The Quick and Dirties: Sex Tape, Obvious Child, About Last Night, etc.

Top Five...and Dell's Top Five

The Wedding Ringer

Ride Along

Directed by Tim Story.

2014. Rated PG-13, 100 minutes.

Cast:

Kevin Hart

Ice Cube

Tika Sumpter

Laurence Fishburne

John Leguizamo

Bryan Callen

Bruce McGill

Gary Owen

Jay Pharoah

David Banner

Gary Weeks

Ben (Hart) is in love with his girlfriend Angela (Sumpter). In fact, he plans on asking her to marry him. Since he's a traditional guy, somewhat, he wants to get permission to ask for her hand. Unfortunately, her dad is no longer around. That permission will have to come from her brother James (Ice Cube), an Atlanta cop. There's one small problem. James hates him. Ben's big plan to change James' mind: joining the police academy to prove his worth. Not wanting to let the process play out, James takes Ben on a ride along the next day while he's on duty. James intends to prove Ben doesn't have what it takes to take care of his baby sister. The trick he's going to use is he's going to respond to all of the worse calls possible. Hijinks and shenanigans ensue.

Once we get past the setup stages, Ride Along settles into buddy cop mode. True, only one of our leads is technically a cop, but it functions just the same. We move from one outrageous situation to the next where Ben talks himself into trouble and James has to get him out of it. In the background, there is also the case James is really working on: trying to bring down a local drug kingpin that no one has actually ever seen. To help with that, even though his boss has forbidden him working on it at all, are detectives Santiago (Leguizamo) and Miggs (Callen). All of this keeps the movie moving forward at a pretty good pace in a light-hearted manner.

The cast is a mixed bag. Kevin Hart loud talks his way through another role. You either find him funny or you do not. My experience has been that his stand-up is hilarious while what he does in movies is rather 'meh.' It's no different, here. That said, I must admit that most of the movie's funny moments are his. Mostly, this is because everyone else just makes the same joke over and over: Kevin Hart is short. We get it. Can we please move on?

When not making fun of his co-star's size, Ice Cube fares well as the one tasked with handling all the tough guy stuff. We're not talking any amazing stunts like the stuff he had to do, or make us believe he did, in XXX: State of the Union, but he definitely has the most physical role in this movie. Aside from the action scenes, though, he gets to be the annoyed, scowling Cube, but in a somewhat comic way like he was in Are We Done Yet? He's not going to remind anyone of Jason Statham, but he doesn't embarrass himself, either.

What Ride Along tries to be is a comedic spin on Training Day. It even explicitly references that film several times. However, the weaknesses of RA serve only to highlight the strength of TD. For one, there is no personality here anywhere near as strong as the one provided by Denzel Washington in that movie. Denzel commanded our attention. He made us thoroughly hate him. It was some of the actor's most compelling work in a storied career. In this movie, every character comes off as standard fare, regardless of the role they're playing. There is no depth to any of them. The same can be said for the story. It's all run-of-the-mill and completely lacking the tension that drives TD. I know. This is not a heavy police drama, but a fun cop flick. Even at being that, RA is only moderately successful. It's funny in spots, but never gets us to sustain our laughter long enough to overlook its faults.

MY SCORE: 5/10

Grudge Match

Think Like a Man

Directed by Tim Story.

2012. Rated PG-13, 122 minutes.
Cast:
Taraji P. Henson
Gabrielle Union

Kevin Hart
Meagan Good

Regina Hall
Michael Ealy
Jerry Ferrara
Romany Malco
Terrence J
Gary Owen
La La Anthony
Chris Brown
Arielle Kebbel
Morris Chestnut

The battle of the sexes rages on. Think Like a Man takes the phrase quite literally. It’s based on the relationship advice book for women Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man by famed comedian and “Family Feud” host Steve Harvey. It never lets you forget this fun fact. More on that later. The movie focuses on a group of young men and women at various stages of their love lives. The guys are a tight knit bunch who discuss their successes and failures with women over many games of basketball. Rest assured, there is far more chit-chat than basketball. Afterwards, they continue their conversation at their favorite bar. The women are broken into three sets of two. One woman from two of those sets and one of the guys is totally irrelevant. The ladies that matter see Steve Harvey dropping pearls of wisdom during a television interview and decide to go out and purchase his book. It must be a real page turner because it seems they all have it read moments after coming into its possession. Armed with the knowledge Mr. Harvey has imparted upon them, they wage war on the men in their lives in hopes of straightening them up. Of course, all of their guys belong to that tight knit group. Keep up.

