Tongayi Chirisa Archives

Review: ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,’ starring Anthony Ramos, Dominique Fishback, Dean Scott Vazquez and the voices of Peter Cullen, Peter Dinklage, Pete Davidson and Ron Perlman

June 6, 2023

by Carla Hay

Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback in “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

Directed by Steven Caple Jr.

Culture Representation: Taking place in 1994, in New York City, Peru, and other parts of the universe, the sci-fi action flick “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” features a racially diverse cast of characters (Latino, white, African American, Asian) portraying alien robots and working-class and middle-class humans.

Culture Clash: A former U.S. Army private/comms tech and a museum researcher team up with alien robots called the Transformers and Maximals to save the world from villain robots Terrorcons and Predacons.

Culture Audience: Besides appealing to the obvious audience of “Transformers” franchise fans, “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in crowd-pleasing sci-fi action films that are low on surprises but high on big-spectacle fight scenes and engaging comedy and drama.

Nightbird (voiced by Michaela Jaé Rodriguez), Scourge (voiced by Peter Dinklage) and Battletrap (voiced by David Sobolov) in “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” (Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” is a triumphant sci-fi action spectacle that is chock full of memorable characters and engaging storylines. It strikes the right balance between evoking nostalgia and creating excitement for new aspects to the “Transformers” franchise. It’s also by far the most diverse “Transformers” movie so far, but it’s diversity that looks natural, not forced. Even people who know nothing about the “Transformers” franchise (which is based on Hasbro toys that spawned multiple animated TV series) will be charmed by “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” as long as they’re up for eye-popping ride of robot mayhem. For people who don’t know, Transformers are about alien robots that can transform into various things to disguise themselves.

“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” is directed by Steven Caple Jr. , a self-professed “Transformers” fan. This love of the “Transformers” franchise shows in how well Caple is able to pay homage to the original spirit of the 1996 to 1999 animated TV series “Beast Wars: Transformers” (also known as “Beasties: Transformers”) and make “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” a standout “Transformers” cinematic experience. The movie follows the 2018 spinoff film “Bumblebee,” which took place in 1987, and told the origin story of a popular Transformer named Bumblebee, who transforms into a black and yellow 1977 Chevrolet Camaro. “Bumblebee,” directed by Travis Knight, was a hit with audiences and critics.

It’s a welcome turnaround from the 10-year downward spiral of quality for the “Transformers” movie series under the direction of Michael Bay, who helmed the first five live-action “Transformers” movies, starting with 2007’s pleasantly mediocre “Transformers” and ending with 2017’s atrocious “Transformers: The Last Knight.” Each movie was more ridiculous than its predecessor, with Bay making many of these “Transformers” movies into overly long, bloated endurance tests for viewers.

Clocking in at a just-right total running time of 127 minutes, “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” is an example of how to do a highly entertaining “Transformers” movie without it being more than 150 minutes long. “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” has five screenwriters (Joby Harold, Erich Hoeber, Jon Hoeber, Darnell Metayer and Josh Peters), but the story doesn’t feel like there were “too many cooks in the kitchen.” The movie also gets rid of Bay’s tired “Transformers” movie cliché of the lead actress being just a sex-symbol sidekick for the lead actor. In “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” the chief human heroine has intelligence as well as good looks.

“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” mostly takes place in 1994, but the beginning of the movie shows a scene that took place centuries earlier in outer space. In this scene, a massive evil entity called Unicron (voiced by Colman Domingo) dispatches his underlings to destroy the jungle-like homeland of Maximals, a group of intelligent robots that can disguise themselves as wild animals. Unicron literally eats planets in order to survive.

Unicron’s main enforcers are zombie robots calls Terrorcons, led by the ruthless Scourge (voiced by Peter Dinklage), who can transform into a 1994 Peterbilt 359. Scourge has two main sidekicks: Nightbird (voiced by Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, formerly known as Mj Rodriguez) is a ninja assassin who can transform into a black Nissan Skyline GTR R33. Battletrap (voiced by David Sobolov) is a scout who can transform into an orange and black GMC. Predacons, a race of ancient Cybertronian beasts, are another group of antagonists in the movie. If these descriptions sound unappealing, then “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” is not the movie for you.

