THE ADDAMS FAMILY 2

Voices of:  Oscar Isaac     Charlize Theron     Chloe Grace Moretz     Nick Kroll

Snoop Dogg     Bette Midler     Bill Hader     Javon ‘Wanna’  Walton

            Silly; as it’s meant to be.  This version’s entertainment focuses on Dr. Strange (Hader) who is claiming that there was a mix-up at Wednesday’s (Moretz) birth and that she is actually his daughter.  “Isn’t it obvious?”, he says; she clearly has inherited his scientific talents.  This seems to play into Wednesday’s recent plans where—she being a teenager—is feeling ashamed of her parents and disgusted with her brother and wanting to get away.  The Addams parents try to hide the identity of Strange’s lawyer from Wednesday after the lawyer pays them a visit, but of course it’s only a matter of time before she figures out who he is.

            Sensing his beloved daughter’s distancing, Gomez (Isaac) decides it’s time for a family vacation, a trip across the United States.  His wife Morticia (Theron) agrees, saying, “Of course; we have some of the best dark secrets, as countries go.”  As part of the family, brother Pugsley (Walton), Uncle Fester (Kroll), and Lurch (Carel Struycken) will all board a contraption to be driven by Fester, discovering the wonders of America, all while being tailed by the lawyer and his thug.  

            A trip to Salem gets cancelled because Fester sees a sign to Niagara Falls and immediately veers in that direction.  From there, they will make their way to The Alamo in San Antonio, the Grand Canyon, and finally to Death Valley, which was to be their final destination, except…they must do a detour to Sausalito and the home of Dr. Strange, because Gomez and Morticia are not about to cede their daughter to Strange.

            The story and animations in the 2-version are entertaining, although I imagine that those who have seen previous versions of the Addams Family may find it repetitious.  My favorite character is Wednesday who shows a delightful mixture of insight and acerbity and is almost unerringly logical.  When she wins a science contest along with all the other participants, she declares with a harumph, “How can I be a winner when there are no losers?”  After she gives her father the one hug he has been longing for and is ready for another, she refuses, saying, “I’ve been socially distancing since birth.”  These are subtle comments about our current time that I found amusing.

            I find the cruelty of Wednesday toward her brother hard to take, although I realize that’s the kind of “pratfall humor” many enjoy.  I find the rationalizing of the parents endearing and refreshing, as they use every means they have at their disposal to bring her back to their fold.  I like the movie’s message of tolerance—even admiration—for strangeness; that’s probably a hallmark of the Addams stories.

            

Although Addams Family 2 is not something of a new sensation or profound in its insights, I can easily see how many people will find it enjoyable, endearing, and funny.

 

Grade:  C+                            by Donna R. Copeland 

DOLEMITE IS MY NAME

Eddie Murphy     Kodi Smit-McPhee    Wesley Snipes    Keegan-Michael Key

De’vine Joy Randolph     Chris Rock     Craig Robinson     Snoop Dogg     Mike Epps

     Here’s a way for black people to get into their groove and for those of us unfamiliar with Rudy Ray Moore (aka “Dolemite”), the “Godfather of Rap”, to jive a little with him and his cohorts when he is just getting started in show business in the 1970’s.  In the beginning of this story, he’s trying to make it as a comedian in L.A. when he has an inkling that there are black audiences who are not being served in the entertainment industry.  He finds in his stand-up routines that black people can appreciate a certain kind of humor, so he cagily puts out three bawdy records that sell well—much to others’ surprise, and even to his own.  

     It turns out that what was regarded by most of America at that time as profane—even porn--black people found in it a particular kind of humor (as in “Yo daddy’s a freak, and yo mama’s a whore”—the beginnings of the rap genre).  This encourages Rudy—who has stellar aspirations to add singing, acting, and film producing to his resume.  He is determined to satisfy the appetites of his people without regard to conventions (primarily white people’s), running up against not only white “shirts”, but (middle/upper class?) blacks in the arts and in production, who have been going in the direction of “refinement” as they envision it.  Rudy crashes right through all of that, while bringing many of those people on board with him.

     Rudy Ray Moore (expertly rendered by Murphy) is a fascinating individual with the unusual ability to sell his visions (and he is a master salesman) to producers who will back him so that he can give full vent to his creativity, first and foremost in comedy with music (what would eventually become rap), but as well in business (managing to get funding, construct a studio, act in and produce a movie).  How Rudy got started in show business is remarkable.  After serving in the Armed Forces, he was working in a record store, trying to get the DJ (Snoop Dogg) to play some of the records he’d made, which were based on a homeless man’s lewd limericks.

     We get to go along with Rudy on a major part of the making of his first movie, Dolemite, its significance being that it’s the first of what came to be known as Blaxploitation films. The filming of it has hilarious scenes where ineptness is clearly visible, but in Rudy’s hands becomes a delightful farce, helped along by Wesley Snipes (stunning!) as director D’Urville, Keegan-Michael Key (socompetent) as writer, Kodi Smit-McPhee (respectful, how-old-is-he? cinematographer), and Lady Reed (Randolph), Rudy’s creation of a saucy character from a self-deprecating, disillusioned woman. 

     Rudy is a complicated character in whom people have little faith; but in actually possessing talents in salesmanship, sensibility about black folk, and astute judge of character, he was able to pull it off, not only by proving his worth to the powers that be, but also recognizing traits in others that could be encouraged and brought out to serve his purposes.  A prime example is Lady Reed (Randolph) whom he decides after talking to her in a bar that she could be a funny sidekick in his comedy routine.  Writer Jerry Jones (Key) helps in coaching Rudy in script writing.  Rudy plucks his reluctant, snobbish director D’Urville Martin (hilariously played by Snipes) out of a strip club.  He accepts a new graduate (Smit-McPhee) from film school to be his cinematographer.  His old friends Ben Taylor (Robinson), Jimmy Lynch (Epps), and Daddy Fatts (Rock) are his reliable stand-bys.  

     In Dolemite is My Name, Eddie Murphy and Director Craig Brewer revive this character with apparently similar sensibilities about the world today as Rudy had about his people at the time.  It may seem a bit slow to viewers in the beginning, but that is partly because it takes a while to get oriented in another world—at least for many of us.  This was certainly true for me, as I had not seen previews and knew nothing about Rudy Ray Moore.  But after a time it became fascinating and truly funny.  

An entertaining account of the beginnings of rap popularized by a remarkable figure in showbiz.

Grade:  A-                                             By Donna R. Copeland