FILM REVIEW OF ''SUPERFLY'' (2018)

Remakes!  Remakes!  Remakes!  When will they never stop?  Gordon Parks, Jr.’s “Super Fly” (1972) is Hollywood’s latest casualty.  Generally, remakes lack the magic of their predecessors.  Exceptions exist to the rule.  Canadian-born Director X’s updated “Superfly” (**** OUT OF ****) remake adheres to the core of the landmark original. For the record, Director X’s real name is Julien Christian Lutz.  Apart from 2015’s “Across the Line,” Lutz has helmed music videos primarily for the last twenty years, with vocalists such as Usher, R. Kelly, Rihanna, and Nicki Minaj.  Lutz imparts both polish and pacing to this profane, bullet-riddled, R-rated, 116-minute crime thriller.  Like the original character, an affluent coke dealer decides to quit the business for safety’s sake.  Indeed, forty-six years later, some things have changed.  “Superfly” takes place in contemporary Atlanta, Georgia, with jaunts around the Southeast, Texas, and Mexico. Comparatively, “Super Fly” (1972) confined itself strictly to New York City.  Not only does “Watchmen” scenarist Alex Tse preserve a lot of the original “Super Fly,” but he also provides greater narrative depth and more characters. “Sons 2 the Grave” actor Trevor Jackson is suitably cast with his handsome GQ looks as the new Youngblood Priest.  Like his forerunner, Priest maintains a low profile so neither local nor national law enforcement knows about him!  He has never been arrested, and his juvenile record is sealed. He strives to blend in rather than stick out. The same was true of Ron O’Neal, who portrayed an older Youngblood Priest in the surprise 1972 smash hit.  Fashion has changed considerably since the original.  Priest cruises around in an upscale Lexus 500 rather than a gaudy pimped-out El Dorado Cadillac.  Our hero’s chief competition is a vainglorious cocaine peddling gang of African-American villains decked out in immaculate white outfits.  These guys look like they belong in the D.C. Comics super-villain universe. The worst thing I can say about “SuperFly” is it made me think of a supercharged “Miami Vice” episode. 

Youngblood Priest has maintained a critical balancing act of living at the top without having to fear either the police or rival coke dealers.  Everything changes radically in one split-second at a strip club when Priest clashes with an impulsive member of the Snow Patrol, Juju (Kaalan Walker of “Kings”), and the latter tries to murder him.  Instead, the reckless Juju wounds an innocent female bystander.  Priest thrusts a wad of bills into the wounded girl’s hand and advises her friends to rush her immediately to the nearest trauma center.  Meantime, Juju’s boss, Q (Big Bank Black of “Birds of a Feather”), far from happy with his trigger-happy henchman, has gone and shelled out $50 grand to silence the wounded girl and her friends.  Indeed, the clash, the shooting, and Juju’s rabid vengeance, register powerfully on our protagonist.  This incident prompts Priest to decide to retire.  In the original “Super Fly,” Priest simply felt the time was ripe to bow out, but the filmmakers never gave him as substantial a motivation as Director X and Alex Tse do with “Superfly.”  Priest commences to plan for his future, even if his long-time partner, Eddie (Jason Mitchell of “Contraband”), refuses to let a good thing go.  Like Eddie in the original “Super Fly,” this Eddie argues that ‘the Man’ won’t let them do anything else.  This seems ironic since “Superfly” was produced after the eight-year presidency of Barrack Obama.  Immediately, Priest looks up his old friend and mentor, Scatter (Michael Kenneth Williams of “Brooklyn's Finest”), who has been supplying him with cocaine.  Priest figures that if he can get more, he can sell more, and then have enough to retire.  Surprisingly, Scatter refuses to accommodate Priest.  Scatter here is a combination of Priest’s mentor from the original as well as his martial arts instructor.

