemons, who is a graduate of the University of Cambridge, is on the ship because he had been hired for a physician job in Eastern Europe. But once the employers saw Clemons in person (he’s black), they withdrew the job offer. Clemons decided to go back to England and needed a ride, which is how he ended up on this ship of strangers. Other than this backstory, Clemons mostly has a blank slate of a personality.

The issue of racism is briefly mentioned, in relation to Clemons getting a job taken away from him because of his race and a few other racist incidents that he’s experienced outside of this ship. No one on the ship treats Clemons with overt racism. However, he sometimes has to remind some of the crew members of his education to convince them that he’s capable of making certain medical decisions.

There could have been so much more done with the Clemons character, in terms of his character and his life experiences, but “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” filmmakers gave Clemons a cardboard cutout type of character: He’s there, and he’s noticeable, but he doesn’t have much depth. By the end of the movie, viewers will literally not know much about Clemons except that he’s a compassionate doctor who experiences racism.

Likewise, the Anna character and her life story also remains largely unknown. When Anna emerges from her coma and warns that Dracula is on the ship, the crew barely asks her any questions about who she is and what she knows about Dracula. Part of this lack of curiosity is because, at first, most of the crew members think that Anna is hallucinating from her medical injuries. “The Last Voyage of Demeter” has a lot of gore, but it avoids the messy and realistic issue of what it means to be a physically vulnerable woman who’s the only female on board a ship with some coarse sailors.

One of the more idiotic scenes in the movie is when Joseph finds out that something on board is killing the crew, he doesn’t leave during the day when he as a chance—in other words, when things on the water will be much easier to see. Instead, Joseph waits to leave by himself on a rowboat on a very foggy night. Although nothing is wrong with the cast members’ acting in “The Last Voyage of Demeter, ” none of it is special either, because the screenwriting makes all the characters fairly hollow.

Visually, “The Last Voyage of Demeter” is just a dump of mediocrity. This movie is bloody, but it’s not very scary. The best Dracula movies show the glimmers of humanity in Dracula. “The Voyage of the Demeter” just makes Dracula a drab monster who’s on the loose, with no concern in telling anything interesting about Dracula. For a movie about a vampire icon, “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” is bloodless and toothless when it comes to telling a good story.

Universal Pictures/DreamWorks Pictures will release “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” in U.S. cinemas on August 11, 2023.

Review: ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ (2023), starring Nicolas Cage and Joel Kinnaman

August 9, 2023

by Carla Hay

Nicolas Cage and Joel Kinnaman in “Sympathy for the Devil” (Photo courtesy of RLJE Films)

“Sympathy for the Devil” (2023)

Directed by Yuval Adler

Culture Representation: Taking place in Nevada, the dark dramedy film “Sympathy for the Devil” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A factory worker gets kidnapped by a mysterious and angry stranger, who goes on a killing spree during the abduction.

Culture Audience: “Sympathy for the Devil” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Nicolas Cage and low-budget, offbeat thrillers that don’t try to pretend to be masterpieces.

Nicolas Cage in “Sympathy for the Devil” (Photo courtesy of RLJE Films)

“Sympathy for the Devil” is an intentionally dark and violent dramedy/satire that showcases Nicolas Cage’s penchant for playing weird and unhinged characters. Viewers should not expect a fully serious drama. The movie brings some laughs with the suspense.

Directed by Yuval Adler and written by Luke Paradise, “Sympathy for the Devil” has more to the story than just kidnapping and a murder spree. It’s also more than just a 90-minute film of Cage playing yet another bizarre and troubled soul. What will keep viewers interested is finding out why this kidnapping occurred in the first place. “Sympathy for the Devil” takes place over the course of one night, as a “real time” story.

For the most part, “Sympathy for the Devil” (which was filmed on location in Nevada) focuses on just two characters: The kidnapper and the kidnapping victim. The movie begins by showing a factory worker in his 40s named David Chamberlain (played by Joel Kinnaman) driving his son (played by Oliver McCallum) to the house of the son’s grandmother (played by Nancy Good), before David drives to the hospital where his wife Maggie is giving birth. David and Maggie have gone through heartbreak over their family: In the past, she was pregnant with a boy, but the pregnancy ended in a miscarriage. Maggie calls David on the phone more than once during the course of the story.

