Tag Archives: Lance Reddick

Movie Review ~ White Men Can’t Jump (2023)

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The Facts:

Synopsis: Juggling tenuous relationships, financial pressures, and serious internal struggles, two ballers–opposites who are seemingly miles apart–find they might have more in common than they imagined possible.
Stars: Sinqua Walls, Jack Harlow, Teyana Taylor, Laura Harrier, Vince Staples, Myles Bullock, Lance Reddick
Director: Calmatic
Rated: R
Running Length: 101 minutes
TMMM Score: (6.5/10)
Review: It can’t be stated enough what a huge impact 1992’s White Men Can’t Jump had on the careers of stars Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrelson, and Rosie Perez. Without the success of that film, who can tell what the rest of the ’90s would have looked like for the trio. Would Snipes have drawn such huge crowds with Passenger 57 later that year, the first of a dozen routine action thrillers he would elevate thanks to his blend of easy-going machismo and take no guff beatdowns? It’s hard to call if Perez’s Oscar nomination the following year for Fearless after many thought she’d get one for her breakout role here, would have been a sure bet. Then there’s Harrelson, jumping from a dopey sidekick role on Cheers to costarring with Snipes and sharing top billing a year later with Demi Moore and Robert Redford in the much-discussed Indecent Proposal. For all three, the film was a gateway to their future success.

And you know what? They deserved it. Revisiting the original film (like this remake, available on Hulu) shows that it holds up remarkably well three decades later, aside from the hysterically dated attire (those with an aversion to neon, spandex, and puffy shirts have been warned). It’s as fast and funny as ever, with the undeniable chemistry between Snipes and Harrelson being the de facto lynchpin in making writer/director Ron Shelton’s basketball buddy film a slam dunk. If that weren’t enough, you have Perez stealing the movie from under her male costars as Harrelson’s Jeopardy! obsessed girlfriend that loves her man but doesn’t love his terrible ways of being hustled for money. Perez is the rock-solid core of the film, while the men provide the flash around her. 

My first thought when I heard they were remaking White Men Can’t Jump for a modern audience was: how will they ever replicate what Rosie Perez brought to the original? Finding two leads that could dribble a ball and strike up believably chemistry isn’t that hard, but to bottle up that lightning for a second time would be rare. Screenwriters Doug Hall and Kenya Barris have sidestepped that challenge altogether for better or for worse and not even attempted to find another Perez, centering their script around the two leads (Sinqua Walls and rapper Jack Harlow) and short-shifting the women. The result is a remake in name only that may have longtime fans crying foul initially but does get easier to warm up to the longer you keep your head in the game.

Although once a promising high-school basketball star on the road to playing professionally, a brush with the law ended the dreams of Kamal Allen (Walls, Nanny) before they could even begin. Playing pick-up games with his friends and working to pay off mounting expenses to help his wife Imani (Teyana Taylor, A Thousand and One) launch her hair salon, he carries guilt for disappointing his dad (the late Lance Reddick, John Wick: Chapter 4) struck down by ALS and isn’t up for being challenged on his home turf. That’s just what entrepreneur Jeremy (Harlow) does, though.

Always working some angle, Jeremy is currently pushing his detox drink while trying to train other rising talent players. Hampered by an injury that has kept him from reaching his potential, he isn’t above taking a hot-headed player like Kamal for a few bills when the player tries to get under his skin. Kamal recognizes talent when he sees it, and while Jeremy’s girlfriend Tatiana (Laura Harrier, The Starling) wants him to give up playing and devote all attention to starting a life with her, he can’t resist taking Kamal up on his offer to play in a series of tournaments for major money. Of course, the two must get used to their different styles and get over personal hang-ups to position themselves to win. 

It takes a solid twenty minutes for a viewer familiar with the original White Men Can’t Jump to acclimate to this new environment and understand that the remake isn’t working with the same set of rules as its predecessor. I’m not even sure why it retained the title, it’s established early on that the notion of white players not being able to sink a basket is old-fashioned, and that’s about all the reference we get. Why Hall and Barris wanted to remake the property is puzzling; the story they’ve outlined is so different, but that’s not to say it doesn’t have its compelling narrative at the same time. Walls and Harlow aren’t ever trying to copy what Snipes and Harrelson put on film, creating new characters and being given some slack by director Calmatic (of the terrible 2023 House Party remake) to do so. This is Harlow’s first foray into acting, and while he acquits himself nicely, you get the feeling Walls is holding back a bit not to act quite so many circles around him. 