The refugee Maximals, whose planet was destroyed in the beginning of the movie, fled to many parts of the universe. Many of the Maximals ended up on Earth in Peru, including Maximal leader Optimus Primal (voiced by Ron Perlman), who transforms into a 13-foot-tall metallic silverback gorilla. The other Maximals in the movie are Airazor (voiced by Michelle Yeoh), who transforms into a peregrine falcon; Cheetor (voiced by Tongayi Chirisa), who transforms into a cheetah that’s the size of a small truck; and Rhinox (voiced by Sobolov), who transforms into a rhino that weighs 8,000 pounds.

Returning to the “Transformers” movie series are the heroic robots called the Autobots, led by Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen), who transforms into a red 1987 Freightliner FLA truck. Bumblee also makes his return. And having a more prominent presence than in previous “Transformers” movies is Arcee (voiced by Liza Koshy), a sharpshooter who transforms into a dark pink and white Ducati 916 motorcycle.

All of these Autobots don’t get as much screen time in the movie as an Autobot making his first live-action “Transformers” movie appearance: the wisecracking Mirage (voiced by Pete Davidson), who transforms into special edition silver 1993 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 3.8. It’s through Mirage that the human heroes of the story get involved in the battle to save Earth from being destroyed.

And let’s not forget the humans in this movie. The main human protagonist is Noah Diaz (played by Anthony Ramos), a former U.S. Army private who worked as a comms tech. Viewers find out that Noah was discharged from the Army and is back living in his hometown of New York City’s Brooklyn borough with his mother Breanna Diaz (played by Luna Lauren Velez, formerly known as Lauren Velez) and his 11-year-old brother Kristopher “Kris” Diaz (played by Dean Scott Vazquez), who happens to have sickle cell anemia. Noah has been struggling to find a job. I the beginning of the movie, he’s rejected for an interview for a job as a security guard because a former manager described Noah as unreliable.

Kris’ increasing medical bills are causing a lot of financial stress on the family. And so, a desperate Noah reluctantly accepts an offer from a friend named Reek (played by Tobe Nwigwe) to steal a Porsche. Noah finds out that the Porsche is really a giant robot named Mirage, who takes Noah to a warehouse, where Noah meets Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Arcee. Optimus Prime is furious with Mirage about this introduction to Noah, becaue Optimus Prime and most Autobots don’t really trust humans.

Meanwhile, a museum researcher named Elena Wallace (played by Dominique Fishback), who is an enthusiast of ancient Egyptian mythology, is intrigued by a wooden owl statuette that has arrived at the museum where she works. When she opens the statuette, laser beams come out and trigger a signal to Unicron. And you know what that means. It’s only a matter of time before Scourge and his crew will be descending on Earth so that Unicron can destroy the planet for Unicron’s consumption.

Through a series of events, Noah and Elena cross paths and have some conflicts. But they have to learn to work together when they find out what the owl statuette is part of a solution to the mystery of how to find a key that opens a portal that can help the Maximals escape. The key has been split into two. It all leads to a high-stakes, adrenaline-packed “race against time” to find the missing key parts while fighting off the villains. (“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” was filmed in New York City, Montreal and Peru.)

The visual effects in “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” are some of the best in the “Transformers” franchise. But more importantly, although there are several new and returning characters in the movie, “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” doesn’t look overstuffed, thanks to writing and film editing that do a good job of distinguishing the characters by giving each character enough room to be memorable. The movie is heavy on nostalgia for the “Transformers” animated TV series (which was on the air from 1984 to 1987), because the designs of Optimus Prime and Bumblebee adhere to how they looked in the TV series instead of previous “Transformers” movies.

The additions of Ramos and Fishback are definite improvements to the “Transformers” franchise, because both of these cast members have genuine acting talent. The characters of Noah and Elena are written and performed as realistic people, not generic and fake-looking action heroes. For all of the exciting battles and elaborate fight scenes in “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” the charismatic rapport between the humans is the real secret weapon for why this movie succeeds and why viewers will want to come back for more.

Paramount Pictures will release “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” in U.S. cinemas on June 9, 2023.

