CREED II (2018) – My rating: 8.5/10

Creed II is a drama directed by Steven Caple Jr. and written by Juel Taylor and Sylvester Stallone, from a story by Sascha Penn and Cheo Hodari Coker. A sequel to Creed (2015) and the eighth installment in the Rocky film series. Creed II was definitely a film I wanted to skip, I am so glad I didn’t, as the movie was quite entertaining, despite the same old plot and a predictable outcome.

Creed II follows a fight over 33 years in the making, as the current heavy weight champion meets a new adversary in the ring.  Three years after his loss to “Pretty” Ricky Conlan (Anthony Bellew), Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) scores several wins, culminating in a victory over Danny “Stuntman” Wheeler (Andre Ward) to win the WBC World Heavyweight Championship. Now a worldwide star, Adonis proposes to his girlfriend, Bianca Taylor (Tessa Thompson) who agrees to marry him.

**** SOME SPOILERS BELOW ****

Meanwhile, a former Soviet boxer named Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), who was responsible for the death of Adonis’ father, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) thirty-three years earlier, sees an opportunity to regain the glory he lost in Moscow fighting Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) by pitting his son, Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu) against Adonis.  However, Rocky refuses to support Adonis’s decision to accept Viktor’s challenge, so feeling betrayed by Rocky’s decision, Adonis moves to Los Angeles where he and Bianca settle down in a luxurious apartment close to Adonis’s adoptive mother and Apollo’s widow, Mary Anne (Phylicia Rashad). As Adonis and Bianca adjust to their new life on the west coast and prepare for the upcoming match with Viktor, Bianca learns that she is pregnant. Caused to choose a new trainer, Adonis recruits Tony “Little Duke” Evers (Wood Harris), son of his father’s trainer, as Rocky’s replacement.  Overwhelmed with all the recent developments in his life, Adonis rushes into the match, getting himself badly injured. Viktor gets disqualified for hitting Adonis while he is down, allowing Adonis to retain the World Heavyweight Championship.

At this point you might think I’ve revealed the entire story but I haven’t even gotten started.  Creed II is packed full of excitement and twisted plots.  There is much more to explore and learn about the life of Adonis.  Knowing that Adonis and Viktor will fight again you have to wonder how it happens and who will emerge the victor.  I liked Creed II very much but I wouldn’t want to see a Creed III.  The actors were brilliant and Creed II is a nice way to end the Rocky series.  Sylvester Stallone’s enunciation was better than any other movie I’ve seen him in, I actually understood every word.  I recommend seeing Creed II — Check it out!

 

THE HATE U GIVE (2018) – My rating: 10/10

The Hate U Give is a drama directed by George Tillman Jr. and written by Audrey Wells. It is based on Angie Thomas’ 2017 novel of same name.  The Hate U Give focuses on racism and the numerous shootings of young Black unarmed men by White cops.  The plot follows the fallout after a high school student witnesses a police shooting and is easily one of the best films I’ve ever seen.

Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) is a young high school student who tries to live a normal life in the suburb of an all-black district of Garden Heights, with her family. Starr’s mother, Lisa Carter (Regina Hall) and father, Maverick Carter (Russell Hornsby) sacrificed to send her and her half brother, Seven Carterto (Lamar Johnson) to Williamson High, a predominately White private school in a White neighborhood, to avoid the downfalls of a ghetto school and a ghetto neighborhood. Starr is quite popular among the students and has several White girlfriends, Hailey (Sabrina Carpenter) and Maya (Megan Lawless) are among her prep school friends, which also includes a White boyfriend named Chris (KJ Apa).

One night, Starr attends a local house party and runs into her childhood friend Khalil (Algee Smith). A brawl breaks out and shots are fired, so Khalil and Starr flee the party in his car. While driving Starr home, Khalil is pulled over by a police officer. In an unforgettable turn of events, Khalil is gunned down and shot dead in front of a horrified Starr, when the policeman mistakenly thinks Khalil is a criminal who was reaching for a gun that turned out to be a hairbrush.