Just as David arrives in the hospital’s parking garage, a stranger (who has red hair that’s the same shade as a fire engine) gets in David’s car with a gun and orders David to “pick a card,” as in to name any type of playing card. The stranger (played by Cage) has no name in the movie. He’s only called The Passenger in the movie’s end credits, so that’s how he’ll be identified in this review. David thinks it’s a robbery and tells The Passenger to take anything he wants, but The Passenger replies, “I didn’t say I was robbing you. I said, ‘Pick a card.””

David choose the spade. The Passenger smirks, “I knew you were going to pick that card.” David is in shock, but he enough of his wits about him to ask this stranger to let David go, because David’s wife is about to give birth. The Passenger is unmoved. “It’s a family emergency,” David pleads when requesting to be let go so he can be with his wife. The Passenger snarls with a creepy grin on his face: “I’m your family emergency now.”

Because this is a Cage movie, expect to see his villain character act completely unpredictable and off the rails. Viewers already can tell from the beginning that this kidnapper is going to commit murder. “Sympathy for the Devil” doesn’t hold back on how bizarre The Passenger gets in his monologue rants and loose cannon antics. Some of it is hilarious—not the heinous murders, but the things that The Passenger says and does when he’s not killing someone.

Most of “Sympathy for the Devil” is about The Passenger ordering David to go to certain places. First, he tells David to go to Boulder City. On the drive there, The Passenger asks David where his hometown is, and David says he’s originally from Tucson, Arizona. The Passenger says he’s originally from Boston and asks David if he’s ever been to Boston. David said he was there only once, briefly, during a visit years ago.

The Passenger then tells David that his mother has lung cancer. Hoping to find a way to bond with this kidnapper, David tells his own story about his mother. David says his mother was religious but his father was an abusive drunk. The Passenger scoffs, “That plea for sympathy is beneath you.”

During this increasingly demented kidnapping, David and The Passenger encounter some more people, but the number of people in this movie’s cast is relatively small. The Passenger is very confrontational with almost everyone who has the misfortune of talking to him. He also loses his temper easily.

While driving on the road, David sees a patrol officer (played by Cameron Lee Price) parked in a car, waiting to catch speeders. David deliberately goes over the speed limit and gets pulled over by the cop for speeding. The Passenger is very argumentative with the cop. You can imagine what happens next.

The Passenger also mentions the word “devil” or “Satan” in some of his rants. There might be moments in the movie where viewers could wonder if “Sympathy for the Devil” is a supernatural story, but it’s not. The Passenger is a human being, not Satan or an evil spirit. There’s also no “it was all just a nightmare” part of the story either.

Things start to get really insane when David and The Passenger go inside a nearly deserted diner. For a while, the only people in the diner are David, The Passenger, a trucker customer (played by Rich Hopkins), a waitress (played by Alexis Zollicoffer) and the diner’s owner/cook (played by Burns Burns). The diner has a jukebox. At one point, The Passenger activates the jukebox, which plays Alicia Bridges’ 1978 hit “I Love the Nightlife (Disco Round).” The Passenger sings along to the song in one of the funniest scenes in the movie.

Does David try to escape? Of course, he does. But there would be no “Sympathy for the Devil” movie if escaping were easy for David. For most of this ordeal, David (and viewers) will be thinking about The Passenger: “Who is this sadistic degenerate? What does he want from David? Why is this kidnapping even taking place?” The motive for this kidnapping unfolds in layers.

Kinnaman’s portrayal of David doesn’t go beyond “terrified victim” until a certain point in the movie when David shows he’s a lot more cunning than he first appears to be. Coincidence or not, in the 2020 movie “The Secrets We Keep” (which Adler directed and co-wrote), Kinnaman played another factory employee kidnapped by someone who seems to know a lot about the kidnapped character. Cage is doing what Cage likes to do in these types of films: ham it up in a way that’s intended to make people laugh. Some people might find this style of acting to be very annoying, but in the context of how strange The Passenger is, it actually works well enough for this movie.