In Shelton’s original film, there was more equality between the two players. While there is an attempt to find balance, the new White Men Can’t Jump always feels like it’s more in Kamal’s court than Jeremy’s. Walls has a more well-rounded storyline (and supporting cast), so that’s fine, but I wonder what it would have been like had the film been filled with a more robust roster. This is a minor nitpick, but there is consistent talk about Jeremy not having much money and he’s wearing clothes meant to look raggy, but you can tell they are carefully chosen works that cost a pretty penny. A quilted name-brand hoodie? And he has trouble paying for hourly parking? I don’t think so.

I wish the women in White Men Can’t Jump were treated as well as the men. Taylor’s role is indeed more significant than Tyra Ferrell’s was in the 1992 film, but I don’t know what is going on with the creation of Harrier’s part. Jeremy’s girlfriend is such an unlikable bore; when he professes such devotion to her after she’s spent much of the moving putting him down, you wonder if he’s perhaps taken a few too many basketballs to the head. It’s not helped that Harrier is far from a compelling actress, but then again, she is standing in the shadow of Perez, which no one wants to be in. At least we have another chance to see Taylor in a strong supporting role a month after wowing us in A Thousand and One.

Skipping theaters and debuting on Hulu, the remake of White Men Can’t Jump may not have the same lasting strength on the cinematic court as its source inspiration. Still, it also doesn’t significantly damage the name either. Walls and Harlow make for a friendly pair. If they were to team up again (hey, it worked for Snipes and Harrelson on several unrelated films, I’m looking at you, Money Train – where they were also often eclipsed by a supporting female…newcomer Jennifer Lopez), it could capitalize on the building blocks they’ve put in place here. 

Movie Review ~ John Wick: Chapter 4

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The Facts:

Synopsis: John Wick uncovers a path to defeating The High Table. But before he can earn his freedom, Wick must face off against a new enemy with powerful alliances across the globe and forces that turn old friends into foes.
Stars: Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård, Laurence Fishburne, Hiroyuki Sanada, Shamier Anderson, Lance Reddick, Rina Sawayama, Scott Adkins, Ian McShane
Director: Chad Stahelski
Rated: R
Running Length: 169 minutes
TMMM Score: (8/10)
Review:   Life events got in the way of seeing the previous two installments of the John Wick franchise, which is how I wound up taking a weekend to revisit the three films that lead into John Wick: Chapter 4. This Wick-a-thon allowed me not just to reexamine the original from 2014, which I greatly admired when I first saw it, but to witness then how star Keanu Reeves (Toy Story 4) and director Chad Stahelski (Reeves’s former stunt double) went on to take what began as a simple revenge story and mold it into a true evolving saga. It could have been easy to rinse, wash, repeat, and collect their money, but the star and director harnessed a rare energy that pushed each new sequel into bigger and better territory.

I’ll assume that moving forward, you are enough of a fan that you won’t need much hand-holding to bring you up to speed, or spoilers from the three preceding films won’t bother you. I’ll keep the twists and turns writers Shay Hatten (Army of the Dead) and Michael Finch (The November Man) have cooked up to a low boil, but anyone worth their Wick salt knows to expect the unexpected, and everyone is fair game to become a turncoat or go toe up before the end credits roll. 

When we last left John Wick, he’d been betrayed by New York Continental Hotel manager Winston Scott (Ian McShane, Hellboy) in a seemingly callous attempt to save his neck. Not even being shot and falling from a rooftop could stop our hero, though, and he’s spent the time between chapters making plans to take his vicious revenge on the High Table. His plans are set into motion at the same time Scott and concierge Charon (the late, great Lance Riddick, White House Down) meet up with the High Table’s newest New York big wig, the Marquis Vincent de Gramon (Bill Skarsgård, Barbarian) and get new orders to clean up the mess they’ve left behind.

