Get On Up(2014)

This 2014 biopic directed by Tate Taylor(The Help) and produced by Brian Glazer and Mick Jagger, chronicles the life of Soul Brother #1, The Godfather of Soul, The hardest working man in show business, Mr. James Brown.

As a huge James Brown fan I was at first very worried about a feature length film about Brown being done, not from the musical standpoint because I knew they would get the licenses to use his real music in the film and which ever actor portrayed him could lip sync, Angela Bassett in What’s Love Got To Do With it is a good example.

My biggest problem would be which every actor that was cast would have too dance like James Brown, which would be a problem because of any entertainer James Brown is the only one that I can think of that his dance is simply called “The James Brown” and everyone can’t just do the James Brown dance.

Chadwick Boseman was cast as James Brown and once again I was very worried because not to long before he played another famous person Jackie Robinson in 42, I didn’t care to watch 42 not because didn’t think it would be a bad movie or anything, just that with everything that I’ve learned about Jackie Robinson over the years I knew I wouldn’t really learn anything new seeing that movie so I past.

I finally watched Get On Up and I was very let down with what I saw, firstly there is a a very good cast of talent, Viola Davis, Lennie James, Octavia Spencer, Dan Aykroyd, Nelsan Ellis, Craig Robinson, Jill Scott, Aunjanue Ellis with the except of Nelsan Ellis everyone else were wasted here with most of their roles being glorified cameo appearances really. 

Like I said earlier being a huge fan of James Brown I’ve watched documentaries that feature him Soul Power, Mr. Dynamite being two worth checking out,and have listened to countless songs of his, I was expecting to learn some stuff that I might not have known like what went on with his childhood and his mother(Viola Davis) leaving him and then coming back in his life once he became a huge star, all of that was glossed over moreso then anything.

Craig Robinson who plays Maceo Parker, might have been the second most featured member of the band of Bobby Byrd(Nelsan Ellis) but alot of the relationship that he and his brother had with James Brown were left out of the story or glossed over as well, also I was very disappointed that during none of the musical performances in the film, there is never any “Maceo, give me a little bit of that horn” which after probably calling out Bobby on songs Maceo name and solo were featured on alot of Brown songs.

One problem with the film is that instead of having a structured narrative It jumps around through the years to the point you as the viewer gets confused at exactly when things are taking place.

I will say that Chadwick Boseman is very impressive as James Brown as he nailed James speech perfectly which meant when he was just talking you couldn’t understand anything he was saying really, if you’ve seen interviews with James Brown then you know that’s how he talked when he wasn’t singing.

All in All if you’re someone who doesn’t really know anything about James Brown then this will be an ok film to watch, but if you are a fan and have seen other documentaries about him then this film isn’t for you outside of the musical scenes. which them in itself takes up more then enough of the runtime.

MY RATING 5/10

CAST

Chadwick Boseman-James Brown

Nelsan Ellis-Bobby Byrd

Dan Aykroyd-Ben Bart

Viola Davis-Susie Brown

Lennie James-Joe Brown

Craig Robinson-Maceo Parker

Jill Scott-DeeDee Brown

Octavia Spencer-Aunt Honey

Aunjanue Ellis-Vicki Anderson

Vendetta(2015)

The Twisted Twins once again teams up with WWE Studios and Lionsgate for their newest film which is a little bit of a change a pace for The Soska Sisters instead of horror what they are best known for they decide to take on a hard boiled action revenge tale here.

Vendetta stars Dean Cain(yes that Dean Cain) as Det. Mason Danvers who after bringing down two vicious criminals Victor(Paul “Big Show” Wight) and Griffin(Aleks Paunovic) the Abbott brothers.

Three months pass when Danvers is told that The Abbotts have been released, Danvers gives his wife Jocelyn(Kyra Zagorsky) a call but is shocked to hear Victor answer, as Danvers races home, he calls his partner Gainer(Ben Hollingsworth) both men, get to Danvers home but are too late as Victor has viciously beaten Jocelyn to death.

After sometime has gone by Danvers isn’t the man he once was, he decides to track down Griffin Abbott and kills him so that he can be arrested and sent to the same prison as Victor, who has basically been running things in the prison since he’s arrived.