Review: ‘Next Exit,’ starring Katie Parker, Rahul Kohli, Rose McIver, Tongayi Chirisa, Tim Griffin, Diva Zappa, Nico Evers-Swindell and Karen Gillan

February 16, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Next Exit”

Directed by Mali Elfman

Culture Representation: Taking place in various parts of the United States, the comedy/drama film “Next Exit” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Latinos and Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A woman and a man in their 30s, who want to become euthanasia volunteers for a controversial scientist, end up sharing a car for a road trip from New York City to San Francisco, and they bicker and develop a romantic attraction to each other along the way.

Culture Audience: “Next Exit” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of road trip movies that have an “opposites attract” premise for the travelers in a story that can be flawed but entertaining.

“Next Exit” is a road trip movie that can be as erratic and irritating as the would-be couple at the center of the story. The movie would’ve been better with a less predictable ending, but there are enough compelling moments to make this dramedy watchable. Much of the credit can go to how the cast members gamely handle the dialogue and scenarios, which can occasionally be boring and cringeworthy.

Written and directed by Mali Elfman, “Next Exit” is the type of independent film that wants to be adorable and edgy at the same time. It’s a tricky combination to pull off, and “Next Exit” doesn’t always succeed at it. But unless a viewer is completely disconnected from the movie’s characters, “Next Exit” maintains enough interest where viewers will probably be curious to see how the movie is going to end. “Next Exit” had its world premiere at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival.

“Next Exit” begins by showing a video recording of what a controversial scientist named Dr. Stevensen (played by Karen Gillan) has declared is genuine paranormal activity: A boy named Reo Nakada (played by Gavin Powers), who’s about 7 or 8 years old, is shown playing cards with his father Niko Nakada (played by Joe Powers) in Niko’s bedroom. What’s unusual about this video? Reo is dead. And, according to Dr. Stevensen, this recording is of Neo’s ghost playing cards with his father.

Dr. Stevensen insists that this video is proof that ghosts are real. However, much of the general public and the overall scientific community think the video is a hoax. Dr. Stevensen owns and operates the Life Beyond Institute, based in San Francisco, where she wants to test her theories about life after death by having people volunteer to undergo euthanasia.

Not surprisingly, the U.S. government shuts down all funding for this research. In response to this shutdown, Dr. Stevensen is shown on TV in a pre-recorded statement defending her Life Beyond Institute: “It is a critical, not a criminal, enterprise.”

Despite the controversy, two strangers in their 30s who want to be euthanasia volunteers at the Life Beyond Institute will soon find themselves unexpectedly taking a road trip together from New York City to San Francisco. These two people have different personalities, but they have similar reasons for wanthing to make this drastic decision: They both don’t like their current lives and feel they’ve got nothing left to lose.

Viewers first see Rose (played by Katie Parker) in her New York City apartment committing fraud when she sells her TV to a stranger named Chad (played by Ty Molbak), who has come over to her place to get the TV. After taking Chad’s cash, she throws the TV over the stairwell, where it is immediately destroyed. She then goes back in the apartment, and locks the door behind her, while an irate Chad demands to get his money back. Rose makes an escape out of an apartment window and never looks back.

Rose has no personal attachments and has already made up her mind to go on this road trip by renting a car. But when she gets to the car rental place, Rose finds out that she can’t rent a car because she doesn’t have a credit card. Her offer to pay by cash is strictly denied. Her pleas are ignored.

Just by coincidence, a British immigrant is standing next to her and overhears Rose’s plight. His name is Teddy (played by Rahul Kohli), and he can’t rent a car for a different reason: His driver’s license expires in two weeks, and he wants to rent a car for longer than two weeks. When Rose and Teddy find out that they both plan to drive to San Francisco, they quickly decide that the best solution to their car rental problem is to share a ride. Rose (who has a valid driver’s license) will rent the car in her name, Teddy will pay for the car rental with Teddy’s credit card, and Rose will pay him her half of the car rental expenses.

Of course, in every road trip movie, things don’t go as smoothly as expected. From the beginning, Rose and Teddy have a clash of personalities. They are both very sarcastic, but Rose is a sour pessimist and much more emotionally guarded than Teddy is. In the beginning of the movie, Teddy is shown quitting his job working for a congressman named Milton Lucas (played Michael May), who thinks Teddy is making a big mistake. Teddy has told his former boss that he quit because Teddy wants to be a Life Beyond Institute euthanasia volunteer.