There are a good deal of laughs to be had. Almost all of them come courtesy of Cedric (Hart). Ironically, he’s one of the least relevant male characters as it pertains to plot. However, he has to be here because he provides the overwhelming majority of the comedy in this romantic comedy. His character is nearing the finalization of his divorce. He bad mouths his ex, hangs out at strip clubs and warns his buddies about dealing with their woman. He also serves as one of the narrators. In this role, he provides a running commentary on all the goings-on.

Everyone else handles the romance. The girls quote passages from the book, plot and make their next move. The boys are caught off guard and react poorly to what the ladies are doing. Eventually they discover the book for themselves and form their own strategies. Most of this unfolds in an enjoyable, if predictable manner. Like most rom-coms it has an air of inevitability about it because we know that no matter how contentious things get all of our princes and princesses will live happily ever after. It’s when the movie transitions from warfare to reconciliation that it drags badly. This is mostly due to the large number of storylines to be wrapped up. After all, we have to see that magic moment when a couple realizes they can’t live without each other play out five times.

The bigger problem with the movie is all the narration. Kevin Hart is only one of the people fulfilling the role of narrator. Steve Harvey himself serves as the second. He pops up every so often on a TV screen to quote his own work and set us up for the next scene. The effect is two-fold. First, it becomes a film that doesn’t trust its audience to follow the action on its own. Viewers are spoon-fed everything the film wants us to know from beginning to end. Second, it begins to feel like a long commercial for the book. Honestly, it gets more screen time than most of the actors and never more than a few moments pass before someone explicitly mentions it.

Beneath the issues, there is a fun but predictable movie. It never really threatens to be anything more. However, it is also nothing less. It earns extra-credit from me for a couple of jokes at Tyler Perry’s expense even though several of the performers here have appeared at least one of that director's films. TLaM is one of the increasingly rare movies to feature a predominantly black cast and not have his name attached. As such, it offers a different perspective on black life and a different style of storytelling. It’s no more or less valid than Perry’s work but a desperately needed complement. Hopefully, this will inspire Hollywood to widen the spectrum on what types of stories are produced not only about blacks but about other ethnicities, as well. Of course, the danger here is that powers that be will do what they always do and simply start cloning a few successful films. On that, my fingers are crossed but I’m not holding my breath.

Little Fockers

Directed by Paul Weitz.
2010. Rated PG-13, 98 minutes.
Cast:
Ben Stiller
Robert De Niro
Teri Polo
Owen Wilson
Dustin Hoffman
Barbara Streisand
Jessica Alba
Blythe Danner
Laura Dern
Kevin Hart
Daisy Tahan
Colin Baiocchi
Thomas McCarthy

We all know someone like this. He’s normally a nice guy. You like him, well enough. One day, he tells a hilarious story. It’s literally a knee-slapper, might be the funniest thing you’ve ever heard. This is Meet the Parents. A few months go past and he tells the story again. This time he adds some details he left out the first time, giving it just enough twist to get you cracking up all over again. This is Meet the Fockers. After a few more months, he pulls out that story again. He tries switching it up a bit, but you quickly realize its just the same story and it is no longer funny. To make matters worse it’s now his “go to.” Anytime there’s a break in the conversation he starts up with it. That, my friends, is Little Fockers.