In the original “Super Fly,” Scatter came through for Priest, but it cost Scatter his life. Corrupt NYPD officials ordered Scatter liquidated as a victim of a heroin overdose, and they chose to let Priest and Eddie assume his responsibilities.  In “Superfly,” Priest shrewdly shadows Scatter to find out where his mentor obtains his supply of cocaine.  Meantime, Scatter doesn’t suspect that Priest and Eddie are tailing him.  Neither does Scatter’s connection, Mexican cartel kingpin Adalberto Gonzalez (Esai Morales of “Paid in Full”), notice Priest.  Audaciously, Priest and Eddie follow Gonzalez across the border into Mexico, and Priest meets with the notorious trafficker.  At one point, after his goons do notice Priest, the cartel crime boss has them bring Priest aboard his private jet, and Gonzalez threatens to throw him out of it during the flight.  The level-headed Priest persuades Gonzalez to provide him with enough product for his escape strategy.  This represents the second time Priest has put himself in jeopardy, but he emerges none the worse for wear.  Not until later does Priest brandish a gun to defend himself and his women.  This younger Youngblood Priest displays considerable discretion to avoid wanton bloodshed compared with the volatile Juju.  Things deteriorate dramatically when another black gangsta launches an attack on a barber shop that Q operates as a front.  Virtually everybody but Juju dies during this devastating drive-by shooting.  Eventually, Q discovers that one of Priest’s associates orchestrated the shootout.  Furthermore, a furious Scatter learns Priest has gone behind his back to contact Gonzalez. Worst, a clueless strip club owner, Fat Freddy (Jacob Ming-Trent of “A Midsummer Night's Dream”), is exposed as the man who dispatched the gunmen to kill Juju.  

“Superfly” bristles with more of everything than its unforgettable predecessor.  The Snow Patrol with their Scarface mansion make intimidating adversaries.  Not only has Director X and scenarist Alex Tse carefully retained as much plot as possible from the original, but they have also added more.  One of the strongest additions is the corrupt Atlanta policewoman, Detective Mason (Jennifer Morrison of “Star Trek: Into Darkness”), who exposes Priest.  Ultimately, Director X tips his hat to Curtis Mayfield by including his classic tune in this stellar remake of “Super Fly.” 

FILM REVIEW OF ''FORCE OF EXECUTION" (2013)

An above-average Los Angeles crime thriller about a power struggle between two rival gangs, “Force of Execution” (**1/2 OUT OF ****) manages to be a predictable but entertaining B-movie actioneer that eschews both romance and sex. Ostensibly, Steven Seagal takes top billing, but newcomer Bren Foster of "War Flowers" handles the heavy lifting.  Apparently, Seagal and Foster constitute co-stars of a sort, with the demographic appeal of both actors covering the 15-to-4o year old audience.  The old will ogle it for Seagal, while the young will undoubtedly identify more with the younger, athletic Foster.  As the feared but respected crime boss Mr. Alexander, Steven Seagal wears a sculpted Van Dyke beard and rules the neighborhood with a sense of violent compassion.  Above all, he is the kind of crime boss who resents being told what to do.  Before he embarked on his criminal career, Alexander refined his art of warfare during his service to the government.  Since then he has parlayed his on-the-job government training to maintain his own criminal empire. As Mr. Alexander's most trusted executioner for 15 years, rugged Bren Foster plays Roman Hurst.  Hurst performs a hit in prison for Mr. Alexander during the first quarter hour of the action.  Based on the duplicitous word of a Judas-minded inmate, Iceman (Ving Rhames of "Pulp Fiction"), Hurst killed the wrong guy. Afterward, Hurst has to fight his way, one guard at a time, out of the prison.  Not only does Hurst admit failure but also he willingly accepts any punishment that Alexander feels appropriate. Alexander turns Hurst over to the African-American gang, and they wield hammers without mercy on his hands. Basically, when they conclude their anatomical retribution, the best that Hurst can do is spiral into alcoholism until the urge to straighten himself and a Mexican witch doctor revitalize him. 

The themes of reformation and rejuvenation pervade “Force of Execution.” "Maximum Conviction" director Keoni Waxman along with "Cold Sweat" scenarist Richard Beattie and freshman scribe Michael Black have enlivened this formulaic crime thriller with the maimed warrior plot.  This plot usually occurs in martial arts movies and westerns.  Roman Hurst becomes a "Django" type hero who has to rehab himself with the help of a Hispanic witch doctor, Jimmy Peanuts (Danny Trejo of the "Machete" movies), who cooks for Mr. Alexander in one of his diners.  The use of scorpions to convert our hero's lax hands into weapons of lethal power seems wholly improbable, but the idea sounds cool and the sight of Trejo fiddling with the critters is neat. The chief problem with "Force of Execution" isn't the action-laden plot with a body count, but the pedestrian dialogue and the shortage of cool Seagal scenes. Every good Seagal movie and some of his bad ones always boast a memorable combat scene where our soft-spoken hero demolishes the opposition with minimal force. “The “Under Siege” movies as well as “The Glimmer Man” exemplify Seagal at his coolest with several spectacular kick ass scenes.  "Force of Execution" lacks those cool scenes.  Roman Hurst has some nice fights that generate terrific velocity.  He specializes in a spinning kick like Jean-Claude Van Damme, but Hurst doesn't flaunt much personality in his characterization. Grim, tough, resourceful, he appears to be channeling Daniel Craig, but he needs to develop a personality.  It is like having a stunt man play a leading role.  Nothing really makes him sympathetic.  His miraculous recovery is difficult to accept.