Soon after meeting each other, Teddy opens up to Rose that he used to own his own company, but he’s vague on other details about this company. Teddy, who says he doesn’t have any family members in the United States, also reveals that he doesn’t like his life because he’s been in the U.S. for 10 years, and he hasn’t achieved his goals of finding a wife and making enough money to travel around the world. Rose, who is also unmarried with no children, tells Teddy very little about herself at first, but gradually more details emerge about her personal life.

A long stretch of “Next Exit” consists of Teddy and Rose bickering. An example of their banter happens when they check into a motel for the first time together. And what a coincidence: This motel only has one room available. Rose hates the idea of sharing a room with Teddy and lets him and the front-desk clerk know it in a very crabby way.

Teddy’s response is to try to laugh it off with a joke. He tells the front-desk clerk: “If you find me dead in the morning, she did it. Be sure to thank her for me.” He then says to Rose, “You don’t have to be an asshole the whole time.” Rose shouts back, “We’re not buddies! I don’t want to be your friend!” There’s more tension between Rose and Teddy. And some of it is sexual tension.

“Next Exit” predictably has Rose and Teddy encountering quirky and occasionally alarming characters during this road trip. And the most cliché thing that can happen in a road trip movie happens: The travelers have car trouble. In this case, it’s a flat tire. Rose and Teddy get car tire help from a Catholic priest named Father Jack (played by Tongayi Chirisa), who gets quite an earful when Rose unloads on him with a rant about her issues with the Catholic Church.

In a bar, Rose and Teddy meet a border patrol officer named John (played by Tim Griffin), who makes a drunken confession that is very disturbing. On another occasion, Teddy and Rose pick up a weird hitchhiker named Karma (played by Diva Zappa), who says she’s on the way to meet her psychic aunt in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In Arizona, Rose and Teddy end up visiting Rose’s sister Heather (played by Rose McIver), Heather’s husband Nick (played by Nico Evers-Swindell) and their adolescent daughter Steph (played by Sloane Weber), who all seem to be living a happy suburban life. But things are not at all what they seem, and the movie takes a somewhat dark turn, as some family secrets are revealed.

“Next Exit” missed some opportunities to have better character development for Teddy and Rose. Instead, there are distractions of putting Teddy and Rose in contrived and occasionally outlandish scenarios, for the purposes of getting more comedy or more drama out of the story. However, the movie obviously wants viewers to root for Teddy and Rose to fall in love with each other. Those intentions are sincere, but they don’t always feel earned. If Teddy and Rose fall in love, then what does that mean for their euthanasia plans?

Although “Next Exit” has several supporting characters, their time in the movie is fleeting and presented like characters appearing in sketch segments. The vast majority of screen time is about Rose and Teddy, a would-be couple who aren’t so much Mr. and Ms. Right but are more like Mr. and Ms. Right Now. Cast members Parker and Kohli give solid performances as these two conflicting characters. “Next Exit” tends to have a rambling narrative, but it’s ultimately very easy to see where this story is going and how it’s going to end.

Magnet Releasing released “Next Exit” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on November 4, 2022.

Review: ‘Antebellum,’ starring Janelle Monáe

September 18, 2020

by Carla Hay

“Antebellum”

Directed by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz

Culture Representation: Taking place in various parts of the American South, the horror film “Antebellum” has a cast of African American and white people representing the middle-class and working-class.

Culture Clash: The world of a successful, modern-day African American woman is somehow linked to a Southern plantation where she and other African Americans are mistreated and abused as slaves.

Culture Audience: “Antebellum” will appeal primarily to people who might think that a horror movie about the brutality of slavery would have some insightful social commentary, but the horrific abuse in the film is mostly exploitation.

Gabourey Sidibe, Janelle Monáe and Lily Cowles in “Antebellum” (Photo by Matt Kennedy/Lionsgate)

You can almost hear the gimmick pitch that got “Antebellum” made into a movie: “Let’s make a horror film that’s like ’12 Years a Slave’ meets ‘Get Out.'” Unfortunately, “Antebellum” is nowhere near the quality or merit of the Oscar-winning “12 Years a Slave” and “Get Out,” even though QC Entertainment (one of the production companies behind “Get Out”) is a production company for “Antebellum.”

