A weird thing happened after I watched today's movie. I'm a sucker for sequels, so when I noticed yesterday that Tales From The Hood 2 (2018) was streaming on Netflix, I decided it would be the next movie that I watched. I wanted to name this post the same as the first movie's post so I went to look it up. It was then that I discovered I had yet to watch the first movie! I could have sworn that I did at some point, but apparently...I didn't. With them both being anthology films, it doesn't really matter which movie I watch first, but I was still surprised that I had yet to watch the first movie.
A new robot is being built to help protect the United States. Dumas Beach (Bill Martin Williams) has designed the AI so that it can also learn from stories as well as situations. He has hired Portifoy Simms (Keith David) to tell the robot a few tales before it is revealed to the public.
Tales From The Hood 2 was co-written and directed by Darin Scott and Rusty Cundieff. There are five stories in all here. There is the wraparound story, described above, There are four shorts as well that are presented as the tales that the robot will learn from. The first tale is called Good Golly and has Zoe (Jasmine Akakpo) and Audrey (Alexandria DeBerry) visit a museum that shows items that are considered racist. They meet the owner who shows them around and explains some of the objects to them. Audrey is there because she heard that she could buy a Golliwag doll. The owner refuses to sell one to her, so she comes back with Zoe and her brother Phillip (Andy Cohen) with the intent to steal the doll. This story was alright. It went in the direction I figured it would with the doll, but the ending surprised me. it was a bit weird, to be honest. Not a bad thing really.
The second story is called Medium. Three gangsters are trying to find out where another man has his money hidden. They have heard this guy has a lot of money, so they want their share of it. It doesn't matter that the guy is a friend to them. When the guy with the money starts to insult them, one of them hits the guy too hard and kills him. Now they have no way of knowing where the money is at. They eventually see a guy on TV who claims he can talk with the dead and suddenly they get an idea. This story was also just okay for me. It has some funny moments at times, which I didn't mind. This short actually reminded me a lot of another short that I had watched last year. It has the same basic story behind it, gangsters using a medium to talk to the dead while looking for money, but Medium takes its story in a different direction. One thing I really liked about the story was when the medium starts to channel more than one person. It was a really nice touch and a little surprising.
The third story was called Date Night, This one has two guys getting ready to meet up with two women who one of the guys first met on the internet. Things go very well as they all seem to get along just fine. That is until the guys spike the women's drinks and carry them upstairs. The guys set up a camera to film what they are about to do, but they are going to soon learn there is a surprise in store for them. Again, I thought this story was just okay. I did appreciate that the story tackled date rape, but I felt it wasn't done in a very serious way. That being said, Date Night did manage to get me laughing pretty hard at one point when the guys were ready to fight their way out of trouble. You will just have to watch it in order to understand the whole situation.
The fourth story was called The Sacrifice. Told in two different timelines, the first one has to do with Henry (Kendrick Cross) trying to get ready for a fundraiser that will help support who he hopes will be the next governor of Mississippi. Henry is black, while his wife Emily (Jillian Batherson) and pregnant. Emily seems to believe there is someone that is out to kill their baby, but Henry writes it off as a fear due to Emily losing a child before. Henry's mother is upset with Henry because he backs someone who wants to make it harder for blacks to vote. The other story takes place in 1955. A young black boy (Christopher Paul Horne) is forced to leave his home with two white men who say he flirted with a white married woman. As the boy faces possible death, he is granted a chance to see the future which is where the two timelines come together. The Sacrifice is the best of the short films. It makes you think a lot about current events and the past for that matter. I can't say that I found this one scary really, but it has a good message behind it. I'm not sure I liked the direction it took towards the end and I didn't really care for the way it did end, but these complaints didn't bother me that much to take me out of the story.
The wraparound story was pretty cool in itself/ There wasn't a lot to it, but I really liked that it connects the other stories to it and those stories had a purpose besides trying to scare us. The wraparound has its own ending to its story. I had a feeling I knew what Simms was up to in telling the stories that he picked and I was right. The ending for the wraparound does get a little silly though. The acting in all of the shorts was good. I enjoyed all the acting even if some of it went a bit over-the-top. To my surprise, Keith David was probably the one that did this the most. The effects are also good, though none of the shorts are all that gory.
Overall, I enjoyed watching Tales From The Hood 2. The overall film isn't something I fell in love with, but I still enjoyed my time with it. It has a nice mix of shorts that don't seem to fit together while reading about them, but they all fit nicely with the wraparound story. From what I have been reading from others, Tales From The Hood 2 isn't as good as the original anthology film. Most still like this one though and have been giving it around the same rating as me. If you like anthology films, this is one to check out someday if you haven't already. Give it a watch when you can.
