Somewhere in a typical Hollywood producer’s office, there might be a checklist to determine the criteria for deciding to do a remake of any movie. One criterion might be the passage of time, the popularity of the movie, the times the movie has been shown on Cable TV, the references to the movie on social media, and its box office profits when it was first released.
For those of us who remember the original “White Men Can’t Jump” released in late March 1992, it’s impossible to believe that 31 years have passed. This original movie is one of the best sports movies ever made, and probably the best of its kind ever produced about Basketball. White Men Can’t Jump starred, Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes and their personal friendship was evident in their chemistry during this story. The basketball scenes during this film were also outstanding, showing some of the impressive basketball skills of both Harrelson and Snipes during the many contests and games. Actress Rosie Perez was also outstanding in her role as Harrelsons girlfriend and dealing with his constant gambling. The IMDB rating for the original White Men Can’t Jump is 6.8 out of 10.
Unfortunately, the IMDB rating for this new version is only 3.9 out of 10. The reason for this is while there are some good ideas in this new film and it is not just a duplicate of the original, the story, and humorous dialogue are not strong enough to compare favorably to the original movie. One of the checklists missing in this remake attempt is that the screenplay was not good enough to even consider making this remake from the start.
This new version stars rapper Jack Harlow, and Sinqua Walls as the two main characters. They have OK chemistry together but nothing memorable. I did appreciate the decision to use some of the same famous Los Angeles venues for this remake but the most surprising thing about this remake is that the basketball scenes are not nearly as good as they are in the original film.
The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this remake are way too low 29%, with my rating around 50% and a pass.
This time around, the latest installment of the Fast and Furious Franchise “Fast X” is not one movie, but 7 sub movies that are all interlaced throughout the 2 1/2 hours with each one standing alone with different parts of the cast. The obvious problem with 7 smaller movies at the same time and cutting to each one of them, is that many of the main characters are separated and this eliminates the chemistry and funny scenes that are some of the best parts of this franchise. This new extreme idea does not take away at all from the expected and once again, incredibly stupid stunts and special effects that defy all logic and laws of physics. Why the Fast and Furious producers and directors feel the need to go so over the top with action scenes like these probably has more to do with creating an exciting movie trailer than any other reason.
As far as idiotic action scenes, there is a giant rolling bomb that destroys city streets, huge stone stairways, and monuments all throughout Rome. The main character Dominic Toretto, played by Vin Diesel, stops the bomb in one of the craziest ways imaginable. There is a scene later in the film with Dominic in a car with his son at the edge of a giant Dam. Once surrounded, as Dominic has done in the past, he just drives the car over the edge and is followed by gigantic explosions and somehow, despite 100% certain death, manages to survive, yet again. Yes of course this is an action movie, but the problem with these movies is making the action scenes so crazy-dumb-make-no-sense that it actually insults the very audience they are trying to attract. There is no reason to go this far with these scenes, but it seems that the goal is to surpass the action of the last movie no matter what.
In this new installment, which is a 2 part movie, due to the 3 extreme cliffhangers at the end, all of the major cast members return with the new addition of the daughter of Mr. Nobody, played by Kurt Russel (who is not in this movie), Tess, played by Brie Larson – who I am surprised took this small part in a movie of this low quality.
Jason Momoa plays Dante, who is the main villain in this film and is the son of another villain from a Fast movie 10 years ago. Dante wants to take his revenge on Dominic and his entire family for killing his father. What makes no sense, is after months of planning, meetings with producers and the director, and millions of dollars spent, Mamoa decided to play this part like he is a Liberace-like gay comedian. This entire crazy-funny and gay personality, in my opinion, was a huge mistake and did not work with this role.
Charlize Theron returns again in her role as Cipher, and her sub-movie with Letty, played by Michelle Rodriguez, makes very little sense, all the way to the end, where they both somehow wind up in Antarctica. This entire screenplay seems to have been written by a stream of consciousness on the fly method, without regard to continuity or connections to any of the other sub-movies.
Cameos include Rita Moreno, who plays some kind of a family matriarch at the beginning of this story, and considering how absurd this movie can be at times, she seemed out of place. Pete Davidson appears later in the film as an owner of a computer store, when the cast is looking for new computer equipment. It is amazing to see how far someone like Davidson has come in his career and his current popularity.
As this almost 2 hours and 30-minute film winds down, into 3 shocking cliffhangers to be resolved in the next movie “Fast X: Part 2”, released in 2025, there is an appearance of yet another character in this series, thought to be dead for a long time. This was also done in the last installment, once again insulting the intelligence of the audience. This is because this character was definitely killed in an earlier movie. Enough of this already, once someone is obviously killed, bringing them back to life is just ridiculous.
For those millions of die-hard fans of this movie series, having to wait 2 years to see the resolution of the cliffhangers, will be painful for them, but I can certainly wait. This is mostly because while the special effects are always amazing, the screenplay and just plain stupid action scenes are at times, very hard to sit through without laughing.
Despite a huge 350 million dollar budget and spectacular special effects, for this 10th movie in this highly profitable movie franchise, the Rotten Tomatoes ratings are a low 56%. I agree with this low number, based on the continuing and very unnecessary inane illogical action scenes. This movie is only for die-hard Fast and Furious fans and unfortunate professional movie bloggers like me.
Considering the incredibly impressive accomplishments of the athletic career of Yogi Bera, it is hard to believe how many times he was disrespected during his career with the Yankees and then the Mets. He was the baseball American League MVP 3 times in his career and won an incredible 10 World Series as a catcher with the New York Yankees. He is considered one of the greatest catchers in the history of Major League Baseball. Yogi hit 358 home runs with 2150 hits and 1430 runs batted in. Yogi was also the manager of both the Mets and The Yankees and almost won a world series with the Yankees in 1964, only losing in a game 7 heartbreaker to the Cardinals.
In addition to Bera’s hall-of-fame baseball career, Yogi also served in the Navy and was one of the thousands who landed on the beaches of Normandy during the invasion on June 6, 1944, and was posthumously honored for his military service by President Barack Obama. In order to get Bera honored, his grandaughter conducted an extensive social media campaign after the Federal Government suggested they had to find witnesses of Bera’s service during the Normandy invasion.
In 1984 Bera was named the manager of the Yankees along with a commitment of 2 years. Unfortunately, lowlife George Steinbrenner was still in charge of the Yankees, and after a slow start in the first 16 games, Steinbrenner fired Bera, once again putting Billy Martin back in charge of the team. It seemed back in those dark days of the Yankees, Steinbrenner, and his sick ego enjoyed firing people, just for the pleasure of showing that he was the boss. Due to his cruel dismissal in 1984, Bera refused to ever go to Yankee Stadium again, a boycott that lasted for 14 years until Steinbrenner finally apologized to him at a dinner attended by Bera’s wife.
This excellent documentary about one of the most beloved sports figures of all time included broadcaster Bob Costas, comedian Billy Crystal, all of Yogi Bera’s sons, and his granddaughter. Yogi’s son Dale, also made it to the major leagues and played for 10 years, including for the Yankees, before leaving the game due to drug and alcohol problems. One of the most memorable parts of this film was when Dale described his family’s intervention that saved his life from drugs and put him on the right path and he has been clean and sober ever since.
There are many references to Yogi’s many famous sayings throughout this movie and so many are now a permanent part of the American lexicon. His most famous saying of all time is “It Ain’t Over Until It’s Over”.
The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this excellent documentary is a very high 96% and I agree and rate this film a must-see.
A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies. 