Dark Mommas and Phoenixes

MA

HORROR

PLOT:    Lonely older black woman has bad plans for a group of teenages.

                Sue Ann (Octavia Spencer) lives alone, maybe and has a job as a veterinarian assistant.  She lets kids use her basement to party and call her Ma but there is a reason why she is doing this.  Black people complain that black actors in horror movies are the first to die but Ma is different for Ma is doing the killing!  If you watch horror movies you figure it out very quickly but the film does tell you in flashback.  Race is not mentioned in the movie but it could easily be a blaxploitation film in the 70s, for most of the victims are white.  Spencer is great for she can play a kind woman to full-tilt psycho!  There is a lot of talent in the movie like Luke Evans (Dracula Untold, Beauty and the Beast) and the director of The Help Tate Taylor to do a guilty pleasure B-movie flick.

ALADDIN

FANTASY

PLOT:    Live action film of the timeless story.

                Disney made the animated feature starring the voice of the late, great Robin Williams and now it is live action with Will Smith as the Genie.  The singing so-so but the visual effects are AMAZING.  Smith is no Robin Williams but he isn’t bad as genie found by Aladdin whose only wish to be free and human.  Marwan Kenzari is the evil Jafar and he does a good job of being bad.  I hope his acting career goes far.  DELIGHTFUL.

X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX

SUPERHERO

PLOT:    The X-men has to fight one of their own.

                The X-men now are heroes in the future and mutants are no longer a threat but a mishap in space causes Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) to absorb a cosmic force which slowly turns her into the uncontrolled, malicious Phoenix.  The movie is good if you don’t know anything about X-men but if you read the comics you will know many things don’t happen. First, Raven/ Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) was NEVER leader of the team! If it was done correctly it would be like the Avengers’ saga and most of it happens in space.  The back-story of this movie is more interesting than the movie itself!  If you are a true of fan wait until video if you like action-go see it.

Little Monster Hustle

LITTLE

COMEDY

  

PLOT:    Adult black woman gets to be a thirteen year old again.

                Jordan Sanders (Regina Hall) is a black, successful but mean-spirited and demanding boss who makes a little girl angry and she makes her young again.  It has been done many times plus it is predictable but this is the black version.  Hall is funny and Marsai Martin (TV show blackish) is cute and amusing as young  Jordan but it is Issa Rae who is hilarious as Jordan’s overworked creative assistant, April.  It is better than I expected   but it could easily be on TV movie.

THE HUSTLE

COMEDY

PLOT:    Two female con artists make a bet to scam a tech billionaire.

                Josephine (Anne Hathaway) is a classy, beautiful woman and Penny (Rebel Wilson) is pretty, plus crass female.  The two ladies are con artists.  They make a bet who can con the billionaire first.  It is a female take on Dirty Rotten Scoundrels made in 1988 with Steve Martin and Michael Caine.  I did not see that movie but I did see this one.  It is not as funny as I thought it was going to be but it does have amusing parts in it.  Hathaway has fun being having different accents and lovely outfits and Wilson is cute with her unique dresses.  It is NOT worth watching in the movies but on video and cable.

GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS

ACTION/SCI-FI

PLOT:    A sequel to Godzilla 2014.

                Godzilla destroyed San Francisco while defeating a MUTO and disappear from sight in 5 years.  Dr. Russell had a tragedy in her life and made a device named Orca (!) that can control the Titans (giant monsters) to obliterate the world to make it better again.  Plot is not why I go see a Godzilla movie.  You go see the film to watch monster battles and it does!  It is not the flick in 2014 where Godzilla is in the entire movie for about 10 minutes! He is in the movie a lot!  The epic film is for fans mostly for there are many references in GKOTM from the Toho movies.  The 2 things I am not pleased with is the fight scenes are in the rain and there are suppose to be 17 monsters but I didn’t see them all.  If you like Godzilla GO SEE THIS MOVIE but if not wait.