The biggest problem with the majority of the live-action updates to classic Disney animated films is that they haven’t been updates at all, choosing to merely regurgitate the moments audiences know and love from the original in a slightly repackaged form. That’s great for nostalgia, but if that’s all viewers wanted, they’d just go back and watch the original.

The Little Mermaid falls into much the same trap, although the filmmakers get at least a little credit for trying to offer something new. The story, of course, remains the same, as Ariel (Halle Bailey) has a fascination with everything above the surface of the ocean. Her rebellious nature, at odds with strict King Triton (Javier Bardem), leads her to spy on a ship with Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King) and his crew, putting her in position to save Eric when the ship crashes into rocks.

Now totally enamored of Eric, Ariel is convinced by the sea witch Ursula (Melissa McCarthy) to give up her voice for a chance to live on land and make Eric fall in love with her. Trouble is, despite the help of Sebastian the crab (Daveed Diggs), Flounder the fish (Jacob Tremblay), and Scuttle the seabird (Awkwafina), Ursula has no plans to let Ariel succeed fair and square.

Directed by Rob Marshall and written by David Magee, the film clocks in at nearly one hour longer than the original, going from 83 minutes to 135. They accomplish this feat with the addition of several songs, including ones “sung” by Ariel while she is without voice, a relatively clever way to get into her thoughts during that long stretch. There are also additional scenes that give Prince Eric more of a backstory, making him more than just a pretty face on which to hang all of Ariel’s hopes and dreams.

The new songs are hit-and-miss; Ariel’s “For the First Time” is a fanciful number that fits in nicely, but “Wild Uncharted Waters,” a solo song for Prince Eric, feels unnecessary, and the less said about “The Scuttlebutt,” a rap performed by Scuttle and written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the better. What most people want to see are how the original songs are done, and they come off well for the most part. The actors’ voices are uniformly good and the staging is engaging.

Other changes seem half-hearted, at best. A vague environmental theme broached at the beginning is quickly dropped. The cast is very multicultural, but haphazardly so. The film is obviously set on and around a Caribbean island, making it natural for The Queen (Noma Dumezweni), Eric’s adopted mother, and other islanders to be Black. But giving Ariel “sisters from the seven seas,” allowing for mermaids of several different races and ethnicities, feels odd and forced, and a little creepy given that King Triton is supposed to be the father of all of them.

The fact that Bailey herself is Black, while great for representation, is neither here nor there in the context of the film. Bailey has a voice that is equal to everything she is asked to sing, and her silent acting is excellent in the middle portion of the film. McCarthy makes for a great Ursula, bringing both humor and pathos to the role. Hauer-King, who bears a similarity to Ryan Gosling, plays Eric in a more well-rounded manner.

The live-action version of The Little Mermaid, like almost all of the Disney remakes, never truly establishes itself as its own unique thing. Still, it’s a thoroughly pleasant watch with some nice performances, which clears the bar for success for this era of Disney history.

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The Little Mermaid opens in theaters on May 26.

Photo courtesy of Disney

Halle Bailey in The Little Mermaid.

For those who aren’t part of a culture that subscribes to the idea of arranged marriage, the concept can seem completely foreign. Who would want to marry someone who’s almost a complete stranger and hope for love instead of falling in love first? The new film What’s Love Got to Do with It? approaches the custom through the guise of a romantic comedy, showing both the good and bad sides of the tradition.

Zoe (Lily James), a documentary filmmaker, and Kazim (Shazad Latif), a doctor, are longtime friends who grew up next door to each other in London. Zoe is looking for her next project, and when Kazim, who is of Pakistani heritage, tells her that he is about to embark upon the process of an “assisted marriage” – one where he is fully engaged in finding a wife instead of one being chosen for him – she convinces him to let her document the journey.

While she’s filming Kazim go through a type of Pakistani speed-dating, engage in Zoom chats with women in Pakistan, and more, Zoe struggles with her own checkered romantic history. Cath (Emma Thompson), Zoe’s well-meaning but overly-enthusiastic mom, does her own bit of arranging, trying to set Zoe up with James (Oliver Chris), her milquetoast veterinarian.

Directed by Shekhar Kapur and written by Jemima Khan, the film is lightweight but still more introspective than your typical rom-com. Though the outcome of the story would not seem to be in doubt, the filmmakers put in a lot of work showing how Kazim believes that an assisted marriage is the right choice for him, chastising Zoe on more than one occasion about her limited worldview.