Vendetta is somewhat of a throwback to the old 80s style revenge flicks where they get straight to the point of what’s going on.

Dean Cain gives one of his best performances here as shows that he can really go to some dark places that fans of him especially recently with the many Hallmark films he’s done aren’t expecting him to go, It would be nice to see him do more of these kind of films going forward.

WWE Star Paul “Big Show” Wight is really good as the bad guy, something that he’s a natural at doing with his 20 years in wrestling, just like another WWE Star Kane who the Soska’s worked with on See No Evil 2 even though both men in recent years aren’t as menacing as they once were in the WWE but with the Soskas they are allowed to be those monster heels that fans love to hate.

Maybe If there is a See No Evil 3 we could get a Big Show vs Jacob Goodnight show down, that would be a interesting thing. That’s just a wishful thought of mine though…

Michael Eklund steals the film as Warden Snyder the way he plays the role reminds me somewhat of Alan Rickman in Die Hard where he’s always cool and calm but there is more going on behind the nice suit.

It was nice seeing The Soska Sisters expand their talents beyond the realm of horror here with this hardnose, straight forward action flick, even though there isn’t alot with the story, their directing is rare and in you’re face when it comes to a few of the action scenes, my only complained would have to be that when Danvers wife is killed It would have been a little bit more impactful if more of it was shown, but it’s still effective enough.

 Also there is no Soska's Cameo here which is a bit of a disappointment but then again there was nowhere really for them to show up since majority of the film takes place in prison.

There seemed to be a few homages to earlier flicks that are similar in tone here I’m not sure if this was on purpose or just happy accidents, but there seemed to be a bit of The Punisher, Death Warrant, Locked Up and the big prison riot reminded me of the prison riot from Natural Born Killers

All in All if you like action, a badass Dean Cain, Big Show doing what he does best, and are a fan of The Soskas I recommend checking out Vendetta since it is out now in Select Theaters and on VOD.

MY RATING 

7/10

CAST

Dean Cain-Mason Danvers

Paul "Big Show" Wight-Victor Abbott

Michael Eklund-Warden Snyder

Ben Hollingsworth-Joel Gainer

Adrian Holmes-Drexel

Matthew MacCaull-Ben

Kyra Zagorsky-Jocelyn

Aleks Paunovic-Griffin Abbott

Hot Girls Wanted(2015)

This 2015 documentary chronicles the behind the scenes lives of a few young women who have found their way into the world of amateur porn.

I recently found out about this new documentary and decided to check it out, since I’ve watched a few others and have seen interviews with famous Pornstars who have all discussed some of the different topics that are some what explored here, the difference between this film and the others is that this documentary is strictly about the amateur porn business that in alot of ways have hurt the bigger companies of the industry.

The documentary begins almost like a reality show where we are introduced to a few of the girls that we will see through out the film but the one who gets the biggest amount of screen time is Tressa better known as Stella May.

Tressa is a 19 year old from Texas who moved to Miami thanks to talent agent Riley who finds girls all over the country through craigslist and talks them into moving to Miami to his home where they live as they book different jobs, some are good and some are bad, just like any other job basically, the only difference here is that there is a lot of sex involved.

As the film goes on we see some of the girls as they go to different shoots and one that stands out is where one of the girls does a scene where an older friend of the family comes over and has sex with the virgin(if you’ve watched enough porn you’ve seen scenes like this) but what makes this one stand out is how uncomfortable both the girl and guy are as the director(who face is never shown) gives them direction.

As someone who has watched a fair amount of porn and follows some porn stars on Twitter and even interact with some of them from time to time, I found Hot Girls Wanted very lacking in a true in depth behind the scenes content of these girls lives, there are some interesting things here. Riley being one of them as the Talent Agent/Male Pornstar seems to have a story of his own that could’ve been told but the focus wasn’t on him.

I think the filmmakers missed the mark and not really giving more insight, but instead went with the generic storytelling of being a pornstar, also focusing on the 18 and 19 year olds clearly showed what they were trying to get across with this film, yes young girls get drawn into the adult industry all the time, thanks in large to where the world has gone when reality TV and the Kardashians, and certain entertainers have all used sex as the foundation for their success, is that the adult industry or mainstream influence? 

