Sheryl Lee Ralph and her family are safe and praying the sun will come out tomorrow.

The “Abbott Elementary” star on Tuesday solicited prayers from her home in Jamaica as she prepared to ride out Hurricane Beryl, which swept along the island’s southern coast on Wednesday night, bringing more than 12 hours of heavy rain. After making landfall on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula on Friday, Beryl is now classified as a tropical storm.

“Thank you to everybody for your good vibes and your prayers,” Ralph wrote in a Thursday video posted to X. “We don’t have any lights. There is no power. But we have life.”

The actor is in Kingston for her son Etienne Maurice’s marriage to ABC News producer Stephanie Wash. Despite the storm, the couple has not indicated their Saturday wedding will be canceled or postponed, and Ralph said she is “praying for sunshine.” (She even sang as much to the storm itself.)

“We got scrubbed by the eye of Beryl, but she is on her way off somewhere else,” she continued, adding in her caption that while Kingston “did not get a direct hit,” Carriacou, a Caribbean island in Grenada, “needs help.”

Satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showed swaths of Carriacou being decimated by Beryl’s 150 mph winds. Officials said roughly 98% of buildings on the island and neighboring Petite Martinique had been destroyed.

“We have to rebuild from the ground up,” Grenada Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said at a Thursday briefing.

Meanwhile, Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness told the CBC that although the island sustained damage to its coastline, housing infrastructure and roads, it “certainly escaped the worst.”

“I continue to ask you to pray for others as you would pray for yourself and just put something positive out in the world ’cause there are people who need it,” Ralph said in another post from Thursday.

As of Friday afternoon, Beryl is moving northwestward. The storm is predicted to reach northeastern Mexico and southern Texas by the end of the weekend, the National Hurricane Center and Central Pacific Hurricane Center said Friday.

Casualties have risen to at least 10 people, the BBC reported; St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and Venezuela reported three deaths each, while one person died in Jamaica.

Even if you didn’t watch The Real Bros of Simi Valley during its three-season run, it’s likely you’ve seen GIFs or clips of a handful of scenes as they’ve made their way around the internet the last few years. The two most popular are easily “Bro, I’m straight up not having a good time” and “Yo Xan, get your boy, dawg.” As great as those moments are, they’re just a glimpse into what the show had to offer. So how does it fare as a movie, nearly four years after its last episode?

The Real Bros of Simi Valley Plot

If you’re unfamiliar with the show, it’s a parody reality show, satirizing the lifestyle and culture of Southern California, in the vein of other reality shows, namely Jersey Shore and the Real Housewives series. It follows a group of nine friends in the titular Simi Valley in California. It’s a true ensemble cast, though Jimmy Tatro (who also directed and co-wrote with his longtime friend and creative partner Christian Pierce; the two co-created the show together) is ostensibly the lead as Xander, the de facto leader of the squad.

Picking up a couple years after the conclusion of season three, Real Bros finds the crew gearing up for their 10 year high school reunion. As the self-proclaimed sickest crew in their high school, they make it their mission to prove to everyone they’re still as dope as ever, if not even doper. And with the purchase of a brand new truck, Xander hopes to take home the coveted Truck of the Year Award handed out at every Simi High 10 year anniversary.

The Real Bros of Simi Valley Critique

Right off the bat, it’s completely clear Real Bros is not a serious movie in any way whatsoever. Sure, if you squint hard enough, there are glimpses of deeper themes and messaging sprinkled in. Don’t judge your happiness and and success off the happiness and success of others. If you’re happy, be content with who you are and where you’re at in life. Xander and his wife Molly (Colleen Donovan) have some very obvious marital problems. But those are often played as a joke, and are quickly resolved. And that’s fine. That’s not the movie Real Bros wants to be.

And that also makes it a pretty easy movie to critique. Do you like the mockumentary setup? Is this your style of humor? Do you find the characters interesting? If yes, then you’ll like it. There is such little story here, with such low stakes, that those aspects essentially don’t matter for how “good” the overall movie is.

The humor, though, is unique. You’re not going to find many movies (I can’t come up with any off the top of my head) with this kind of collection of characters. They’re very “bro-ey” and as a parody, the script leans hard into it.

For better or worse (better, in my opinion), Real Bros uses that style and setup to set itself apart from every other comedy out there right now. And for comedies these days, that’s really saying something, and is an impressive to pull off.

The biggest thing Real Bros has going for it is the cast and therefore characters as well. The entire main cast from the show returns, and they all jump right back into their roles as if the show ended yesterday. They all had three seasons to hone their characters, and it pays off in spades with the movie.

All the ins and outs, the smaller details for each of them, all of those were already known, and every character gets their own moment or two to shine. The cast already had great chemistry to work with. Some hurdles that other movies might have to work through, Real Bros didn’t have to give a second thought to.

While the humor and characters are the sole reasons for watching Real Bros, being so committed to the bit will likely push some newer viewers away. I appreciate it, but I was also coming in as a fan of the show. There are also certain character moments and storylines (one in particular with Xander and Molly’s son) where the jokes won’t fully land without having the context from the series. It’s not a huge ding against Real Bros, but there are a handful of moments and jokes like this, not just one or two. It’s still a low barrier of entry, but it bears mentioning.

In Conclusion

The Real Bros of Simi Valley: The Movie is a terrific follow-up to the show. Tatro and Pierce have such a feel for these characters and that’s evident in every scene. Fans of the show don’t need to be sold on the movie. It’s more of what you already know and love, simple as that. New viewers may not be drawn into the overly “bro-ey” style and some of the more outlandish aspects. But I’d encourage everyone to give it a shot (watch the trailer first), as it’s in line to finish as one of the year’s funniest movies.

If you want to check out the show before watching the movie, the entire series is available on Tatro’s Life According to Jimmy YouTube channel.

The Real Bros of Simi Valley: The Movie is now streaming on The Roku Channel.

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Ellen DeGeneres has abruptly canceled four of her stand-up tour dates — and didn’t give a reason why.

Those who bought tickets to the former talk show host’s performances in Dallas (July 10), San Francisco (July 21), Seattle (July 23) and Chicago (Aug. 11) were informed by concert promoter Live Nation that “unfortunately, the Event Organizer has had to cancel your event.”

Ticket holders will be issued full refunds in the next two to three weeks, Live Nation said. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

The Ellen’s Last Stand … Up Tour is being billed in a press release as her “long-awaited comeback to stand-up comedy” and “the last opportunity for fans to witness a comedy legend in her final curtain call.” according to a press release. Eight of the 27 dates are sold out, with the two final shows in Minneapolis being filmed for a Netflix special.

DeGeneres’ return to the stage follows a fall from grace that came when “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” — which ended in 2022 after a nearly two-decade run — was hit with allegations that it was a toxic workplace. A 2020 BuzzFeed News investigation revealed allegations of intimidation, racism and sexual misconduct by producers.

It’s a tumble that DeGeneres makes light of in her stand-up, , riffing on getting “kicked out of show business.”

“This is the second time I’ve been kicked out of show business,” DeGeneres said in April during a set at Largo at the Coronet. “Eventually they’re going to kick me out for a third time because I’m mean, old and gay.”