Tag: Will Smith

  • ‘Aladdin’ is low on magic

    ‘Aladdin’ is low on magic

    Mena Massoud and Will Smith in Aladdin

    “Arabs are the most maligned group in the history of Hollywood. They’re portrayed basically as subhumans.” – Dr. Jack G. Shaheen

    During the cinematic reckoning I underwent in my undergraduate years, one of the films that impacted me the most was the documentary Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People, which starts out with those lines. In the years since its release, the list of movies that have had Arab/Middle Eastern/Desi characters depicted as negative stereotypes, brownfaced/whitewashed out, made background in their own stories, or any combination of the above could fill a new documentary. Prince of Persia, Rendition, Exodus: Gods and Kings, The Devil’s Double, Argo, Iron Man, Vampire Academy, The Last Airbender, God’s Not Dead, The Dictator, American Assassin, The Hurt Locker, Sausage Party, Postal, The Kingdom, Gods of Egypt, Body of Lies, The Social Network, Zero Dark Thirty, The Mummy, American Sniper, 7 Days in Entebbe, The Dark Knight Rises, Star Trek Into Darkness, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, The Simpsons Movie (the character in which did get a whole documentary devoted to him) – and that’s just off the top of head (to say nothing of the “contributions” made by other media like television, video games, and comics).

    Aladdin 2019 – the 1992 animated film itself featured prominently in the documentary, saying that it “recycled every old degrading stereotype from Hollywood’s silent black-and-white past” – is certainly a step up and heads things in the right direction. Alas, that’s pretty much all it does. 

    Centuries ago in the Arabian city of Agrabah, Aladdin (Mena Massoud) is a street thief who falls for Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott) when she disguises herself as a commoner, but soon discovers who she really is. Eventually, he’s intercepted by, Jafar (Marwan Kenzar), an evil sorcerer and vizier to Jasmine’s father the Sultan (Navid Negahban), and tasked with retrieving a magic lamp from the selective Cave of Wonders (Frank Welker once again, also returning as Abu the monkey and Rajah the tiger). Of course, he ends up with the lamp and unleashing the Genie (Will Smith), which gets him three wishes.

    There’s a greater effort in curbing the offending bits. The “where they cut off your ear” lyric is long gone and being made with flesh and blood actors means the view that the bad characters are drawn as racist caricatures doesn’t apply. However, in virtually every other regard, this is an inferior copy of the 1992 film. It does a decent enough job of recreating some of that movie’s signature moments, but none are done better than they were the first time.

    Also, it comes off as cheap in places. The exterior of the Cave is completely static and its insides pale greatly to the animated counterpart. More of this corner-cutting comes up, particularly regarding Jafar. There’s no old man disguise, no “Prince Ali” reprise, the climax lacks the giant snake and hourglass trap, and Iago (Alan Tudyk) is just a regular parrot that says only two or three words at a time. Oddly, this seems to extend to the actor himself. He is quietly menacing, but holding back really doesn’t suit this part. 

    Where the budget did go appears in the costumes, which are impressively lavish. The song-and-dance numbers showing them off prove that the cast can move and sing well, particularly Scott. There are a couple of new songs for Jasmine, but they are very much not in the style of rest and stick out. One exception, though. Playing over the end credits is a version of “Friend Like Me” with new lyrics that Smith raps. This I actually think should have been used in the film proper instead of retreading the original. Smith is much more comfortable in this mode and it really shows.

    Which brings us to the Genie. No, Smith is not as good as Robin Williams was and won’t make you forget about that version. Yes, the attempts to mimic that style only bring more attention to this. However, he does do well when he’s allowed to be laid back (mostly when in human form) and be something more like Hitch. In territory that could have gone very wrong, he ultimately manages to acquit himself.

    Not so much for Billy Magnussen, in a performance that calls to mind Just Go with It when Nick Swardson is doing his “Dolph Lundgren” (it’s really not what it sounds like; if you’ve seen that movie, you know what I mean). Much has been said about how unneeded this reverse token role is and, well, they aren’t wrong. His part could have been cut completely and nothing of any real value would be lost. This character could possibly have been redeemed if they said he was from Arendelle, but no such luck.

    A Nostalgia Critic episode waiting to happen, Aladdin 2019 does well for representation, but very little else. If Return of Jafar is indeed to follow, then they need to do what that movie infamously did not: put some budgeting muscle behind it.

  • ‘Men in Black 3’ is… better than ‘Men in Black 2’

    Josh Brolin and Will Smith in 'Men in Black 3'
    Josh Brolin and Will Smith in ‘Men in Black 3’

    The singer “Meatloaf” was prophetic long ago, when he wrote a song that is now a perfect description of the MIB franchise.  The song “Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad” is an almost perfect description of this franchise.  The original Men in Black was great, Men in Black 3 was great, and Men in Black 2 is probably best just ignored and forgotten.

    To review the past, in the original film Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) recruits a New York detective who becomes Agent J (Will Smith) after he somehow manages the almost superhuman achievement of running down an alien known as a cephalopod.  The two team up, save the planet in the original, save the universe in the awful sequel and now here they are together again.

