Am I Racist? (2024) * * *

Directed by:  Justin Folk

Starring:  Matt Walsh (as himself)

Conservative podcaster Matt Walsh goes undercover Borat-style in Am I Racist?, posing as a liberal who wants to learn about DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), but in reality wants to prove his belief that DEI is an industry propped up by the need for perceived or false racism.  Walsh doesn't exactly become a master of disguise.  He wears a wig with a man bun and different glasses, but otherwise he's Matt Walsh.  The disguise didn't fool a group therapy session in which members call the police when they discover he's not a regular guy looking to rid himself of racist tendencies.  

Walsh takes an online course an earns a "DEI expert card", which he faux proudly displays to all of his interview subjects.  He later creates a class on Craig's List and charges several hundred dollars for whites to attend his session, which consists of some of the most ludicrous exercises you can imagine.  This involves class members yelling at Matt's wheelchair-bound "Uncle Frank" for allegedly telling a racist joke twenty years ago, and providing whips so they can self-flagellate.  What is more is amazing is that these "students" were willing to do this (those who stuck around anyway).  The point of Am I Racist? is that there is now a culture in which people are so full of "white guilt" that they would consider doing such a thing.  

Walsh and numerous conservative outlets are at war with the mainstream media over their alleged slant in reporting the news.  Many would simply ignore this as unsubstantiated, but Walsh is correct in pointing out that no major media outlets have reviewed this film.   This is sadly correct, and you can't help but wonder if what Walsh and others say about the media are true.  I acknowledge that while I lean liberal, I also can't dismiss conservative views out of hand as hateful, cruel, and racist.   Just because an argument comes from the other side doesn't mean it is incorrect or inaccurate.  

I found Am I Racist? funny and illuminating.  Like Borat, you question how much is staged.  Walsh insists that none of it is, and Am I Racist? requires one to emerge from their own bubble and watch with an open mind.  When Walsh attempts to physically recreate Jussie Smollett's ultimately false accounting of an assault by two MAGA-hat wearing men in the middle of a winter night in Chicago, I laughed.  Smollett's explanation simply doesn't hold water, and it turns out it didn't.  It would've involved actions that defied the laws of physics and sanity.  

Does watching Am I Racist? and agreeing with his argument make you a racist?  Absolutely not.  Disagreement with the the methods DEI implements isn't racism.  It's disagreement, which last I looked is something everyone has a right to do.   Why hasn't a major media outlet published a review of the film?  Why have they avoided it like the plague?  Do the outlets fear actually enjoying or liking the movie will cause them to be labeled racist?  Walsh uses comedy to expose how mainstream media perpetuates racism and DEI authors and speakers charge exorbitant fees to "fix the inherent racism found in all white people,"  We see evidence of this in support groups, dinners, and exercises where white pay to submit themselves to criticism by DEI experts.  It's like a form of BDSM.  Like Borat, Walsh gives his subjects enough space to make fools of themselves and expose their own hypocrisies.  It's a shame the mainstream outlets did not have enough courage to review the film.   Inclusion should also mean the ability to include opinions that may differ from yours. 

Cobra Kai Season 6 Episodes 11-15 (2025) * * *

Starring:  Ralph Macchio, William Zabka, Courtney Henggeler, Martin Kove, Peyton List, Xolo Mariduena, Tanner Buchanan, Mary Mouser, Jacob Bertrand, Yuji Okumoto, Sean Kanan, Lewis Tan, Thomas Ian Griffith

We have come to the end of the Cobra Kai series with a satisfying conclusion.  The final five episodes maintain suspense while providing moving story arcs for many of the characters.  Compared to the first two sets of episodes which make up season six, these final five get the job done even with contrived methods of keeping the tournament going and no one seeming to notice that the two biggest villains have left the scene.  This isn't an inquisitive bunch.

I supposed criticizing Cobra Kai for being silly is like chastising my cat for not mastering geometry.  The season picks up months after the death of a competitor in Barcelona.  Johnny (Zabka) is preparing to bring his child into the world and marry his pregnant girlfriend.  Daniel is pouring his heart into his work at the dealership, but Amanda (Henggeler) thinks he is not dealing with his emotions over Barcelona.  Kreese (Kove) has done some soul searching in the months since the tournament and decides he no longer wants to lead a dojo.  The only person itching to restart the tournament is Terry Silver (Griffith), who we learn is dying from cancer and wants his dojo to win as a way to build on his legacy of being evil, mean, and nasty.  