The sad reality is that “Antebellum” just seems like an exploitative cash grab to attract Black Lives Matter supporters, but the movie is really a “bait and switch,” because there’s almost no social consciousness in the movie and nothing to be learned from the story. “Antebellum” is actually a very soulless and nonsensical horror flick that uses slavery as a way to just have repetitive scenes of African Americans being sadistically beaten, strangled and raped.

Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, who have a background in directing commercials, co-wrote and co-directed “Antebellum,” which is their feature-film debut. Normally, it’s not necessary to mention the race of a filmmaker when reviewing a movie. But because “Antebellum” is about the triggering and controversial topics of racism, slavery and the exploitation of African Americans, it should be noted that Bush is African American and Renz is white.

Just because an African American co-wrote and co-directed this movie doesn’t excuse the problematic way that racist violence against African Americans is depicted in the movie. “Antebellum” has this racist violence for violence’s sake, with little regard to making any of the slaves, except for the movie’s main character, have any real substance. It’s the equivalent of a mindless slasher film that doesn’t care about having a good plot or well-rounded characters but just takes perverse pleasure in seeing how the victims get attacked, tortured and possibly killed.

The movie doesn’t waste any time showing this cruel violence, since the opening scene is of a male slave named Eli (played by Tongayi Chirisa) being separated from his love partner/wife named Amara (played by Achok Majak) by a group of plantation supervisors in Confederate military uniforms. The group is led by the evil racist Captain Jasper (played by Jack Huston), who takes pleasure in torturing Amara, who is lassoed with a rope around the neck when she tries to run away in the cotton field. You can easily guess what happens next.

People who’ve seen any “Antebellum” trailers or clips might wonder why the movie’s protagonist (played by Janelle Monáe) seems to be in two different worlds: In one world, she’s a slave on a plantation during the Civil War era. In another world, she’s a present-day, happily married mother of a young daughter.

To explain why she exists in these two worlds would be a major spoiler for the movie. But it’s enough to say that the explanation comes about halfway through the film, and it creates questions that are never really answered by the end of the movie. “Antebellum” is supposed to take place in different unnamed cities in the South. The movie was actually filmed in New Orleans.

In the plantation world, Monáe is a quietly defiant slave who is secretly planning to escape with some other slaves. She has been named Eden by the plantation’s sadistic owner who goes by the name “Him” (played by Eric Lange), who assaults her and burns her with a hot branding iron until she agrees that her name is Eden. Later, he rapes her. The real name of “Him” is revealed later in the movie.

We don’t see Eden do much plotting to escape in the movie, mainly because the slaves have been ordered not to talk to each other or else they will be punished. It’s implied that Eden is the self-appointed leader of this escape plan because another slave named Julia (played by Kiersey Clemons) arrives at the plantation and expects Eden to fill her in on the escape details.

Julia, who is pregnant, tells Eden that she heard that Eden is from Virginia. Julia says that she’s from North Carolina. Eden replies, “Wherever you came from before here, you need to forget North Carolina.” Julia says, “That’s not possible for me. What are we doing? What’s the plan?” Eden responds, “We must choose are own wisely. But until then, we must keep our heads down and our mouths shut.”

Later, when Julia becomes frustrated by what she thinks is Eden stalling or not doing anything to implement the escape plan, she angrily says to Eden: “You ain’t no leader. You’re just a talker.” And since Julia is pregnant, you can bet her pregnancy will be used as a reason to make any violence against her more heinous.

Meanwhile, Captain Jasper has an equally racist wife named Elizabeth (played by Jena Malone), who is as ice-cold as her husband is quick-tempered. It’s implied, but not said outright, that she knows he rapes the female slaves. In an early scene in the movie, Elizabeth recoils when Jasper leans in to kiss her. She sniffs, as if to smell him, and says with a slightly disgusted tone, “Hmm. You started early.”

Meanwhile, the modern-day character played by Monáe is a sociologist and best-selling author named Veronica Henley, whose specialty is in social justice issues related to race. And in this story, she’s promoting her book “Shedding the Coping Persona,” which is about marginalized people learning to be their authentic selves instead of pretending to be something they’re not to please their oppressors. Veronica is well-educated (she has a Ph. D. and is a graduate of Spelman College and Columbia University) and she’s happily married. She’s prominent enough to have debates on national TV about topics such as racism and African American empowerment.