“Sympathy for the Devil” is very gritty and grungy, but there’s also a level of comedy and sly commentary on how people make judgments based on outward appearances. The movie does a very good job of maintaining viewer curiosity to find out why The Passenger targeted David for this kidnapping. When motives and secrets are revealed, they will make viewers question their opinions of what they saw previously in the story. And that’s why “Sympathy for the Devil” is slightly better than the average “killing spree” movie.

RLJE Films released “Sympathy for the Devil” in select U.S. cinemas on July 28, 2023.

Review: ‘Ransomed’ (2023), starring Ha Jung-woo and Ju Ji-hoon

August 8, 2023

by Carla Hay

Ha Jung-woo and Ju Ji-hoon in “Ransomed” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

“Ransomed” (2023)

Directed by Kim Seong-hun

Korean and Arabic with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 1986 and 1987, in Lebanon, South Korea, and Switzerland, the action film “Ransomed” features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A South Korean diplomat, who is assigned to duties in the Middle East, goes to Lebanon to rescue a kidnapped colleague, and the diplomat teams up with a rebellious taxi driver, who’s a South Korean living in Lebanon, as they make an unlikely duo for the rescue mission.

Culture Audience: “Ransomed” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching thrilling action films that use the tried-and-true storyline of a seemingly mismatched duo learning to work together for a common goal.

Ha Jung-woo in “Ransomed” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

“Ransomed” uses a familiar formula of a bickering duo forced to work together in stressful situations. However, this suspenseful political thriller transcends its clichés by having great action sequences and believable performances from the principal cast. “Ransomed” is set in the 1980s, and it’s filmed as a throwback homage to 1980s live-action films, by having action sequences done by real people, not generated by excessive computer imagery.

Directed by Kim Seong-hun, “Ransomed” takes place briefly in 1986 and mostly in 1987. An opening statement shown on screen says that the story is “based on true events,” but many parts are fiction. The “true events” part of the story is about the real-life 1986 kidnapping of Do Chae-sung, who was a second secretary of the Korean embassy and was abducted in Beirut, Lebanon. Kim Jung-Yeon and Yeo Jung-mi wrote the gripping screenplay for “Ransomed.”

The beginning of ransom takes place in Beirut, where thousands of people are dying in Christian/Muslim conflicts. Amid this turmoil, a South Korean diplomat named Oh Jae-seok (played by Kim Jong-soo), a married father who has been assigned to work in Lebanon, is kidnapped by gunpoint by a group of Lebanese terrorists. He’s thrown into the trunk of a beat-up Mercedes and goes missing for a year. During that time, many people assume that Jae-seok is dead.

Meanwhile, in 1987, at the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, one of Jae-seok’s colleagues has grown frustrated in the job. Lee Min-jun (played by Ha Jung-woo), a Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs director in his 40s, and has just been passed over for a promotion to be assigned to the South Korean embassy in London. The job instead went to a younger man, who is praised during a meeting as being an “heir apparent,” which implies that he got the job because of nepotism. Min-jun wanted to transfer to London instead of the war-torn Middle East, where Min-jun has been assigned to be diplomat.

Min-jun complains to his boss about someone with less experience getting the job opportunity that Min-jun wanted. Min-jun’s boss responds by saying that the other man got the job because he’s was a political science major at the University of Seoul. Min-jun mutters that he’s tired of these University of Seoul grads taking the jobs of more qualified people. Min-jun is so bitter about not getting the promotion, when he’s alone in the office, he sprays pesticide on a bouquet of congratulator flowers that his office rival has on this desk.

Min-Jun will soon have bigger things to deal with than jealousy over a younger colleague. It isn’t long before Min-jun gets a strange phone call at work. The person on the other end of the line is not speaking. Instead, whoever is calling Min-jun is tapping out a special code that only people who work for the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs are supposed to know. The coded message says that the person calling is identifying himself the long-lost Jae-Seok.

