Midway

Midway (2019)

Starring Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Woody Harrelson, Luke Evans, Mandy Moore, Luke Kleintank, Aaron Eckhart, Nick Jonas, Etsushi Toyokawa, Tadanobu Asano, Keean Johnson, Darren Criss, and Dennis Quaid

Directed by Roland Emmerich

Written by Wes Tooke

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Sully

Sully (2015)

Starring Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Mike O'Malley, Jamey Sheridan, Anna Gunn, and Laura Linney

Directed by Clint Eastwood

I have long criticized that as a director Clint Eastwood doesn't create films that garner an emotional connection between the characters and the audience.  There's a disconnect that Eastwood often isn't able to overcome even in films where the kinship should be palpable (ex: American Sniper).  I'm happy to report that isn't the case in Sully, a film that retells the tale of pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and his successful attempt to land a passenger aircraft on the bitterly cold Hudson River on January 15, 2009, after a massive engine failure.  Credit is certainly due to Eastwood for crafting a briskly edited film and capturing a fantastic performance from Tom Hanks as the title character.

The film places Sully in a bit of a predicament, opening not by showing the audience the Hudson River landing, but instead in the midst of the build-up to an evidentiary hearing debating whether Captain Sullenberger could've landed his plane at one of several nearby airports as opposed to on the water.  Most of the film is spent doubting Sully's abilities (by both the NTSB and Sully himself) while at the same time the media touts his heroic effort, and this juxtaposition causes the title character to question his actions -- is he really as good of a pilot as he thought he was and does he deserve the praise he's receiving nationwide despite the fact that he saved all 155 souls onboard the plane.  This conceit of placing Sully under fire does wonders for creating a well-rounded title character in that it allows the fantastic Tom Hanks to play someone largely doubting himself throughout the entirety of the film, a man haunted by a frightening event that, for all intents and purposes, ended positively.  Rather than just be portrayed as a outright hero, Hanks is allowed to layer his performance with humility, anger, confidence, weakness, and strength.  Tom Hanks has always been known as the modern-day Jimmy Stewart -- cinema's everyman, cinema's "normal guy."  While there may seem to be a simplicity with playing a regular joe character like Sully, Hanks creates an effortlessly humbling performance which, to this moviegoer, isn't necessarily easy to achieve.

Kudos must also be given to Eastwood whose tautly directed film (which clocks in at a speedy 96 minutes) creates suspense out of a 205-second plane landing and its aftermath -- the results of which we in the audience already know the outcome.  In a successful effort to keep our interest, Eastwood (and the screenwriter, presumably) has his film jump around in time and while we in the audience never question where we are in the chronological timeline, we at least are given a bit of a puzzle to piece together from this admittedly well-known story.  While it gets a tad repetitive towards the end (we essentially get a complete redo of the plane landing sequence which we had already seen less than thirty minutes prior), Eastwood successfully creates a tension-filled movie and doesn't disappoint with his lensing of the initial landing sequence -- a moment we in the audience are waiting for from the outset.

Along with a nice supporting turn from Aaron Eckhart as Sully's co-pilot Jeff Skiles (who is a real-life person I didn't know about in the slightest), Eastwood has created a winner with Sully.  Color me surprised as I didn't think the aging director had it in him, but he proved me wrong with this one.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Olympus Has Fallen

Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

Starring Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Rick Yune, Dylan McDermott, Finley Jacobsen, Melissa Leo, Radha Mitchell, Robert Forster, and Ashley Judd

Directed by Antoine Fuqua

There's a feeling of "blah" that permeates throughout Olympus Has Fallen.  To me, "blah" doesn't necessarily mean bad, but it certainly doesn't connote anything good either.  There's a blandness here across the whole board from the acting to the story to the direction.  The screenwriters choose a topical enemy here as North Korean terrorists come into Washington, D.C., and wreak huge amounts of havoc on the city itself before honing in on the White House and taking the President (played by Aaron Eckhart), Vice President, and a few other important uppity-ups hostage.  With the terrorists having killed every Secret Service agent in the White House, the Commander in Chief's one chance at survival is Mike Banning (Gerard Butler), the President's former head Secret Service who quit his job after a horrible car accident eighteen months prior left the President's wife (Ashley Judd) dead.  Banning went to work at a different government position to distance himself from the shame he felt after being unable to save the First Lady, but when D.C. comes under attack, he springs into action, kills a bunch of the invading North Koreans and makes his way into the White House where he does his best to get the President and his close confidantes to safety.

