Movie Diary
a) Dolemite Is My Name
After a fairly inactive period (one movie, the flop drama Mr. Church, in the space of 7 years), Eddie Murphy signed with Netflix for a flood of upcoming projects, including multiple standup specials and Coming To America and Beverly Hills Cop sequels, and will soon host "SNL" for the first time in decades. Dolemite Is My Name is the first taste of Murphy's return to comedy, a biopic of blaxploitation star Rudy Ray Moore, and it's a pretty enjoyable celebration of an underdog's triumph and the cultural space that black comedy occupied a decade before Murphy became a crossover star. The scenes of them filming the (low budget) movie within the (high budget) movie were my favorite parts and at times reminded me of the last Murphy comedy I really enjoyed, Bowfinger. Murphy's performance was a little flat for me, though, I'm still kind of wondering if he lost a lot of his once innate ability to make people laugh -- Wesley Snipes was really the funniest person in the room whenever he was onscreen.
b) Happy Death Day 2U
Happy Death Day was a really enjoyable and well executed horror twist on Groundhog Day, so I was curious to see what they'd do with a sequel. One of the things I liked about the movie is that they left some of the mystery unresolved, so I was a little wary of the whole sci-fi twist of the premise to explain what happened. But they had a lot of fun with the concept, which veered into Back To The Future Part II territory but managed to stop short of total Hot Tub Time Machine 2 wackiness. Jessica Rothe's performance in this was arguably more impressive than the original, she just had to do more and pull off more full-on comedy, they really found the perfect star for these movies.
c) Boo!
I was amused by a horror movie simply being called Boo! but this really turned out to be pretty good for a low profile movie that didn't get a wide release. The final scene was one of those really unhappy endings that I always kind of admire horror movies for sticking the landing on.
d) Halloween
As far as the big '70s/'80s horror franchises go I've never really followed the Halloween movies closely. But I still thought it was pretty cool that they brought Jamie Lee Curtis back and brought the story full circle, it was really excellent and had a cast full of people I love including Judy Greer and Toby Huss. I also loved the whole bit with the 2 people making a true crime podcast about Michael Myers and what happened to them. I didn't realize until after I watched it that David Gordon Green directed it and Danny McBride co-wrote the screenplay, I think this worked a lot better as horror with a little comic relief than a lot of the stuff they've done that stuffs a bunch of action and violence into a comedy.
e) Gotti
It's simply amazing to me that Kevin Connolly starred in "Entourage" and then directed a crime biopic that is every bit as ridiculous and ridiculed as Vinny Chase's Medellin. I found it more boring than entertainingly bad, though.
It's simply amazing to me that Kevin Connolly starred in "Entourage" and then directed a crime biopic that is every bit as ridiculous and ridiculed as Vinny Chase's Medellin. I found it more boring than entertainingly bad, though.
f) Breaking In
Pretty good tense movie, I love a good home invasion thriller, particularly one where the heroine rises to the occasion and fights back like a badass.
h) The Haunted Mansion
Another random movie that my son picked out to watch while he was really into Halloween movies, from Eddie Murphy's family-friendly comedy era. Pretty inoffensively bland, but I was amazed that he watched the whole thing, or at least half-watched it while he was building legos.
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