I’m not sure, but there is a part of the film that seems too gloss over this for some reason, were the filmmakers afraid that they might truly expose something if they went down that road, its possible but why make a documentary like this if you’re not going to really go there.

Back to the young girls who get the focus, none of them really come across as down to earth, a few even come across as being guided to get anyone viewing to feel sympathy for them, we only see Tressa interaction with her family back in Texas and her boyfriend who doesn’t approve of her doing porn, which all of this seems a bit forced, and when she tells her dad what she really does, his reaction isn’t shown.

Like I mentioned before I’ve seen other documentaries and interviews that go further and more depth with the subject matter, there are some female pornstars who run their own companies like Joanna Angel with Burning Angel. Nina Hartley who has been involved with porn since the mid 80s has become a big positive voice for women in the industry and continues to this day. Belladonna and Sasha Grey have made the transition into mainstream films recently. Belle Knox made headline news for being a Duke freshman who does porn and is shown through out this documentary, some of the girls comment about her interviews and it almost comes across of if they were jealous of her.

This documentary seemed to have been made for anyone who does know about any of the success stories of the aforementioned women and countless others who even though are pornstars are not completely trapped in this male exploiting world of sex( that seemed to be the message here).

Hot Girls Wanted comes across as very one sided bias documentary to make male viewers of porn feel guilty for watching it by focusing on the more taboo(torture, young teens)sub genres of the industry, also there isn’t any real style or substance here which makes it a boring watch after about 10 minutes of viewing.

So if you like documentaries about the adult industry I recommend you stir clear of this one because it doesn’t really do anything for you really.

MY RATING 4/10

CAST

Rachel Bernard

Brooklyn Daniels

Belle Knox

Kendall Plemons

Riley Reynolds

Tressa Silguero

Lucy Tyler

Tony D.

Kung Fury (2015)

This 2015 action, comedy short from writer, director and actor David Sandberg has become fastly become a internet hit as well a hit on the El Rey Network.

Kung Fury is set in 1985 and it looks every bit of that era, where we are introduced Kung Fury(Sandberg) who is a martial artist cop who is hell bent on finding the man responsible for killing his partner Dragon(Steven Chew), shortly after he is struck by lighting and bitten by a cobra and becomes “the chosen one”Kung Fury discovers that the man responsible is the most dangerous criminal in history Adolph Hitler(Jorma Taccone) aka Kung Fuhrer Hitler.

At the police station Kung Fury tries to talk his Chief(Per-Henrik Arvidius) who tries to force Kung Fury to team up with half man, half triceratops Triceracop(Erik Hornqvist) instead Kung Fury decides to quit the force.

As Kung Fury is about to leave the station, the Chief gets a call from Hitler who has come to current day and shoots the Chief and many other cops through the phone, Kung Fury enlist the help of the smartest hacker alive Hackerman(Leopold Nilsson) help him go back in time and take out Hitler once and for all.

Kung Fury is one of these rare gems that’s come along in recent memory that spoofs and pays homages to a previous era, similar to what Black dynamite did for Blaxploitation films, Kung Fury does for 80s action film here.

With an insanely over the top plot and action scenes, the latter of which takes up the majority of 30 minute run time, which makes it feels like you are watching a late 80s.early 90s action video game.

The characters are very over the top but all work for this type of film, Sandberg does a very good job of creating something at first glance could just be a huge letdown in many others hands and even with a modest budget he creates a world that is very interesting, I was even surprised at how good alot of the special effects looks.

Granted most who watch this film will not get why many are giving it praise but if you are a fan of over the top acting, action, and a time travelling Kung Fu Cop then Kung Fury is the film for you…also David Hasselhoff makes a nice little cameo which pays tribute to the fact that he was once a huge star in America and is still a big name in Germany.

If you have 30 minutes to kill I say sit back  and check out the awesomeness known as Kung Fury.

MY RATING 9/10

CAST

David Sandberg-Kung Fury

Jorma Taccone-Adolf Hitler

Steven Chew-Dragon

Leopold Nilsson-Hackerman

Andres Cahling-Thor

Per-HenrikArvidius-Chief

Erik Hornqvist-Triceracop

Eleni Young-Barbarianna

Helene Ahlson=Katana

David Hasselhoff-Hoff 9000