Fast & Furious 6
Film Review by Kam Williams
It’s important to note that this edition of Fast & Furious is every bit as funny as it is adrenaline-fueled. Most of the laughs come courtesy of comic relief provided by Tyrese, who is back in an expanded role as trash-talking Roman Pearce, a card-carrying member of the fugitive gang of auto thieves led by macho Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel).
Like a latter-day Stepin Fetchit, Roman revives a slew of offensive African-American stereotypes, behaving in an alternately shallow, jive, flamboyant, lecherous, felonious and cowardly manner, doing everything but put on a dress to make a joke work. To Tyrese’s credit, the campy performance somehow works, either because the character is so ingratiating, or because of the presence of several respectable other blacks in the principal cast.
Whether entertaining a bevy of scantily-clad beauties on his personal jet (with “It’s Roman, bitches!” emblazoned on the fuselage) or making money literally rain out of an ATM to the delight of a crowd of appreciative strangers picking the bills up off the ground, the scene-stealing cynosure is always the center of attention. Well, except during the action, chase and fight scenes when the muscle cars and muscle heads take charge.
Other than Tyrese’s, the acting is uniformly wooden and unconvincing. Not to worry, this stunt driven-spectacular is all about the eye-popping special effects, and boy does it deliver in terms of the wow factor!
The plot of F&F 6 is little more than a lame excuse to pit an army of bad guys against an army of worse guys, both as simplistically-drawn as tag teams of opposing professional wrestlers. Here’s the storyline in 25 words or more. Dominic coaxes his cohorts (Tyrese, Paul Walker, Ludacris, Sung Kang and Gal Gadot) out of retirement for one last adventure, after rumors surface that his late-ex, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), might miraculously still be alive.
They hatch a plan to rescue the damsel in distress who’s suffering from amnesia and currently in the clutches of Owen Shaw (Luke Evans), a worthy adversary specializing in vehicular warfare. His posse’s recent attack on a Russian military convoy explains why Diplomatic Security Service agent Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) is desperately seeking the assistance of Dominic’s crew.
They agree on the condition that, should this mission succeed, they’ll be granted clemency for the host of crimes committed in F&F episodes 1-5. Hobbs okays the deal, and soon, a dogfight featuring fisticuffs, pyrotechnics and plenty of cartoon physics unfolds all over London, involving not only souped-up autos and state-of-the-art gadgetry, but a tank and a plane, to boot.
The epitome of a summer blockbuster, complete with a post-credits set-up of F&F 7 (already slated to be released in July of 2014). Just remember to check your brain at the box office, and you won’t be disappointed.
Excellent (4 stars)
PG-13 for sexuality, profanity, mayhem, violence and intense action
Running time: 130 minutes
Distributor: Universal Pictures
To see a trailer for Fast & Furious 6, visit
Better Things, a film about artist Jeffrey Catherine Jones, a transgender painter, illustrator, and comics artists, is guided and shaped by a group of creators who were influenced by and worked with Jeffrey at various stages of her life. Download Now
The Hangover Part III
Film Review by Kam Williams
When we last left the wolfpack, the boys were over in Thailand for the wedding of Stu (Ed Helms) and Lauren (Jamie Chung).Of course, before the bride and groom could tie the knot (Justin Bartha), the men found themselves separated from Doug and suffering from amnesia following a wild night of partying on the seedy side of Bangkok.
But that was two years ago and now everybody has settled down safely into humdrum, uneventful lives in suburban Los Angeles. Everybody except Alan (Zach Galifiniakis), that is. He went off his meds recently which might explain such bizarre behavior as driving down the freeway with a giraffe in a trailer.
Since the 42 year-old goofball is unlikely to get hitched any time soon, another bawdy bachelor party is not on the horizon. However, when Alan takes a turn for the worse after his father (Jeffrey Tambor) passes away suddenly, his pals stage an intervention and decide to drive him to a mental health facility in Arizona for the help he desperately needs.
But before they arrive, their car is run off the road and Doug is kidnapped for ransom by Chow (Ken Jeong), the modestly-endowed, trash-talking mobster you should remember from Hangover episodes I and II. He and his henchman (Mike Epps) demand that the wolfpack retrieve $21 million in gold stolen from them by Marshall (John Goodman), a ruthless rival who stashed the bars of bullion in the walls of a mansion located somewhere in Tijuana.
That is wacky point of departure of The Hangover Part III, a supposed trilogy finale which is an improvement over the decidedly derivative prior installment yet still pales in comparison to the zany original. At least you don’t develop a nagging sense of déjà vu watching this screwball adventure, even if it isn’t exactly laugh out loud funny.
The madcap antics take Phil (People Magazine’s reigning Sexiest Man Alive Bradley Cooper) and the rest of the road warriors south of the border and then on to Las Vegas, the place where it all started, for another round of raunchy male-bonding rituals. Stu stumbles upon his ex (Heather Graham) and Alan crosses paths with the woman of his dreams (Melissa McCarthy), a big hint that the trilogy is destined to be stretched into a fourple.