Min-jun faces skepticism from many people about this phone call. To get to the bottom of the mystery, the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs consults Richard Carter (played by Burn Gorman), a British expert on the Middle East and a private political investigator for hire. Richard is up for the challenge of finding Jae-seok, but only if Richard is paid well for this job.

As a compromise, Min-jun says that Richard will only get paid if he shows “proof of life” for Jae-seok. It takes a little while, but that proof finally comes from a photo taken of Jae-seok holding up a recent newspaper with the date of the newspaper clearly shown. Keep in mind, this is in 1987, when Photoshop and other image-altering computer technology did not exist.

Richard tells the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs that Jae-seok’s kidnappers are terrorists who want a fortune in cash, as ransom money to release Jae-seok. The terrorists insist that the money has to be paid by the South Korean government. Min-jun goes to Switzerland to enlist the help of a wealthy man named Hay Shaito (played by Marcin Dorociński) on arranging where the ransom drop-off

It doesn’t take long for Min-jun to go to Lebanon, where he encounters several obstacles during his time there. While in Lebanon, Min-jun soon meets a taxi driver named Kim Pan-su (played by Ju Ji-hoon), who is originally from South Korea. Pan-su is a Vietnam War veteran, who later admits he “went mad” after his time in this war. Pan-su is married to a Lebanese woman named Layla (played by Nisrine Adam), who is a stereotypical “worried wife at home” in this male-dominated action film.

Someone else who gets involved in this kidnapping rescue is a Lebanese intermediary named Karim (played by Fehd Benchemsi), who helps Min-jun convert the ransom money into Lebanese cash. Karim, who is accustomed to dealing with terrorists, also gives Min-jun advice on how to deal with these terrorist kidnappers and how to plan to bring Jae-seok safely back to South Korea.

Min-jun needs Pan-su to be his translator and to teach Min-jun how to adjust to being in Lebanon as someone who is originally from South Korea. To further entice Pan-su into helping, Min-jun tells Pan-su that Min-jun can arrange for Pan-su and his wife to get a U.S. visa.

These two unlikely partners have opposite personalities, Min-jun is very orderly and “by the book.” Pan-su is a freewheeling loose cannon. Min-jun doesn’t know if he can fully trust Pan-su. A series of events force them to work together to keep each other alive.

“Ransomed” has some aspects of the story that seem far-fetched by actually makes some sense, under the circumstances. Min-jun is essentially the only Korean Foreign Ministry of Affairs official who’s going to be the one dropping off the money. Why doesn’t Min-Jun have more backup from his colleagues?

It’s explained in the movie that the terrorists have spies who are checking to see if Min-jun is planning an ambush with his colleagues or law enforcement. Typically, in a kidnapping ransom dropoff, the kidnappers only want to see one person dropping off the money. An exception is made for Min-jin, who relays a message to the terrorists through Karim, that Min-jin needs Pan-su to be with him as a translator.

As is expected in this type of action flick, there are car chases and shootouts. However, these scenes are better-than-average because of the skillful cinematography and the way these scenes are filmed to put viewers right into the action. Hardly any of it looks fake, although there are a few moments that look somewhat far-fetched in a “dangling from a building” scene.

Aside from the action scenes, the believable chemistry (sometimes friendly, sometimes hostile) between Min-jin and Pan-su will be what viewers will remember the most about “Ransome.” The argumentative conversations between Min-jin and Pan-sue are often intentionally comedic. The performances of Ha and Ju are completely entertaining to watch.

The last half-hour of “Ransomed” takes a turn into something more meaningful than just a “heroes versus villains” story. “Ransomed” also gives a realistic look at how the trauma of captivity can really damage someone and what human compassion looks like in the midst of death and destruction. “Ransomed” won’t be considered a classic action movie, but this adrenaline-packed movie gets the job done well in all the right places.

Well Go USA released “Ransomed” in select U.S. cinemas on August 4, 2023. The movie was released in South Korea on August 2, 2023.

