Dayton937

Things to do in Dayton | Restaurants, Theatre, Music and More

Jamie Foxx

McCoy on Movies: THE BURIAL

By

Jamie Foxx, Tommy Lee Jones show spirited life in crowd-pleasing
Amazon Studios inspired by true events

“When I move, you move – just like that!” Willie Gay (Jamie Foxx, center) and Mike Allred (Alan Ruck, to the immediate left of Foxx) prepare for war a.k.a. litigation against Ray Loewen’s massive funeral empire in a scene from THE BURIAL. Credit: Skip Bolen © Amazon Content Services. All rights reserved.

WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:

KEY CAST MEMBERS: Jamie Foxx, Tommy Lee Jones, Mamoudou Athie, Jurnee Smollett, Alan Ruck, Bill Camp, Pamela Reed, Dorian Missick and Amanda Warren
THE BACK STORY: Inspired by true events, THE BURIAL stars Jamie Foxx as Willie Gay. Who is Willie Gay? Well, he’s a self-made man, the son of sharecroppers in Florida who has created his own mini legal empire. A superstar lawyer, Willie hasn’t lost a case in 12 years, which is why he has a 50-room mansion, luxury cars and the “Wings of Justice,” his own private plane.
By comparison, Jeremiah “Jerry” O’Keefe is a fairly simple man to say the least. The owner of eight funeral homes in Southern Mississippi, he’s hoping to leave the family business (which he inherited from his father) to his extended family. Given that he’s got double digit children of his own and even more grandchildren, that legacy is one he takes very seriously. Unfortunately, some bad business deals have left Jerry needing income quickly – which is why he decides to take the advice of his longtime lawyer and friend Mike Allred (Alan Ruck) and sell three of his funeral homes. The buyer? Ray Loewen (Bill Camp), the billionaire owner of Loewen Corp, the funeral industry giant with more locations than Willie has jewelry … And Willie has a lot of jewelry.
But when the handshake deal between Loewen and Jeremiah goes south, Jerry’s young apprentice lawyer seemingly in training Hal Dockins (Mamoudou Athie) assesses the situation and comes to a realization: Given the demographics of the county where Jerry’s lawsuit has been filed, having a lawyer that is both talented and that the jury will likely identify with is going to be crucial to winning the case. That lawyer? Yup, you guessed it, Willie Gay.
Apprehensive to take the case at first, Willie eventually relents and begins preparing. But Loewen has deep pockets and hires an extremely talented legal team of his own that is also well-suited for the jury. It’s leader? Mame Downes (Jurnee Smollett). And as Willie is about to find out, Downes is nicknamed “The Python” for a reason.
So … What happens in this David vs. Goliath legal tale for the ages that delves into everything from contracts to family to shady business and even African-American history that Ron DeSantis and Sarah Huckabee Sanders will hate? You’ll have to get Amazon Prime to find out.
THE REVIEW: THE BURIAL is entertaining for many reasons. It’s not just because Foxx and Jones are accomplished actors who can convey a broad range of emotions, have a great chemistry and are able to take their characters’ contrasts and transcend them into appeal that cuts across demographics. Likewise, it’s not because the film hits all the standard courtroom drama beats without feeling like a song that has been played to death (no pun intended).
No, it’s not even because Athie may be the greatest actor alive at playing “the sky is falling and what are we going to do” black guy in ages. (The fact he is smiling in his imdb.com picture feels shocking given his on screen presence.) What makes THE BURIAL work so well is the interplay between the characters that makes their relationships interesting.
Jones and Foxx characters exhibit an onscreen bond that makes their friendship feel as genuine as it was in real life. Likewise, the competitive yet professional respectfully battle between Foxx and Smollett heightens drama to the situation without ever feeling corny or superficial. As a character driven film, both situations are crucial to the film’s enjoyability; otherwise it could play out like your average TV drama. Instead, the film has a bit of the same vibe as AIR, both exploring how their situations are far more important and deeper than the subject matter would originally have you believe. Every character learns a lesson without feeling preachy or superficial, another facet of the film director Maggie Betts deserves kudos for execution-wise.
A film that is the definition of an audience pleaser without feeling sappy or superficial (save for some outrageous courtroom moments), THE BURIAL proves that Jones’ and Foxx’ respective careers are very much alive.
If nothing else, you will never listen to Toni, Tony, Toné the same ever again.