Kreese wants to reconcile with Johnny, and after being rebuffed, the two have a heartfelt reunion at the restarted tournament, which is now taking place in the San Fernando Valley.  The matches are not as intricate or as potentially deadly as the ones in Barcelona.  They are the standard one-on-one battles where the Iron Dragons led by Silver battle the suddenly reformed Cobra Kai led by Johnny, with Daniel's blessing.  The fights are well-orchestrated and not as farfetched as Barcelona's, but then again which ones are?

Cobra Kai doesn't degenerate into an all-out brawl at its conclusion.  They went to that well once or twice too often, but some of the characters go through some moving changes and Johnny's relationship with Daniel's becomes a brotherhood, with the others as part of an extended family.  

The Monkey (2025) * *

 

Directed by:  Osgood Perkins

Starring:  Theo James, Chris Convery, Tatiana Maslany, Elijah Wood, Adam Scott, Colin O'Brien

When the toy monkey depicted in the above photo begins banging its drum, someone will die.  We don't know who will die or how, but only that it's a certainty.  Those who realize this try to command the monkey to kill their enemies, but we learn "the monkey doesn't take requests".  The only question is how gruesomely the person will die.  The Monkey is full of blood, decapitations, "accidents", mangled body parts, and other assorted killings.   The movie keeps upping the ante.  It is more interested in the kills than suspense.

Osgood Perkins' directed last year's Longlegs, which was atmospheric but not successful in its attempts to depict a serial killer played by Nicolas Cage.  I'd reread my review but that's a lot of work.  The Monkey, based on a Stephen King short story, is more campy and humorous than Longlegs, but by comparison almost anything is.  In The Monkey, twins Hal and Bill (played by Convery as a kid and Theo James as an adult) come in contact with the toy monkey which soon begins its killing spree.  Their father Pete (Scott) tried to sell it in a pawn shop years earlier which resulted in the shop owner's death.  The toy just keeps finding this family.  The more they try to get rid of it, the more it finds its way back. 

Bill bullies Hal as both a kid and an adult.  Hal takes it to a point, and then instructs the monkey to kill Bill, but their mother has her throat slit instead, which may be the most tame of the murders.  Or maybe it's the pawn shop owner in the prologue who is merely speared to death.  The Monkey, like Longlegs, has an odd, unique atmosphere to it which makes the material palatable to a point, but overall we are left with a series of bloody, gory murders and a cute little evil monkey toy that one would rather not see operate.  

Snow Day (2000) * *

 

Directed by:  Chris Koch 

Starring:  Mark Webber, Schuyler Fisk, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Chris Elliott, Chevy Chase, Pam Grier, John Schneider, Jean Smart, Zena Grey

There was nothing like a snow day during my school days.  We woke up, gathered by the radio, and listened for the three-digit code which signified our school was cancelled.  When we heard it, we erupted in glee because, hey, no school today!  And if it's harsh weather, maybe none tomorrow either.  One can dream.  To folks my age who claim they walked to school in two feet of snow: I say bullshit.  We had plenty of school days cancelled by weather.  And two-hour delays didn't exist in my school district. 

Snow Day takes place near Syracuse, New York during a particularly uneventful winter.  One night, television meteorologist Tom Brandston (Chase) catches a winter storm forming over the area at the last minute and declares abundant snowfall will happen overnight.  Tom detests having to wear silly costumes on air at the behest of his boss (Grier) and further dislikes rival weatherman Chad Symmonz (Schneider) taking credit for discovering the storm first.  Tom's son Hal (Webber) uses his snow day to declare his love for pretty Claire (Chriqui) while his best friend Lane (Fisk) stands by his side and is, of course, secretly in love with Hal.  Tom's wife Laura (Smart) is a workaholic who uses the snow day to stop and smell the coffee finally.  

