Eddie Murphy is back with a vengeance.

Murphy returns in the Netflix biopic focusing on the life of Rudy Ray Moore, a comedian and Blaxploitation film star of the 1970s.

Rudy Ray Moore was a struggling comedian, rejected on a regular basis, until he created a character to play on stage, a foul mouthed, obscene pimp who rhymed his way through his act named Dolemite.  Moore was told repeatedly that he was never going to be successful, but he refused to give up.  He parlayed the character into several bootleg record albums and eventually a feature film.

There is a great cast of actors involved in Dolemite is my Name, which is lead, of course, by Eddie Murphy.  This is easily Murphy’s best performance in years.  He looks to be having a ton of fun as Moore.  The film also includes Keegan-Michael Key, Craig Robinson, Tituss Burgess, Mike Epps, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Kodi Smit-McPhee.  There are some great cameos as well, including the scene-stealing Wesley Snipes as D’Urville Martin, the co-star and director of the first Dolemite movie.

The real Dolemite movie has become a classic of the Blaxploitation genre, one of those “it’s so bad it’s good” films.  Watching the biopic, I must say that I got some flashes of The Disaster Artist, the film detailing the creation of one of the worst films ever, The Room.  Both of these films showed us the charismatic lead actor that may not have much acting chops, but can still find ways to get things done.

Moore would become an idol and an inspiration for many modern day rappers, who looked at his rhymes as an early form of rap music.  Moore would become known as the “Godfather of rap.”

There are some real feel good moments in this movie.  I found the relationship between Rudy Ray Moore and Lady Reed aka “Queen B” to be extra special.  Moore found Lady Reed in a night club one night, knocking out her boyfriend, and she became a muse for him.  The bond they formed that night carried the pair through the years of challenges ahead.  The fact that neither of them were the typical Hollywood shape sends a wonderful message to the fans who may not be as slim as they wish to be.

Dolemite is my Name is a great movie, funny, sweet and filled with tremendous performances.  Sure there is a lot of swearing, but it is fully part of the time and of the real Moore.   Eddie Murphy is magnificent here and I hope he continues this run.

4.5 stars

Black and Blue is the new film featuring Naomie Harris and Tyrese Gibson that tells the story of corruption on the police force.

Sure there are dozens of films that tell that story so what about Black and Blue that is different?  Well…not that much to be honest.  They toss some racial tension into the concept, but truly the racial tension could have been left out and not that much would have changed.

Alicia West (Naomie Harris) is a rookie police officer who covered a shift for her partner and wound up with a group of crooked police officers who execute some drug dealers.  West records the murder on her body cam and suddenly, she is being chased by police and the drug dealers all at once.

She winds up at the doorstep of Milo Jackson (Tyrese Gibson), a local community member, and she talks him into helping her.  She is desperate to get the body cam to the station.

Frank Grillo played Terry Malone, one of the crooked cops and he really was solid.  Naomie Harris worked her tail off for this script.  The performances are all decent.

It was hard for me to see Mike Colter as a drug dealer instead of Luke Cage, but that is my problem, not the film’s.

Unfortunately, the script is predictable and there are a lot of ridiculous moments.  Some that are downright stupid.  Some scenes that would never be able to happen in the real world.  However, there are some moments that are very tense as well, building some decent anxiety.

Despite the film’s flaws. I was engaged in the film.  The performances helped make up for the weakness and implausibility of the story.   I left the theater feeling pleased about the film overall.

3 stars

Western Stars is Bruce Springsteen’s newest album, a series of beautifully composed, poetically written and soulfully performed songs, and now it has been put on screen with a lovely filmed movie where Springsteen performs these songs under the cathedral ceiling of his historic nearly 100-year-old barn.

The songs are really nice.  The images are well done.

I entered the film with one major issue… I had never heard any of these songs before.  Since I was unfamiliar with these Springsteen songs, they tended to blend together and sound alike to me.

