Bad Monkey, on Apple TV+

Andrew Yancy tries to be laidback, but he just can’t do it. You would never confuse him for Jeff Lebowski, even though he has a Sam Elliott-esque narrator in the salty tourist boat captain, Fitzpatrick. On the other hand,, Yancy’s dad Jim is very Dude-like, but we must wait several episodes before we meet him. However, everyone is extremely Florida in executive producer-showrunner Bill Lawrence’s ten-episode Bad Monkey, based on the Carl Hiaasen novel, which premieres today on Apple TV+.

Yancy will be the first to admit he always compulsively does the right thing, but usually in the absolute worst way, especially when it comes to being diplomatic or politically sensitive. His crusader zeal got him transferred from the Miami police department to the Key West-(stone) cops. Then it got him demoted from a detective to a restaurant inspector. He might have gotten his old job back if he’d just made an inconvenient piece of evidence disappear for tourist-conscious police chief Sonny Summers, but he figured someone might be looking for whoever was once attached to the severed arm one of Fitzpatrick’s clients hooked in the Gulf.

It turns out there are no matching body parts in the Miami morgue, but Yancy finds Rosa Campesino, a medical examiner, who is surprisingly fun to banter with. Against her better judgement (and her worse judgement too), Campesino starts unofficially investigating the non-case with Yancy. Initially, it is not romantic, because Yancy is technically still seeing Bonnie Witt, the game-plying wife of a rich but abusive older man. However, their relationship essentially ends when an out-of-state cop turn up, looking to extradite Witt for a statutory crime involving a former student.

Logically, Yancy first suspects Eve Stripling, the very merry widow who shows up to claim the arm. He is not wrong, because Stripling is a truly evil and manipulative femme fatale. However, Nick Stripling is not entirely dead—just one of his arms. Having faked his death, he is trying to salvage his real estate development in the Bahamas. To that end, he bought Neville Stafford’s beachfront shack out from under him. Normally, Stafford is defiantly unambitious, but to reclaim his lazy lifestyle, he declares war on the Striplings, primarily by hiring the “Dragon Queen” to put a curse on the Striplings. Stafford also owns the titular monkey, Driggs.

Fans of Hiassen will be happy to see Lawrence and company finally get it right, making up for the bitter disappointment that was Striptease. First and foremost, Vince Vaughn’s sarcastic but likable persona perfectly suits the colorful eccentricity of Hiaasen’s Florida. As Yancy, Vaughn might even deliver his rapid-fire dialogue faster than in Swingers. Yet, he is consistently laugh-out loud funny.

Vaughn also has terrific chemistry with Natalie Martinez’s Campesino. She holds her own opposite Vaughn—and then some. The two of them put on one heck of a show. Scott Glenn adds a great deal of crusty charm as Yancy’s old man. As a bonus, it is loads of funs watching Yancy feud with Evan Shook, the sleazy developer erecting an eyesore McMansion next to his tasteful beach house and Mendez, the crooked cop who contributed to Yancy’s fall from grace in Miami. Played by Alex Moffat and Gonzalo Menendez, they contribute big Florida vibes, without descending into silly cartoonishness.

Brawl in Cell Block 99: Vince Vaughn Goes Up the River

Evidently, most convicts sent to the big house fantasize about doing time in Austria’s luxurious looking Justice Center Leoben, but not Bradley “Don’t Call Him Brad” Thomas. He is determined to be transferred to the maximum-security, pre-war Red Leaf hell-prison, as soon as possible. He has his reasons in S. Craig Zahler’s Brawl in Cell Block 99 (trailer here), which releases today on DVD.

Thomas was an ex-boxer trying to make and honest and peaceful living, but the recession forced him to return to work as runner for his drug lord pal Gil. He could tell something was wrong with their new Latin American connection, but he does his duty, accompanying two jittery thugs on a multi-million-dollar run. When things go sideways, Thomas wastes his cartel companions to save the drastically out-gunned cops. Of course, he is still sentenced to serious time, but at least it is a medium security facility.

On his second day, Thomas gets a visit from the mysterious “Placid Man” pretending to be his mega-pregnant wife Lauren’s OBGYN. In reality, he is a representative of the cartel, who holds him responsible for the loss of their shipment. They have kidnapped Lauren and will do awful things to her unborn baby unless he murders Christopher Bridge in Red Leaf’s hardcore Cell Block 99. To get there, he will have to be transferred twice, once from the more livable Franklin and then again into the subterranean dungeon. That will require a lot of bad behavior, but Thomas has the skills and the fortitude.

Brawl is one of the grittiest prison movies in years that deliberately evokes a 1970s vibe with its tunes and muscle cars. It doesn’t give you much faith in rehabilitation or the criminal justice system in general. Warden Tuggs and the Red Leaf guards definitely count as bad guys, but they are not even the worst of the worst. Regardless, just about everyone at Red Leaf deserves whatever comes their way, except for Thomas and maybe the inmate across the hall, who looks like Julian Richings.

About the last time Vince Vaughn had a stretch of serious dramas going was the late 1990s, when he appeared in the Malaysian prison drama, Return to Paradise. It was a good move for him to step away from wise-guy comedy and return to the prison setting, because Brawl is without question his best work in years. He is quietly intense, but his visceral physicality says plenty.

Don Johnson adds some southern fried villainy as the sadistic warden. He has probably reached the point of type-casting, but to his credit, Tuggs is less cliched and more realistic than his racist plantation owner in Django Unchained or the Joe Arpaio caricature in Machete (but sadly, he is nowhere near as flamboyant as good old Jim Bob Luke in Cold in July). Jennifer Carpenter also adds a bit depth and dimension as Lauren Thomas, which is impressive considering she mostly serves as the hostage-victim. For extra bonus points, Udo Kier brings his eccentric movie magic as the Placid Man.

Both Brawl and Zahler’s previous film Bone Tomahawk clocked in over two hours, which is ridiculous in both cases. Seriously, he has a good handle on genre elements, but he needs to work with a more assertive editor. Brawl is particularly slow out of the gates, but it pays off with more interest than Tomahawk. Recommended for fans of prison movies and 1970s throwbacks, Brawl in Cell Block 99 is now available on DVD and BluRay.