Veronica and her husband Nick (played by Marque Richardson) have an adorable daughter who’s about 5 or 6 years old named Kennedi (played by London Boyce), who’s very inquisitive and perceptive. After the family watches a debate-styled interview that Veronica did on TV with a conservative white male pundit (whose profession is listed “eugenics expert/professor”), Kennedi asks Veronica why the man was so angry. Veronica replies, “Sometimes what looks like anger is really just fear.”

Nick is the type of doting husband and father who will make breakfast for Veronica and Kennedi. Meanwhile, Veronica confides in her sassy single friend Dawn (played by Gabourey Sidibe) that she often feels guilty about being away from home when she has to work. Dawn reassures Veronica that she’s a great wife and mother and tells Veronica not to be too hard on herself. (Dawn, who is assertive and outspoken, has some of the best and funniest lines in the movie.)

Veronica has to go out of town to attend an African American-oriented conference called VETA, where she is a guest speaker. Dawn lives in the area, so they make plans to have dinner with Dawn’s friend Sarah (played by Lily Cowles), who is also single and available. Before Veronica meets up with them, she gets a bouquet of flowers delivered to her at her hotel. The flowers have a note that says, “Look forward to your homecoming.”

Veronica assumes that the gift is from Nick. But since this is a horror movie, viewers can easily figure out that Nick did not send those flowers. Some other strange things happen in the hotel room when Veronica isn’t there. And then, something happens after that dinner that explains how the plantation world and the modern world are connected.

Monáe does an adequate job in the role that she’s been given. And the movie’s cinematography, production design and costume design are actually very good. The actors who play the racists predictably portray them as caricatures of evil. The insidiousness of a lot of racists is that they hide their hate with fake smiles and polite mannerisms to the people they hate, but there’s no such subtlety in this story, since all of the villains are revealed early on in the story.

The biggest problem with “Antebellum” is the screenplay. The ending of the movie is absolutely ludicrous and it actually makes the African Americans in the story look dumb for not taking certain actions that could have been taken earlier. Therefore, “Antebellum” isn’t as uplifting to African Americans as it likes to think it is.

The tone of the movie is also uneven, because the slavery scenes are absolutely dark and brutal. But then the scenes with Sidibe and her sitcom-ish character are very out of place and dilute the intended horror of the movie. Sidibe is very good in the role, but the Dawn character was written as too comedic for this type of movie. And huge stretches of “Antebellum” are just plain boring, with no real suspense.

However, the main ridiculousness of “Antebellum” goes back to that plantation and the secret that’s revealed at the end of the movie. If people want to see the horrors of slavery depicted in an Oscar-worthy narrative film, then watch “12 Years a Slave.” Don’t watch “Antebellum,” which uses slavery as an exploitative gimmick as the basis for this moronic and not-very-scary horror movie.

Lionsgate released “Antebellum” on VOD on September 18, 2020.

Review: ‘Palm Springs,’ starring Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti and J.K. Simmons

July 10, 2020

by Carla Hay

“Palm Springs”

Directed by Max Barbakow

Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in Palm Springs, California, and briefly in other parts of the U.S., the comedy film “Palm Springs” has a predominantly white cast (with a few black people, Asians and Latinos) representing the middle-class.

Culture Clash: A single man and a single woman find themselves in a repetitive time loop where they keep waking up to the wedding day of the woman’s younger sister in Palm Springs, California.

Culture Audience: “Palm Springs” will appeal to primarily people who like offbeat “time warp” comedies, but much of the vulgar humor lacks wit or originality.

Meredith Hagner and Andy Samberg in “Palm Springs” (Photo courtesy of Hulu)

A blatant and vastly inferior ripoff of the 1993 Bill Murray classic comedy “Groundhog Day,” the time-loop comedy film “Palm Springs” might be interesting to fans of star Andy Samberg, but everyone else will feel like they’re stuck watching a repetitive time-loop skit get less funny as time goes on. A sardonic supporting performance by the always-great J.K. Simmons isn’t enough to save this smug film, which isn’t as clever as the filmmakers like to think it is.

