#f gary gray

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

[lyledebeast]

Pride Month Movie 3: Set it Off

F. Gary Gray's 1996 heist drama should be regarded a classic of the genre. I had forgotten how much I love this movie. With its focus on poverty, sexism, and the obstacles Black women face to upward mobility, it could as easily have come out this year as nearly twenty years ago. The friendship these four women from the LA projects share and the spectacular performances of Vivica A. Fox, Jada Pinkett, and Kimberly Elise are all great reasons to watch it, but I chose to watch it this month for only one.

Queen Latifah. Cleo. Cleomenza. In all her studly glory, she is easily one of the most memorable queer characters of mainstream 1990s cinema. In a decade where so many such characters did die silent deaths, she goes out in an absolutely specular guns-blazing fashion to give her best friends a chance to escape.

This may be the best movie I watch this month. Maybe it's just because I haven't seen it in so long, but I loved every frame. Still, I will press on tomorrow. Something else in the Gays Doing Crimes genre would be nice, but we'll see.

Set it Off is currently free to watch on Tubi.

[astralbondpro]

Friday (1995) // Dir. F. Gary Gray

[nine-frames]

“We ain’t gonna rob no bank. Let’s just go in there and blow it the fuck up.”

Set It Off, 1996.

Dir. F. Gary Gray | Writ. Takashi Bufford & Kate Lanier | DOP Marc Reshovsky

[cinematitlecards]

"Straight Outta Compton" (2015) Directed by F. Gary Gray (Biography/Drama/Music)

[geekcavepodcast]

Lift New Year's Final Trailer

An international heist crew plans to steal $500 million in gold from a plane at flying at 40,000 feet.

Lift stars Kevin Hart, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Vincent D'Onofrio, Úrsula Corberó, Billy Magnussen, Viveik Kalra, Yun Jee Kim, and Sam Worthington. F. Gary Gray directs.

Lift hits Netflix on January 12, 2024.

[movies-to-add-to-your-tbw]

Title: Men in Black: International

Rating: PG-13

Director: F. Gary Gray

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Rebecca Ferguson, Kumail Nanjiani, Rafe Spall, Laurent Bourgeois, Larry Bourgeois, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, Mandeiya Flory, Kayvan Novak, Annie Burkin, Tim Blaney, Spencer Wilding

Release year: 2019

Genres: action, science fiction, comedy

Blurb: The Men in Black have always protected the Earth from the scum of the universe. Now, they must tackle their biggest, most global threat to date: a mole in the Men in Black organisation.

[ad-j]

WATCHLIST 2023: Set It Off

[jerichopalms]

*The Italian Job (2003, dir. by F. Gary Gray)

[roseillith]

 SET IT OFF (1996) dir. F. GARY GRAY

[kaipanzero]

Lift (2024)

[fizziedoodle]

Set It Off

directed by F. Gary Gray

starring Vivica A Fox, Kimberly Elise, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett, & John C McGinley

[lobbycards]

The Negotiator, US Lobby Card. 1998

[adamwatchesmovies]

Lift (2024)

I rewatched the “original” Ocean’s trilogy not too long ago. 2024’s Lift aspires to play in the same league. It's no Ocean’s 11 but it’s so much better than Ocean’s 12 and Ocean’s 13 that I left feeling positive. Compared to other big-budget heist films or heist-like action films (the Mission: Impossible series), this is standard fare. With a fairly predictable plot and underutilized characters, I should be much harsher on it than I am now but what it does well pushes me to recommend it.

Cyrus (Kevin Hart) leads a crew of international thieves: master of disguise Denton (Vincent D’Onofrio), pilot Camila (Úrsula Corberó), safecracker Magnus (Billy Magnussen), hacker Mi-Sun (Yun Jee Kim) and engineer Luke (Viveik Kalra). Interpol agent Abby (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is THIS close to apprehending Cyrus when her boss, Huxley (Sam Worthington), asks her to recruit him for a dangerous mission. Lars Jorgenson (Jean Reno) has hired the criminal hacker group Leviathan to unleash a massive flood in Europe. Through his investments and stock manipulation, he’ll make billions while thousands die. There’s no way to convict him in time. The only way to prevent the impending catastrophe is to steal the gold he’ll use to pay Leviathan - a job made for Cyrus and his crew.

