Joel Fry-days: 10,000 BC (2008, PG-13)

Look, this movie has 10% on Rotten Tomatoes—I knew what I was getting into. Every actor has stuff like this in their filmography, and because I’m me, I can’t just not watch it if I can get my hands on it. I had to see it for myself, and now I have.

When a band of “four-legged demons” (a.k.a. slavers on horseback) attacks the hunter-gatherer Yagahl tribe, one of the captives includes the beautiful Evolet. D’Leh, who’s in love with her, vows to rescue her. His mission takes him across the known world—he encounters frightening beasts and rallies other tribes in his quest to rescue Evolet and the rest of his people.

We’ll get this out of the way first: history accuracy, I don’t know her. Yes, this is a prehistoric action movie, but these characters have all kinds of things that humans didn’t develop until much later. I have no idea how the geography works. And while some of the other tribes D’Leh meets are specifically Black and meant to be from what is now Africa, the members of the Yagahl tribe are cast with an assorted range of Black and brown actors…but Steven Strait, who plays D’Leh, is white. Of course he is. Oh, and part of the reason Evolet’s beauty is so striking is because she has blue eyes.

For the most part, the story is just dull. Generic prophecy, generic action, generic love story. There’s just not much to it, and the most interesting action set pieces come at the beginning, with a dramatic mammoth hunt, and the end, with the climactic showdown against the slavers. In the middle, the film drags, and I don’t have any interest in D’Leh’s big savior narrative.

The moments I like are mostly small—the moments where we remember that prehistoric people were still still people. Two captured boys from different tribes navigating the language barrier. A pair of Yagahl crying out when one of their friends is killed. D’Leh struggling to keep his composure when another tribe invites him in and their hospitality involves spicier food than he’s ever eaten before. Little human moments in the midst of the larger disengaging plot.

10,000 BC was Joel Fry’s feature film debut. Kinda wild to have your first movie being a big action film with CGI beasts, although he wouldn’t have gotten in on too much of that stuff. Fry plays Lu’kibu, one of the Yagahl. He has a moderate amount of screentime but very little to actually do. Lu’kibu is among the group of captives, and mostly he’s there to help fill out the large group scenes. He has maybe six or seven lines, sprinkled throughout the movie.

So yeah, not much there. To the extent that Lu’kibu has any characterization, its, Are we sure that this D’Leh guy is really all that? Any time someone is expressing doubt in D’Leh’s abilities or leadership, there’s a decent chance that it’s Lu’kibu. That’s what most of his limited lines are about, and it comes through in Joel Fry’s facial acting as well. Lu’kibu’s side eye is another one of those “prehistoric people were still people” moments for me, and I admittedly find it kind of amusing.

Accent Watch

I don’t know. All the Yagahl use some kind of accent, but I have no idea what it’s supposed to be.

Recommend?

In General – No. A Big Dumb Action Movie can be fun under the right circumstances, but this one just isn’t very interesting.

Joel Fry – Naw. As a Joel Fry movie, this is more a series of glimpses than anything else. There’s just not much for him to do.

Warnings

Violence, scary moments for kids, drinking, and thematic elements.

Love Hurts (2025, R)

*Premise spoilers*

First new movie of 2025 for me—I snuck this one in before the Oscars, along with Brave New World. The first trailer for this movie got me so hyped, and while news of the crappy reviews was a bummer, I knew I still wanted to see it in theaters and give action hero Ke Huy Quan some love.

What’s It About?

Marvin, an upbeat realtor, receives an intense blast from the past he thought he’d put behind him. Members of his brother’s gang have turned up looking for Rose—the last person Marvin was supposed to have killed for his brother. He needs to call on his old skills to keep himself and Rose alive, while also fighting to preserve the new life he’s built for himself.

Who’s in It?

Obviously, the headline here is action-comedy star Ke Huy Quan as Marvin. He’s every bit as delightful as he was in the trailer, and he absolutely kills every joke and every fight scene. The dramatic moments ARE a bit shakier, but that’s entirely down to the lackluster script, not him. Ariana DeBose gets in on the action as Rose. The romance angle between them is a hard sell—down to the script again, and because Quan’s peak goofy-dad vibes make the age gap feel bigger than it already is. The film also features Daniel Wu as Marvin’s brother, a nice appearance from the always-welcome Sean Astin, Mustafa Shakir, and Lio Tipton (I couldn’t quite place them, but afterwards, I looked at their IMDb and realized I’d seen them in Warm Bodies.) And I was pleasantly surprised to see the one and only Rhys Darby show up as a crooked accountant for the gang!

What Do I Love About It?