A nutty kitchen sink comedy ending on a cliffhanger designed to keep diehard fans of the depraved franchise in suspense about whether yetta nudder sequel might be in the works.
Very Good (3 stars)
Rated R for sexuality, drug use, violence, brief nudity and pervasive profanity
Running time: 100 minutes
Distributor: Warner Brothers
To see a trailer for The Hangover III, visit
Michelle Rhee
The “Radical” Interview
with Kam Williams
Michelle Rhee was born on Christmas Day, 1969 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. A first-generation Korean-American descended from a long line of educators, she embarked on a career as a teacher in inner-city Baltimore soon after graduating from Cornell University with a BA in government.
However, her star really started to rise after she earned a Masters Degree in Public policy at Harvard University’s prestigious Kennedy School. She was subsequently recruited by NYC School Chancellor Joel Klein to help handle his stalled contract talks with the teachers’ union.
And on the strength of Michelle’s negotiations with UFT president Randi Weingarten, Klein recommended his feisty protégé for the top job in DC. Washington’s public schools were among the worst performing in the nation, and Rhee found a very receptive Mayor in Adrian Fenty, who gave his new hire free reign to overhaul his troubled system in accordance with her controversial reforms.
She would spend a stormy three years in the public eye as the embattled Schools Chancellor of the Washington, DC public schools. Employing a “kids first” philosophy, Michelle chopped heads in the top-heavy administration, firing dozens of dead wood principals, laying off hundreds of extraneous office workers and closing over twenty underperforming schools.
Although students’ test scores improved dramatically during her brief stint in the position, her anti-union stance proved unpopular. Mayor Fenty’s reelection bid was basically a referendum on whether the city wished to continue with Rhee’s scorched earth philosophy. When he lost, her days were numbered, so she handed in her resignation rather than wait around to be fired.
Michelle, a mother of two, is married to former NBA star Kevin Johnson, who is now the Mayor of Sacramento, California. Here, she talks about currently serving as CEO of StudentsFirst, a political advocacy organization she founded in 2010 to advance the cause of educational reform.
Mel Brooks: Make a Noise
TV Review by Kam Williams
Melvin James Kaminsky was born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on June 28, 1926, but found fame under the stage name you know him by, Mel Brooks. He started out in showbiz as a jazz drummer while still in his early teens, but encountered more success on stage alone upon trying his hand at stand-up at the urging of the owner desperately in need of a fill-in comedian at a resort up in the Catskills.
After a stint serving the country in the army during World War II, he returned home and eventually found work as a writer for Sid Caesar’s TV series “Your Show of Shows” alongside such future greats as Carl Reiner, Woody Allen and Neil Simon. Mild-mannered Simon remembers how “He drove some of us crazy,” and even Mel confesses to having been “an arrogant, obnoxious, little [beep]-head who had patience for nothing but his own thoughts” back then.
So, it’s no surprise that after almost a decade in that capacity, he struck out on his own, thus launching a phenomenal career which would ultimately land him on the short list of the eleven entertainers (including Rita Moreno, Whoopi Goldberg, Sir John Gielgud and Audrey Hepburn) in history to win an Oscar, a Tony, an Emmy and a Grammy. Mel Brooks: Make a Noise captures the 86 year-young genius in all his irrepressible glory as he reminisces about his many impressive accomplishments as a writer/director/actor/lyricist/composer/producer, ranging from Get Smart to The Producers to Blazing Saddles to Young Frankenstein to High Anxiety and beyond.
Besides the larger-than-life public persona, this engaging documentary devotes equal attention to intimate aspects of Mel’s private life, such as revelations like “I was never religious but always very Jewish.” He also talks about how he met his late wife, actress Anne Bancroft, and how they enlisted a black stranger, Samuel Boone, to be the best man at their City Hall wedding on August 5, 1964.
As for Mel’s more introspective side, he concedes that having his father die when he was still a toddler “was a brushstroke of depression that never left me.” And he shows a surprising vulnerability to criticism in admitting, “Every bad review is a like a knife plunging through your heart,” concluding “I don’t even know if I’m talented. I’m not sure.”
A poignant profile of a bona fide Renaissance Man’s six decades and counting on the cutting edge of show business.
Excellent (4 stars)
Rated TV: G
Running time: 90 minutes
Distributor: PBS
Mel Brooks: Make a Noise an American Masters profile is set to premiere nationwide on PBS on Monday, May 20, 2013 at 9 pm (ET/PT). [Check local listings]
To see a trailer for Mel Brooks: Make a Noise, visit
To order a copy of The Incredible Mel Brooks: An Irresistible Collection of Unhinged Comedy on DVD, visit