From Merriam Webster:

INJUSTICE applies to any act that involves unfairness to another or violation of one’s rights. The injustices suffered by the lower classes INJURY applies in law specifically to an injustice for which one may sue to recover compensation.

In all my years of being an avid movie goer, I have never seen a true story like the one depicted in the new movie “Brian Banks” that defines a level of monumental injustice as much as this story. As a matter of fact, if Brian Banks was not a true story, it would never work as a movie, because nobody would believe that something this outrageous could ever happen to anyone who lives in this country. All of us know that the legal system in this country is corrupt and broken in so many cases, but what happened to Brian Banks in 2002 is an outrage that was unbelievable to realize. Just one problem in our disastrous legal system are the plea bargain’s that occur in 97% of the cases, many times because the courts are so backed up and the defense attorney’s don’t care about their clients. As a result innocent people are thrown in jail because of expediency and incompetence, and as a result, lives are forever ruined.

Brian Banks was 16 years old in 2002 and a top college and future NFL prospect. He was accused of raping a 15 year old girl and he was not only innocent, but his innocence was so obvious that only a system as corrupt and broken as the legal system in this country could have convicted this young man who did absolutely nothing wrong. Many of the events in this very good film were difficult to sit through because anyone with any sense of empathy for another human being could only imagine what it was like to be only 16 years old with a great future and being forced to do hard time for 6 years only because of a broken legal system. Only because of a judge that didn’t care enough about a young man and a defense lawyer that was utterly incompetent. Imagine being trapped in a disgusting jail cell in constant danger, your life ruined before you are even 20 years old when you did nothing wrong. Put in solitary for 60 days, wondering “why me” every hour of every day for 6 long years. Then when you are released and on probation, you can never have a shot at getting into the NFL or even get a job – and you did nothing wrong. Your name is placed on every sex offender’s list in this country and you did nothing wrong.

Through it all his accuser knew he was innocent and never had enough humanity to come forward and tell the truth. What this film does extremely well is show how Brian was able to survive these horrible years only because of an instructor at the prison who taught him about life, including concepts like, “All you can control in life is how you respond to life.” – great advice given in the self help book
“As a Man Thinketh” mentioned in this movie several times. The most impressive aspect of this story is that through all of this, Brian Banks never gave up trying to clear his name despite the impossible odds and a broken legal system that included so many people that just did not care enough to help him.

The Rotten Tomatoes reviews for this film at only 55% are not only wrong, but this time around – absurd. I give this movie a 95% rating for the story, the great screenplay and the acting that includes Aldis Hodge as Brian Banks, Sherri Shepherd as Brian’s mother, Morgan Freeman who is great as the prison instructor and Greg Kinnear as the lawyer who saved Brian’s life and cleared his name. I give a strong recommendation to Brian Banks as one of the best movies about a true story and injustice that I have ever seen.

“The Farewell” is a true story about a large Chinese family who believe that if an older person gets Cancer, its better to lie to them because the fear of dying is worse than the disease itself. After seeing this movie its hard not to believe in this tradition born from of the Chinese culture. What sense does it make to tell an old person they have this horrendous disease, when they can live out their last days in comfort and without fear? Another perspective is, how often are doctors wrong about how long a person has left to live, giving more credence to this idea of lying to an older person about having Cancer.

The Farewell is one of the few movies I have seen that is equally in English and subtitles and both were very well done. The acting was also very good, even though at times it was hard to understand some of the English speaking. The sub story of the entire family lying to their grandmother about lung cancer is an impending wedding with the brother of the main character Billi, played very well by actress Awkwafina. There were some emotional and even very funny scenes in this film despite the depressing diagnosis of the beloved matriarch of this family.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for The Farewell are an extremely high 99% and I give this movie a 90% rating and strong recommendation.

For all of the movies in the long running Fast and Furious franchise, temporarily suspending all sense of logic and common sense is mandatory before spending two hours realizing just how ridiculous just about all of the stories are. One thing about this spin off of the Fast and Furious movies is that there are less cars being driven This movie involves secret agents, one of them, the sister of Shaw, played by Vanessa Kirby, a half human half robot played very well by Idris Alba and a programmable virus that could kill the population of the world. This part of the story does not make sense, but that is not what movies like this are all about.

In this version the special effects are very well done, with numerous fight scenes involving Hobbs, played by Dwayne Johnson and Shaw, played by Jason Statham. The ending scene involving a helicopter and a series of trucks all chained together that looked extremely dangerous to film and was the best action sequence in the movie. What is always most entertaining about action movies like these are the stunts and fight scenes and this one delivers as expected.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for Hobbs and Shaw are a below average 67% and I give this movie 75%, mainly because of the well made action scenes and some of the comedic banter between Hobbs and Shaw. There will definitely be a sequel to this movie and perhaps another spin off involving Alba’s robot character.