The thesping in "Force Execution" is okay. Trejo gives the most charismatic performance as a down-to-earth short order cook. He doesn't play his usual tough-guy type snd he doesn't shed his shirt to display his heavily tattooed physique. He qualifies as the most likable character in the action, while Jenny Gabrielle is both pretty and vulnerable as Karen. She plays the blond waitress & cashier at Alexander's protected restaurant who encounters trouble along the way. Bren Foster has a dynamic physical presence, while Seagal essentially plays an amoral but principled criminal who expects, deserves, and gives respect. Ultimately, at fadeout, he realizes the error of his ways and reforms himself. You don’t often see Seagal play a character who makes mistakes.  Ving Rhames makes a menacing antagonist who challenges our hero and tries to take over his empire by force. The Spartan combat sequences are helmed with skill. The typical Steven Seagal fan should enjoy the experience of watching "Force of Execution." Waxman doesn't let the film wear out its welcome. This 99 minute melodrama doesn’t rank as top-notch Seagal, but those minutes won’t feel like they were stolen from you.

FILM REVIEW OF ''RUSH'' (2013)

In “Rush,” Oscar-winning helmer Ron Howard returns to the subject matter that he cut his teeth on as a film director: fast cars.  In 1977, Howard made his directorial debut with the hilarious manhunt comedy “Grand Thief Auto” (1977) for executive producer Roger Corman about characters careening around in cars.  Like “Grand Theft Auto,” “Rush” focuses on fast cars.  Unlike “Grand Theft Auto,” where amateurs did the driving, skilled professionals are behind the wheels in “Rush.”  Not only do they travel at higher speeds, but they also tread more treacherous roads.  This polished but predictable saga has to do with the historic rivalry between Formula One British speedster James Hunt and Austrian automotive genius Niki Lauda.  “Rush” (*** OUT OF ****) spends most of its leisurely 123 minutes on its protagonists and their clashes rather than the experience of hurling along European thoroughfares at homicidal speeds in the equivalent of bobsleds on wheels with rocket fuel .  Aussie-born Chris Hemsworth of “Thor” has been cast appropriately enough as Hunt, while Spanish actor Daniel Brühl impersonates Niki Lauda.  Historically, Lauda and Hunt jostled each other for the top position during the 1976 Grand Prix racing season.  Ron Howard keeps the soap opera scenes with the love interests of both racers to a minimum so as to maintain momentum over the long haul.  Consequently, Olivia Wilde and Alexandra Maria Lara look dazzling but have little to say.  Ultimately, these two competitors would come to realize that their ruthless rivalry enhanced their racetrack performance.  An enduring, universal, life-truth lurks beneath all the scenic cities, challenging racetracks, and the charismatic performers in “Rush.”  In the self-help handbook for mercenaries and rogues in general, “The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries” observes: “The world is richer when you turn enemies into friends, but that's not the same as you being richer.”