With the passage of time, our tale has a few inevitable wrinkles. Gaylord Focker, AKA Greg (Stiller) and his wife Pam (Polo) now have a set of twins about turn five years old. He’s now head nurse at the hospital. His mom Roz (Streisand) now hosts a talk show where she gives sex advice. His dad Bernie (Hoffman) is feeling neglected and is off in Spain learning to dance the Flamingo. Pam’s mom is feeling much the same way, sort of. She really just wants to get laid more often. That’s the job of Jack (De Niro), self-proclaimed protector of the Byrnes family name.

At first, things seem great with Greg firmly entrenched in the circle of trust. Shortly, Jack suspects Greg as having an affair and we’re back to square one. Jack mercilessly trying to find out the truth while Greg gets bent out of shape ensues. By that, I mean anything involving these two guys consists larely of recycling the jokes of the first two movies. By the way, the person Jack thinks Greg is sleeping with is pharmaceutical rep Andy Garcia played by sometimes “it” girl Jessica Alba. Immediately upon meeting her, we realize she is very purposely named after the male actor of the same name. We figure this out because they run that joke into the ground within about two minutes of her first showing up. Did he sign off on this?

Another recycled element is Kevin (Wilson) and his obsession with Pam. He’s actually planning to marry someone else. When that doesn’t work out, he pops by the Focker household to make Greg all sorts of uncomfortable, especially since Jack is rather fond of Kevin. Finally, we have the actual little Fockers. Despite the movie being named after them, they hardly figure in the proceedings. They are Samantha (Tahan) and Henry (Baiocchi). She refuses to talk to her dad because she’s just like Jack. Henry is basically a prop that constantly sees, hears or says things he shouldn’t.

The time when the movie focuses on something besides the infamous circle of trust, it is at its best. This is not nearly enough. Much more could’ve been done with the marriages of both sets of in-laws, including Jack’s health. More could also have been done with the children and their relationship with their grandparents. Instead, we heaping doses of Jack efforting to catch Greg in a lie, again, along with the prerequisite cheap body and/or sex humor. It’s just more and more of the same thing we’ve already had two helpings of, but it’s less than half as filling as it was before.

MY SCORE: 4/10

Not Easily Broken

Not Easily Broken
2009. Rated PG-13, 100 minutes.
Director: Bill Duke. Starring Morris Chestnut, Taraji P. Henson, Jennifer Lewis, Kevin Hart, Wood Harris.

Plot: After several years of marital bliss, David (Chestnut) and Clarice (Henson) begin to have problems. Based on the novel by Bishop T.D. Jakes.

The Good: This is one of those movies that has its heart in the right place. It wants to give married couples pointers on working through difficult times. Our hero, David, is an everyman who's simply trying to be good to everyone. We see most of the movie through his eyes as he navigates the rough seas of his life. The whole thing has a very real feel to it. Kevin Hart's periphery character, Tree, handles the comic relief and does a fairly solid job. In the lead roles, Chestnut and Henson perform well, as usual.

The Bad: It opens up several storylines but doesn't resolve them all. More than not resolving them, it actually seems to purposely toss them aside as our main plot nears it's conclusion. By the way, that conclusion feels more like the first step towards a resolution than actually being one. Lastly, it's appeal is going to be limited, first to people who are or have been married and second to people who are fans of T.D. Jakes. People outside of this group may not get it and think it's overblown.

The Ugly: The story we hear about lotion and bumpy backs. Ewww.

Recommendation: Its not quite a date movie, but it is a solid relationship movie with a Christian slant. Couples who've been together for awhile will find a lot to relate to. Although T.D. Jakes shares much of the same audience as Tyler Perry, don't go looking for any Madea-style antics, here. As expected, Jakes and the filmmakers, play it fairly straight and a bit heavy-handed. It's certainly not perfect, but it is intriguing.

The Opposite View: Theresa Everline, The Austin Chronicle

What the Internet Says: 4.4/10 on imdb.com (6/10/09), 36% on rottentomatoes.com, 43/100 on metacritic.com

MY SCORE: 6.5/10