Meanwhile, all of the other kids in town are trying to stop the menacing snow plow operator Roger (Elliott) from plowing the streets and preventing a second snow day.  Most of these events are played with tired slapstick, while the love story is uninvolving and trite.  The best moments of Snow Day are the opening ones where the feeling of a pending snow day is captured joyously.  Then, the subplots take over and all is lost. 

Good Burger (1997) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Brian Robbins

Starring:  Kel Mitchell, Kenan Thompson, Dan Schneider, Abe Vigoda, Shar Jackson, Sinbad, Carmen Electra, Jan Schweiterman, Linda Cardellini

Good Burger is based on a late 90's Nickelodeon sketch and blown up to feature length.  I wouldn't say I was the intended audience even back in 1997, but my son loved it.  It's equal shares of slapstick and a showcase for Kel Mitchell, who was half of the Kenan and Kel Show then.  Kenan Thompson went on to become the longest-tenured Saturday Night Live performer in the show's history.  Mitchell faded into obscurity (as far as I know).  But Good Burger gives us Ed, a likable dimwit who takes most things said to him literally.   When a character asks Ed, "How does ten dollars sound?", Ed crinkles a ten-dollar bill up to his ear.  

Ed works tirelessly at Good Burger, a mainstay which is soon about to run out of business by Mondo Burger across the street.  Mondo burgers are three times the size of any normal burger, and with all of the additives pumped into the beef, no wonder.  Mondo Burger is run by the hard-ass jerk Kurt (Schweiterman), who will stoop to any level to ensure Good Burger goes out of business.  Ed, however, creates a special sauce and people love it.  Good Burger finds itself back on the map.  The manager Mr. Baily (Schneider) couldn't be happier.  Kurt makes it his business to find out the sauce's recipe and even hires sexy Roxanne (Electra) to go on a date with the clueless Ed to love the recipe right out of him.

Ed's co-worker and friend is Dexter (Thompson), who is forced to get a summer job after he is involved in an accident and has to pay for the damage.  He doesn't care for Ed much, but soon befriends him, and then tries to bilk Ed out of part of his bonus for each burger sold.  This doesn't endear Dexter to Monique (Jackson), the Good Burger staffer who cares for Ed and is Dexter's romantic interest.  But Ed and Dexter soon become the heroes who save Good Burger from the sinister Kurt and his minions.  

Good Burger is occasionally funny and is aimed at a younger audience that would appreciate it more.  Ed is a unique character and carries most of the movie with his witless charm.  He seems to have been beamed here from another planet, but he nearly carries the movie by himself. 

Get Hard (2015) * * 1/2

 

Directed by: Etan Cohen

Starring:  Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart, T.I. Harris, Craig T. Nelson, Alison Brie, Paul Ben-Victor, Edwina Findley

No, Get Hard is not a porno movie.  It's about guileless, gullible hedge-fund manager James (Ferrell), who is wrongly convicted of fraud and sentenced to a term in San Quentin.  His father-in-law Martin (Nelson) is of course the guilty party, but he pretends to support James and promises to find "the real fraud", much like OJ Simpson pledged to find "the real killers".  With one month to get his affairs in order, James chooses to hire Darnell (Hart), the owner of the car wash in James' office garage, to give him lessons on how to survive in prison.  Darnell has never had so much as a parking ticket on his record, but he needs the money to keep his business afloat and goes along with the training.  James is a dope, and believes Darnell has been to prison because, well he's black.  Darnell plays along because he needs the cash. 

Get Hard walks the fine line this material presents.  It's funny to be sure, but also inconsistently so.  Darnell, with help from his cousin and other gang members who have actually been in prison, provides lessons on how James can avoid being gang-raped and assaulted daily.  When Get Hard is cooking, it is hilarious.  Those moments, however, don't come often enough, and what we have is Ferrell and Hart trying their best with mixed results.  

I'm reminded of Spike Lee's The 25th Hour, in which Edward Norton has 24 hours to get his affairs in order before he begins a seven-year prison term.  Norton's character knows he won't emerge unscathed and he will not be the same person as when he entered.   The 25th Hour covers the dramatic ground as Get Hard covers comically.  As the days tick off toward the beginning of James' sentence, it doesn't even occur to him that Martin framed him.  Darnell feels sorry for this knucklehead whose only crime is believing the best in the wrong people. 

