The South African stage musical on student insurrection in Soweto: long way from Rodgers and Hart. Something is gained by placing it in the actual locale, but there isn't a plotline complex enough to fill it. And the infectious songs and dances -- total fantasy -- sit uneasily alongside the …
Computer-written comedy about a Reno lounge singer who witnesses a mob murder and, while waiting for a court date, hides out in a Carmelite convent, whips the cacophonous choir into shape (giving a Christian twist to that girl-rock classic, "I Will Follow Him," as Kenneth Anger already did in Scorpio …
The comic foundations look solid: the similarity of TV soap-opera actors to TV soap-opera characters (greed, jealousy, treachery, etc.) and the vanity, the theatricality, the remoteness from real life of all actors whatsoever, regardless of the level on which they're employed. Though you might chuckle in anticipation, a consistent style …
Americanization of an unimported French farce written by Luc Besson: a bumbling white male cop (Jimmy Fallon) and a brassy black female cabbie (Queen Latifah, the new Whoopi Goldberg) on the trail of a bank-robbing gang of Brazilian bombshells (supermodel Gisele Bündchen, et al.). Undemanding and unrewarding. With Jennifer Esposito …
Very much a live-action cartoon (albeit one just Dark 'n Gritty enough to merit a PG-13 rating), right down to lines like, "Drain all of their blood — even if it kills them!" Some actors (Megan Fox) try much harder than others (Whoopi Goldberg) in this tale of plucky, pretty …
The true story of how, in her darkest hour, Mamie Till-Mobley's love opened the world's eyes with her quest for justice for her son, Emmett. Directed by Chinonye Chukwu, starring Danielle Deadwyler, Whoopi Goldberg, Jalyn Hall, Frankie Faison, Jayme Lawson, Tosin Cole, Kevin Carroll, Sean Patrick Thomas, John Douglas Thompson, …
Canadian-made anthology of women in stand-up comedy, fleshed out with off-stage interviews as well as archival footage (of Lucille Ball, Fanny Brice, Mae West, et al.) that somewhat blurs the focus. Some of the biggest names are absent: Rivers, Barr, Tomlin, Rudner, Bernhard. And the level of humor is not …