    This time they are talking about the eulogy that K must deliver for the recently deceased head of the Men in Black, Agent Zed (portrayed by Rip Torn in the first two films) at his upcoming funeral.  But before that happens, a prisoner escapes from the maximum security prison on the moon.  This prisoner, Boris “The Animal” is one bad dude.  He shoots sharpened “spikes” from either palm when he has two arms (one was shot off by Agent K when he was originally arrested).  He has the other ’super’ attributes such alien threats have, super strength, speed, endurance and so on.  Boris (Jemaine Clement) makes his escape with help from his girlfriend (Nicole Scherzinger of “Pussycat Dolls” fame).  Boris has a plan.  He’s going to go into the past and kill Agent K before K shoots off his arm, and thusly Boris’ people can conquer the Earth.

    Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith are together again in 'Men in Black 3'
    Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith are together again in ‘Men in Black 3’

    We meet Agent O (Emma Thompson) at the service for Zed and she is now in charge of MIB.  So when Agent J checks in the following morning, she’s the one who tells him that Agent K has been dead for 40 years, but thanks to a clue in J’s recent food compulsions, O becomes aware of a temporal shift (time-travel).  The only way to fix the problem is for Agent J to go into the past before Boris kills Agent K and save K.

    They refer to the method of travelling through time as a “time jump” for a reason.  But once J is in the past and is able to find K, he discovers that the Agent K he knew isn’t the K of 1969.  Josh Brolin is a dead-ringer appearance and speech-wise for the older version portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones, but something is different.  J even asks, several times, “what happened to you?”  The same, wise answer is repeated each time J asks the question.

    There’s an interesting specimen of a race that is aware of all possible permutations of the timeline based on the ever-changing sequences of events.  His name is Griffin and he’s by far the most interesting alien we’ve seen thus far in the MiB franchise.  If there is a 4th entry, I hope they find a way to bring him back.  He’s a lot more fun than the worms, or the tiny aliens in the locker in MIB 2 who worship J in a “God-like” manner.

    Men in Black 3 is a lot like the first entry in the franchise.  Slick special effects, impossible physical confrontations between humans and aliens that shouldn’t be possible, but happen in a way that you find plausible.  Sonnenfeld is blessed because the chemistry between the original stars is nearly identical to that between J and the Agent K of 1969.  There are some nice homages to the era, including a reference to the “Miracle Mets” who won the World Series that year.  If you want to nitpick, the appearance of the moon in the sky on the night before the lunar mission launch is wrong, but even though I knew that, it wasn’t a factor.

    MiB 3 is good enough to justify a 4th entry in the franchise and my only hope is that it doesn’t take a protracted period to get it done.

  • ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’

    Will Smith co-stars with his son, Jaden Christopher Syre Smith in 'The Pursuit of Happyness'
    Will Smith co-stars with his son, Jaden Christopher Syre Smith in ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’

    The Pursuit of Happyness, Gabriele Muccino’s feel-good winter film, may be cobbled together from the real-life story of Chris Gardner, but the film itself feels a little stale, a San Francisco retread of Kramer vs. Kramer. Luckily — and I never thought I would be one to say this — the film has superstar Will Smith in its corner.

    Smith plays Gardner, a failed salesman with mounting bills and an unsupportive wife (Linda, played by Thandie Newton). Leaps of faith never seem to pay off for the well-meaning soul, whose small household in the Tenderloin district, which also include their five-year-old son, Christopher (Smith’s own son, Jaden Christopher Syre Smith), so it’s no surprise that when Chris interviews for an unpaid internship at Dean Witter Reynolds (the film takes place in the early 1980s), Linda leaves the two for a waitressing opportunity in New York.

    Of course, things only go from very bad to even worse before they can get better. Gardner and his son are evicted from their apartment, homeless the two run from shelter to shelter while father must shepherd his son to daycare, make cold calls and study. Writer Steven Conrad must work within the confines of Gardner’s real life, which could come off as alternately cloying and redundant. However, he structures his movie in such a way that Pursuit seems aware of its own potential narrative pitfalls, and avoids them. (Oddly, though, the film, frontloaded with Smith’s narration, features very little of it in its second half). Even more difficult is Conrad’s ability to keep the audience engrossed; many know that in real life, Gardner ultimately became a millionaire, so the redemption of Smith’s character seems a foregone conclusion. (Even those unfamiliar with Gardner in real life might suspect that there would be no film if the dark, dark clouds offered no silver lining).

    That’s where Smith’s performance comes in. The performance itself — one of dogged determination — is no great challenge, but the spirit with which Smith imbues Gardner’s perseverance is precisely what Pursuit needs to keep on trucking. As one might expect, the chemistry between father and son Smith is believable and precious, too. It might have been a cheat to cast them rather than a professional child actor unrelated to the film’s star, but, hey it works. I do wish Muccino had dwelt a little more on some of the men who did give Gardner his rare breaks, but since this is strictly one man’s story, solid actors like Brian Howe, James Karen and Kurt Fuller will have to let their work speak for itself.

    Like I said, I haven’t been a fan of Smith; I have found his performances unskilled and one-noted, sugar-coated by a smarmy persona. Pursuit may not represent anything superlative, but it is certainly a step in the right direction.