WHAT MEN WANT

Taraji P. Henson     Josh Brener     Aldis Hodge     Richard Roundtree

Tracy Morgan     Shane Paul McGhie    Erykah Badu

     What Men Want is counterpart to Nancy Meyers’ earlier film, What Women Want, with essentially the same plot.  In this version, sharp-edged sports agent Ali (Henson) has to contend with the macho men in her company who are disparaging and pass over her in subtle and not so subtle ways.  But having been brought up by her boxing pro father (Roundtree), she has no trouble throwing her own punches, leading the men around her to regard her as a ball buster.  She, in turn, is dismissive of her gay assistant Brandon (Brener) and his aspirations to become a sports agent in his own right.  

     There are some entertaining and funny scenes of a poker game (which Ali crashes) and when the firm wants to become the agent for a budding basketball star, Jamal (McGhie), with a helicopter parent (Morgan).  After the front-line male agents put together an appalling video to promote him, Jamal is horrified, and Ali thinks she has a good chance to win him over.  With the plot turn of her visiting a psychic and gaining the ability to read men’s minds, she starts being very successful in poker as well as winning over Jamal and his father.

     But Ali’s penchant for topping everyone causes her to cut corners and run roughshod over anyone who can be of use to her, all of which she will have to answer to by the end of the film.  

     The kind of humor in this film and in its predecessor is not especially appealing to me, although I can understand how others might find it very entertaining. The audience in the screening I attended seemed to have a great appreciation for it.  However, I would have liked to ask them what they thought of the sex scenes, which were rather insensitive in their portrayal by apparently being intended primarily for laughs.  I also wonder if the gay community will have something to say about the way in which sexual orientation is presented, which is in a rather stereotypically humorous way.

     I have admired Taraji P. Henson ever since I first saw her in television’s “Person of Interest”, in which she played a slightly dowdy but sharp witted and stubborn city cop.  Of course, she has gone on to much grander roles in, for instance, Hidden Figures and the TV series “Empire” and become more glamorous in her appearance.  She shows a wide range of skills here, from brash and unheeding to sexily fun-loving to thoughtful and penitent.  Other standouts in performance include Richard Roundtree playing a loving father who understands the shortcoming of his parenting efforts, Erykah Badu playing a wondrous eccentric psychic, Tracy Morgan playing a kind of crazy parent, and Aldis Hodge as a gorgeous hunk with values.

Light comedy is the order of the day here, along with a few life lessons.

Grade:  C                                    By Donna R. Copeland

FIST FIGHT

Charlie Day     Ice Cube     Christina Hendricks     Tracy Morgan     Jillian Bell     Dean Norris

     This is one of the most pathetic, obnoxious films I’ve ever seen.  It’s hard to know where to start.  It pains me to learn that it is supposed to be a comedy.  Mr. Campbell (Day) is an English teacher in a high school completely out of control where students are able to put porn on TVs, use their cell phones to disrupt a video on the Civil War, write obscene remarks on a teacher’s blackboard (which are not erasable), spray the hallway floor with oil, and so on.  (Hopefully, you don’t know of any school in the world like this, and that it’s completely a product of the filmmakers’ minds.)  Campbell is a nice guy, but on the wimpy side, who is not averse to being sneaky—both of which he is accused of by everyone.  He gets framed right and left, but often because he simply doesn’t stand up for himself.

     He is a perfect foil for the teacher-bully at the school, Mr. Strickland (Ice Cube), who is able to maintain authority simply with a loud, commanding voice and penetrating stare.  Strickland is a good example of how this kind of authoritarianism is ineffective at best and abusive at worst.  He is also primed to single people out with pointed finger to blame for his troubles.  He’s still a (very) big kid with poor impulse control.

     The basic scenario of the film is that these two characters get cross-wires with each other, abetted by the students, but aided by their own poor problem-solving skills.  They have regressed to the point that the bully insists on the wimp coming outside after school for a fistfight (Fist Fight; get it?).  “We’re gonna handle this like real men”, says Strickland.  Real men?  Not!

     To add “spice” to the drama, the script calls for the school counselor to be the hopeless counselor who does drugs and flirts with a student, and another (Hendricks), who whips out a knife, wanting Strickland to use it on Campbell. 

     I always dread films that have school or psychology as subjects because Hollywood is notorious for mishandling and miscasting them.  Here, most of the students look like they’re at least in their twenties (making the action even more absurd), and the adults behave like children with poor impulse control who resort to outright lying when confronted.  Fist Fight models such a bad school environment it becomes absurd. 

     But the most disturbing experience of the screening is that a significant number of people in the audience, laughed throughout and applauded at the end.  I wonder, “Who are these people?  Do they not grasp the importance of modeling in films?  Do they think it’s hilarious when mobs egg on two people to fight one another, even when there’s a mismatch?”

Fist Fight is not recommended for anybody anywhere anytime.

Grade:  F                                               By Donna R. Copeland