That is not to say that they were not great songs because they clearly were well written and deeply moving, especially with the orchestral accompaniment.  However, these songs kind of mixed together for me and I had trouble distinguishing them apart.  There were a couple that stood out for me, especially the title track and the song called “Moonlight Motel.”

If I had been more familiar with these songs, I am sure that I would not have had the same issues.

Yet, at the end of the film, he played a cover version of Glen Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy,” which was a rocking great song and really brought some energy.  I would have liked something like that in the middle of the film to break up the songs that sounded so identical to my ears.

Still, the music was beautiful and the vision was clear.  Bruce Springsteen is one of the legends of our time and this film is excellent.

3.6 stars

As a lifelong professional wrestling fan, I was excited when I heard on Collider Live that Phil Brooks was starring in a brand new horror movie coming out on October 25th.  Brooks, better known as the former pro wrestler C.M. Punk, left the WWE and pro wrestling over five years ago, leaving a gap in the sport.

So when I looked on Vudu today, I was excited to see that the film, Girl on the Third Floor, starring CM Punk was available.

Don Koch(CM Punk) was a disgraced investor who was starting over by buying a new house in the Chicago suburbs for his wife Liz (Trieste Kelly Dunn) and their unborn daughter.  The house needed plenty of work, but Don insisted on doing the work himself.  It becomes apparent quickly that the house held more secrets from its past than anyone expected and that the house played on the bad habits of Don.

Don slipped into his bad behavior easily, showing himself to be an unlikable man and a poor husband.  Still, the fate that befell him may have been a tad extreme.

The film was a nice mix of humor and horror.  CM Punk does a good job in the lead role, which was impressive for his debut as an actor.  He had to carry bug chunks of the movie, especially in the first two acts.  The third act belonged to Trieste Kelly Dunn, who came in an killed it.

This movie does an admirable job of taking the fairly played sub genre of the haunted house movie and brought some originality to it.  The past of this house was as fascinating as anything else in Girl on the Third Floor.

There was another mysterious inhabitant of the house, named Sarah (Sarah Brooks).  Her past was important and well-developed.  The mysteries of the house were slowly revealed as the film progressed.  Even though they laid out a dramatically bad past, the film does not try to give her a break for her own poor behavior.  Sarah Brooks is top level creepy in this role and she does a solid job.

The film does become gory at times, but it does not go too far.  There is a painful scene involving Don’s dog that takes things over the edge, but it feels as if it fit into the narrative being told.

I was a huge CM Punk fan during his days in WWE so I am thrilled that he has gotten a horror film that is so well done.  Punk was great in the role and, hopefully, he’ll be able to parlay this into more in the future.

4 stars

The Current War- Director’s Cut is the latest version of the biopic telling of the story of the race to provide electricity to the nation by Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon).

Honestly, not knowing much about this, I had thought that the trailers made it look as if Nikola Tesla (Nicholas Hoult) played a bigger role in the rivalry and that Westinghouse was more of the side character.  That is just opposite as Michael Shannon’s role was much more important to this story than was Hoult’s.

There was a tremendous cast here with Cumberbatch, Shannon, Hoult and including Tom Holland, Tuppence Middleton and Katherine Waterston,   The acting was fine.  There just seemed to be lacking some of that electricity to the film.

Don’t get me wrong… it is fine.  It is just missing that spark that could have made this hit more like lightning and spawn some energy to light up the screen.

Okay, enough of the electricity puns… before you get all charged up and bolt out of here (last one, I promise).

Tuppence Middleston’s Mary Edison was one of my favorite parts of the film and her sad story was a highlight.  I would have liked more of an emphasis on that, but I do know that it was superficial to the actual Current War.  It just provided some emotional pop to a story that could have used more.

Apparently, this film got caught up in the whole Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment mess as it was intended to be released originally in 2017 and was going to have a huge Oscar push.  I do not think they have to wonder about an Oscar push for this film.