·        This movie isn’t nearly everything I’d hoped it would be, but I can’t bring myself to call it a bad movie. It has a bad script, and there are times when the actors can’t overcome that. But Quan is just so much fun here! I can’t be mad at a starring vehicle for him, even if he deserved a much better story here.

·        The action scenes are an utter delight to watch. I like that, while Marvin is a certified badass, he’s not untouchable, and he takes plenty of hard hits. I also appreciate that we see the creative ways he makes use of his environment to get the upper hand on opponents who are much bigger than he is. During the fights, you can really see how well Quan could do in that Jackie Chan-esque action-comedy space.

·        To that end, they don’t pull out the big Daniel Wu guns until the third act, but the final showdown is worth the wait!

·        One thing I’d been hoping for with this film was that it would give Quan a post-Everything Everywhere All at Once opportunity to really show off his range. That movie was perfectly calibrated to highlight everything Quan can do, but many of his roles since then have leaned heavily to the “laundry Waymond” side. As much as I love that type of performance from him, he’s already proven how much more he can do. Love Hurts doesn’t realize all my hopes there—the script just isn’t up to the task—but I do find it interesting that Marvin’s upbeat, silly personality is something he’s deliberately cultivated and chosen for himself since leaving the gang. That gives it a slightly different angle than some of Quan’s other post-Everything Everywhere All at Once work, and again, the action scenes allow him to flex that side of his talent as well.

Warnings

Tons of violence, language, drinking, sexual content, and thematic elements.

Neurodivergent (Headcanon) Alley: Ria Khan (Polite Society)

*Spoilers.*

I love this movie, in no small part because I adore Ria. She’s extra and obsessive and dramatic, and I love her so much. And of course, a heaping portion of that love comes from what I see as neurodivergent coding. If you gave me an autistic argument for Ria, I could probably buy that too, but for my money, this girl radiates ADHD.

(Also, before I get started, a quick side note: I've realized that, as I've gotten into Neurodivergent Alley, Big ND Energy shows/films I've watched in the last show haven't gotten much in the way of Favorite Characters posts. I've written multiple Neurodivergent Alley posts about Lessons in Chemistry, DuckTales, Nope, etc., but no Favorite Characters. In case it's not clear by how lovingly I write these, a Neurodivergent Alley post basically doubles as a Favorite Characters post.)

Ria is all in on her goals. At the start of the movie, this means her dream to become a stuntwoman. It doesn’t matter to her that she’s small, that it’s an “unrealistic” career goal, or that people make fun of her for it. This is one area where her eyes are fully on the prize. She’ll practice her super-special flying spin kick for hours, no matter how many times she falls, and she’ll repeatedly email her stuntwoman idol, not just to ask about a work experience opportunity, but to engage in a one-sided dialogue about the issues in her personal life.

This dream causes the people around Ria to assume that she’s unserious and unfocused. Even though she is in fact hyperfocused on what she wants, this leads her to appear like she’s dropping the ball in other areas. When the family goes to a hoity-toity Eid soiree, she gets bored and wanders around the house. She accepts fights she’s absolutely not equipped to win at school, and she has some ill-advised words for her teacher when her work experience proposal is rejected. Because she views her life like an action film, she occasionally appears to freeze up in reaction to things—she doesn’t respond because she’s caught up in the tense soundtrack and dramatic slow-mo playing out in her head.

Ria gets herself into a lot of trouble socially, not so much because she doesn’t understand social situations, but because she feels incredibly strongly about things and often expresses herself in ways that are viewed as “inappropriate.” This often comes from her intense focus on things that most people don’t care about like she does. Again, she doesn’t think twice about mouthing off to a bully who’s considerably bigger than she is, and she swears in front of her teachers and her parents. She decides that the best way to get her sister Lena to help her with her training is by yelling, “Please!” over and over while she tries to pull Lena off the bed by her legs. When she gets a new goal—stopping Lena’s wedding to Salim at all costs—she goes in on it so hard that she alienates her friends.

That brings us to Ria’s recklessness and impulsivity, because she has heaps of both. In some areas, she’s incredibly detail-oriented, coming up with a multi-part plan to take down Salim and help Lena “snap out of” her inclination to give up on her artistic dreams. But even as Ria makes these plans, she’s still often being led by her gut. Yep, she’ll disguise herself as a guy to swipe Salim’s laptop out of the men’s locker room at the gym. Sure, she’ll break into Salim’s house in the hopes of planting evidence of infidelity. Yeah, she’ll volunteer to be chloroformed to make sure it's safe before she tries it on Lena. Just another day in the life of Ria Khan!

She’s creative, driven, and passionate. She’s impulsive, rude, and stubborn. She’s protective, tough, and sensitive. She’s absolutely amazing, and I love her.