Review: ‘Kokomo City,’ starring Daniella Carter, Koko Da Doll, Liyah Mitchell and Dominique Silver

August 7, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Kokomo City”

Directed by D. Smith

Culture Representation: Taking place in New York City, in the Atlanta area, and in Hollywood, Florida, the documentary film “Kokomo City” features an all-African American group of people discussing African American transgender women who happen to be sex workers and the men who are their customers.

Culture Clash: African American transgender female sex workers are treated as outsiders in many communities and are targets for a higher rate of violence than many other sex workers.

Culture Audience: “Kokomo City” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in hearing uncensored accounts of the intersections between race, gender, queerness and sex work.

Daniella Carter in “Kokomo City” (Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)

Black trans women who are sex workers speak their truth in the memorable documentary “Kokomo City.” It’s raw, it’s real, and it’s an impressive feature-length directorial debut from D. Smith. The black and white cinematography gives the film a classic look. If you’ve ever wondered what African American transgender sex women think about in their everyday lives, “Kokomo City” is a moving and sometimes painful look into these women’s souls.

Not only is Smith (who is an African American transgender woman) the director of “Kokomo City,” she is also the documentary’s editor, cinematographer and one of the producers. Smith is a self-taught filmmaker who previously worked in the music business as a Grammy-nominated producer. (Her most famous music collaborations were with Lil Wayne.) In the production notes for “Kokomo City,” Smith says she directed the documentary because she got rejected by other filmmakers who didn’t want to direct this project.

“Kokomo City” had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the grand jury and audiences prizes for the NEXT Innovator Award, which is given to up-and-coming filmmakers with a bold vision. As explained in the documentary, the title of “Kokomo City” is inspired by blues singer Kokomo Arnold’s 1935 song “Sissy Man Blues,” which openly talks about seeking the sexual company of effeminate-looking men or transgender women.

“Kokomo City” focuses on four transgender women telling their stories. There is no voyeuristic aspect to the documentary by showing the women doing sex work, although the documentary has occasional scenes of actors simulating certain sex acts. People who are easily offended by adults taking candidly about sex and using a lot of curse words will probably have a hard time watching “Kokomo City.” However, the movie is about much more than sex. It’s about people struggling to be themselves when they are often shamed by others for wanting to be themselves.

The four women at the center of “Kokomo City” are:

Daniella Carter, from New York City, is the most outspoken and funniest of the four women. Based in New York City’s Queens borough, Carter is a non-stop talker who is the type of person who gives unguarded monologues while doing beauty rituals in her bathroom.
Liyah Mitchell, from the Atlanta suburb of Decatur, is the most confident of the four women. She’s the one who seems to care the most about being perceived as “tough” and cares the least about always looking “feminine.” She uses a lot of slang (for example, “trade” means “sex-partner customer”) that might be hard for some viewers to understand.
Koko Da Doll, from Atlanta, is the most jaded of the four women, but she is also the one who seems the most emotionally wounded. In the documentary, she says that even though she graduated from high school, she’s been functionally illiterate and doesn’t really have any other job skills except being a sex worker.
Dominique Silver, from New York City, is the most reserved and graceful of the four women. She places a high value on discretion and thinks it’s very damaging for transgender sex workers to “out” any of their customers.

Having the majority of the screen time consisting of people talking might seem like a dull way to present a documentary. But the people interviewed in “Kokomo City” are definitely not dull. Some of their stories are harrowing. “Kokomo City” opens with Mitchell telling a story about getting into a physical fight with a customer, who brought a gun with him to their tryst. Mitchell says she felt threatened by seeing this firearm, so she grabbed the gun and found out that the trigger didn’t work. The customer wanted his gun back, so he got into a brawl with her.

“We started tumbling down the stairs together, fighting over this damn gun,” Mitchell continues. The customer eventually gave up the fight, took his gun, and drove away. According to Mitchell, the client then contacted her and texted her a message saying, “You ruined my life.” The customer than explained that he’s a rapper in Atlanta who carries the gun for protection. Mitchell says that she and the customer reconciled and then hooked up for a sexual encounter.

