Scoob!

 Scoob! (2020)

Featuring the vocal talents of Will Forte, Zac Efron, Amanda Seyfried, Gina Rodriguez, Mark Wahlberg, Jason Isaacs, Kiersey Clemons, Ken Jeong, Tracy Morgan, and Frank Welker

Directed by Tony Cervone

Written by Adam Sztykiel, Jack C. Donaldson, Derek Elliott, and Mattt Lieberman

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: D-

The Art of Racing in the Rain

 The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019)

Starring Milo Ventimiglia, Amanda Seyfried, Kathy Baker, Martin Donovan, and Gary Cole

Featuring the vocal talent of Kevin Costner

Directed by Simon Curtis

Written by Mark Bomback

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

The Last Word

The Last Word (2017)

Starring Shirley MacLaine, Amanda Seyfried, Thomas Sadoski, Tom Everett Scott, AnnJewel Lee Dixon, and Anne Heche

Directed by Mark Pellington

Written by Stuart Ross Fink

***This film is currently streaming via Amazon Prime***

Summary (in 500 words or less):  Harriet Lauler (Shirley MacLaine), an aging curmudgeonly woman, enlists the help of the young obituary writer of the small local paper, Anne (Amanda Seyfried), to help write her obit while she's still alive.  Along the way, the two different clashing personalities realize that they need one another in order to live their best lives.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C+

Movie Review - A Million Ways to Die in the West

A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)

Starring Seth MacFarlane, Charlize Theron, Amanda Seyfried, Giovanni Ribisi, Neil Patrick Harris, Sarah Silverman, and Liam Neeson

Directed by Seth MacFarlane

I'm not sure I ever thought I'd write a sentence containing this sentiment, but Sarah Silverman is the best part of Seth MacFarlane's much too long A Million Ways to Die in the West.  Quite frankly, it's a shame the female comic isn't in the film a bit more.  Then again, I can take Silverman in small doses so it's probably better her role as a morally conscious prostitute in 1882 Arizona is only a supporting one.  Still, her comedic timing with co-star Giovanni Ribisi as her celibate boyfriend provide the film its few and far between laughs.

In an obvious attempt to meld Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles with modern-day Family Guy sensibilities, writer-director MacFarlane throws a bunch of jokes at the audience (at least in the first two-thirds of its two hour running time), but they mostly fall flat.  MacFarlane's comedic timing works on an animated show like Family Guy where we can easily suspend our reality, but when MacFarlane himself is onscreen rattling off jokes that overstay their welcome, we tire much easier, unable to really foster his scattershot comedic style in a live action setting.

MacFarlane is essentially playing himself (or at least the persona we've come to know) in the character of Albert, a sheep farmer who desires nothing more than to escape the wild west where death is around every corner.  When his girlfriend Louise (Amanda Seyfried) leaves him for Foy (Neil Patrick Harris), the proprietor of a mustache grooming store, Albert is heartbroken until he meets cowgirl Anna (Charlize Theron) whose no-nonsense style he falls for right away.  Anna reciprocates Albert's feelings, but she is unfortunately involved in a bad marriage with the evil Clinch (Liam Neeson) who is none too pleased when he discovers that his wife is having relations with another man.

Throw in a bunch of fart jokes, Neil Patrick Harris pooping into a hat (scratch that -- multiple hats), Sarah Silverman having a certain male bodily fluid dripping off the side of her face, and many more low-level bathroom-related jabs that any eighth grader would find hilarious and you've got A Million Ways to Die in the West.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Lovelace

Lovelace (2013)

Starring Amada Seyfried, Peter Sarsgaard, Sharon Stone, Robert Patrick, Juno Temple, Chris Noth, Bobby Canavale, Hank Azaria, Adam Brody, and James Franco

Directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman

Deep Throat is the highest-grossing pornographic movie of all time.  Made in 1972, at the very least the film grossed $100 million although some estimates have it grossing $600 million (which is seemingly unfathomable for a film that played in only X-rated moviehouses).  The star of Deep Throat was the "normal-looking" Linda Lovelace who became incredibly famous thanks to her...um...oral capabilities. Termed a "sexy Raggedy Anne" by a character in Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman's Lovelace, Linda was seemingly a gal who never imagined becoming a porn star, but was pushed into the industry by her husband who was desperate for money and essentially pimped out his wife in order to keep his head above water.

Following the film, I did a tiny bit of wikipedia research on Linda Lovelace and her story may have easily been sugarcoated for this film which is a love letter of sorts to the woman who only starred in one porn film and then managed to get out of the industry.  Still, despite the possibility of being one-sided, Lovelace is a decent picture...and this is coming from someone who's never particularly fond of biopics.

