WHAT MEN WANT (2019) – My rating: 8.5/10

“What Men Want” is a fantasy comedy directed by Adam Shankman and is loosely based on the 2000 film, “What Women Want” in reverse gender. The plot follows a woman who, after drinking a potent concoction given by a shaman, gains the ability to hear men’s inner thoughts. While this is not a new concept, the movie is surprisingly funny.

Ali Davis (Taraji P. Henson) is an executive sports agent working for Summit Worldwide Management, which is mostly male-dominated. She’s been over-looked for partner several times but believes today is the day. She and her gay assistant Brandon (Josh Brener), who wants to be a sports rep, are gearing up toward a celebration, believing she is going to make partner. Ali is passed over once again, which makes her fighting mad. Ali’s boss, Nick (Brian Bosworth), acknowledges that Ali is a hard worker but he says she just doesn’t connect well with the other men. Ali announces to everyone in the building that she WILL sign rising basketball superstar Jamal Barry (Shane Paul McGhie) and prove to others why she deserves to be partner. Ali goes to meet her co-workers as they try to work out a deal with Jamal and his father, Joe Dolla (Tracy Morgan) but fails.

Ali spends time with her father Skip (Richard Roundtree) at the boxing gym he manages before they go to grab dinner. Skip points out a new bartender named Will (Aldis Hodge), whom Ali finds attractive. She stays there to introduce herself, and Will makes her a special cocktail. They go back to his house where they end up engaging in a wild night of sex. In the morning, Ali is in for a surprise when Will’s six year old son Ben (Auston Moore), appears in the bedroom wearing her panties on his head siting, “Wakonda forever” from the movie, Black Panther. She realizes she is late for work and runs out, showing up to a photo shoot wearing evidence of her wild night.

Ali is scheduled to attend a bachelorette party that evening for Mari, (Tamala Jones) one of her three best girlfriends, which also includes Ciarra, (Phoebe Robinson) and Olivia (Wendi McLendon-Covey),  who employed the services of a psychic named Sister (Erikah Badu).  Ali is first to get a reading by Sister and is given tea made of weed, Peyote and Cocaine. While dancing, Ali is hit by a questionable object that causes her to fall, hit her head and pass out. She wakes up in a hospital where she discovers she is able to hear her male doctor’s thoughts. Ali is so freaked out by her new found power, she runs all the way to her company building able to hear the thoughts of all males around her. Upset, she tracks down the psychic for help. Sister advices her to use this gift to get what she wants at work. Agreeing, Ali goes back to her job and starts listening to the mind of her colleagues.

I was truly surprised at how funny “What Men Want” is.  The original with Mel Gibson was nowhere near as funny.  The story is full of scenes that are both hilarious and entertaining.  Keep in mind, “What Men Want” is a fantasy comedy and consider my above lead-in to be short and sweet because there is so much more to come in the actual film.  The acting is absolutely brilliant as is the plot.  Viewers rated “What Men Want” five out of five stars, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that happen before.  Rotten Tomatoes was just that, a rotten rating of only 43%.  I have no clue why they rated the movie so low but I really enjoyed it.  Check It Out, you won’t be sorry.

SKYSCRAPER (2018) – My rating: 7/10

Skyscraper is an action film written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber. The story follows a former FBI agent who must rescue his family from a newly built skyscraper–the tallest in the world–after it is taken over by criminals and set on fire. The first non-comedy of Thurber’s career, it also marks his second collaboration with Johnson, following Central Intelligence released in 2016.

Standing at 3,500 feet (1,100 m) and 225 stories tall, a high level Asian financier, Zhao Long Ji  (Chin Han) financed the construction of the world’s tallest skyscraper in Hong Kong, which they call “The Pearl”. Halfway through the construction process, rival gangsters under the control of Kores Botha (Roland Møller), an international terrorist kingpin, decides to use his control of the construction crews to extort millions of dollars in shakedown payments.  To prevent a massive strike of workers, which would potentially halt production and cost millions of dollars, the financiers of the skyscraper agree to the shakedown amounts.   Botha learns the existence of a memory card, created by the financier group, that records as well as tracks his international money laundering scheme.  The financiers believe the memory card will provide them with insurance against any attempt by Botha to extort money from them a second time.