“Rush” unfolds in 1976 as our protagonists are poised to race at the Nurburgring track in Germany.  No sooner has Howard and Morgan established this momentous setting than they flashback to show how Hunt and Lauda got their respective starts in Formula 3 racing.  Hunt’s father plead with his son to become a physician.  Lauda’s father had planned to take his son into the family business.  Naturally, neither patriarch funds their sons’ racetrack fantasies, and our heroes go out and make things happen for themselves.  Hunt finds a wealthy sponsor enamored of racing to put him behind the wheel, while Lauda buys his way onto the Ferrari team.  Hunt treats Lauda with utter contempt and refers to him as a rat.  Lauda points out rats possess a highly developed instinct for survival.  Howard cuts back and forth between these two and creates some palatable suspense as they chase each other throughout the Grand Prix.  Mind you, the suspense doesn’t so much lie in the actual driving sequences, where speeds of 170 mph is typical, but in their face-to-face confrontations.  Lauda doesn’t race to defy death as Hunt does.  Hunt claims woman are attracted to him because he lays his life on the line in every race.  On the other hand, Lauda races to survive rather than die.  He has a twenty per cent rule that governs his decision when to race.  Lauda refuses to participate if the chances are greater than twenty per cent that he may perish.  Hunt challenges Lauda at one point when the Austrian tries to convince his competitors to cancel the rain-swept Nurburgring track.  Hunt humiliates Lauda for urging them to cancel the race.  Eventually, Lauda allows himself to be brow-beaten into the race with horrendous results.  The courage Lauda musters to recover so swiftly from a nearly fatal accident is inspirational and a testament to his resilience.  Lauda’s car crashes during the race, and he is badly burnt.  Painful skin grafts and having his lungs vacuumed out ensue, and Lauda watches in horror from his hospital bed as Hunt makes up for lost time.  Hunt’s quick string of victories brings him close to surpassing Lauda.  The rivalry really kicks in at this point, and life becomes stranger than fiction. 

Hemsworth and Brühl resemble their real-life counterparts.  If you delay your departure when the end credits roll, you’ll see the actual Hunt and Lauda.  Howard slips under their collective skins with “Frost/Nixon” scenarist Peter Morgan to explore what drove them.  Each racer emerges as complex and three-dimensional.  Basically, they are iconoclasts who became heroic legends.  Wisely, Howard and Morgan never make either one appear more sympathetic than the other.  Most Hollywood movies divide and conquer when it comes to competitors.  “Warrior” (2011) pitted brother against brother, and one triumphed over the other simply because he generated greater sympathy.  Hemsworth has the more ostentatious role.  Essentially, Hunt was either behind the wheel or in a lady’s boudoir.  Comparably, Brühl creates a strong impression as Niki Lauda.  The ascetic Austrian driver shunned all forms of hedonism.  He constituted the polar opposite of the glib, fun-loving, skirt-chasing Hunt.  Lauda was a perfectionist who constantly devised ways to lighten the weight and improve the performance of his cars.  Unlike the milestone racing movies “Grand Prix” and “Le Mans,” “Rush doesn’t deal with a single race.  Instead, Howard provides a tour of the European championship racing circuit.  Anthony Dod Mantle's cinematography gives us some vivid glimpses of Formula One racing from behind the steering wheel.   Although we come to understand how dangerous driving a Formula One car can be, we are rarely given stretches where the drivers scramble to get beyond each other.  “Rush” contains the equivalent of a ‘greatest hits’ montage of the various races.  Spectators who don’t follow Formula One specifically or car racing in general may not know that these drivers harness themselves into the equivalent of rocket-sleds with jet fuel and roar through the countryside.  While speed denotes the winner, skill keeps the driver on the course. Strong characterization, some narrative surprises, and scenic locales distinguish this interesting but sedate racing epic.

FILM REVIEW OF ''GETAWAY" (2013)

Everybody gets taken for a ride in “Dungeons & Dragons” director Courtney Solomon’s “Getaway” (** OUT OF ****), co-starring Ethan Hawke, Selena Gomez, and Jon Voight.  Spectacularly staged car chases and slam-bang stunts cannot compensate for the scarcity of suspense and dearth of characterization in this low-octane vehicular evasion thriller.  Undoubtedly, whether they would admit it or not, Solomon and freshman scribes Sean Finegan and Gregg Maxwell Parker drew inspiration for their cinematic demolition derby from cult 1970s era automotive epics such as “Vanishing Point” and “Gone in 60 Seconds” as well as the recent trilogy of “Transporter” films.  Other movies swirled into the soup for the derivative “Getaway” are abduction opuses like “The Chase,” “Taken 2” and “Ransom.”  The speeding cars in “Getaway” are more interesting than the shallow characters.  Oscar nominated lead Ethan Hawke spends most of his screen time ensconced behind the wheel of an armored, 2008, Ford Shelby GT500 Super Snake Mustang.  Eventually, Gomez joins Hawke, but these two conjure up nothing in the way of camaraderie.  Oscar winner Jon Voight appears primarily in dermatological close-ups of his mouth and eyes as an anonymous villain reminiscent of James Bond’s arch nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld.  Voight spends virtually all his time on the phone droning on interminably with an ersatz Teutonic accent.  Occasionally, actors are ridiculed for giving performances with all the spontaneity of a telephone conversation, but this is precisely what Voight does.  He gives our hero his marching orders.  None of these characters, however, possess a shred of sympathy.  The cast does little to enliven them with either traits or memorable lines of dialogue.  Meantime, Ryan Dufrene’s Cuisinart editing; the CGI-free car and motorcycle crashes, and an amoral ending which provides an excuse for a sequel make the implausible “Getaway” palatable.  Although it coined less than five million dollars at the box office during its opening weekend, “Getaway” could still break even.  Warner Brothers produced it for $18 million.  The southeastern European city of Sofia, Bulgaria, served as the setting, and the film producers got more bang for their budget because production costs are far less expensive. 