Whether or not this story is true isn’t the point. It’s an example of the literally rough and tumble lives that sex workers live that are discussed in sometimes graphic details in “Kokomo City.” One of the constant things that these sex workers say about almost of their customers is these are men who present themselves to the world as very masculine and heterosexual. Their customers usually have wives or girlfriends who have no idea that their men have a secret desire to have sexual encounters with transgender women. Koko Da Doll says that most of her customers want to be with transgender women who have big breasts and big penises.

The sex workers interviewed in the documentary also say that their customers have a variety of requests and needs. Some customers don’t want to acknowledge that transgender women have male genitals, while other customers very much want the transgender sex worker’s male genitals to be part of the encounter. The sex workers in this documentary say that many of their customers are prominent men, some of them celebrities, who keep their desires for transgender women very well-hidden from the public.

“Kokomo City” also interviews four African American men, with only one admitting to being sexually involved with a transgender woman. A man who is identified only as XoTommy and his transgender girlfriend Rich-Paris are interviewed where they live in Hollywood, Florida. Rich-Paris is also a sex worker. XoTommy and Rich-Paris say they met through “a mutual friend,” but they also give the impression that XoTommy was her customer. XoTommy mentions that most of his family members already know that he likes to be with transgender women.

Rich-Paris says that violence has always been an occupational hazard for sex workers—even more so if the sex worker is a transgender woman of color. “Violence happens after the orgasm,” Rich-Paris comments. “They [the customers] feel like their masculinity is threatened.” She says of transgender women: “A lot of us are way [more like] women than cis[gender] women. The only thing is we have is male parts.”

In a separate interview, Mitchell says: “Most cis women don’t want to date bisexual men. Me, personally, I love bisexual men. There are different guys who are with you for different reasons and different things.”

“Kokomo City” also acknowledges that African Americans are often taught homophobia from a young age, with those in the male gender getting the most pressure to be heterosexual. Black men who do not conform to heterosexual norms are terrified of being shamed by members of the community, which is why the “down low” culture exists for men who pretend to be heterosexual to most people in their lives but who live secret queer lives that often involve hiring sex workers to fulfill those needs.

Atlanta-based songwriter Michael Carlos Jones, nicknamed Lø, says in the documentary that he’s been “talking” online with a transgender woman and has flirted with her, but he hasn’t met her in person. Jones also says he’s never acted on his curiosity to have a sexual encounter with a transgender woman. “I love women,” he states, while adding that he’s also attracted to women whom he considers to be hard to get.

When Jones isn’t name-dropping the celebrities he says he’s worked with (including Sean Combs, Janet Jackson and Beyoncé), or bragging about things no one cares about (“I smoked weed with Rick James”), Jones seems to be a study in contradictions. He wants to give the impression that he’s an open-minded free spirit who loves to party, and he admits he’s sexually attracted to transgender women. And yet, he won’t admit to even kissing a transgender woman. He doesn’t sound very believable about never being in sexual contact with a transgender woman, especially when he says he’s had sexual encounters in various states of intoxication.

Lenox Love, the CEO of Lenox Love Entertainment (based in Atlanta), is shown briefly in the documentary when he talks about promoting a Hush Night for transgender female exotic dancers at a local nightclub. He says that Hush Night is an easier and safer way for transgender sex workers to find customers, compared to looking for customers on the streets. According to Love, many of the men who go to Hush Night are famous and have a very different public image about their sexuality than they do in private.

“Kokomo City” also interviews two men in a car in The Bronx, New York. They’re identified only by the names INW Tarzan and Lexx Pharoah. Tarzan says that African American men “can’t accept being with a trans woman in public because it’s their ego and … they feel like the world is going to belittle them for what they like. If they’re married and have children, that’s something that could compromise the whole situation, whatever job they have.”

Pharoah adds, “I think acceptance is part of the problem.” Tarzan has this advice to men who have “down low” encounters with transgender women: “Don’t live a double life.” Why are Tarzan and Pharoah in this documentary? Were they cruising for transgender sex workers but won’t admit it on camera? (It sure seems that way.)

