I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988) * * *

 

Directed by:  Keenen Ivory Wayans

Starring:  Keenen Ivory Wayans, Bernie Casey, Jim Brown, Isaac Hayes, Damon Wayans, John Vernon, Ja'net Dubois, Dawnn Lewis, Kadeem Hardison, Chris Rock, David Alan Grier, Antonio Fargas, Steve James

I'm Gonna Git You Sucka is an Airplane!-style sendup of 1970's blaxploitation films which tries almost anything for a laugh.  It's funny most of the time, with some of the actors satirizing their previous roles in those movies, held together by a plot in which our heroes try to depose Mr. Big (Vernon), a city crime lord dealing in drugs and gold.  In the opening scenes of I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, a young man is found dead and is covered in gold chains and medallions from head to toe.  "He OG'd," says the weary detective on scene, which stands for "Over Gold"  The man's brother, Jack Spade (Keenen Ivory Wayans), comes home from military duty and learns of his brother's death.   When he sees the crime scene photo, Jack asks, "How does he go to the bathroom with all that stuff on?"  Jack decides to take down Mr. Big.  

Jack recruits former neighborhood hero John Slade (Casey), who now runs inner city contests to see how fast a car could be stripped for parts or how fast a thief can run from pursuing dogs with a television on his shoulder.  Slade is the former lover of Jack's mother (Dubois), and still has a thing for her.  Slade brings his former cohorts Hammer (Hayes) and Slammer (Brown), who run a fledgling rib joint, back to take on Mr. Big.  Also along for the ride is Kung Fu Joe (James), whose teacher was Bruce Lee, but for acting and not martial arts. 

I'm Gonna Git You Sucka soon blends shootouts and action with laughs.  It is not always a smooth fit, but it's engaging enough.  Casey, Brown, and Hayes poke fun at their personas, while Antonio Fargas shows up as Flyguy, a former "Pimp of the Year" betrayed by Mr. Big and sent to prison.  Flyguy is released to find his shoes with miniature goldfish tanks on the bottom are subjects of mockery.  Like the rest of I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, he redeems himself in the end.  

Kiss the Girls (1997) * * *

 

Directed by:  Gary Fleder

Starring:  Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Cary Elwes, Brian Cox, Jay O. Sanders, Tony Goldwyn, Alex McArthur, Bill Nunn, Gina Ravera, Jeremy Piven 

Kiss the Girls is the first movie featuring Morgan Freeman as Alex Cross, the FBI profiler/author whose meticulous attention to detail makes him a nightmare for criminals.  The case, however, in Kiss the Girls is also personal for him.  Alex's niece Naomi (Ravera) is a missing college student presumed kidnapped by a mask-wearing man who calls himself Casanova.  Casanova keeps numerous women imprisoned in a hidden dungeon somewhere in a dense North Carolina forest; hooking them on drugs, raping them, and killing them if attempt to escape.   Three women were found tied to trees and brutally murdered.  

Cross is aided by Durham detective Nick Ruskin (Elwes).  Soon Dr. Kate McTiernan (Judd) is kidnapped from her home by Casanova, but has the wherewithal and physical prowess to escape.   Kate is a strong, determined woman who refuses to play victim and assists Alex and the police in locating Casanova and the women still held captive.   Their travels take them to California, where plastic surgeon William Rudolph (Goldwyn) is a suspect.  Is he Casanova or an accomplice?  The findings lead Alex and Kate further down a sinister path.  

Freeman is, of course, a perfect Alex Cross.  He is the type of actor who could tell me 2 + 2 = 6 and I would believe him.  Judd is up to the task of becoming Freeman's de facto sidekick.   They would appear together again later in High Crimes to similar effect.  Kiss the Girls maintains an eerie mood with plenty of solid police procedural scenes adding to the suspense.   I have a quibble with the finale, in which Casanova's identity is revealed.  I don't know if the conclusion is the same as in James Patterson's novel, but it doesn't add up.  The Casanova who hides behind a mask and speaks softly to his victims has a much deeper voice and no trace of a Southern accent.  Did Casanova use a mechanism to disguise his voice?  And how did Casanova juggle his criminal activities with his day job?  Many movies employ this swerve and it leads to more questions than answers. 

Maxxxine (2024) * * *

 

Directed by:  Ti West

Starring:  Mia Goth, Kevin Bacon, Elizabeth Debicki, Halsey, Lily Collins, Giancarlo Esposito, Bobby Cannavale, Michelle Monaghan, Moses Sumney

Maxxxine is the last of the X trilogy starring Mia Goth as Maxine, who survived the slaughter of her friends and castmates from X.  Maxxxine picks up her story in 1985 Hollywood.  She believes her past is behind her as she attempts to move from adult film star to starring in a Hollywood studio movie.  She wins the role, but soon she receives an incriminating video cassette from an unknown source from the gruesome 1979 murder scene.  If you recall from X, Maxine was the sole survivor of a porno movie shoot which became the site of a murderous rampage by two farmers.  One of the farmers named Pearl (also played by Goth), was the subject of the second film (which I missed) of this trilogy.  

