Jamie Foxx

The Burial

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  • Title: The Burial
  • IMDb: link

The Burial

Based on true events, The Burial offers the odd couple pairing of Tommy Lee Jones as the owner of a family funeral business in Mississippi who enlists the help of a flashy attorney (Jamie Foxx) after being taken advantage by the CEO (Bill Camp) of a Canadian company that backed out of a deal that would have saved the family business. The curmudgeonly Jeremiah O’Keefe (Jones) and the flashy  Willie E. Gary (Foxx) have their ups and downs, but the film is as much (if not more) about the respect and friendship that develops between the unlikely pair as the court case itself.

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Day Shift

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  • Title: Day Shift
  • IMDb: link

With so many vampire movies made over the years, filmmakers have looked to put their own spin on the concept by offering something new. Sometimes that gives us Buffy the Vampire Slayer introducing the idea of a young woman destined to stand and fight against the vampires which would eventually spawn a for more interesting television franchise that drove female-led stories being developed across the medium. Sometimes that gives us goofy comedies such as Once Bitten playing on the gender-swapped sexuality of a cougar vampire and a virgin. And sometimes it gives us Day Shift.

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Soul

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  • Title: Soul
  • IMDb: link

Soul movie reviewPixar tackles the meaning of life in Soul. Jamie Foxx stars as Joe, a lifelong struggling musician who dies on the very day he earns his big break. Refusing to walk into the Great Beyond, Joe finds himself trapped in the Great Before where young souls are prepared prior to their journey to Earth. Joe’s fate will depend on helping a troubled soul (Tina Fey) find her one true thing.

Soul marks both Pixar’s first African American lead character and its director in Pete Docter (who also worked on much of the film’s development and screenplay). It’s a fun film, which will remind you of a number of body-switching comedies once Joe and 22 (Fey) make it back to Earth (many of those developed by Disney). The film also confirms that beaurcracy doesn’t end at death and Joe finds an entire new world to explore (and escape) if he wants to get home and claim his big break (while also teaching 22 about life).

Despite dealing with life and death, Soul lacks the emotional weight of previous Pixar films such as Up or Toy Story 3 due to how goofy much of the film becomes after Joe’s death.

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Project Power

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  • Title: Project Power
  • IMDb: link

Project Power movie reviewThere’s an intriguing kernel of an idea in Project Power about the possibility of a drug that could deliver short-term super-powers. Set in New Orleans where the drug has popped-up, we’re introduced to morally-ambiguous but self-righteous cop Frank Shaver (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who uses the drug to fight off criminals using the drug to get away with crimes. Frank buys the drugs from a teenager (Dominique Fishback), who is a nice drug dealer that only sells drugs to get her mother much needed surgery just like Frank is a nice drug user only taking Power in order to become temporarily invincible and take down those with worse intentions.

That’s enough for story for the film to delve into, but there’s also a former soldier calling himself Major (Jamie Foxx) rousting local dealers in hopes of working his way up the chain to the supplier. As for the supplier, the script feels a bit unsure if they are government or corporate (we know from Frank that the experiments started in the United States Armed Forces, but we see no actual government agents at work other than a couple of Men in Black stand-ins who are never identified).

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Just Mercy

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  • Title: Just Mercy
  • IMDb: link

Just Mercy movie reviewBased on true experiences of defense attorney Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan), writer/director Destin Daniel Cretton delivers a straightforward biopic that is more about one lawyer’s struggle against a broken legal system than the legal maneuverings of a crafty lawyer. After a brief introduction to the character, the film begins in earnest with Stevenson taking his Harvard education to Alabama to defend those on death row who never received a fair trial.

The film primarily deals with Stevenson’s attempts to earn a new trial for Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx) who was convicted of murder on the testimony of one unreliable witness (Tim Blake Nelson) and no physical evidence thanks in large part to the pressure and intimidation of a local sheriff (Michael Harding) whose motives the film never really examines.

Just Mercy is a solid film filled with actors who have given more memorable roles in other movies. Along with Foxx and Jordan we also get Brie Larson as another member of the defense team who helped Stevenson set-up the Equal Justice Initiative offices in Montgomery, Alabama.

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