I typically can't stand Amanda Seyfried, but I think she gives her best performance to date as Linda.  Because of the way the film is cleverly set up, we see Linda's introduction to the porn industry through two different lenses -- one being the "excited" face she puts on for those around her and then, in a flashback, her seemingly true feelings about the industry.  Seyfried embodies both sides of Linda quite well and she absolutely makes Linda a relatable character.

As her husband Chuck, Peter Sarsgaard is a frightening and scary presence.  Having won over Linda's parents with his charm and grace, once married to Linda, his personality changes and his disgusting treatment of his wife is fodder for the second half of the film.  Sarsgaard is always good at playing a creepy guy, but here he successfully adds a menacing aspect that I haven't yet seen from him.

The rest of the cast is full of well-knowns and they all do fine work.  If anything, the film doesn't allow these other characters to develop as much as Linda and Chuck thanks to the brisk pace that the directors employ.  Still, overall, Lovelace is a film that I wasn't expecting anything from, but found an interesting look at an "important" moment in the film industry.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Les Misérables

Les Misérables (2012)

Starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne, Amanda Seyfried, Samantha Barks, Aaron Tveit, Isabelle Allen, Daniel Huttlestone, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Helena Bonham Carter

Directed by Tom Hooper

Goodness, there really isn't any modicum of happiness in Les Misérables.  The title is certainly apropos, hinting about the miserable existence of the characters we'll meet, but I still expected maybe a hint of joy.  However, you certainly don't feel uplifted walking out of the film.  That being said, I mean that not as a slight towards Tom Hooper's adaptation of the long-running and tremendously popular musical version of Victor Hugo's lengthy tome.  Many claim that Hooper stole away David Fincher's Best Director Oscar when he triumphed over The Social Network with The King's Speech back in 2010, but my RyMickey Awards crowned Hooper the winner that year and Les Misérables does show that The King's Speech wasn't just a fluke.  More on Hooper later, though...

***Moderate spoilers ahead only if you've lived under a rock during this awards season***

The epic Les Mis is overarchingly the story of Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), a man imprisoned for over a decade for stealing a loaf of bread in early nineteenth century France.  When released, Valjean is told that as a parolee he must periodically check in or else face heading back to prison.  Valjean, however, wants to leave his past behind him and manages to find himself a successful businessman running a factory of sorts that employs a bunch of lower income women, one of whom is Fantine (Anne Hathaway).  It is soon discovered that Fantine has a young child which I guess implies she's a whore (although I found myself questioning this whole plotline), throwing the other ladies into a tizzy causing Fantine to be fired and thrown out onto the streets unbeknown to Valjean.  Forced to do whatever she can to provide for her child whom she has sent to live with others, Fantine sells all that she can (her hair, her teeth, and her body) and eventually dies, but not before Valjean meets up with her again and promises her that he will take care of her young child Cosette (Isabelle Allen).

Time passes and Cosette grows up (and is now played by Amanda Seyfried), but Valjean still finds himself constantly on the run from his former captor, Officer Javert (Russell Crowe) who is on a mission to get Valjean back behind bars for breaking his parole.  Every time Javert discovers their location, Valjean and Cosette are forced to move, but when Cosette sees the dashing Marius (Eddie Redmayne) across a crowded street, she instantly falls in love with him (and he with her), wanting to stay with him rather than travel elsewhere with Valjean. Marius is quite politically minded, wishing to overthrow the French government to provide a better environment for the lower classes (or something like that...it's probably a pretty important part of French history that's glossed over in terms of depth here).  We then add Eponine (Samantha Barks) into the mix who secretly loves Marius and also happens to have a connection to Cosette in that Eponine's father and mother (Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter) were the ones who watched after young Cosette over a decade before.

Whew...that seems like a lot to take in...and it is.  However, with all that story and character connections, you'd think there'd be more depth and weight to the story.  Unfortunately, the fact that this is a musical takes away a bit of the gravitas that I imagine is present in the novel.  I am certainly someone who appreciates musicals and am definitely aware that most musicals utilize their songs in order to advance the story.  Because of this technique, oftentimes the plot in musicals is simplified, but Les Misérables is a story that shouldn't be simplified.  The songs, while beautiful (though perhaps not as memorable as I expected them to be seeing as how I was not familiar with this musical at all), made this heavy story seem more one-note than it should be.

For the most part, the performances were fairly solid.  Mr. Hooper did a smart thing considering the operatic nature of the piece in having his actors sing live rather than lip sync as is the case in most musicals.  This allows for quite emotional, real, and true moments to be present, best exemplified in Anne Hathaway's showstopping number "I Dreamed a Dream."  Utilizing one long take with the camera focused solely on Fantine, Hathaway won herself the Best Supporting Actress Oscar with a riveting and heartbreaking rendition of the only song I'd heard from this musical prior to watching the film.  For some reason or another, I had never listened to the lyrics clearly enough to comprehend the utter sadness and devastation that Fantine feels while singing this song, but Hathaway made me fully understand the pain of her once hopeful character.