F/X (1986) * * *

 

Directed by:  Robert Mandel

Starring:  Bryan Brown, Brian Dennehy, Mason Adams, Cliff DeYoung, Diane Venora, Tom Noonan, Joe Grifasi, Martha Gehman, Josie de Guzman, Jerry Orbach

Movie special effects wizard Rollie Tyler (Brown) is approached by the Department of Justice to use his skills to fake the assassination of mob boss Nick DeFranco (Orbach), who is set to testify in a mob trial and enter the Witness Protection Program.  Rollie is paid $30,000 to orchestrate the "murder", including disguising himself and "pulling the trigger" in a public place.  Following the phony assassination, agent Lipton (DeYoung) tries to kill Rollie, citing "no loose ends" and Rollie is soon on the run and being framed for murder.  

The detective on the case, Leo McCarthey (Dennehy) knows DeFranco and smells a rat, especially when Rollie's girlfriend (Venora) and the agent who killed her and tried to kill Rollie are found dead in the woman's apartment.  F/X takes on Hitchcockian proportions, as Rollie is the innocent man accused and must rely on his visual effects prowess to fight his way out of this conspiracy.  He isn't an action-hero type, but he's smart and resourceful with numerous tricks up his sleeve.  I grant you that Rollie somehow is able to summon an effect up at a moment's notice, especially when he invades the ringleader Col. Mason's (Adams) home and does in all of his goons.  

Some of these tricks are elaborate and are unlikely to fit inside a bag, but because we root for Rollie and he's played so winningly by Bryan Brown, we forgive the movie's occasional lapse in credulity.  Brian Dennehy provides a counterpoint to the otherwise amiable Rollie.  He's a heavy drinker, but relentlessly pursues the truth, and has some nice scenes displaying his absolute cynicism.  F/X is a movie that comes out of nowhere to entertain, even in the face of plot holes and questions.  No matter.  We get to see the bad guys get what's coming to them from someone whom everyone underestimated. 

Heart Eyes (2025) * *

Directed by:  Josh Ruben

Starring:  Olivia Holt, Mason Gooding, Jordana Brewster, Devon Sawa, Yoson An

Heart Eyes begins with a tinge of satire and shock as a newly engaged couple is gruesomely murdered by the masked "Heart Eyes" killer, who has done this nationwide over the years to many couple on Valentine's Day.  You can see what the mask looks like, and now it seems the Heart Eyes serial murderer has taken up residence in Seattle.  We meet Ally (Holt), who has a winning smile and is a total cutie.  She is a marketing executive whose last ad campaign flopped and now needs a better one in order to keep her job.  A new hotshot named Jay (Gooding) comes on the scene, and despite her attraction to him, Ally feels her job threatened.  

Jay calls for a truce and a strictly professional dinner on Valentine's Day.  Ally is still trying to get over the boyfriend who dumped her and, after running into him and his new girlfriend outside the restaurant, kisses Jay to make the boyfriend jealous.   This is witnessed by the Heart Eyes killer and Ally and Jay become his (or her) targets.  The Heart Eyes killer creatively offs his victims in brutal fashion, and it is at this point when Heart Eyes simply becomes another slasher film with jump scares and kills that grow more bloody and violent.  

Those who go to see Heart Eyes for this reason will be satisfied.  Other than discovering the identity of the killer and why he or she committed the killings, Heart Eyes isn't built for suspense but slaughter.  It's wearying watching the filmmakers up the ante on the gore, wasting two appealing leads in the name of gory slashing.  

Love Hurts (2025) * *

Directed by:  Jonathan Eusebio

Starring:  Ke Huy Quan, Ariana DeBose, Marshawn Lynch, Lio Tipton, Daniel Wu, Sean Astin, Mustafa Shakir

Marvin Gable (Quan) is a mild-mannered, relentlessly upbeat Milwaukee realtor hiding a secret past as a ruthless assassin.  He was in league with his brother Knuckles (Wu), but he fell in love with Rose (DeBose), who was ripping off Knuckles and ordered to be killed.  He fakes her death and then decides to leave the criminal life altogether.   He is a successful realtor, but soon Rose comes knocking, asking him to help her get rid of Knuckles once and for all.  

