Dolemite Is My Name

First Hit: At times, hilarious, but also a surprising true and touching story about the birth of rap by a man who just kept trying to be famous.

More than anything, Rudy Ray Moore (Eddie Murphy) wanted to be famous. He would like to stand on a stage, be admired, be seen, and create laughter.

An opening scene shows him being allowed a few minutes on a small local club stage, introducing other acts. He tries to be engaging and funny, but the audience ignores him.

We learn that he’s already tried his luck at singing and even got his aunt to finance the production of a record that didn’t sell.

There’s a delightful scene with Rudy trying to convince a DJ Roj (Snoop Dogg) into playing cuts from his record, and all Snoop keeps saying is that “this old shit ain’t any good and I ain’t playin it because it ain’t hip, man.”

Then he gets an idea after listening to a homeless man speak about a comedic character called Dolemite, who tells rude rhyming jokes. He works on developing this character named Dolemite, and watching him grow the role, we begin to see the comedic genius of Murphy and this character, Dolemite. I really enjoyed these scenes.

Thinking he’s got it down, he convinces the small night club owner he MC’s for to let him do five minutes of his new Dolemite act, and to everyone’s amazement, he’s funny as hell. Dolemite is a hit.

Scraping together some cash, he makes a comedy record in his home with friends as his audience. Selling the record from the trunk of his car, he makes a good number of sales, and soon the album is selling everywhere.

A record company picks it up, and now Rudy begins promoting the record in the Deep South, where Dolemite and this record is a hit. In one club, he comes across Lady Reed (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) whom Rudy Ray thinks is funny. Inviting her to join him on stage and on his tour, together, they are amazing and also develop a great friendship and trust for each other.

At one of the stops, they watch a film called “The Front Page” and his mind starts working again. If he could be filmed, he could really spread the Dolemite character to lots of people everywhere. Taking this idea to a film company, they decline, thinking that creating a Dolemite film will be a bad investment. Not to be deterred, he mortgages his future record earnings, and he gets a crew together to write and make a Dolemite film.

The film he makes is one of the first kung-fu-themed Blaxploitation movies ever made. Watching them make the flick is hilarious as they really do some silly things. The director is disgusted by the way the film is being made. The lack of good acting and the scenes are absurd. At the end of filming, the director walks out and states that this film will never show anywhere.

But the irrepressible Rudy Ray (AKA Dolemite) finds a way to get the film shown at a high risk to his financial wherewithal.

Murphy was solid as Dolemite. It’s been a while since I’ve seen an Eddie Murphy film, and this story fits his engaging enthusiastic personality. Dogg was slick as Roj, the DJ. Randolph was outstanding as Lady Reed, a woman who just needed to be seen and supported. Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski wrote a hilarious script and also had depth. Craig Brewer did an excellent job of directing this story into a cohesive story about a true legend of today’s rap scene and Blaxploitation films.

Overall: I relaxed and had fun watching this film.

The Legend of Tarzan

First Hit:  Although entertaining, action packed, and occasionally thoughtful, the mostly poor CGI, scattered continuity, and unrealistic abilities, made watching this version of the mythical hero mediocre.

As John Clayton/Tarzan, Alexander Skarsgard has the perfectly chiseled body. The lack of spoken dialogue added to his being convincing that he was raised by apes, but when he spoke, I questioned this belief.

The CGI apes were well created, but many of the CGI background scenes were obviously manufactured, poorly done. I was impressed at how well Margot Robbie portrayed a very strong Jane Clayton (Tarzan’s wife). Her story was interesting and engaging.

Overall: King Leopold II of Belgium controlled the heart of the Congo, unless he can harvest the resources, he cannot continue to rule the area because it is costing his government money. He wants to harvest a particular area that has diamonds but it is controlled by a native group who will only give up the diamonds by getting a chance to kill Tarzan.

Tarzan is convinced to go back to Africa because whites are enslaving the natives. Convincing him to go to Africa is a US Government agent George Washington Williams (Samuel L. Jackson). The slave issue is real, but being used by Leopold’s agent in Africa Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz) to get Tarzan to Africa to be set up to be killed. The scenes in the African village where Jane grew up were emblematic of the best parts of this film.

Skarsgard did a good job of being Tarzan. His perfect body and athleticism was engaging. Robbie was one of the best parts of the film. Her clear firmness of belief, especially in scenes with Waltz was strongly appealing. Jackson’s character provided humor and reason for the story line. Waltz is a great villain and shows why in this role as well.  His intensity through his face and eyes transcend most peoples'. Adam Cozad and Craig Brewer wrote this overly complex screenplay that dragged at times. David Yates directed this and although entertaining will soon be forgotten.

Overall:  Not a film that will go down as very good.

Footloose

First Hit: There were moments of great entertainment separated by long sections of pure boredom.

This film was so filled with clichés that it was virtually un-watchable at times.

The Reverend Shaw Moore (played by Dennis Quaid) over reacts to events, doesn’t look in the mirror to see his own faults and has a child who rebels against his righteous rule. His opponent, of sorts, is Ren MacCormack (played by Kenny Wormald) who appears to be a rebel but is actually trying to hold his life together after his mother dies of Leukemia.

Then there is Ren’s first friend whom he meets when he arrives at school on the first day, Willard (played by Miles Teller) who cannot dance but we all know that he’ll be great by the end of the film. Ren comes from Boston, Massachusetts to Bomont, Georgia where he finds things a bit different. The town has made dancing illegal (like this is actually believable) because some kids lost their lives while drinking and driving home from a dance.

Reverend Moore’s oldest son caused the accident that killed the five kids and he feels responsible to protect all other children. His daughter Ariel (played by Julianne Hough) is acting out because she feels lost without her older brother.

I was bored at the long sequences of predictable scenes all leading up to moments of great entertainment. Those scenes are the dancing at the drive-in theater, the little girls teaching Willard to dance, the scene where an angry Ren dances in a warehouse, and the final dance scene.

But outside of these entertainment events the characters are way too predictable, the scenes are marginally acted, and waiting for the entertainment was painful.

Quaid made a good uptight Reverend but there was no interesting ground broken here. Andie McDowell played Vi Moore the reverend’s wife, and was great to see again in a film. In her minor role she actually brought some wisdom to the film. Wormald was OK to watch, a very good dancer, but I always felt he was smirking through the role. Teller was one of the best things to watch in the film – engaged and enjoyable to watch. Hough was barely adequate as a girl rebelling. Yes she acted rebellious but there wasn’t anything coming through on the screen about her character being in pain or challenged. It was all outward and nothing came forth from an inward space. Dean Pitchford and Craig Brewer wrote this mostly awful script. Craig Brewer directed great dance scenes but the rest of it was wasteful.

Overall: Barely watchable on video or streaming. The young girls in the theater liked it but it was all hat and no cattle.