The other standout to me in the ensemble was Eddie Redmayne who has a lovely voice and is also granted a Hathaway/Fantine-like moment at the film's conclusion with "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" as he looks back on the revolution of the lower class and the many friends he lost in the battle.  There is also nice work from West End performer Samantha Barks in her first film role.  Hugh Jackman has been a bit overpraised for his work here, but it was still perfectly acceptable, and, on the other end of the spectrum, Russell Crowe has been a bit too harshly criticized as I thought his gruffer voice suited his part fine.

Tom Hooper has done a nice job filming this operatic musical, but even he is unable to assist the hefty story not coming across with the importance it likely should.  That's just an inherent flaw of the musicalization of a work such as this.  When French Revolution aspects are thrown aside for a love story between characters simply because it suits the music better, there isn't much Hooper can do.  Yes, the film has a murky, grayish-brown quality that does grow a bit tiresome as it heads into hour two, but I fully respected Hooper's hand-held, close-up style that he's actually been taken to task for.  It does allow for the focus to be placed on the characters rather than their surroundings, bringing more emotional power to the songs.  Still, despite some nice music, I can't help but think Les Misérables shouldn't have ever been made into an opera as the story seems to call for much more plot than a simplified musical can allow...then again, millions upon millions of theatergoers will disagree with me on that one.

The RyMickey Rating: B-

Movie Review - In Time

In Time (2011)

Starring Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy, Vincent Kartheiser, and Olivia Wilde

Directed by Andrew Niccol

In Time takes us to an Earth in which money doesn't exist, but instead time is the most precious commodity around.  Here, humans are given twenty-five years of existence, but when their twenty-sixth year rolls around, they stop aging and a digital-type clock implanted into their forearm clicks on with a decreasing timeclock of one year.  Everything we normally pay money for is paid for with time -- a cup of coffee, for example, takes four hours off of your clock (and your life).  You're paid for labor in hours as well, so it's not as if you're absolutely dead in a year.  In fact, just like our current monetary system, there are some very wealthy people with hundreds -- even thousands -- of years to go.

With such an intriguing concept, it's a shame that writer-director Andrew Niccol shifts focus halfway through the movie into an updated Bonnie and Clyde/Robin Hood reboot with Justin Timberlake as the "poor" Will Salas teaming up with the "wealthy" Sylvia Weis (Amanda Seyfried) to redistribute Sylvia's father seemingly infinite stash of time to the less fortunate.  Things were going so well until we drifted down this path we'd seen before and it's unfortunate that the unique premise is watered down to something we've seen time and time again.

Surprisingly, Timberlake more than holds his own in this film.  While I don't think he'll ever be mistaken for a great thespian, he definitely embodied the character and abandoned his celebrity persona.  Granted, he still needs some work (one scene in which he's forced to cry just proves laughable), but overall, I think he's got some talent in the acting department.  Ms. Seyfried, on the other hand, I'm not so sure about.  It's not that I dislike her as an actress, but in the last few films I've seen her in she seems to be simply phoning in her performance.  She doesn't bring any depth to her character here and it's a little bit disappointing, although I'm not sure whether it's her fault or the fault of the script.  She's walking on thin ice at this point...her next film may make or break her for me.

Still, this is rather fun film (which also contains a nice performance from the heretofore unmentioned Cillian Murphy as a futuristic "cop" who is in search of the two "criminals") and it's worth giving it a chance.  I'm sure this was a case of low expectations making something appear to be a bit more promising than it actually is, but In Time wouldn't be a waste of your time should you choose to watch it.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Red Riding Hood

Red Riding Hood (2011)

Starring Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Billy Burke, Virginia Madsen, and Julie Christie

Directed by Catherine Hardwicke

A pale ingenue.  Two brooding teens vying for her romantic attention.  A dark, eerie forest filled with mist.  A werewolf.

While these are certainly adequate descriptors of any of the Twilight flicks, it also fits Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke's newest teenage angst melodrama Red Riding Hood, a re-imagining of the classic Grimm fairy tale.  Here Amanda Seyfried is Valerie, a young gal living in some European town in the wooded mountains in what is likely the 1800s (even though the ladies still wear tons of make-up and apparently have access to flat-irons for their hair).  She's in love with her childhood sweetheart Peter, but she's set to be married to Henry (the names of the two actors are irrelevant...as are their characters).  In the midst of this romantic triangle, there's a werewolf wreaking havoc on the townsfolk.  There's some kind of gobbledy-gook spouted by religious figure Solomon (Gary Oldman) that states that the werewolf comes out once every few years when the moon turns red in order to pass on his werewolf genes to someone else.  Of course, the moon is now red and the werewolf's on a mission to take a bite out of someone.  Now we just have to guess which one of Amanda's fellow townsfolk is half-canine.  (Needless to say, the identity of the monster was guessed by this viewer a mere twenty minutes into the film.)