You really wouldn't need to see X to follow Maxxxine.  Maxine is ultra confident since hey, she survived nearly being killed six years earlier and the lurid adult film scene, but when she's followed by sleazy New Orleans private eye John Labat (Bacon), she becomes rattled.  Her past may ruin her chances at stardom, and she soon enlists her slickster agent Teddy Knight (Esposito) to help her get rid of Labat and find out who is stalking her.  Teddy goes above and beyond the call of duty as Maxine's agent.  He knows people in the removal business and we'll leave it at that. 

Goth's Maxine isn't always likable, but the pressure on her to get rid of this obstacle jeopardizing her future (and her life) is palpable.   I also liked Elizabeth Debicki, the no-nonsense, straightforward director of Maxine's movie who tells Maxine in no uncertain terms that she fought for her to be cast and that any slip-up will result in her being replaced.  Like X, Maxxxine has a strong sense of time and place and an undercurrent of religious intolerance which fuels repression and thus a stronger desire for the forbidden world of porn and sex.  

Ti West's previous film I've seen (Zola and X) did not work for me on the level Maxxxine did.  Maxxxine is a suspenseful whodunit as well as a commentary on the 1980's, which was the decade of excess and a period in which warning labels had to be placed on albums for explicit lyrics.  Like George Carlin said, "You can talk about fucking.  You just can't say fucking,"  Maxxxine understands that dynamic.  

Fly Me to the Moon (2024) * * *

 

Directed by: Greg Berlanti

Starring:  Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Ray Romano, Woody Harrelson, Jim Rash, Anna Garcia, Donald Elise Watkins, Noah Robbins

Fly Me to the Moon takes us back to the early days of NASA and the buildup to the moon landing on July 20, 1969 with a twist.  It incorporates the age-old conspiracy theory that the mission was faked, so the stories of the real landing and the fake landing are told simultaneously.  It's not only fun, but the movie does not detract from NASA's incredible accomplishment nor does it shortchange the phony landing created on a soundstage not far from where Apollo 11 was launched.   

The fake mission was proposed to NASA's new publicist Kelly Jones (Johansson) by Moe Berkus (Harrelson), a government bureaucrat who may or may not work directly for President Nixon and ruthlessly blackmails Kelly into working for NASA and then overseeing the staged landing.  Why perform a phony moon landing?  On the off-chance that NASA fails and thus the nation is spared another humiliation for the space program.   The faked footage will be substituted and no one would be any the wiser. 

When we first meet Kelly, she is a marketing whiz who pretends to be pregnant in order to snag a high-profile client.   Once the ruse is discovered, she's fired but then immediately hired by Moe to work for NASA raising needed advertising dollars for the program.  Kelly is a con artist on the run from her past and gleefully accepts working for NASA instead of going to prison.  Kelly butts heads with Apollo 11 launch director Cole Davis (Tatum), a straight-arrow who struggles daily with the loss of the Apollo 1 astronauts and fearlessly leads his team up to launch day.  He isn't made aware of the staged version until a crucial point when Kelly falls for him.  

Also in tow is Lance (Rash), the flamboyantly gay director charged with filming the phony moon sequence on a soundstage built in a remote hangar on Cape Kennedy's property.   Lance treats the actors playing Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin disdainfully because they can't seemingly recreate walking on the moon in zero gravity.   He tells another of his actors, "You have a future in show business, not as an actor, but still,"  His complaints about the sets and actors causes Kelly to say, "We should have gotten Kubrick,"  Rash gives us a standout comic performance.   I could've done without the Johansson/Tatum romance, which feels pigeonholed in and perfunctory, but in the way Fly Me to the Moon dovetails history with urban legends, it pulls this off in splendid fashion.  

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024) * * *

 

Directed by:  Mark Molloy

Starring:  Eddie Murphy, Taylour Paige, Kevin Bacon, Joseph Gordon Levitt, John Ashton, Judge Reinhold, Bronson Pinchot, Paul Reiser

In a twist I surely didn't see coming, I enjoyed Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.  It worked in its intended way, with Eddie Murphy returning to the role of Detroit detective Axel Foley, who for the fourth time in the last forty years will be traveling to Beverly Hills to take care of personal business.   He should keep an apartment there.  

Axel is now a divorced man with an estranged daughter (Paige), and he still does things his way and wreaks havoc.  Chases after criminals usually results in exorbitant amounts of property damage and Axel's captain having to bail him out.  In this case, Axel's captain is Jeffrey Freidman (Reiser), his buddy from the first two films who recently submitted his retirement papers after being chewed out over another of Axel's antics.  

Meanwhile, Axel's daughter Jane is defending an alleged cop killer who was framed by corrupt cops.  Jane's car is soon dangling from a parking garage with Jane still in it.  Axel is soon on the next flight to LAX, where he hopes to rendezvous with his old friend Billy Rosewood (Reinhold), who is now a private detective after quitting the force over his discoveries of corruption being ignored by his former partner and now police chief John Taggart (Ashton).  Billy is kidnapped by the bad guys, and Axel and Jane, along with straight-arrow cop Bobby Abbott (Levitt), try to find out what's happening.   The villain is Captain Grant (Bacon), who wears suits far too expensive for a cop's salary, has goons at his disposal, and may as well be wearing a t-shirt stating his intentions.

