What Men Want (2019)

Despite dismal reviews Jack and I didn't hate this silly story of a woman who can suddenly read men's minds, using it to help her career in her male-dominated sports agency workplace. It's a remake of What Women Want (2000).

Taraji P. Henson (last blogged for Hidden Figures) and singer Erykah Badu (she does not sing in this movie as far as I remember) head the huge cast as Ali and the voodoo queen Sister, respectively. Badu is very funny, verbally and visually--maybe the best thing in the movie. Props to Josh Brener (with 42 acting credits he's best known to me as Big Head on 46 episodes of Silicon Valley) as Ali's assistant and confidant. Tracy Morgan (most recently in these pages for Top Five) has some funny bits as the father of a top athlete, and iconic actor Richard Roundtree (John Shaft in Shaft (1971) and all its sequels, among 152 credits, including a new Shaft (2019)) is Ali's understanding father.

Adam Shankman (helmed Rock of Ages) directs from a script co-written by Tina Gordon (co-wrote Drumline (2002)), Peter Huyck, and Alex Gregory (this is Huyuck and Gregory's second feature but they've written lots of TV including 146 episodes of Late Show with David Letterman 1996-97). The story is credited to Gordon and Jas Waters (staff writer on This Is Us).

I'm enjoying the peppy score by Brian Tyler (scored Crazy Rich Asians) and you can, too, on Apple Music or Spotify. A few other songs are listed here.

Dismal, I tell ya. Rotten Tomatoes' critics, averaging 45%, hate it even less than its audiences at 36. Should you want to stream it, it'll be available in May 2019.