Essentially, “Getaway” amounts to little more than a tire-screeching Shelby Mustang advertisement.  Our protagonist, Brent Magna (a mustached Ethan Hawke of “Training Day”), is a former professional NASCAR driver who burned out on the circuit.  A gang of mysterious villains abduct Brent’s wife, Leanne (Rebecca Budig of “Batman Forever”), at Christmas and compel him to hijack a customized Mustang and then drive it wherever they say.  No, Brent doesn’t know these thugs, but he knows Leanne’s life hangs in the balance.  The entire film occurs at between dusk and dawn. At one point, the Voice (Jon Voight of “Heat”) orders Brent to careen through a crowded public skating rink.  Although our hero inflicts considerable damage to the premises, he doesn’t kill anybody like the homicidal Venice Beach maniac did not long ago.  Once he has trashed the area and stampeded the pedestrians, Brent receives orders to haul ass elsewhere.  Repeatedly, the Voice warns Brent if he doesn’t comply with his instructions that Leanne will die.  Along the way, our beleaguered protagonist encounters the Mustang’s owner, cherub-faced Selena Gomez, and this improbable pair collaborate to save Brent’s kidnapped wife.  The Gomez character doesn’t have name.  Officially, she is referred to during the end credits simply as ‘the Kid.’  She abhors the array of wireless, digital cameras that the villains have attached to her automobile, and her relationship with Brent gets off on the wrong foot.  The moment she jumps into the Shelby, the Kid brandishes a gun and tries to oust Brent from the vehicle.  The Voice knows everything that Brent and the Kid are doing because those cameras as well as a GPS keep tabs on them.  When our heroes aren’t trying to outwit the Voice, they have their hands full evading the local authorities.  Of course, Brent doesn’t have much trouble eluding those small Bulgarian police cars, but he faces greater challenges when the Voice dispatches cars and motorcycles driven by henchmen armed with bazookas and sub-machine guns.  The Voice plans to rob an investment bank where money is stashed in the form of computer files. 

Everything in “Getaway” has been meticulously scripted.  Brent serves as the hare who draws the hounds away from the Voice’s actual objective.  Later, we learn the Voice has admired Brent from afar and is giving the ex-NASCAR driver a chance to prove that he is still a top-notch driver.  Brent as well as the army of stunt car drivers displays some fearless, gear-grinding maneuvers.  The Kid isn’t just as kid.  She is a computer whiz with a tote bag of electronics gadgets, including a tablet.  She relies on her technical skills to thwart the constant surveillance that the cameras provide the Voice so he will always know their whereabouts.  As it turns out, the Kid’s father runs the bank where the millions that the Voice wants are stored.  “Getaway” is like a modular narrative.  Everything serves a purpose, but none of it is remotely credible.  Indeed, the filmmakers shun subtlety in favor of speed.  Ironically, despite all the mayhem both real and imagined, this 90-minute, PG-13-rated nonsense doesn’t have enough tread to be gripping.  Occasionally, something cool happens.  The henchmen at an intersection with a bazooka aimed at Brent get the surprise of the lives just as we do when the Voice pulls off his own amazing stunt. 

The cars and the stunt drivers qualify as the real stars of “Getaway.”  Presumably, Solomon and his 21 producers sought to make the stunts as genuine as possible because the script is a superficial, damsel-in-distress, crime thriller with one-dimensional characters.  The filmmakers smashed up 130 cars, and seven Shelby Mustangs were built specifically for the film.  Unfortunately, despite all the fascinating, behind-the-scenes, automotive trivia, “Getaway” runs out of gas long before its happy ending.  Stay away from “Getaway!”