Movie Review Ordinary Angels

Ordinary Angels (2024) 

Directed by Jon Gunn 

Written by Meg Tilly, Kelly Fremon Craig

Starring Hilary Swank, Alan Ritchson, Nancy Travis, Amy Acker, Tamala Jones 

Release Date February 23rd, 2024 

Published February 20th, 2024 

Okay, fine, I admit it, I cried... hard. I cried. Watching the movie Ordinary Angels made me weep. I'm in my late 40s and I am far more in touch with my emotions than ever before. So, perhaps, that may explain a little why such a desperately conventional movie touched me so deeply that I had to cry. Ordinary Angels is exactly the kind of movie that is constructed to extract tears from the audience. It's a machine that sucks tears from your face whether you are compelled to give up the tears or not. And yet, my tears came not from the forced nature of the plot about an imperiled, adorable 5 year old girl, but from genuinely overwhelmed by the kindness that people are capable of when properly motivated. 

I'm sure that if I did further research I would find that the term 'Based on a True Story' has been abused to the usual degree but regardless, the film does show the most emotional moment of the story as it happened via some pre-credits, archival news footage, and that's going to have to be enough for me. This is a mostly true story about a family that suffered beyond anything normal. After struggling to get pregnant and struggling to give birth, Theresa Schmitt (Amy Acker), passed away just two years after her second daughter, Michelle was born. Just three years after this, Michelle herself fell ill and needed a liver transplant to survive. 

Drowning in debt and lost in grief, Ed Schmitt struggled to keep his family afloat with the help of his mother, Barbara (Nancy Travis). Then, a strange sort of miracle happened in the form of Sharon Stevens (Hilary Swank). A tornado of a personality, Sharon saw the family's story in a newspaper, how their mother had passed away and how Michelle needed a liver transplant and Sharon threw herself into action. At first, Sharon launched a fundraiser at her hair salon, co-owned with her best friend, played by Tamala Jones. This fundraiser brought in more than $3000 dollars but Sharon sensed that this would not be enough. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review: Who's Your Caddy?

Who's Your Caddy (2007)

Directed by Don Michael Paul

Written by Robert Henny 

Starring Big Boi, Tamala Jones, Jeffrey Jones, Faizon Love

Release Date July 27th, 2007

Published July 29th, 2007

There have been too many Caddyshack ripoffs to count since that comedy classic arrived more than 20 years ago. Few however, have been so blatantly thieving as the comedy Who's Your Caddy. Though it is given a racial twist, Who's Your Caddy lifts the raucous, us vs them scenario of Caddyshack and does little to distinguish itself from the dozens of other imitators.

C-Note (Big Boi) is the impresario of one of the largest empires in all of hip hop. Puff Daddy asks this guy for a loan. C-Note has it all but what he wants more than anything else is admission to a prestigious golf club that he has always dreamed of playing at. Unfortunately, the club's stuffy owner Mr. Cummings (Jeffrey Jones) and his stable of cronies refuse to let him in.

If you think C-Note would accept such rejection you are mistaken. Buying property that includes a small portion of the golf course, C-Note won't give up his new digs, and give back the courses 18th hole unless they let him become a member. In the meantime, the club dispatches their new chief legal counsel, Shannon (Tamala Jones) to try and negotiate things. No surprise, C-Note falls for the lawyerette.

If you guessed that everything comes down to a contest on the course, well duh! Of course it does and I bet you can guess how that turns out as well. Sometimes it's not what a movie is about, it's how it is about it. Who's Your Caddy offers little of anything new in what it's about but does have some charm in how it goes about it.

Who's Your Caddy is amateur in direction but what it lacks in cinematic chops, it attempts to make up with energy and good humor.  The cast is game, the humor is inoffensive and the hip hop soundtrack, including new music from star Big Boi, is not bad. Indeed Who's Your Caddy is not a bad movie overall. It's just not a very good movie.

Rapper turned actor Big Boi has three major credits under his belt, ATL, Idlewild and now Who's Your Caddy, and while he lacks the polish of his fellow portly rap star turned actor, Ice Cube, or the raw energy and charisma of his Outkast partner Andre Benjamin, he does have a laid back comfort on screen that plays like charm. His work is effortless and at ease and he makes Who's Your Caddy float by in its just over 90 minute runtime.

Not a truly bad movie but far from a good one, Who's Your Caddy is another forgettable Caddyshack rerun that fails to provide any motivation for audiences to get excited about it. The cast is amiable and good natured and they seem to be having a lot of fun on screen but that fun doesn't always pass on to the audience.

There is potential in Big Boi as an actor but he needs to leave behind forgettable, juvenile junk like Who's Your Caddy.