Axel and Jane fight and reconcile as expected.  Par for the course.  But even though Axel F. has one too many chase scenes which run long, it's slick and entertaining, with Murphy clearly having a ball.  It's also good to see some of the old faces from the previous films, although Pinchot's Serge was only funny in the first film.  His appearances in part III and Axel F. are rambling and endless.  The movie also takes potshots at Beverly Hills Cop III, which I think are undeserved.  It's the weakest film in the series, but I still found myself liking it.  I'm in the minority I'm sure.   

 

Horizon: An American Saga Part I (2024) * * *

Directed by: Kevin Costner

Starring:  Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Michael Rooker, Will Patton, Luke Wilson, Jena Malone, Owen Crow Shoe, Tatanka Means, Danny Huston, Abbey Lee, Tom Proctor, Georgia MacPhail

Kevin Costner's Horizon: An American Saga is expected to be a four-part epic series about the settlement of the Old West.   The first week box-office receipts aren't boosting confidence of the series' financial viability, but the series is off to a promising start.  Horizon is epic in scope by telling stories of taming the west where settlers have to fend off ferocious Native Americans who don't want settlers taking over their land.  Towns are destroyed before they've had a chance to get off the ground in San Pedro Valley, while in Wyoming and Montana, the settlers made more headway.  Then, there is a wagon train led by Matthew van Weyden (Wilson), who understands the dangers of even getting to the destination.

The San Pedro Valley settlement is attacked and set fire to by the local tribes, with the U.S. Army Calvary arriving soon after the attacks and assisting the survivors.   One of which is Frances Kittredge (Miller), who lost a husband in the battle.   She finds herself falling for Lt. Trent Gephart (Worthington), who tries to perform his duties while concealing his attraction to Frances.   In Wyoming, trader Hayes Ellison (Costner) finds himself unwittingly helping a prostitute (Lee) on the run from killers looking for revenge for the attempted murder of an abusive man in Montana by her mother Ellen (Malone).  Ellison is a man passing through a small mining town, but he also epitomizes decency and humanity by helping Marigold, the hooker who is now the guardian of a young boy.

Costner's Horizon is a labor of love which may be intended as a companion piece to his Oscar-winning Dances with Wolves (1990).  He loves the West and all of its aspects.  Horizon, as stated by Costner in a recent Howard Stern interview, is about the struggle of settlers to even create towns which would become cities and civilize an untamed land with indigenous people who fear having their land stolen.  The characters are people trying to make their way in uncharted territory both physically and emotionally.  In Frances' case, she suffered not only family losses, but had to be uprooted and living elsewhere without any guarantees that attacks won't happen again.

Costner also stated that in Westerns on TV and in movies, the towns were already up and running, with the action taking place there.   Horizon gives us a unique perspective of how those towns came to be.  The movie runs three hours, and naturally could've been tighter in some spots, but it makes us care enough to see what's next. 

Bulletproof (1996) * *

Directed by:  Ernest R. Dickerson

Starring:  Damon Wayans, Adam Sandler, James Caan, James Farentino, Kristen Wilson, Jeep Swenson, Allen Covert

There is nothing wrong with buddy comedies.  Bulletproof is a tired one which started with a unique perspective and then devolved into cliches and chases.   Keats (Wayans) and Moses (Sandler) are two low-level criminals who form a years-long friendship which is torn apart when Keats is revealed to be an undercover detective during a bust.  Keats was using Moses to get in with crime boss Frank Colton (Caan), and now that Moses vouched for Keats, Moses is a hunted man.  Moses is hurt by this betrayal more than he is concerned that Colton wants him dead.   In the melee, Moses accidentally shoots Keats in the head and goes on the lam. 

Some time passes, Keats is able to recuperate and regain use of his faculties, plus has a new girlfriend Traci (Wilson), the nurse who assisted him in his recovery.   Moses is apprehended and becomes a witness against Colton,  Keats is assigned to protect Moses as a witness until the trial.  There are hard feelings from both men,   Moses still stings from Keats' revelation and Keats still can't get over being nearly killed, even if it was accidental.   The opening moments shows a deep friendship supposedly formed between Keats and Moses.  I was reminded of the more powerful scenes of 2016's The Infiltrator, in which the drug lord an undercover FBI agent had to bring down was emotionally injured by the man he thought was his friend and let into his world.   

However, Bulletproof strays from this early and becomes an awkward road buddy movie.  Keats and Moses bicker and gripe at each other before mending fences and taking down Colton.  Sandler brings the energy which defined his comic persona in the films following this one, which generated big box office.   Wayans does the straight man thing as well as can be expected.   However, Bulletproof as a whole doesn't add anything new or fresh to the genre.  Keats and Moses fight, then hold a begrudging truce, then develop a bond, then become friends with a goal of bringing down the villain.   It's all just blah.