The fact that most of the men who are interviewed in this documentary have aliases is proof that there’s still a lot of shame and secrecy that African American men have in even associating with transgender women. It’s also important to point out (and it’s also mentioned in the documentary) that not all of the customers of these sex workers are African American. However, the sex workers interviewed in this documentary say that their African American male customers are the most likely to want to hide their sexual activities with transgender women.

Silver says this secrecy is the only way that transgender sex workers can realistically stay in business. She firmly believes that sex workers should not “out” any of their customers. “When you expose them, it dries up the well,” Silver comments. “That doesn’t bring good karma. At the end of the day, they’re suffering because they’re not living in their truth. And that’s punishment enough.”

The issues of secrecy and infidelity are intertwined with sex work, since most of sex workers’ clients are married or are in committed relationships. Prostitution is still illegal in most places in the United States. The customers usually don’t get punished as harshly as the sex workers. These are some of the reasons why sex work will continue to be controversial. “Kokomo City” does not pass judgment but it doesn’t portray sex work as glamorous or “victimless.”

Carter is the most blunt in the documentary when talking about what she thinks about how her customers usually have cisgender women as sex partners at home but still seek out transgender sex partners elsewhere. She believes that cisgender women and transgender women, especially in the African American community, are pitted against each other but actually have more in common than people would like to think.

Carter doesn’t mince words when she says of her trans womanhood: “It hits so close to home that it may be in your home when you’re not there.” But she also says that when it comes to the blame game, it’s important to remember who’s the one doing the most harm to others: “We’re normalizing grown men taking advantage of our bodies,” Carter comments, while she also says of her sex work: “This is survival work.”

“Kokomo City” is not a “happy hooker” movie. Most of the women in the documentary come right out and say that they would rather be doing something else other than sex work to make the type of money that they need. All of the sex workers have similar stories of turning to sex work because many places won’t hire them because they are transgender.

Most transgender people are also shunned by their families. Koko Da Doll is the only sex worker in the documentary who mentions her family. She says that after she was homeless with her mother and sister, they both ended up rejecting her when she started living as a trans woman.

Silver says she got into sex work because it was the only work that she could find that paid enough for the cosmetic surgery that she says she needs to fully transition into the gender she knows she is. Koko Da Doll says she started doing sex work when she was homeless. Koko Da Doll repeatedly tries to put a hard exterior by saying that she only cares about her customers’ money. But she also gets teary-eyed when she says, “All I know is escorting, and I want to try to do something different.”

Sadly, Koko Da Doll never got that chance. On April 18, 2023, Koko Da Doll (also known as Rasheeda Williams) was shot and killed in Atlanta. Her accused killer is a 17-year-old male, who was arrested for murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. As of this writing, the case has not yet been resolved. The epilogue of “Kokomo City” includes an “in memoriam” to Koko Da Doll. Throughout “Kokomo City,” the transgender women say that they always feel they are in danger just for existing, and know they could be murdered just because they are transgender.

Smith’s style of cinematic storytelling for “Kokomo City” is intimate and unflinching, but the documentary also has artsy shots edited in that show appreciation for the surroundings where the interviews take place. There’s some nudity in “Kokomo City” (including a striking visual of Silver toward the end of the film), but the emotional nakedness that these women express is really why “Kokomo City” will stand the test of time as one of the most impactful documentaries made about transgender women. “Kokomo City” is a powerful account of transgender women trying to survive in a world where many people don’t want transgender women and many other LGBTQ+ people to live. It’s a meaningful testament to how people’s bodies and sexualities should not take away their human rights.

Magnolia Pictures released “Kokomo City” in New York City on July 28, 2023, with an expansion to more U.S. cities on August 4, 2023. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on August 15, 2023.

Review: ‘Come Out Fighting’ (2023), starring Kellan Lutz, Michael Jai White, Tyrese Gibson, Dolph Lundgren and Hiram A. Murray

August 6, 2023

by Carla Hay

Kellan Lutz and Hiram A. Murray in “Come Out Fighting” (Photo courtesy of Screen Media Films)

“Come Out Fighting” (2023)

Directed by Steven Luke

Culture Representation: Taking place in Europe during World War II, the action film “Come Out Fighting” features a cast of white and African American characters representing military men fighting in the war.