Red Riding Hood seriously looked just like a spin-off of the Twilight films.  Hardwicke's direction is simply a paint-by-numbers replica of that series.  From the soundtrack to the sets to the camera shots (all of which were actually decent), the film didn't feel "original" in the slightest.  The acting by Amanda Seyfried is just as bland and boring as that of Kristen Stewart.  Even supporting actors like Gary Oldman and Julie Christie find themselves unable to rise out of the muck that is the lousy script.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Chloe

Chloe (2010)

Starring Julianne Moore, Amanda Seyfried, and Liam Neeson

Directed by Atom Egoyan

Considering that Amanda Seyfried is being pushed as a new young film star, one would think that this flick in which the young lady bares close to everything would have gotten at least some moderate buzz when it was released earlier this year.  But, oh yeah, I guess the fact that the story pretty much blows negated any positives her nudity may have granted the film.

Julianne Moore is Dr. Catherine Stewart, an ob-gyn who worries that her music professor husband, David (Liam Neeson), may be cheating on her.  Catherine hires Chloe (Seyfried), an escort, in order to seduce David to see if her suspicions are true.  Catherine gets a little more than she bargains for, however, and the whole Stewart family (including the teenage son) are drawn under Chloe's sexy spell.

There's no denying that the film is going for "steamy," but it never goes beyond the Skinemax realm.  There's the soft lighting and the corny music and the cable channel nudity rule that only allows for lingering shots of breasts and ass and nothing else.  Chloe attempts to be salacious, but it oftentimes just comes off as laughable.  There's a slight Fatal Attraction vibe to it (albeit in a Sapphic manner), but you're better off just watching that 80s flick which, while also laughable, is at least a whole lot of fun.

It's a shame, too, because there's a really good performance here from Seyfried (and it's not just because she's naked).  Sure, her character is given a not-surprising-in-the-slightest "twist" at the end, but there's no denying Seyfried's seductiveness is effective.  It's a shame that her counterpart in Julianne Moore doesn't quite reach the same level.  Moore's role is nothing more than the cookie cutter "cheated-upon wife" that we've seen in movies tens of times before.

I've seen a couple movies by Atom Egoyan (one review is here) and I'm always intrigued by the premises, but I never quite feel like he's able to make his films come together in the end.  Chloe is no exception.

But Amanda Seyfried is stunning to look at...

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Jennifer's Body (2009)

Starring Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Simmons, Adam Brody, and J.K. Simmons
Directed by Karyn Kusama

As a story, I actually kind of liked Diablo Cody's debut screenplay effort, Juno. If only people didn't talk in it utilizing "too quirky for their own good" dialogue, I would've enjoyed it even more.

A similar thing happens in Jennifer's Body, but to a much less successful degree. The basic plot -- chick turns into a demon and kills the boys around school in order to sustain life -- isn't anything new necessarily, but as an overarching story it's intriguing enough. The unfortunate thing is that Diablo fills the movie with cheesy lines that are too cool for school -- for example, "You're just jello because you're not invited" -- 'jello' being the cool kid equivalent to 'jealous,' both of which contain the same amount of syllables so it's not as if we're even shortening the time it takes to say it.

Megan Fox is okay as demon chick Jennifer, but we're not talking about a great actress here...and I don't get the fascination with this girl. Sure, I guess she's attractive, but there wasn't a minute in this movie that I thought she lived up to her reputation as the most downloaded or Googled woman on the internet. Plus, as an actress, I literally feel like I'm staring at an empty, vacant face...there's no emotion behind those eyes or those looks that she doles out.

Amanda Seyfried, on the other hand, is becoming an actress I enjoy (she was absolutely the only good thing about the horrendously awful Mamma Mia). She's the dorky one in this...we know that because she wears glasses and doesn't know what to wear in order to look cool in one of her first scenes. As she gradually begins to discover the "real Jennifer," she can't get anyone to believe her, including her boyfriend, played by a surprisingly decent Johnny Simmons (who apparently was in Hotel for Dogs, but I don't remember him). Simmons isn't given a lot to do here and his role is nothing other than the requisite boyfriend role seen in so many other movies, but for some reason or another, I liked him in this. Unfortunately, Simmons and Seyfried share one of the most awkward sex scenes in movies this year...it felt like it went on forever and I couldn't wait for it to be over.

Listen...this really isn't a good movie and I certainly don't recommend it. And Diablo Cody is too snarky for her own good. But, Seyfried and Simmons, along with some interesting (although not always good) directorial choices by Karyn Kusuma make this not an epic failure.

The RyMickey Rating: D