Maybe my sense of direction is way off, but it doesn't seem that the goons Knuckles dispatches to kill Marvin travel all that far to find him.  It seems like they live only on the other side of Milwaukee.  No matter.  Love Hurts features Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan in his first starring role.  He is likable and gives off Jackie Chan vibes in both personality and the fight scenes where he uses everything including the kitchen sink to fend off his opponents.  

The action is fun for a time, but then grows stale halfway into the movie's 84-minute running time (including credits).  Yet, the movie still feels like a slog even with the trim running time.  DeBose and Quan don't have much chemistry, and the movie chugs towards its conclusion with the speed of molasses in January.  Love Hurts takes place on Valentine's Day, but I doubt it will become a Cupid classic. 

Goodrich (2024) * *

Directed by:  Hallie Meyers-Shyer

Starring:  Michael Keaton, Mila Kunis, Laura Benanti, Michael Urie, Kevin Pollak, Carmen Ejogo

Andy Goodrich (Keaton) is a workaholic Los Angeles art gallery owner with a wife and twins whose wife calls him one night to inform him she has checked into a rehab.  Lotsa luck with the kids, she basically tells him, and the distraught Andy calls his pregnant adult daughter Grace (Kunis) to help him.  The trouble is:  Grace and Andy have a frosty relationship, mostly because of Andy's divorce from her mother.   No points for guessing that Andy will figure it all out and have a better relationship with the kids he hardly knows.  

Andy, though, isn't a bad man, just aloof because he devoted his life to a gallery which is now losing money and might go under if it is unable to attract artists.  Andy attempts to lure the daughter of a former client to his gallery in hopes she will allow her mother's work to be displayed.  This possibility grows to be more of a probability, but then it doesn't in a development that feels like a plot twist.  Because Andy is generally a decent man, the dramatic tension of Goodrich is lost.   

However, Michael Keaton still gives us an effective performance, making the most of his underwritten character.  Kunis hits all the notes you would expect as his estranged daughter:  Exasperated, frustrated, resentful, and then forgiving and reconciliation.   She does all well, but Goodrich itself simply lacks anything to push against.  

September 5 (2024) * * * *

 

Directed by:  Tim Fehlbaum

Starring:  Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro, Ben Chaplin, Benjamin Walker, Jim McKay (archive footage), Leonie Benesch, Rony Herman

September 5, 1972 was an unprecedented day in the history of the Olympic Games, and not because of Mark Spitz winning his record seventh gold medal.  The Munich Games, the first in Germany since 1936 Berlin, went on uneventfully under shots were fired in the Olympic Village before dawn.  Before long, it is learned two Israeli athletes were killed and nine others taken hostage by a terrorist organization called Black September.  

ABC Sports president Roone Arledge (Sarsgaard) soon puts all hands on deck to cover this unprecedented event.  He wrestles away control of coverage from ABC News to ABC Sports.  His reasoning was sound:  The ABC Sports headquarters in Munich are set up a few hundred yards from the Olympic village where Black September was conducting its reign of terror.  Why cover it from New York?  September 5 takes place over the course of one tense day where Black September operates in the shadows and the plight of the Israeli athletes hangs in the balance in the same nation which forged the Holocaust against Jews three decades earlier.

The sports team scrambles, pivots, and creatively covers the events on the fly behind producer Geoffrey Mason (Magaro), an inexperienced newcomer working his first shift as segment producer.  He expected to cover track and swimming and instead the story becomes Black September.  The sports team is resourceful and smart, trying in earnest to bring the full story to viewers, but what is correct and what is speculation? Why September 5 works so brilliantly is that it fosters tension and suspense even though we know the terrible outcome.  The final minutes in which it was believed the Israeli athletes were freed at the airport hits like a gut punch.  Geoffrey is discussing interviewing the athletes about the ordeal.  We know better and it is brings a tear to your eyes. 

The performances in September 5 are outstanding, but there are no flourishes or excessive emoting.  September 5 is tautly told and focused.  It is also the first new release in the last three years I've attached a four-star rating to.  Now that we know that Hollywood can make a four-star movie, it's time to begin making them again more frequently.