F. Gary Gray | www.jaredmobarak.com

REVIEW: The Fate of the Furious [2017]

2017/04/112017/04/12 Jared Mobarak

“That’s a lot of ice cream and Tay Tay concerts” A new era in The Fast and the Furious lore has begun almost four years after original co-star Paul Walker passed away doing exactly what his character Brian O’Conner did in the films: drive fast. With his role shelved by retirement rather than death, the goodness Brian provided Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his band of miscreants remains in the background as an unseen sense of morality and justice. It lingers to bolster the group’s sense of “family” and togetherness…

REVIEW: Friday [1995]

2016/06/172016/06/18 Jared Mobarak

“Ya’ll ain’t never got two things that match” By age twenty Ice Cube had proven himself an originator of gangsta rap with the seminal Straight Outta Compton from N.W.A and AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted as a solo artist. Two years later his role in Boyz n the Hood garnered enough critical acclaim to cement the Los Angeles native a red-hot commodity in Hollywood as well. And the successes kept coming with more albums, producing credits, and eventually a stoner comedy. Yes, the man known for his socio-political raps and controversially honest…

REVIEW: Straight Outta Compton [2015]

2015/08/182016/06/15 Jared Mobarak

“Speak a little truth and people lose their minds” NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton is a conventional biopic. And I hate conventional biopics. It’s therefore a good thing its story is anything but. Between its time period containing an excess of racial and political strife to the void of a black voice filled by rap lyrics expressing said climate devoid of fear to the crisscross of music industry and gang life, this thing is so much more than merely a rags to riches tale of some kids from Los Angeles.…

REVIEW: Law Abiding Citizen [2009]

2010/03/282011/08/24 Jared Mobarak

“You can’t fight fate” Another one is crossed off Hollywood’s famed ‘black list’—unproduced scripts so good they just have to be made. I had read an article about Kurt Wimmer’s Law Abiding Citizen and how Gerard Butler took it upon himself to help step save it from production hell, watching as Jamie Foxx signed on to co-star and F. Gary Gray to direct. Supposedly it took two years to finally go in front of cameras, so I wonder how long before that it was actually conceived and written. There are…