3 out of 5 I don't think I want those kind of babies
A new robot is being built to help protect the United States. Dumas Beach (Bill Martin Williams) has designed the AI so that it can also learn from stories as well as situations. He has hired Portifoy Simms (Keith David) to tell the robot a few tales before it is revealed to the public.
Tales From The Hood 2 was co-written and directed by Darin Scott and Rusty Cundieff. There are five stories in all here. There is the wraparound story, described above, There are four shorts as well that are presented as the tales that the robot will learn from. The first tale is called Good Golly and has Zoe (Jasmine Akakpo) and Audrey (Alexandria DeBerry) visit a museum that shows items that are considered racist. They meet the owner who shows them around and explains some of the objects to them. Audrey is there because she heard that she could buy a Golliwag doll. The owner refuses to sell one to her, so she comes back with Zoe and her brother Phillip (Andy Cohen) with the intent to steal the doll. This story was alright. It went in the direction I figured it would with the doll, but the ending surprised me. it was a bit weird, to be honest. Not a bad thing really.
The second story is called Medium. Three gangsters are trying to find out where another man has his money hidden. They have heard this guy has a lot of money, so they want their share of it. It doesn't matter that the guy is a friend to them. When the guy with the money starts to insult them, one of them hits the guy too hard and kills him. Now they have no way of knowing where the money is at. They eventually see a guy on TV who claims he can talk with the dead and suddenly they get an idea. This story was also just okay for me. It has some funny moments at times, which I didn't mind. This short actually reminded me a lot of another short that I had watched last year. It has the same basic story behind it, gangsters using a medium to talk to the dead while looking for money, but Medium takes its story in a different direction. One thing I really liked about the story was when the medium starts to channel more than one person. It was a really nice touch and a little surprising.
The third story was called Date Night, This one has two guys getting ready to meet up with two women who one of the guys first met on the internet. Things go very well as they all seem to get along just fine. That is until the guys spike the women's drinks and carry them upstairs. The guys set up a camera to film what they are about to do, but they are going to soon learn there is a surprise in store for them. Again, I thought this story was just okay. I did appreciate that the story tackled date rape, but I felt it wasn't done in a very serious way. That being said, Date Night did manage to get me laughing pretty hard at one point when the guys were ready to fight their way out of trouble. You will just have to watch it in order to understand the whole situation.
The fourth story was called The Sacrifice. Told in two different timelines, the first one has to do with Henry (Kendrick Cross) trying to get ready for a fundraiser that will help support who he hopes will be the next governor of Mississippi. Henry is black, while his wife Emily (Jillian Batherson) and pregnant. Emily seems to believe there is someone that is out to kill their baby, but Henry writes it off as a fear due to Emily losing a child before. Henry's mother is upset with Henry because he backs someone who wants to make it harder for blacks to vote. The other story takes place in 1955. A young black boy (Christopher Paul Horne) is forced to leave his home with two white men who say he flirted with a white married woman. As the boy faces possible death, he is granted a chance to see the future which is where the two timelines come together. The Sacrifice is the best of the short films. It makes you think a lot about current events and the past for that matter. I can't say that I found this one scary really, but it has a good message behind it. I'm not sure I liked the direction it took towards the end and I didn't really care for the way it did end, but these complaints didn't bother me that much to take me out of the story.
The wraparound story was pretty cool in itself/ There wasn't a lot to it, but I really liked that it connects the other stories to it and those stories had a purpose besides trying to scare us. The wraparound has its own ending to its story. I had a feeling I knew what Simms was up to in telling the stories that he picked and I was right. The ending for the wraparound does get a little silly though. The acting in all of the shorts was good. I enjoyed all the acting even if some of it went a bit over-the-top. To my surprise, Keith David was probably the one that did this the most. The effects are also good, though none of the shorts are all that gory.
Overall, I enjoyed watching Tales From The Hood 2. The overall film isn't something I fell in love with, but I still enjoyed my time with it. It has a nice mix of shorts that don't seem to fit together while reading about them, but they all fit nicely with the wraparound story. From what I have been reading from others, Tales From The Hood 2 isn't as good as the original anthology film. Most still like this one though and have been giving it around the same rating as me. If you like anthology films, this is one to check out someday if you haven't already. Give it a watch when you can.
3 out of 5 I don't think I want those kind of babies
