A scene from 'Joyride'

The two films today are like day and night. Joy Ride is a sunny, but bawdy, comedy that highlights Asian-American stars, while Sympathy for the Devil has Nicolas Cage going all out crazy, on a dark and foreboding night. 

Joy Ride (Amazon Prime on Demand) - It’s obvious that somewhere along the way, after taking Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians novel and turning it into a screenplay, Adele Lim got enough of a green light to direct her own comedy film. Taking a Thai-American and Chinese-American team to write this comedy only meant that all Asian-American stereotypes are completely debunked and made fun of here, and the stars assembled for the cast were all ready to cut loose, and have some fun - at the expense of their own heritage. It’s best described as Joy Luck Club meets There’s Something About Mary, or just call a spade a spade and say this is Joy F_ _ _ Club. 

Ashley Park, Stephanie Hsu, Sherry Cola, and Sabrina Wu play our four main characters, and trust me when I say that each of them will get the best of lines and bring the house down. For basketball fans, there’s even a Baron Davis cameo. Premise is about women of Asian descent who are second and third generation Americans failing to connect to their own heritage, and what they lose in the process. When the character played by Ashley, decides to find her birth Mom - she was adopted by Americans when just a baby - a wild adventure ensues. What makes this different though is how raw humor, green jokes, sex, drugs and alcohol will all play a part in this wild narrative. There are moments when the film tries to be too many things, but it certainly knows how to be funny. 

Sympathy for the Devil (Amazon Prime on Demand) - Running a little over 90 minutes, this cat and mouse psychological thriller knows exactly what it wants to achieve, and manages to do so with time to spare. The only issue for the audience will be whether there’s even any interest to this day, in this kind of rather predictable action film. It doesn’t being anything new narrative-wise to the genre; and merely relies on the strength of thr performances of it’s two actors. Fortunately for us, these two performances are made of the stuff we can write home about, and they carry the film into a territory that’s quite watchable, given the film doesn’t overstay it’s Welcome. We can thank the cinema gods that we have Nicolas Cage and Joel Kinnaman. 

Yes, Cage plays the Passenger, and Kinnaman is the Driver. Directed by Yuval Adler, and written by Luke Paradise, the narrative has to do with Kinnaman rushing to the birth of his second child, and suddenly finding himself at the mercy of a stranger wielding a gun. Cage has had a revival of sorts in recent years, and this one has him definitely going over the top in grand fashion. Kinnaman is the perfect foil, playing grounded to the maximum, and letting Cage chew up the scenery. What’s good to note is that when all is said and done, we discover that there are in fact, two mystery men aboard the car, and the unravelling of threads and threats turn the film into a satisfying achievement. Come to the party for Cage, but end up surprised and feeling good about watching this.