Olympus Has Fallen only works when it keeps its focus on Gerard Butler.  Butler isn't given a whole lot to do, but when he's kicking ass and taking names, it's fun to watch.  It's not that Butler's Banning does anything particularly fresh, but he's got a charisma that at least makes things entertaining.  The rest of the film is unfortunately, as previously mentioned, generically bland.  Famous actors -- Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Robert Forster, Ashley Judd -- appear for minutes and then fade into the background making us wonder how in the heck director Antoine Fuqua and the film's producers managed to snag them to appear in the film.

After watching this one, I'm kind of dreading the notion of watching this year's similarly themed White House Down...but now I kind of feel like I have to simply for comparisons sake.

The RyMickey Rating: C-

Movie Review - The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight (2008)

Starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Eric Roberts, and Nestor Carbonell

Directed by Christopher Nolan

The two things I vividly remember about watching The Dark Knight in theaters four years ago was that the show I was seeing had a projector issue causing a "brain wrap" (in projectionist terms) which made the film stop (forcing me to head to another auditorium to watch the end) and that I thought Heath Ledger was perhaps a bit overrated in his role as The Joker.  At that point in time, I thought that Aaron Eckhart was the one who should be getting more praise for his take on Harvey Dent/Two Face and that Ledger's death was giving him some (slightly undeserved) great posthumous reviews.

Years later, I realize that perhaps I was a bit too harsh on Ledger.  Not that I ever thought his performance was bad, but I always felt that because of his death, he was being praised more highly than he would have had he been living.  While that may very well still be a true statement, the fact is that he did a heckuva job with The Joker.  Freakishly malevolent, there's an eerie psychotic presence whenever The Joker is onscreen.  

It's because of both The Joker's maniacal evilness and the stalwart Harvey Dent's shift into the flawed Two Face that make The Dark Knight an infinitely better movie than Batman Begins.  These two figures bring much more to the table in terms of conflict than anyone did in Christopher Nolan's first Batman film, but it's not just the "villains" that are wreaking havoc on Gotham City.  Batman himself is finding himself loved and hated by the city and Bruce Wayne is forced to come to terms with whether he is helpful or harmful to his fellow citizens.  Now that the origin tale has been told in the first film, Christopher Nolan is able to delve a bit more into the psyche of Bruce/Batman and it's a welcome addition.

Once again, supporting turns are all top notch.  Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Gary Oldman all add an aire of professionalism to the film which often isn't felt in comic book adaptations.  Maggie Gyllenhaal takes on the role originated by Katie Holmes and fares a bit better.  Holmes was never bad (I feel like I'm one of the few people who actually liked her in Batman Begins), but Gyllenhaal felt a little less morose than the somber Holmes, although it's entirely possible that the role was just given a bit more life beyond "love interest" than in the first film.  Also, I find it invigorating that Nolan isn't afraid to create characters that are capable of dying.  Gotham City isn't a pristine town by any means and by having deaths occur to characters we come to know, Nolan creates a sense of urgency and fear that we don't normally feel in comic book adaptations which always seem to feature immortal characters.

The Dark Knight isn't perfect -- once again, Nolan drags the climax out for much too long -- but it's darn close to the best -- if not the best -- comic book flick I've ever seen.  Here's hoping The Dark Knight Rises finishes off the trilogy on a positive note.

The RyMickey Rating:  A-

Movie Review - Battle: Los Angeles

Battle: Los Angeles (2011)

Starring Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, and Bridget Moynahan

Directed by Jonathan Liebesman

A Marine platoon treks across Los Angeles attempting to rid the city of alien invaders who have landed in dozens of major cities on the planet.  Over the course of Battle: Los Angeles' two hours, attempts are made to no avail to try and create emotional, meaningful moments amongst characters who have no discerning characteristics.  Instead, the film pushes its nonstop barrage of battle sequences onto the viewer and ultimately disappoints despite a somewhat promising start.

In the opening moments of Battle: Los Angeles, director Jonathan Liebesman is already well aware that viewers will never comprehend that the members of the platoon of Marines are different people.  Even though attempts are made to try and give each one an overarching storyline -- this one's getting married, that one's the virgin, that one wears glasses, this one's a doctor -- none of them are anything other than "Hoo-Rah Marine."  This is so clear a problem that Liebesman decides that it's necessary to flash up each Marine's name on the screen when they first appear so we're well aware that we're seeing different people.  That was clue #1 that character development was not a priority here.

Okay, so we're not going to have fully fleshed out people and I can be on board with that to a certain extent in a special effects-heavy film.  At the very least, I was impressed that the film essentially jumps right in to the alien invasion sequences.  If you're not going to give us discernible people, at least jump right into the action and this flick does just that.  And, for the first hour or so, I was moderately impressed with the sequences.  Despite the full scale invasion going on the city, the action was on a surprisingly intimate level as we travel with Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz (played by Aaron Eckhart who seems to be performing every line reading through gritted teeth in order to convey gruffness and toughness) and his platoon on the city streets, going in and out of buildings attempting to save civilians all before an impending bomb attack planned by the government to decimate L.A. in t-minus two hours.