Meanwhile, a former FBI Hostage Rescue Team leader and U.S. war veteran, Will Sawyer (Dwayne Johnson), now assesses security for skyscrapers since having one leg amputated, from the knee down, while on a previous mission.  Will  has been fitted with a modern prosthetic leg and tasked with inspecting “The Pearl,” which houses several floors that function as their own society. Despite numerous risks highlighted by Sawyer, his bosses insist the skyscraper is impenetrable.

Skyscraper is action packed but totally unbelievable.  As usual, Dwayne Johnson gives a brilliant performance but some of the stunts are not humanly possible to obtain.  The organized gang was ruthless as most gangs are, stopping at nothing to achieve their goal, which includes igniting the 96th floor of the Skyscraper.  You can only imagine where the drama and adventure this action will take Will and his family. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised Johnson’s performance but criticized the script as clichéd and too similar to The Towering Inferno and Die Hard.  It’s filled with action and many tense moments — a nice way to pass the evening.  Check it out!

 

 

 

10 CLOVERFIELD LANE (2016) – MY rating: 8.5/10

10 Cloverfield Lane is a good one. Advertised as a thriller/horror movie, it’s a lot of one and some of the other. It keeps you guessing all the way through. I was entertaining at lease three endings before we even reached the middle of the movie. A young lady Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) apparently leaves her fiancé, Ben. On the way to where ever she was going, she drives through Louisiana late at night and has an accident with something (lets assume it’s another car). The next scene, she’s bolted to a wall, unconscious in a bed, locked in a concrete room with bruises on her leg and face. Soon a man named Howard (John Goodman) appears who eventually tells her a story about why she is there, in his bunker and how grateful she should be. The air outside is contaminated, according to Howard, and there may be aliens who have taken over the world or not. Perhaps the explosion she allegedly saw, only took out the United States of America or just the state of Louisiana. At any rate, there’s no escape for at lease two years. Many things happen that support Howard’s theory eventually making a semi-quasi believer out of Michelle. They become friends for a time but Howard shows a violent side which makes it difficult to trust him. As time goes by, Michelle learns more about Howard and their situation and grows more suspicious. There is also one other young man named Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.) living in the underground bunker with them. He seems normal and very nice and they get along well. Howard however, seems to be agitated with Emmett most of the time. Forming her own conclusions, Michelle plots an escape, but Howard is too smart and too suspicious. As the film forges on, we begin to draw our own conclusions but things are not what they seem. We are mostly incorrect right up to the very end. This movie is different, entertaining, well thought out and very well acted. Dan Trachtenberg, in his directorial debut, left no stone unturned as closure was brought to all. I wouldn’t be surprised if a sequel is in the works. Nicely done!

SAN ANDREAS (2015) – My rating: 8.5/10

San Andreas is another natural disaster movie for which we can do nothing about. The story revolves around the broken family of a helicopter rescue pilot, a Caltech Seismologist, a reporter, 2 youngsters visiting from England, a real estate developer and most of California and Nevada. Dr. Lawrence Hayes (Paul Giamatti) and his his colleague Dr. Kim Park (Will Yun Lee) have discovered that their research has paid off when they are able to predict earthquakes. Hoover Dam was the first to be hit with a 7.1 earthquake, killing almost everyone in the area and destroying the entire Dam. Because of the quake, Raymond (Dwayne Johnson) was called in to assist in the rescue efforts, preventing him from accompanying his daughter, Blake (Alexandra Daddario) on a trip to San Francisco. Instead she hitched a flight with her wealthy step father to be, Daniel Riddick (Ioan Gruffudd).  Once they arrived in San Francisco, Blake met Ben (Hugo Johnstone-Burt) and his little brother Ollie (Art Parkinson).  Another earthquake hit and they were all caught in the largest recorded earthquake of 9.6 in history .  The special effects were literally out of this world.  The story was better than most of these disaster movies and the acting was excellent with many stars gracing the screen.  Raymond spent his time trying to rescue his family but getting through all the debris and dodging the falling buildings is a whole other story.  San Andreas is non-stop action with the usual destruction and problems one would encounter during such a phenomenon.  Like most of these types of movies, a lot of the escape scenes were unbelievable but necessary to create the wow factor.  Dwayne Johnson’s character is likable, which made the movie likable.  San Andreas is good entertainment.  I saw it in 3D because of all the special effects — I think it was worth the extra charge.