Girls Trip Movie Review

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“A much needed, relatable, make you laugh until your cheeks hurt and you get a headache, but pulls on your emotional strings just a tad, kind of comedy.”

— Shaneé McDaniel, Swirl Girl

“I haven’t laughed this hard from a movie in so long. I think my soul laughed!”

— Shaneé McDaniel, Swirl Girl

I feel this movie was released right on time. It’s summertime; kids are out of school, people are either on vacation, planning for vacation, or have already vacationed, and political stresses are all amongst all of other things going on in every day life. A good laugh, better yet a lot of good laughs are definitely needed right about now. This movie definitely serves up tons of laughs with a side of rate R. Girls Trip is basically a much needed, relatable, make you laugh until your cheeks hurt and you get a headache but pulls on your emotional strings just a tad, kind of comedy!

It starts with giving you a quick summary of how these girls were so close and grew up together being best friends and there for each other. They called themselves the “Flossy Posse”. The movie starts with laughs! Then it quickly shows how becoming adults and focusing on careers, family, life struggles, and location differences can put a strain on friendships and eventually lead to long periods of time when you do not see or hang out with your girls. Until an amazing opportunity presents itself in New Orleans and that much needed time with your friends, the ones who know you best and have been there for you through the highs and lows, will actually come true and the adventure will start soon!

You are taken on a ride as soon as they prepare to meet each other and from the previews and movie trailers, the airport scene really kicks it off. The movie theater erupted in laughter so many times within the first 10 minutes of the movie and barely stopped for the rest of it. Finally, you sense that something is just not right with 2 of the girls and eventually with one character and her husband. Then BAM! You are hit with it. The perfect, successful married couple has a scandalous secret that is about to be exposed and shock the entire world. The husband has a “side-chick” who has become extremely bold and the wife admits to her friends that she already knows about her cheating husband. Her friends are stunned and confused! Now starts the journey of the hilarious outings, shocking moments, “oh hell no” and “uh oh” reactions, and the teachable and women empowerment scenes. The friends end up having a huge fall out but eventually come back together because their love and support for each other is undeniable and unbreakable.

I’ll leave it there. I mean can’t tell everything. However, I would like to add, for the ladies, that you would definitely have some eye candy. The ladies did not hold back on their sounds and comments in the theater about the good-looking men in the movie. There was Larenz Tate (Menace II Society, Love Jones, Crash, Why Do Fools Fall In Love), Kofi Siriboe (Queen Sugar, Straight Outta Compton, Kicks, Whiplash), and William Levy (Single Moms Club, Addicted, Single Ladies, Resident Evil).

Malcom D. Lee, the director, chose a great cast that fully embodied their characters. Seriously, can you really go wrong with Regina Hall, Jada Pinkett-Smith, and Queen Latifah? Plus the not so new, newcomer comedian, Tiffany Haddish, definitely stole the show and held her own with the big name actresses. Plus the screenwriters also wrote the very successful TV shows Black-ish and Survivors Remorse. Can you say homerun for the cast and crew?!? You can’t help but watch the movie and try to figure out which character you are. I went to see this movie with my girls and we immediately began identifying who each person was in the movie. Which made it even more relatable and much funnier.  So let me quickly breakdown each character:

• “The Boss” – Ryan Pierce played by Regina Hall, is a very successful, self-help enthusiast and best selling author, and speaker. She was given the opportunity to be the keynote speaker at the Essence Festival in New Orleans. Her husband is a retired NFL player and they have the chance of a lifetime of scoring a huge deal with a company that wants them to have their own show as a dynamic power couple. Her life seems perfect until her husband’s infidelity becomes public. She needed the girls trip more than she knew.

• The Gossip – Sasha Franklin played by Queen Latifah, is a once successful blogger then turned into struggling celebrity gossip blogger. Her and Regina Hall’s character have some tension between them because of a business deal falling through. She really needs a big story or she is about to lose everything. She gets the story first about her friend’s husband cheating scandal. She’s now torn on what to do but finally makes a decision that doesn’t turn out how she expected… or does it?

• The Mom – Lisa Cooper played by Jada Pinkett-Smith, is a somewhat newly divorced nurse with two children and living at home with her mother. She was once a “hot momma” with sass appeal and a spunky side now turned into a reserved, control freak, and old-fashioned yet kind-hearted and wants everyone to get along. Her children are her world and that’s all that matters. I feel she needed this girls trip just as much as Ryan Pierce (Regina Hall’s character).

