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.

A Thousand Words

First Hit:  An uneven film but the point regarding forgiveness is spot on.

Jack McCall (played by Eddie Murphy) is a fast talking, truth stretching literary agent.

He prides himself in being able to talk anyone into anything. He bullshits people left and right and by doing so has become one of the top literary agents in LA. To land what he thinks will be the book of the century by guru and new age teacher Dr. Sinja (played by Cliff Curtis) he visits his ashram and slyly convinces him to handle his book.

While there he touches a Bodhi tree and cuts himself. The tree feels/senses him and decides to pop-up in his backyard. As soon as he speaks leaves start dropping off the tree. Congruently, as leaves fall he doesn't feel well. Dr. Sinja tells him that when the last leaf falls he may die.

There only about 1,000 leaves left. The set-up is OK because we all know Murphy can talk. But is at this point the film loses its way.

There are funny moments, like at Starbucks when he is trying to pantomime his coffee order, but I thought the blind man crossing the street bit was too made up, wasn’t funny nor did it add to the film.

This is how the film unfolded, up and down and not holding together. What did work for me, because it is one of my principles of freedom, is that he figures out that living is about forgiveness. When he does, his life turns around.

Murphy was very uneven in this film. When he shines, it is bright, but otherwise it wasn't that funny or interesting. I think this was more of an issue of writing and direction than Murphy’s acting. Curtis is mediocre as a new age guru. Kerry Washington (playing Murphy’s wife) was OK, but not very compassionate as a wife and her character came off as selfish. Clark Duke played Murphy’s assistant and again this performance was very uneven but I don’t know how much of it was poor writing. Jack McBrayer was very good as the Beatle loving Starbucks Barista. Steve Koren wrote a very uneven script. Brian Robbins directed this and it was all over the map. Some wonderful scenes and some dreadful scenes, like the blind man scene.

Overall: This is, at best, a video film to watch on a Sunday evening.

Tower Heist

First Hit:  There are some very strong funny laughs in this totally improbable story.

From the beginning of the film, there are strong laughs, out loud laughs.

Maybe it helped that the woman behind me was fully engaged in her very out-loud amusing laugh at many of the situations. But like her, at times, I found some of this film very funny.

Arthur Shaw (played by Alan Alda) is a Bernie Madoff type character who has been accused of inappropriate use of investor money. “The Towers” where he lives in the penthouse suite which has his pool on the roof and a hundred dollar bill painted on the bottom.

“The Towers” (looking like Trump Tower), has a staff that is there to fully serve the residents. The manager is Josh Kovacs (played by Ben Stiller) who has a staff of willing workers including Charlie (played by Casey Affleck) the concierge, Lester (played by Stephen Henderson) the doorman, and Odessa (played by Gabourey Sidibe) as a chambermaid.

There is also a resident named Mr. Fitzhugh (played by Matthew Broderick). When Shaw is arrested trying to sneak out of the country by FBI special agent Claire Denham (played by Tea Leoni), the staff realizes that all their money, invested by Shaw, is gone. After a suicide attempt by Lester, the staff and Mr. Fitzhugh decide to find the $20 million dollar stash that is believed Shaw has hidden in his penthouse.

Also in the Penthouse is Shaw’s pride possession, a Ferrari once owned by Steve McQueen. The staff, guided by, their expert thief Slide (played by Eddie Murphy) set out to find the $20M only to find more but not in the form they expected.

Stiller is perfect as the controlling, yet flexible, Manager. Alda is beyond perfect as the arrogant financier who thinks he’s getting away with something. Murphy is great as the smart-alecky thief. Affleck is very good as the overly cautious father-to-be, who is only looking to have his baby born healthy. Sidibe is funny in this comedic role. Broderick is more forlorn than usual which fits him. Leoni is very funny as the FBI agent who wants to play by the rule book, gets drunk well, and wants The Tower’s staff to get their just deserts. Ted Griffin and Jeff Nathanson wrote a funny and impossible story. Brett Ratner did a good job of pulling laughs from the characters and dealing with improbability.

Overall: This film has a great cast, was funny often but what and how they rob Shaw was not realistic.