People who follow news in the entertainment industry might be aware that the Hulu comedy film “Palm Springs” broke a Sundance Film Festival record for the highest amount paid ($17.5 million and 69 cents) to acquire a film that premiered at Sundance. The previous record holder was Fox Searchlight’s $17.5 million purchase of the 2016 drama “Birth of a Nation,” actor Nate Parker’s feature-film directorial debut.

The record-breaking sum that Hulu paid for “Palm Springs” would lead people to believe that this movie, which clearly won’t be an Oscar contender, is at least on par with a crowd-pleasing classic, such as director Harold Ramis’ “Groundhog Day,” a movie about a weatherman who’s stuck in a Groundhog Day time loop. Unfortunately, “Palm Springs” (directed by Max Barbakow and written by Andy Siara) doesn’t come close to the charm and memorable humor of “Groundhog Day.”

It’s pretty obvious that the overrated “Palm Springs” was sold for an overpriced amount because movie executives got caught up in a bidding war for a mediocre film. When has Samberg ever starred in a quality movie that was a big hit with audiences? Never. “Palm Springs” certainly won’t be his first “blockbuster” hit.

In “Palm Springs,” Sandberg plays an obnoxious ne’er do well named Nyles, who is stuck in a time loop where he keeps waking up to November 9, the day of a wedding that he is supposed to attend with his girlfriend Misty (played by Meredith Hagner), a stereotypical ditsy blonde who is one of the bridesmaids. Viewers won’t find out about this time loop until after the first time that the movie shows Nyles at the wedding.

The wedding is taking place in the upscale desert vacation city of Palm Springs, California. The bride is Tala (played by Camila Mendes), the groom is Abe (played by Tyler Hoechlin) and the maid of honor is Tala’s divorced older sister Sarah (played by Cristin Milioti), who looks and acts like she’d rather be anywhere else but the wedding. The proud parents of the bride are Howard (played by Peter Gallagher) and Pia (played by Jacqueline Obradors), who don’t do much except look horrified at some of the silly antics that later ensue in the story. And then there’s Nana Schlieffen (played by June Squibb), the token matronly grandmother at the wedding.

Nyles, Misty and Sarah are all staying at the same hotel. When Nyles wakes up in the hotel on the day of the wedding, Misty has just come out of the shower and is putting lotion on her legs. Nyles wants to have sex, and Misty agrees, but only if they make it quick because she says she doesn’t want to get too sweaty. A predictable erection joke is part of this scene, which sets the tone for the rest of this movie. “Palm Springs” makes a lot of crude jokes about sex, but most of the jokes aren’t very funny.

At the wedding, Nyles stands out (and not in a good way) because he’s wearing clothes that are too casual: a Hawaiian shirt and shorts. At the reception, Misty makes an awkward wedding speech, and then it’s Sarah turn to give her speech. Even though she’s the maid of honor, a miserable-looking Sarah seems shocked that she’s expected to make a toast to the bride and groom.

But before she gets a chance to make the speech, Nyles butts in and makes a speech that’s even more cringeworthy than Misty’s speech. What Nyles has to say is both overly sappy and nonsensical. He ends it by stating to the newly married couple: “We may be born lost, but now you are found.”

After that, Nyles (who is constantly chugging beer from beer cans) and Sarah strike up a conversation. Nyles flirts heavily with Sarah and asks her if she wants to go somewhere private with him for a quickie tryst. Sarah tells him that he’s being very forward, but she’s intrigued by his boldness.

While Nyles and Sarah are outside, they pass by a bathroom where the reception is being held. The bathroom is on the ground level, and they can clearly see into the bathroom’s window (this place clearly doesn’t care about guests’ privacy), where they witness Misty cheating with a wedding guest named Trevor (played by Chris Pang). Trevor, who’s dressed in a glittery cowboy suit at the wedding, is one of those quirky characters that was written in this movie in its failed attempt to be like a Wes Anderson comedy.

Now that Sarah knows that Nyles’ girlfriend/wedding date doesn’t really care about him, Sarah takes Nyles up on his offer to hook up with him out in the desert. Before that happens, Sarah tells Nyles that she’s the “black sheep” of her family, because her family thinks she’s a “liability” who thinks “I fuck around and drink too much.”