Zoe’s bad luck in romance is attributed to factors like her being a workaholic and being attracted to men who are bad for her, typical rom-com tropes that are bolstered by the juxtaposition with Kazim. Through a series of When Harry Met Sally-style interviews with characters in arranged marriages, Zoe – and, by extension, the film as a whole – seems to be very cynical about love in general, with both types of marriages not seeming all that appealing.

While the film plays its story relatively straightforward, a few scenes are jarring in their attempt to provide a different tone. Cath seems to have an obsession with being part of Pakistani culture - dressing up in traditional clothes, speaking Urdu, butting in on dances at weddings – actions that may or may not cross the line of cultural appropriation. Kazim’s eventual fiancée Maymouna (Sajal Ali) is also portrayed oddly, going from quiet, shy, and reluctant in most scenes to over-the-top in one anomalous sequence.

James makes for an appealing lead, and the film allows her to explore the more dramatic sides of her character instead of playing her foibles for laughs all the time. Latif does well, although it’s a bit surprising that his character is not given the same depth as Zoe considering the ideas in the film. The supporting actors are mainly there to serve as comic relief, although they are almost uniformly portrayed as realistic people, a refreshing change for the genre.

A bit deeper than your typical rom-com, What’s Love Got to Do with It? is a solid play on the “will friends become lovers?” plot line. By comparing/contrasting the different ways people get married, the film offers interesting yet still entertaining ideas that rarely get explored in this type of film.

Photo by Robert Viglasky / ©2022 STUDIOCANAL SAS and Shout! Studio

Shazad Latif and Lily James in What's Love Got to Do With It?

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What's Love Got to Do with It? is now playing in theaters.

Believe it or not, we are now over 20 years into the existence of the Fast & the Furious franchise, evolving from a street-racing story to one that could be compared to the Mission: Impossible and James Bond series. Like those other two franchises, Fast now exists as a never-ending globetrotting adventure where the protagonists are called into action wherever their particular set of skills is needed.

How being able to drive really fast in tight areas translates into world-saving derring-do is one of many reasons that the franchise is supremely absurd, with all logic thrown out from minute one of each subsequent film. Fast X, naturally, is no exception, although this time around they at least gift the audience with a great new villain, Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa), son of drug kingpin Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida), who met his demise in Fast Five.

In his pursuit of revenge, Dante lures/blackmails the core group – Dom (Vin Diesel), Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Tej (Ludacris), Han (Sung Kang), and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) – into traveling to different places around the world where he has set a series of traps. Along the way, old and new allies and foes like Jakob (John Cena), Deckard (Jason Statham), Tess (Brie Larson), Cipher (Charlize Theron), and more help or hinder the heroes’ efforts.

Directed by Louis Leterrier and written by Dan Mazeau and Fast veteran Justin Lin, the film has the characters almost constantly on the move, which gives the illusion of action. There are, of course, plenty of car chases, explosions, fist fights, and shootouts, although the excitement they generate will likely depend on how hardcore a Fast fan you are. What’s undeniable is that the filmmakers do their best to make the film as over-the-top as any of the previous films, if not more so.

This results in cars, usually driven by Dom, doing things that they are clearly unable to do in the real world, like stop a massive rolling bomb, careen down a dam, and more. As in at least the previous two films, the filmmakers are in on the joke, having characters make fun of certain situations or engage in stunts that are so preposterous that the only natural reaction is to laugh at the sheer gall of putting them on screen in the first place.

The most enjoyable aspect of the film by far is the performance of Momoa, who has a ball making Dante into a cackling, monstrous bad guy who, despite Momoa’s beard and burliness, also comes off as androgynous in style and demeanor. For a series where the stakes are often ephemeral and death is rarely a true threat for the main characters, Dante feels like a breath of fresh air, offering something unique amid elements that often feel repetitive.

On the flip side, great acting is not the first thing that springs to mind for the rest of the cast. Almost all of their characters are set in stone, so none of their performances offers anything surprising. The only fun to be had on this end is the various pairings that crop up due to plot machinations, most notably when Jakob winds up as the caretaker of Dom and Letty’s son, Little Brian (Leo Abelo Perry).

It makes little difference whether Fast X is a truly good movie or not (spoiler: it’s not), as its legion of fans will show up no matter what’s put up on screen. The ridiculousness of the series is the point, and the first part of the two- (or three?) part finale more than delivers on that promise.

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Fast X opens in theaters on May 19.

Photo by Peter Mountain / Universal Pictures

Vin Diesel and Daniela Melchior in Fast X.