 

OVERALL RATING (OUT OF FOUR POSSIBLE BUCKETS OF POPCORN):
 

 

 

 

 

McCoy on Movies: STRAYS.

By

“The audience might be as high as we are if they find this entertaining!” (From left): Bug (Jamie Foxx) Reggie (Will Ferrell), Maggie (Isla Fisher) and Hunter (Randall Park) prepare to have a snack – with unexpected consequences – in a scene from STRAYS. Credit: Chuck Zlotnick/Universal Pictures © 2023 Universal Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:

 
DIRECTOR: Josh Greenbaum

KEY CAST MEMBERS: Will Forte, Brett Gelman, and the voices of Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher, Randall Park, Josh Gad, Harvey Guillén, Rob Riggle, Jamie Demetriou and Sofia Vergara

THE STORY: Brought to you (in)famously by the team behind Cocaine Bear and 21 Jump Street, STRAYS centers on Reggie (voiced by Will Ferrell), a naive, optimistic Border Terrier who doesn’t realize his owner Doug (Will Forte), hates him. Like, really hates him. That’s why when Doug finally is able to ditch him on the streets of the Pacific Northwest, he has no idea what’s going on.
Bug, a Boston Terrier (voiced by Jamie Foxx) with a literal love of couches, however, does. That’s why he decides its best to hip Reggie to what’s happening alongside his crew of Maggie (voiced by Isla Fisher), an Australian Shepherd and Hunter, a stressed out Great Dane (voiced by Russell Park) who doesn’t want to stop wearing his protective cone. Once Reggie realizes what’s happened, he decides his time to take revenge against Doug by biting off his favorite toy (and TRUST ME, it AIN’T a toy!).
But will Reggie get his revenge? There’s only way to find out …
THE REVIEW: Let me be brief: I liked Cocaine Bear. I own 21 Jump Street on Blu-Ray.  STRAYS, however, shouldn’t be adopted by movie audiences.
In fact, for neutering comedy the ways it does, it should be put down with extreme prejudice.
There are essentially three joke subjects in strays: Feces, sex/bodily fluids and anatomy. That’s about it. And they are worn out to death in the dumbest, grossest fashion possibly for 90+ minutes. As a stand-up comedian, I know that when used well, profanity can be of the highest verbal linguistics (see Pryor, Richard and Carlin, George for proof). STRAYS, however, uses profanity (along with the aforementioned three other subjects) so gratuitously that it becomes as ineffective as it is offensive. And it’s plenty offensive simply for how much it wears out those three tropes.
I for one am extremely happy Jamie Foxx is doing better after his recent health episode not only for his own well-being, but for the fact this hopefully won’t be his last theatrical release. The film tries to break free from its 14 year-old boy juvenile nature in its last act … Only to have that derailed by more silliness before the eventual “I guess I’m still watching this” ending. Forte is a shoo-in for a Golden Raspberry nomination, which might be the only endorsement PETA or the SPCA might give this gross-out trainwreck of a comedy. I mean, the long-forgotten The Happytime Murders was FAR more entertaining than this even though you knew it was wrong (and Jim Henson Studios HATED what it did to puppets), but STRAYS …. Not so much. When you find yourself asking “How did this get made?!” and “How much money was wasted on this?!” you probably won’t be thinking “sequel!”
They say all dogs go to heaven – but as STRAYS proves, there really are some bad dogs in this world and this movie is full of them.
OVERALL RATING (OUT OF FOUR POSSIBLE BUCKETS OF POPCORN):