Not satisfied that one party alone can stop Wick, the Marquis enlists the help of blind assassin Caine (Donnie Yen, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), who is also being forced into service as a consequence of past actions. Caine will get his first crack at Wick in Osaka, where the knuckle-bound one-man army has taken refuge with an old friend (Hiroyuki Sanada, Bullet Train) and his daughter (recording/visual artist Rina Sawayama), both of whom have certain specific duties for the High Table. In Osaka, the film gets its initial surge of adrenaline, pushing it past the first hour as Wick goes up against an endless supply of bad guys/gals. 

In typical franchise fashion, these action sequences aren’t your ordinary kick-punch-punch-and-scene feuds but extended combat (often hand-to-hand) that showcases just how much of the incredible stunt work is being done by the cast. In many films, these battles could feel dragged out and self-indulgent. Still, in the hands of Stahelski and cinematographer Dan Laustsen (not to mention editor Nathan Orloff, Ghostbusters: Afterlife), they become triumphantly tense, brilliantly conceived works of deadly art.

While the series has parted ways with original writer Derek Kolstad, Hatten and Finch carry on the established tone well. We’re in Chapter 4 now, and while I appreciate the consistency in characters from movie to movie, I wish important people introduced from each installment weren’t dropped so wholly with every subsequent film. Several characters from Chapter 3 that proved to be intriguing additions are absent here without much explanation. I get that it’s part of the overall structure of the world of Wick and that some of the fun in these films is to have recognizable actors drift by in surprising cameos – but could at least a few of them come back around now and then?

You may think the film has bitten off more than it can chew at nearly three hours. While it can be argued that Stahelski could make some cuts here and there (an easy way to shave off 5-10 minutes is anytime a camera is following McShane walking anywhere – the man isn’t in a rush to do anything), the overall experience of John Wick: Chapter 4 is so uniformly satisfying that I wouldn’t know what could go that wouldn’t make another piece of the puzzle fall apart. The last hour is the edge-of-your-seat, popcorn-gnoshing stuff of dreams. It’s when Lausten (Nightmare Alley) is given the most freedom to get creative (read: fancy) with his camera work and when Stahelski (Deadpool 2) removes all excess material to reveal a lean, mean machine of a thrill ride.

Until now, this franchise has done well because each film has felt like it arrived at the right time. You can tell Reeves (as monotone as ever) has an affinity for the character and the bonus of doing the stuntwork, but he’s shown up because there’s more story to tell. A spin-off, Ballerina starring Ana de Armas (Blonde) and a few other familiar Wick faces, is currently in production, and it’s rumored the events of that film will serve as a bridge between Chapter 3 and Chapter 4. Whether or not a Chapter 5 is possible will require deeper discussion because all parties have certainly outdone themselves with this fourth feature. 

Movie Review ~ One Night in Miami

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The Facts:

Synopsis: In the aftermath of Cassius Clay’s defeat of Sonny Liston in 1964, the boxer meets with Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown to change the course of history in the segregated South.

Stars: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge, Leslie Odom Jr., Lance Reddick, Lawrence Gilliard Jr., Michael Imperioli, Beau Bridges, Hunter Burke, Nicolette Robinson

Director: Regina King

Rated: R

Running Length: 111 minutes

TMMM Score: (6/10)

Review: It’s seems strange to say it, but movies like One Night in Miami make me miss live theater.  There are so many moments within this impressive feature film directorial debut of Oscar winning actress Regina King when I wished I was in the same room with the actors playing the roles of key figures in the history of Black America. The way they embodied these men with such alacrity seemed to give off a kind of electricity that I’m positive would have set off a charge strong enough to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.  In the room where a play is performed, you take notice of these types of performers and what they are giving out to you and, in turn, you give back to them as audience members.  Without that opportunity to express that though, when it just halts at the barrier of the screen, something feels unfulfilled.

