3 Short Paragraphs: John Henry

 2020, Will Forbes (???) -- Netflix

I suspect the emptiness of Will Forbes IMDB entry is due to a lack of interest from the public-sourced editors that IMDB relies on, as John Henry did so badly in the eyes of review sites, it isn't worthy their attention. That said, it wasn't that bad of a debut, especially for something on a micro-budget, especially from someone who came to Hollywood to do music for films, not make them. In order to score film, he created a film. Kudos. 

Drawing from the well-known folklore character, it transposes the image of the imposing black man with a hammer from a steel driving man building railroads to a reluctant hero of the downtrodden in LA, with a hammer. John Henry (Terry Crews, Brooklyn 99) is an ex-gang member living a very quiet life, one of regrets and avoidance, interrupted by a young Honduran girl who hides under his porch, hiding from police and worse. She had just been rescued, by her cousin and brother, from a gang who had kidnapped her, intending on making her a drug induced sex-slave. The brother was shot, the cousin sacrifices himself to the police so she can escape.

The gang is run by Hell (Ludacris, Gamer), Henry's childhood friend and cousin, whom he sorely injured, leaving both scarred for life, one metaphorically & emotionally, one physically & emotionally. Hell has much of his right jaw replaced by a one-up on gangstas with gold teeth. Henry knows what he will go up against, and what it will cost him to finally come out of his repose and once again face Hell. Alas, Forbes takes the metaphor too highly at times, adding sloppy high styling when the lowkey down-to-life interactions between characters worked better. A rarely still Crews is believable as a large man capable of great violence, while Ludacris's comic book villainy seems out of place here. Still, I did enjoy, as I am still wrapped up in my curiosity about the less-Hollywood side of LA.