• The Wild One – Dina played by Tiffany Haddish, is the hilarious foul mouthed, tell it like it is, wild child, partying and having a good time, overly sexual, weed smoking, and a little ditsy but highly loyal to her girls character. She stole the show in the movie and kept the laughs coming! I mean, she beat up her co-worker for eating her Go-gurt yogurt and was happy she only had chlamydia because it was curable.

(Take the quiz and see for yourself here) 

Girls Trip was raw and had uncut comedy. It was good to see Queen Latifah and Jada Pinkett-Smith together in a movie since the great Set It Off, and yes there was a quick reference to it in Girls Trip. I am so glad the director and screenwriters didn’t hold back and try to make it fit into or minimize this movie to make it completely like others. There were a few predictable scenes but overall, to me, it is a must see and much purchase when it is released to DVD. I will most definitely watch it again I give it 4.5 out of 5 swirls!

“This weekend is about us, we deserve this… today is the last day that we will ever be this young…”

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Main Cast:

Regina Hall – Ryan Pierce

Queen Latifah – Sasha Franklin

Jada Pinkett-Smith – Lisa Cooper

Tiffany Haddish – Dina

Kate Walsh – Elizabeth Davelli

Larenz Tate – Julian Stevens

Mike Colter – Stewart Pierce

Kofi Siriboe – Malik

Deborah Ayorinde – Simone

Lara Grice – Bethany

Special Appearances:

New Edition

Iyanla Vanzant

Estelle

Common

P Diddy

Ma$e

Faith Evans

Common

Ne-Yo

Ava DuVernay

Mike Epps

Morris Chestnut

Babyface

Mariah Carey

Doug E. Fresh

MC Lyte

And more…

Beauty and the Beast Movie Review:

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“Tale as old as time, that makes you feel like a kid all over again! I think I was more into the movie than my 7-year-old daughter. A worth-it must see for the whole family.”

For those who may not have heard of or watched a Beauty and The Beast movie ever, it is a story of a young girl who lives in a small town and aspires to much more in life than what is offered in her village. She loves to read books and allow the stories to take her to far away places. Her name is Belle, which is fitting and she is trying to be courted by an overly arrogant, egotistical, self-centered pompous man by the name of Gaston. She will have no parts of Gaston, dating or marrying him, or his tricks. She’s a great daughter to her father Maurice, and when his horse returns home without him, she immediately sets out to find him. Here is when she encounters the Beast, who has captured her father. She trades places with him and becomes a “prisoner” in the Beast's castle. Long story short, Gaston and the villagers find the Beast and try to attack him and those living in his castle. I will stop there, as I do not want to give any more away. (Inserts kiddish laugh, Tee-hee-hee!)

Popcorn, slushy, and candy in hand, rushing to get into the theater to get that perfect seat right in the middle, and a quick prayer no one sits by you so you can sing each song with no distractions. We were settled in and excited to finally watch the movie. Shoot my husband even joined us and stayed awake the entire movie. I will admit I was a little leery about the cast and if this would be a disappointment. It crossed my mind that maybe the only really good thing is that most of the characters actually looked like the book and Disney cartoon characters. Then to my surprise, I felt the human characters really became one with the story and I forgot all about my doubts. It didn't hurt that I knew just about every song either to make me forgot as well.

Emma Watson played the role of Belle and Kevin Kline played the role of Maurice, Belle’s father. Luke Evans played Gaston and Josh Gad played Gaston’s sidekick, LeFou. Last but not least, The Beast, who was played by Dan Stevens. They all totally became one with their characters and you couldn’t help but fall in love with Belle, despise Gaston, feel sorry for LeFou yet laughing at his comedic side and mannerisms, become worried about Maurice, and then go on an emotional rollercoaster with The Beast.  

One major thing I loved, outside of the great acting in the movie, is that the writers didn’t stray much for the original book and cartoon and the storyline was still on dead on. Of course they added a few things but if you are not a huge Beauty and the Beast fan, you wouldn’t even notice. There have been many remakes of this Disney story from cartoons to real life movies and I must admit this was one of the best. I have never purchased any Beauty and the Beast movies outside of the Disney cartoon movie version but I will definitely purchase this version and add it to my collection of movies.  I give it 4.5 out of 5 Swirls!