The Current War was, at best, passable with a strong cast giving adequate performances in a script that undersold most everything.  It might be a good watch for those historical buffs out there, but I am sure that others would find it, perhaps, competent.

2.9 stars

I thought this sounded like the stupidest idea that I ever heard.

In the end, it was better than I thought it was going to be, but it was no where near good.

There was an app that anyone could download on their phone that would tell the user when they were going to die.  It seemed to be a fun little joke of an app, but, after a few people started to die exactly when the timer reached zero, it became obvious that there was more to the app than just a joke.

The characters of the film were not the major focus of the film.  Honestly, most of them were fairly slightly created.  Our main protagonist was Quinn (Elizabeth Lail) and she had the most development of the film.  Even still, I am struggling to remember much about her.  Her mother died and she blamed herself, but that was only really used when the plot felt as if it needed it.  She had a sister (Anne Winters) who seemed to be at odds with her, until the story needed her not to be.  There was another guy that we meet who is also getting ready to have their countdown reach zero named Matt (Jordan Calloway) and he was here and then gone.

There were some really dumb things that happened too.  None of the deaths that were shown were very interesting.

There were a couple of fun side characters here.  Derek the Phone Store Guy (Tom Segura) and the Priest, Father John (P.J. Byrne)  who seemed to be geeked out by the chance to deal with demons both stole show, mainly because they had character.  Everyone else was so uninspiring.

Still, I did not hate this movie and I found myself reasonably entertained.  It is not like I wanted to walk out after twenty minutes.  It is not good, and I will not be recommending it, but, for as awful as that concept could have been, this was better than it had a right to be.

2.6 stars

Okay, this one is crazy.

Eli (Charlie Shotwell) is a young boy who, because of a rare disease, cannot live outside his bubble and his parents (Kelly Reilly and Max Martini) are desperate to try anything to save him.  So they take Eli to an experimental facility where Dr. Isabella Horn (Lili Taylor) has claimed that she can save him.  Soon though, Eli discovers that the facility and the good doctor may not be what they seem.

I enjoyed this movie quite a bit and then the film went absolutely crazy.  I was not sure what was going on at this facility but I did not guess the result even slightly.  I love when a film surprises me.

I found Eli to be clever and mysterious.  There were so many things going on that I would be curious to see what they would be like upon a second viewing.

As it was, the film bounced me around and I was unsure what was going on.  There were plenty of red herrings and theories that were looked at, which helped to make this all the more shocking.

Charlie Shotwell does a fine job as the young Eli, who has to carry the load of work in this movie.  His confusion and fear truly are realistic and help develop what we would see later.  Sadie Sink (Max from Stranger Things) appears as Haley, a girl who shows up outside the window and talks to Eli.

This movie caught me off guard and surprised me and I love it when a movie can do that.  This one is one of the better horror movies of the year.

4.4 stars

This was my second movie sequel of the day.

As opposed to Zombieland, I was not much of a fan of the original Maleficent film Disney released five years ago and I was not waiting for a sequel.

Much like Zombieland: Double Tap, the trailers for Maleficent: Mistress of Evil did little to excite me.

Also like Zombieland: Double Tap, I enjoyed this movie.  Unlike Double Tap, I liked this movie more than its predecessor.

The “daughter” that Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) raised, Aurora (Elle Fanning), was planning on marrying the prince of the neighboring land, Philip (Harris Dickinson), which meant that Maleficent had to be introduced to the King (Robert Lindsay) and the Queen (Michelle Pfeiffer).

Problem:  Queen Ingrith was not what she seemed.

I do not want to spoil the movie, but I will state that the first 20-30 minutes of Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is fantastic and contains perhaps the best dinner scene in years.  The tension between Angelina Jolie and Michelle Pfeiffer is off the charts and worth every second.  It is easily the best scene in the movie.  Unfortunately, the remainder of the movie is only okay.