It's in the film's final hour, however, once Nantz and his crew have left the inner city, stop fighting the aliens in a one-on-one, hand-to-hand combat-type level, and begin to look at the "bigger" picture and the need to take down the alien mothership, Battle: Los Angeles really falls apart.  More attempts are made at creating those "emotional moments" as more and more of Nantz' group begins to perish and the whole thing just becomes rather messy, unappealing, and plain boring to watch.  No excitement can even be gained from glimpses of the aliens or their spacecraft because there's absolutely nothing unique or special about them in the slightest.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Rabbit Hole

Rabbit Hole (2010)

Starring Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Dianne Weist, Miles Teller, Tammy Blanchard, and Sandra Oh

Directed by John Cameron Mitchell

On the "want to see" list for months now, I was worried that the build-up to Rabbit Hole would lead to disappointment.  Fortunately, that wasn't the case.  Although I expected the film to be a bit more emotionally draining and difficult to watch, this tale of a couple who loses their four year-old son in a tragic accident is quite powerful and bolstered by some great performances all around.

Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart are Becca and Howie who, as the film opens, are still reeling from the death of their young child eight months before.  While there may have been attempts to move on, nothing has really helped their grief and their relationship is suffering at this point.  Howie finds some modicum of solace in group therapy with other parents who have lost their kids, but Becca finds the process unbearable.  Instead, she follows around the eighteen year-old teenager who accidentally hit their son with his car, but even she is unsure what relief that will provide her.  Regardless, neither of the two are emotionally healthy.

The performances of Kidman and Eckhart carry this film and without their strength, Rabbit Hole would not have been as solid as it is.  Suprisingly (to me at least), Kidman's Becca is the more subdued of the two characters.  Not without her emotional moments, Becca is a character who has internalized her pain and grief, only releasing it when pushed to the limit by others.  Instead, it's Aaron Eckhart's Howie who is the more vocal of the couple.  Played rather perfectly, Eckhart's Howie is the character that really hit me.  I don't know if it's just because we're not used to males wearing their emotions on their sleeves, but Eckhart's performance is still marinating in my mind several hours after I watched the film.  I'm quite surprised Mr. Eckhart didn't gain any awards traction this past year with this role.

Admittedly, probably because I was so looking forward to this one, I felt a tiny bit let down.  I was expecting the film, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name (and adapted for the screen by its playwright David Lindsay-Abaire), to be a bit more "loud," but instead was treated to a much more subdued emotional display.  It's a case of wrongly placed expectations.  That being said, I really want to see this story played out on a stage.  Credit goes to screenwriter/playwright Lindsay-Abaire who expanded his five-person stage play into a well-rounded film that never once felt boxed in (of course, credit must also go to director John Cameron Mitchell for making this feel like a movie rather than a filmed play).

Overall, this is a solid film with some great performances (that you'll very likely see pop up in my 2010 RyMickey Awards...whenever I get around to finishing them).

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Love Happens (2009)

Starring Aaron Eckhart and Jennifer Aniston
Directed by Brandon Camp

When I saw the poster, I was wondering why Jennifer Aniston got second billing after Aaron Eckhart. Maybe it's just my celebrity crush on the gal, but I couldn't help but think that Aniston was much more of a "name" than Eckhart. After watching the movie, though, I understand that Aniston is really just window dressing -- there to look pretty and somehow motivate the main character Eckhart. About halfway through the movie, Aniston went missing for about twenty minutes and when she came back onscreen, I literally said, "Oh, Aniston's in this! I forgot."

Eckhart (who was so good and absolutely undeservedly overlooked because of Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight) is motivational speaker Burke who helps people cope with death, but, in true movie fashion, he is unable to deal with the pain he suffers due to his own wife's death a few years ago. He eventually meets Aniston's Eloise, a florist, and they eventually hit it off, with Eloise nudging Burke to face his own issues in order to better assist others in confronting theirs.

The problem here isn't in the actors because Aniston and Eckhart (along with Dan Fogler as Burke's right-hand man, Martin Sheen as Burke's dead wife's father, and Judy Greer as Eloise's assistant florist) are certainly serviceable and make the most of what they're given. However, what they're given is pretty dismal -- dialogue, while not silly, is just inconsequential. Entire scenes with Burke dealing with his followers could have been eliminated...and it felt like these scenes made up at least a third of the movie.

There's really not a whole lot here. The "love" that "happens" between Eckhart and Aniston was really nonexistent. Part of me actually interested in seeing this film because it appeared to be the first "adult" feeling film I've seen as a wide release in a while, but it's unfortunate that there wasn't really a whole lot here.

The RyMickey Rating: D+