Main cast of characters:
Emma Watson – Belle

Dan Stevens – Beast

Luke Evans – Gaston

Josh Gad – LeFou

Kevin Kline – Maurice

Ewan McGregor – Lumière

Ian McKellen – Cogsworth

Emma Thompson – Mrs. Potts

Audra McDonald – Madame Garderobe (Wardrobe)

Gugu Mbatha-Raw – Plumette  (feather duster)

Stanley Tucci – Maestro Cadenza

Nathan Mack – Chip

Hidden Figures Movie Review

Image from http://www.foxmovies.com/movies/hidden-figures

“An impactful and empowering story of 3 African-American women that overcame obstacles, stereotypes, and ignorance during a time when being black or ‘colored’, let alone a woman, was looked down upon!”

Until I began seeing the previews for this movie, I had no idea that 3 brilliant African-American women helped NASA and their space program during the 1960’s. Being a former educator, I immediately thought to myself that this is a film that students today need to see! Not just to empower our future females but also to give insight to what life was like during this time period and to show that there were good and bad in every race. To show them that despite the circumstances, you can still go for your goals and dreams! My daughter is 7 years old and I am definitely taking her to see it. Yes, that means I will see it twice.

Hidden Figures is an impactful and empowering story of 3 African-American women, Katherine Goble (Johnson), Dorothy Vaughn, and Mary Jackson, and how they overcame obstacles, stereotypes, and ignorance during a time when being black or “colored”, let alone a woman, was looked down upon! They were all very intelligent and driven women in their own right. The tenacity and self-worth that these women displayed and ultimately lived by was beyond motivating and made you take a moment to do a self-check on yourself. Definitely a movie that young girls need to see to show them that they can do whatever they dream of, even if it requires more work and dedication than others. 

Katherine Goble (Johnson), who is played by Taraji P. Henson, was a math genius and they found this out at a very early age. While at NASA, she received the new assignment to work in The Space Task Group and help calculate the launch coordinates and trajectory of the rockets that NASA was trying to put into space and orbit the Earth. It details the segregation in the workplace and all she had to endure while trying to stay focused on her goal and wanting to always do her best work. Al Harrison, played by Kevin Costner, is the manager of The Space Task Group and eventually begins to see Katherine’s potential and brilliance before her skin color and gender. His progression and mindset begins to grow, leading to him to set the tone of how NASA will not be limited to the “segregation” because ultimately the goal of getting a man in space is bigger than skin color or gender at that moment.

Dorothy Vaughn, played by Octavia Spencer, was a supervisor of a group of African-American women they called the “computers”. She was doing all of the work of a supervisor but did not have the title or the pay. Despite continuing to bid for the supervisor position and being denied, she did not stop pursuing the position and inquiring about it repeatedly. Dorothy had amazing skills that ranged from being able to fix her Chevy Impala when it broke down on the side of the road to programming the new IBM machines at NASA. No one else could figure out how to get the new machines to work, let alone program it to function correctly. She eventually gets her deserved promotion and title AND she brings the group of women that she was supervising with her. 

Mary Jackson, played by Jonelle Monáe, is the feistier-spirited one. She has the engineering skills and is sought after to help find a solution as to why the cones that the astronauts would be housed in were breaking apart during the wind speed simulation testing area. This area was designed to produce wind speeds that would resemble what the cone would encounter as it returned to Earth from space. She was given the opportunity to be an engineer with NASA but in order to do that she had to take and pass the courses that were only offered to whites at an all white school. She eventually petitioned the city to allow her to attend and after the judge heard what she had to say, she was granted that opportunity which led her to becoming NASA’s first (and possibly only) black female Aeronautical Engineer.

Hidden Figures will pull at your emotional strings. It will make you laugh, get a little upset, be motivated, and even have your eyes water at some of the sad and uplifting moments. You just might say, “Awww…” a few times. The theater even erupted in claps at different points through the movie. Despite the story line being a tad predictable at times, the acting was amazing! I appreciated that the story line was not overly drawn out and the focused stay right where it needed to be while giving glimpses into the personal lives of each character. Hidden Figures, to me, was a breath of fresh air and motivating not just for women of color but to all men and women. It is a must see and much purchase when it is released to DVD. I give it 4.5 out of 5 swirls!

Main Cast:
Taraji P. Henson - Katherine Goble (Johnson)
Octavia Spencer – Dorothy Vaughn
Janelle Monáe – Mary Jackson
Kevin Costner – AL Harrison
Kirsten Dunst – Vivian Michael
Jim Parsons – Paul Stafford
Glen Powell – John Glenn