While Sarah and Nyles are having a steamy makeout session, Nyles suddenly gets wounded on his shoulder by an arrow. Out of the shadows, a man wearing dark camouflage paint on his face starts to chase Nyles with a bow and arrow, while Sarah freaks out and is confused by what’s going on. It turns out that the angry bow-and-arrow hunter is named Roy (played by J.K. Simmons), and Roy wants revenge on Nyles for a reason that’s revealed later in the story.

Meanwhile, during this chase scene, Nyles runs into a cave where there’s a strange glowing red light. Sarah follows Nyles into the cave. And it turns out this mysterious cave is the portal that causes a time-loop that keeps going back to November 9. Now that Sarah has gone into the cave, she’s stuck in the time loop with Nyles too. Just like Nyles, every time Sarah now wakes up, it’s in the Palm Springs hotel on the November 9 wedding day.

“Palm Springs” has a lot of slapstick humor to distract from the uninspired dialogue in the movie. After Sarah finds out that she’s stuck in the same time loop as Nyles, much of the film is about Sarah being angry with Nyles because she feels that she didn’t deserve to be unknowingly trapped in the loop.

Nyles has been in the loop long enough to warn Sarah that attempts to get out of the loop have failed. Committing suicide doesn’t work. (Although an idea presented later in the story contradicts that theory.) It also doesn’t work to take stimulant drugs that keep people up for days. Traveling to another city (which Sarah does when she drives all the way back to her messy house in Austin, Texas) also doesn’t get them out of loop either.

The movie never explains what Nyles did for a living before he got caught in the time loop, but he’s reached a point of feeling resigned about his fate in the loop. Therefore, he acts as recklessly and obnoxiously as possible (including breaking several laws), because he knows that when he wakes up, he’ll be back in that Palm Springs hotel room on the November 9 wedding day.

Nyles also tells Sarah that being stuck in the time loop has caused him to feel free to have sexual hookups with as many people as possible, including three people who keep showing up in this story: a bartender named Daisy (played by Jena Friedman), who works at the wedding reception; Darla (played by Dale Dickey) a crusty regular at a local bar; and fashionable Jerry (played by Tongayi Chirisa), one of the wedding guests.

At first, Sarah gets caught up in being as “bad” as possible, so a great deal of the movie shows Sarah and Nyles acting like drunken, irresponsible teenagers. But Sarah soon grows tired of these shenanigans and wants to get out of the loop and back to her normal life. It goes without saying that Sarah and Nyles start to have romantic feelings for each other, so Nyles is conflicted about Sarah wanting to leave the loop while he might remain stuck there.

Unfortunately for “Palm Springs,” the chemistry between Samberg and Milioti isn’t very believable when Nyles and Sarah start to become a romantic couple. Milioti seems to be doing her best to bring some laughs to the story, but Sarah is such a deeply unhappy, self-loathing person that it’s hard to believe that Sarah can fall in love when she doesn’t even love herself.

Parts of “Palm Springs” seem like a more adult-language version of a “Saturday Night Live” sketch that’s worn out its welcome. Samberg, who’s a “Saturday Night Live” alum, has the same type of one-note “man child” persona that he had on the show. It’s the same persona that Pete Davidson has also taken as part of his comedic image.

A comedy with this “time loop” concept should be fun to watch, but “Palm Springs” is a chore to watch because the two main characters don’t have charismatic personalities. Huge stretches of “Palm Springs” drag on for too long. And even the movie’s visual effects look cheap and clunky.

The best thing about “Palm Springs” is how the “travelogue” type of cinematography (from Quyen Tran) makes a vacation in Palm Springs look very enticing. But people can watch attractive travel videos for free on the Internet, and this movie isn’t supposed to be a travel video.

People aren’t going to sign up for Hulu en masse to watch this movie, so “Palm Springs” certainly wasn’t worth the $17.5 million price tag. “Palm Springs” is not only a waste of Hulu’s money but it’s also a waste of viewers’ time, unless people have a high tolerance for Samberg’s recycled “man child” persona.

Hulu premiered “Palm Springs” on July 10, 2020