I suppose that’s why I’ve struggled with my thoughts on One Night in Miami these past weeks since seeing it and wondering why it hasn’t moved me in the way that I’ve heard it has for other people.  Not that I have to fall in step with the throngs because I’ve certainly defended my share of movies to those that didn’t respond like I did…but there’s something about this particular project that’s made me a little out of sorts.  The performances in the movie are stunning and just as awards worthy as you’ve heard (but maybe not in my mind the exact people being mentioned…more on that later) and the imagined dialogue that happens within the framework of the real-life set-up has a crackle to it.  However, there’s one element missing that there is no working around that keeps the movie from ever taking a sky’s the limit flight…and it’s that old electricity I mentioned before.

Adapting his 2013 play, screenwriter Kemp Powers (already having a jolly good year as co-director and screenwriter of Pixar’s Soul) opens the film with introductions to the four men that will feature in the night’s festivities.  Civil rights activist Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir, The Commuter) struggles with maintaining his path forward in the face of threats of violence, a visit with a family friend of NFL star Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge, The Invisible Man) in Georgia starts sweet but ends with a sour reminder of the time and place, boxer Cassius Clay (Eli Goree, Godzilla) is established as the king of the ring and a true showman, and singer Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr., Murder on the Orient Express) makes a dreary first impression at the famed Copacabana nightclub where his crooner numbers sink like a stone to the all-white audience.  These scenes have all been added to the film and are several examples of ways that Powers and King have wisely expanded the world of the one-act, 90-minute play…and not just for an excuse to pad the run time of the feature.

It’s when we get to the bones of Kemp’s play, when the men gather at a motel room after Clay’s victory and discuss his intended conversion to Islam under the tutelage of Malcom X, that the film starts to back itself into a corner.  Gone are the easy ways to keep the action moving and here to stay are speeches crafted as monologues and dialogue that sounds more like back and forth talking points to cross off on a checklist.  It’s unavoidable, I suppose, that a play about a gathering of men in a motel room would turn into a movie that feels like a play.  Only in the moments when the men excuse themselves and King follows them out of the room or travels back in time do we find ourselves slipping back into the magic and mood that are attempting to be evoked.  Every time we got back into that room, I felt like it was a return to actors running their lines again, stymied by four walls that were holding them back…much in the same way their characters were lamenting the way they were being held back from doing greater things.

The good news is that the performances are so superlative that they mostly overcome this stage-y feeling that infiltrates these scenes.  All are dealt nearly impossible tasks of recreating personalities that are instantly recognizable, but King has cast her film impeccably from top to bottom.  By far the star of the film is Ben-Adir, unforgettable as Malcom X…which is saying a lot because the doomed civil rights leader has already been played brilliantly before onscreen by an Oscar-nominated Denzel Washington in Spike Lee’s 1992 film.  Making the role his own, Ben-Adir channels Malcolm X from some otherworldly place, and it’s not a larger-than-life performance either.  Along with Hodge’s Brown, it’s likely the quietest one in the film but instead of just blending into the scenery, that solemn silence speaks volumes as he clashes with Sam Cooke over the popular singer’s refusal to be a more visible part of the movement.

I can understand why Odom Jr. as Sam Cooke is getting the advance notices for the film and an Oscar nomination in the Supporting Category wouldn’t be out of the question, but it would be folly not to speak of Ben-Adir in those same lines.  If anything, Cooke is pushed into more of a leading character with Odom Jr. performing several songs, including a thunderous take on ‘A Change is Gonna Come’.  Strangely, as over-the-top as Clay/Muhammad Ali was, Goree is the least memorable out of the four and it’s possibly because he’s the one that isn’t given as much to do when it comes to serious-minded debate compared to actors like Ben-Adir and Odom Jr.  Even Hodge gets to take a walk outside of the motel and have his opportunity in the spotlight, plus his early scene in Georgia with Beau Bridges leaves a lingering impression, a sting that is felt for the remainder of the film.

A long-time veteran of the business that has won a truckload of awards through the years, after taking home an Oscar two years ago for If Beale Street Could Talk it’s clear that King is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the director category in years to come.  Based on One Night in Miami, there is a lot to be excited about for King’s future as well as its cast of emerging stars.  I wish Powers had been able to solve the issues that plague every play that transfers from the stage to the screen, but the additional material that’s been added at the beginning, end, and interspersed within show that there was an awareness that movement was needed in order to give the film life.  Recommended on the strength of the performances because they definitely help when the film finds itself on shaky stage bound legs.