Later, Starr is approached by an activist, April Ofrah (Issa Rae) who tries to get Starr to speak her truth to the media and the neighborhood. To complicate matters, Starr’s uncle Carlos (Common) is a police officer and King (Anthony Mackie) a local drug dealer who employed Khalil and is also Seven’s half sister’s Kenya (Dominique Fishback) father. In the aftermath of his death and funeral, citizens all over the city begin to demand justice leaving the traumatized but courageous Starr to find her voice and speak the truth about what happened the night of the shooting.  Starr was concerned that the students at her school would single her out as a “poor Black kid” from the ghetto and feel pity while adopting a “hands-off” approach.  Confused and angry, Starr eventually finds her footing and her truth. The back story regarding King, the neighborhood drug dealer is a little ify, in my opinion, but can easily be over looked.

The Hate You Give was so touching, I was not able to withhold my emotions, causing me to sob at the mere idea of an innocent person of any color being shot several times by a frightened cop.  The story was told in such a way that it truly gets under your skin. Amandla Stenberg’s performance was flawless. I love the way the officer was portrayed as he makes a traffic stop displaying his over the top nervousness which in my opinion, is the reason rookie or improperly trained police should not be assigned to the streets. They appear to be so afraid of getting shot they cannot think straight. Maybe all police should wear bullet proof vest. Injustice on all sides are brilliantly addressed in The Hate You Give, making it one of the most powerful films to come along in quite some time. Excellent movie — check it out!

FENCES (2016) – My rating: 9/10

I heard Fences was somewhat theatrical, which it was and after seeing it, I also found it was a little slow. At times, I felt I watching a play but a very well written and a very well acted play. Never having read August Wilson’s play, I didn’t know where this story was going. Then all of a sudden, it took a turn for the better. I sat up in my seat and any boredom and any bad thoughts I harbored about having come to see Fences disappeared. Suddenly, excitement and intrigue entered the story. My emotions were coming into play and I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen next. Was I dreaming or was this really happening? Was this boring, straight, hardly off the beaten path, Black man now full of sass and controversy with an exciting story to tell? Is he really standing here before his wife saying what I’m hearing?

Fences takes place in the 1950s and tells the story of Troy Maxson (Denzel Washington) who lives in Pittsburgh with his wife Rose Maxson (Viola Davis) and their son Cory Maxson (Jovan Adepo).  Fences is a story about a Black family with many stories of how they got to the point they have gotten to with the convictions, hopes and dreams for their future and their child’s future. Troy and Rose along with Troy’s brother Gabe Maxson (Mykelti Williamson) and their child try to make it in a world that makes it extremely hard for them to just exist and live normally. Troy works for the Department of Sanitation as a garbage collector along side his best friend, Jim Bono (Stephen McKinley Henderson). However, Troy wants to be a driver like the White man and wonders why that position is excluded from the Black man. Thinking he is about to get fired for speaking up, Troy gets quite the surprise instead. From here we meet Troy’s estranged son from a previous relationship, Lyons Maxson (Russell Hornsby), who infrequently visits his father to borrow money, which upsets Troy, since he’s not on board with Lyons choice of occupation as a musician.  In addition, Troy’s son Cory wants to play football, which Troy is also not on board with since he feels Blacks can’t make a decent living in the NFL either.  Having played professionally in the Negro Leagues himself, he believes he was passed over because he is Black and not because he was too old for advancement.

Fences goes on to tell the stories that define Troy and the decision making that go into shaping his brand of raring his son and dealing with his handicap brother as well as his profound feelings of love and marriage that make him who he is today.  It also mentions the fence Rose asked him to build around their house, many times.  Having survived a near-fatal bout of pneumonia in his youth, Troy claims to have done so by defeating the Grim Reaper in a fistfight, upon which the Reaper vowed to return for a rematch. The titular fence is conceptualized by Troy as a symbolic way to keep the Grim Reaper out, but is also representative of the emotional barriers he built between himself and his sons as well as Rose’s effort’s to protect the people she holds dear.

Of course I have left out the most exciting parts of this story and urge you to go see an extraordinary classic you won’t soon forget.  Denzel and Viola really were brilliant and it’s a story that’s worth knowing about.  It goes places you would not have imagined.  Check it out!

{BTW, Viola Davis won the 2017 Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture,  for Fences!}

 

[FENCES is nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay]

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