By Debbie Schlussel

I had to travel out of town unexpectedly late last week, stayed overnight unexpectedly, and my hotel blocked this site as “Forbidden” (thanks, La Quinta Inn!), so I could not post my reviews while away. Upon my return, after driving over 600 miles in a day, I was worn out and couldn’t get my movie reviews up before the Jewish Sabbath. I also decided to take the weekend off to regroup and do other work. So, my apologies for the belated movie reviews. Believe me, if there were even one good movie, I’d have made it a point to put these up earlier. But better late than never. You can always hear my movie reviews first thing every Friday morning on “The Mike Church Show” on SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125 after 7:05 am Eastern and on “The Pat Campbell Show” on KFAQ 1170 AM Tulsa at 7:35 am Eastern. I do my movie reviews on both, as well as some discussion of current political issues and pop culture topics on both shows.

* “No Good Deed“: It’s funny how Black America is always yelling and screaming that Hollywood is racist, and, yet, when Blacks make their own movies, they are quite racist against their own, if this is any example. Produced by the movie’s stars, Idris Elba and Taraji P. Henson, the two Black male leads in this movie are typical racial stereotypes of Black men. One, Elba, is a crazed, obsessed criminal, who is also a convicted murderer and rapist. The other is a cheating, lying husband. Oh, and they are both fighting over a White chick, to the detriment of the Black wife/mother and her kids. Well, to every stereotype, there is a kernel of truth.

This movie is billed as a “thriller,” but it’s actually a quite slow, predictable offering more suited to Lifetime Channel TV Movie of the Week fare. I feel like I’ve seen this movie a gazillion times . . . in the 1980s. Yes, the plot of this movie was sooooo old and tired. Haggard, in fact, like many of the actors in the movie.

The story: a Black man (Elba) with a record of rapes and murders is denied parole, so he murders the guard and driver on the transport vehicle taking him back to prison. Then, he escapes to go terrorize and murder his White ex-girlfriend, who ignored his letters and has moved on to a new boyfriend. Then, his stolen car crashes, and he goes for help at a nearby home, which is occupied by Henson. She is alone with her children at home, as her husband has gone away for the weekend. She is charmed by and attracted to Elba and eventually lets him in to her home. SPOILER ALERT: Then, he murders her friend, terrorizes Henson and her kids, and takes them to the house of his dead girlfriend, where she learns that her hubby, who left her alone with the kids to contend with this murderer, isn’t on a business trip. He was having an affair with Elba’s White chick girlfriend.

So, you see, all the Black men in the movie are horrible. And the Black woman is a strong, independent single mother at the end, so “life is better!” And you wonder why Black America has out-of-wedlock birth rates nearing 75%.

The only good thing I can say about this movie is that I saw it with a Black audience who talked and made very funny comments throughout. That made the movie more bearable and entertaining.

TWO MARXES

Watch the trailer . . .

* “The Drop“: This long, boring, extremely violent and grisly movie was pointless and a complete time bandit, stealing nearly two hours of your life you’ll never recover. Tom Hardy plays an employee at the bar his Cousin Marv (James Gandolfini) started, called “Cousin Marv’s.” But Marv lost the bar to Chechen mobsters (whom the movie never tells us are Muslim, but Chechens are, indeed, Muslim). The bar gets robbed and the Chechens want the guy caught as do Marv and Hardy. Soon, suspects in the robbery are brutally attacked (a guy gets his leg drilled into the floor of a van by the Chechens, and then they cut him up into pieces and wrap those pieces, including a severed head, delivering them to the bar). Yup, like I said, charming movie.

I didn’t really care about this movie or the plot (what little there is of one), such as how Marv wants to stage another robbery and is apparently in on the first one, killing the guy who did it. The movie ends violently and is completely stupid, despite a cute dog inserted into the plot.

Skip this.

FOUR MARXES

Watch the trailer . . .