I did not expect to like this movie, so there is that.  Angelina Jolie is absolutely stunning as Maleficent and every second she is on screen is magic.  Unfortunately, even though there is a fascinating back story involving Maleficent and her race, the dark fae, we do not see enough of Angelina Jolie.  She seems to disappear in the middle of the movie, and it suffers for it.  Every moment she was on the screen I was taken by her beauty and her absolute appeal.

Pfeiffer, after that initial dinner scene, really slips into a one note character and never really catches the momentum that was lost after the first act.

The movie was desperately predictable too, although that is not the worst crime.  There are some things that were quite silly that happened in the third act that brought the film down some, but the overall performances and the beauty of the look were able to overcome some of the films distinct flaws.

Sadly, Chiwetel Ejiofor was totally wasted in the movie.  Some initial chemistry with Jolie is wasted as the amazing actor is in the background, and, because of that, I did not feel the connection the film hoped that I would between Ejiofor and Jolie.

There were some intriguing storyline ideas that were brought up in Mistress of Evil, but were not given enough attention.  There was a potential genocide in the film, but since it brushes past it quickly, there was not enough weight given to these plot points to make them anything more than surface level.  It is impressive that the plot points are here at all though, since this is a family film from Disney.

This film was helped by the fact that I did not enjoy the original film much and, despite its flaws, this is definitely better than that.  While the overall film is fine, the scenes with Angelina Jolie are wondrous.

3.2 stars

I was very wary about this movie.  I absolutely loved the original Zombieland.  It was such a surprise when I saw it because I did not expect much of anything.  I remember clearly watching the movie is our local theater and just being completely engulfed in the world and the humor of the movie.  It was so great.

However, I have to say that the idea of a sequel eight years after the original release had me picturing such failed films as Dumb and Dumber To, Zoolander 2 and Vacation.  Worse yet, the trailers were anything but huge successes for me.  I was unimpressed with what I had seen so far. So the combination of this made me nervous for this film.

Zombieland: Double Tap (which, if you remember, double tap is rule #2 on Columbus’s list of rules, fitting for the second movie) does not reach the heights of that first film, but it is an enjoyable and funny film with heart and a group of characters that we care about.

Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) had no one her own age to be with and her “family” was getting on her nerves.  She was tiring of Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) acting as a surrogate father and her sister Wichita (Emma Stone) and Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) carrying on their relationship.  She decides to leave the White House, where the group had set up their “home” and find her own path.

Unfortunately, the zombie world had become more dangerous with the evolution of some of the zombie types so the others followed after Little Rock in an attempt to protect her.

Honestly, the narrative structure of this movie was one of the glaring weaknesses because it felt more like a series of short skits strung together with little connectivity outside of life in Zombieland.  Still, most of those skits were funny and reasonably charming so the lack of a true narrative and some pacing issues did not hurt the film much.

The strength is, of course, the great cast of characters that we met in the original and return to here.  There are some fun new additions too, especially Zoey Deutch’s Madison, the blonde airhead who stole every scene she was in.  The always great Rosario Dawson was also a wonderful addition to the cast as Nevada.

I was not a huge fan of the arrival of Albuquerque (Luke Wilson) and Flagstaff (Thomas Middleditch), although I do love how EVERYBODY is using the city where they were from as their name now.  This pairing felt like it was an old cliche and not worth the time it spent.  Plus, the result of the situation with these two resoled itself exactly the same way (or so we thought) that Madison’s situation had resolved.  It felt like a cheap repeat.

The use of the rules on the screen continued to be a lot of fun, as did the “Zombie Kill of the Year” joke.  It felt as if these running gags might get old, but they seemed to have enough gas for this movie still.

While it does not match the original, Zombieland: Double Tap does not flop as bad as many comedy sequels do, especially after such a long lay off between films.  Zombieland: Double Tap is a fun time at the movies and worth the watch.

3.75 stars