I bring up Ocean’s 11 because it’s impossible not to compare this film to it. Essentially, everything this film does wrong, the 2001 picture did right. While the flood that will kill all those people means the stakes are high, they’re too high. A part of you knows the mission will succeed. That’s sort of always the case, but I’d argue less so in a movie like Ocean’s 11 where there are two plots: one about the heist and one about the love between the lead thief and the lady who got away. Did I mention that Cyrus and Abby were briefly an item? Another uncertainty concerns the crew: if the heist is a success, it does not guarantee that they will stay together or that gulp everyone will all make it out alive. At making you wonder about the characters and the team, Lift fares ok. I say this because some members of the crew seem almost useless. The best example is Denton, which is unfortunate because Vincent D’Onofrio has great chemistry with Kevin Hart.

I enjoyed the film but have a few more criticisms before telling you why Lift is worth seeing. It’s subtle, but I would argue an essential part of every heist film: it doesn't make the thieves sympathetic. The characters are charismatic, they're not flat-out evil like Jorgenson (who gets to be cartoonishly villainous by the end), but when you lay it all out, they’re motivated by the same thing as he is: money. While Cyrus also has his eyes set on Abby, the film begins when he and his crew steal a Van Gogh to sell it on the black market. With the money, they buy an NFT, whose value they increase as a way to profit even more. While their scheme is clever and that goes a long way, the Van Gogh they stole is never seeing the light of day again and they don’t care, which makes them unlikable. The film tries to counter this by giving us what is essentially a second villain, Abby’s boss at Interpol, but the things the movie does to make him detestable feel contrived, particularly considering how many lives are at stake. I do think it’s a good bit of casting, however, as I’ve always found Sam Worthington a bit abrasive.

Now, let’s be more positive. Any film like this is inherently entertaining because it builds suspense. The plan is laid out. You see how complicated it is. You start tallying how many things could go wrong. Whether Cyrus and the others are on the right side of the law or not, they’re professionals at what they do and that’s always compelling to watch. Jean Reno is fun to hate so you want to see him fail. Kevin Hart and Gugu Mbatha-Raw have good chemistry. You want them to see their characters together. I’m particularly impressed with Hart because this is not a comedic role. I wouldn’t call this movie serious and this isn’t the first time he’s done a non-comedic film (The Upside is an example) but director F. Gary Gray uses him correctly. He banks on Hart's charisma and screen presence to carry us through the problems that might come from this kind of story and it succeeds. 

Lift (clever title) has a bit of romance, plenty of suspense, high stakes, action and charismatic actors, along with everything you like about heist films. It’s not reinventing the wheel and because it isn’t, you'll foresee several developments in advance but that’s ok. It wins points for being the kind of film you could only make now (NFTs and other modern technologies have a prominent role) and for being available “for free”/for the price of a subscription. If they make another, I’m interested. (July 17, 2024)

[vibe-stash]

Chris Tucker in F. Gary Gary's Friday (1995)

[cinematitlecards]

"The Fast and the Furious" (2001) Directed by Rob Cohen (Action/Crime/Thriller) . . "2 Fast 2 Furious" (2003) Directed by John Singleton (Action/Crime/Thriller) . . "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" (2006) Directed by Justin Lin (Action/Crime/Thriller) . . "Fast & Furious" (2009) Directed by Justin Lin (Action/Thriller) . . "Fast Five" (2011) Directed by Justin Lin (Action/Adventure/Crime) . . "Fast & Furious 6" (2013) Directed by Justin Lin (Action/Adventure/Thriller) . . "Furious 7" (2015) Directed by James Wan (Action/Adventure/Thriller) . . "The Fate of the Furious" (2017) Directed by F. Gary Gray (Action/Adventure/Crime) . . "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw" (2019) Directed by David Leitch (Action/Adventure/Thriller) . . "F9" (2021) Directed by Justin Lin (Action/Adventure/Crime)