Culture Clash: A squad of African American soldiers in the U.S. Army are tasked with going behind enemy lines to find their official missing commanding officer, and they find a U.S. Army fighter pilot who’s lost in the woods after his plane crashed.

Culture Audience: “Come Out Fighting” will appeal mostly to people who are enthusiasts of World War II movies, no matter how bad the movie.

Dolph Lundgren in “Come Out Fighting” (Photo courtesy of Screen Media Films)

“Come Out Fighting” is an excruciatingly awful World War II combat movie that is an insult to history and an insult to anyone who was a part of this war. It’s hard to watch this junkpile movie’s visual effects, dialogue, and acting, which are all terrible. The only good use of “Come Out Fighting” is if anyone wants to see how not to make a war film.

Written and directed by Steven Luke, “Come Out Fighting” is an onslaught of nonsensical and unrealistic military combat scenes. It’s as if the soldiers in the movie were trained by clowns in a circus sideshow. However, “Come Out Fighting” isn’t a satire or comedy. It takes itself way too seriously, considering how terribly tacky everything is in the abomination of a film.

“Come Out Fighting,” which has an all-male cast, begins with a very fake-looking scene of U.S. Army pilots Lieutenant Mike Rawlings (played by Andrew Stecker) and Lieutenant Frank Ross (played by Kellan Lutz) each flying a small plane over an open field somewhere in Europe. (“Come Out Fighting was actually filmed in the United States.) Mike and Frank bomb a train carrying military items, such as tanks. The train derails and explodes.

It doesn’t take long for the enemy to retaliate. Enemy planes shoot at Mike and Frank. Mike dies when his plane is shot, and his plane crashes into a field. Frank runs out of fuel, but he is able to parachute out of the plane. Frank is then considered missing for a great deal of the story.

Meanwhile, an all-African American squad of soldiers, led by Lieutenant Robert A. Hayes (played by Hiram A. Murphy), not only have to fight the Nazis and Axis military personnel in this war, they also have to fight the racism within the ranks of the U.S. military. Robert’s subordinates include Sergeant AJ “Red” McCarron (played by Michael Jai White) and Private Michael “Salty” Buttons (played by Rich Lowe). In the beginning of the movie, all three men are in a wooded area for a task of finding mines.

Here’s an example of the cringeworthy dialogue in “Come Out Fighting”: When the trio encounters a group of white soldiers from the U.S. Army, earnest Salty tells a gruff and cynical Red: “These white boys don’t look happy to see us.” Red replies to Salty: “When we around, white folks ain’t never happy.”

After some mind-numbingly horrible staged combat scenes, Robert goes missing. His squad goes looking for him in the same wooded area where Frank has disappeared. Robert’s squad then teams up with another African American squad, led by Sergeant Warran Crecy (played by Tyrese Gibson), who’s a rebellious drunk. Warran has a large, bald sidekick named Sgt. Thomas (played by Vicellous Shannon), who is stereotypically brooding.

With two U.S. Army lieutenants lost in the woods, “Come Out Fighting” does the most predictable thing possible: These two lieutenants (Robert and Frank) find each other. And there’s tension between them from the start. Even though they need each other to stay alive, expect to see Robert and Frank do a lot of bickering with each other.

Can these two lost lieutenants put aside their differences to work together on finding their way out of the woods on their own? Or will any squad come to their rescue? And will anyone care about halfway through the movie, which gets bogged down in a lot of boring repetition?

Dolph Lundgren shows up and barks orders as a character named Major Chase Anderson, in an obvious “I’m just here for the paycheck” role, which can also be said for any of the actors who degraded themselves to be in such an embarrassing movie. The sheer ineptitude on display here (even the costume design is wrong) just gets worse as this train wreck of a movie careens toward it unimaginative ending. There’s not much more to say about “Come Out Fighting” except that a more accurate title for this type of tacky film is “Come Out Failing.”

Screen Media Films released “Come Out Fighting” in select U.S. cinemas, digital and VOD on May 19, 2023.