Ant-Man

Ant-Man (2015)

Starring Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Bobby Cannavale, Anthony Mackie, Judy Greer, Abby Ryder Fortson, and Michael Peña

Directed by Peyton Reed 

Click here for my Letterboxd review

Click here for my previous RyMickey Review

My current RyMickey Rating:  B

Captain America: The Winter Solider

 Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Starring Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Redford, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Emily VanCamp, and Toby Jones

Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B+

Click here for my prior RyMickey Rating review

The Woman in the Window

 The Woman in the Window (2021)

Starring Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, Anthony Mackie, Fred Hechinger, Wyatt Russell, Brian Tyree Henry, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tracy Letts, and Julianne Moore

Directed by Joe Wright

Written by Tracy Letts

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Detroit

Detroit (2017)

Starring John Boyega, Will Poulter, Algee Smith, Jacob Latimore, Anthony Mackie, Jason Mitchell, Hannah Murray, Kaitlyn Dever, Jack Reynor, Ben O'Toole, Nathan Davis, Jr.,  and John Krasinski

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow

Written by Mark Boal

***This film is currently streaming via Hulu***

Summary (in 500 words or less):  Riots in 1960s inner city Detroit create great tension between the police and the African American residents in the community.  One evening, three Detroit police officers invade the Algiers Motel after a supposed sniper attack and create a brutal night from hell for a group of innocent young men and women.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Our Brand Is Crisis

Our Brand Is Crisis (2015)

Starring Sandra Bullock, Billy Bob Thornton, Anthony Mackie, Joaquim de Almeida, Ann Dowd, Scoot McNairy, and Zoe Kazan

Directed by David Gordon Green

***This movie is currently available on HBO Now***

Savaged by critics and completely ignored by moviegoers, Our Brand Is Crisis was one of the biggest bombs of Sandra Bullock's career when it was released last October.  Quite frankly, I'm a bit surprised because I found the film to be an amusingly lighthearted political comedy with an engaging cast who create an atmosphere that's a lot more fun than I expected.  Bullock is Jane Bodine, an American campaign manager who is hired by an American consulting who in turn was hired by Bolivian politician Pedro Castillo (Joaquim de Almeida) to run his floundering campaign for the presidency.  The film rather simply covers a several-months period in which Jane and her crew (Anthony Mackie, Ann Dowd, Scoot McNairy, and Zoe Kazan) try to create reasons to sway the public vote to Castillo.

The performances really make Our Brand Is Crisis click with Bullock in particular offering up a strong-willed, sarcastically biting role that lifts the piece higher than I'd imagine.  Unfortunately, the film falls apart a bit towards the end with its political election proving to be highly anticlimactic and its subsequent repercussions off-putting and too dramatically out-of-place with the rest of the feature.  Still this film (a fictionalized account of a documentary of the same name) isn't nearly as bad as its lukewarm reception would have you believe.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Captain America: Civil War

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Starring Chris Evans, Robert Downey, Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Emily VanCamp, Tom Holland, Daniel Brühl, William Hurt, Martin Freeman, John Slattery, Alfre Woodard, and Marisa Tomei

Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo

The casts of these Marvel movies just keep growing -- I can't tag nearly all of those famous people in the labels attached to this review -- but the films following the Avengers team saga keep getting better so I approve of the multiplying ensemble.  Captain America: Civil War certainly has its epic action sequences, but it's the Marvel movie that feels the most grounded in reality -- of course, it's a reality filled with flying, shrinking, web-slinging, and energy manipulating superheroes, but it's the most realistic Marvel depiction of these folks yet.  Without aliens desiring to wreak havoc or supervillains intent on literally raising cities off of the Earth, Captain America: Civil War pits Iron Man Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) and Captain America Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) against one another as they try to determine the Avengers' place in the world.

Building off the events of The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Civil War asks the question as to whether the Avengers do more harm than good.  Following the devastating damage the Avengers helped to cause when taking down Ultron who was intent on destroying Sokovia, worldwide agencies want to make the Avengers answer to a governing body in an attempt to keep them from simply running rampant across the world.  Sure they do good, but the Avengers are also reckless at times.  Tony Stark is amenable to this treatise, but Steve Rogers feels that it will severely inhibit the Avengers' ability to fight evil.  Our superheroes -- Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), War Machine (Don Cheadle), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), and the newest member Spider-Man (Tom Holland) -- take sides, all while Captain America tries to figure out if his former buddy Bucky Barnes AKA the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) is responsible for an attack on the United Nations-esque body that is responsible for instituting the Sokovia Accords.

For me -- someone who isn't a huge comic book movie fan, despite having seen all of the new era of Marvel films -- the biggest reason for the success of Captain America: Civil War (which isn't really a Captain America movie so much as another Avengers picture) is that the villains here aren't foreign entities like superhuman computers or outer space creatures, but based in reality.  Add to that, the tension that arises within the Avengers group themselves is surprisingly palpable and dramatically effective.  Plus, in typical Marvel fashion, the film knows when to lighten things up, creating nice pops of humor when the heavier story desperately needs it.  The Russo Brothers who did a great job with Captain America: Winter Soldier do an even better job here and I look forward to what they can bring to the oftentimes over-bloated Avengers films.

The character of Captain America is one that didn't start out successful for me in the slightest.  In fact, the original Captain America film is one of my least favorites in the Marvel canon.  However, as the character of Steve Rogers has grown and developed, he's become compelling and captivating.  Placing him front and center here in a battle against some of his former allies creates what I think is the best Marvel film to date.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Ant-Man

Ant-Man (2015)

Starring Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Bobby Cannavale, Anthony Mackie, Judy Greer, Abby Ryder Fortson, and Michael Peña

Directed by Peyton Reed

Congratulations are in order to Marvel Studios who has managed to consistently deliver films that audiences clamor to see at the box office.  Having tackled their marquee superheroes, they've begun heading into the lesser known characters starting with 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy and continuing with 2015's Ant-Man, the tale of Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), a thief who is released from prison and finding it tough to make a living outside in the real world.  Desperate to reconnect with his daughter (Abby Ryder Fortson) but without any money to provide child support, Scott agrees to take part in another heist at the home of the rich Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas).  Unfortunately, upon breaking into the home's safe, Scott discovers simply a suit rather than any money.  He takes the suit and ends up trying it on, only to shrink to the size of an ant.  Pym finds Scott and asks him to go on a mission to infiltrate the workplace of Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) who is trying to use the shrinking technology that was created by Pym to create weapons of war.

Ant-Man is a perfectly acceptable film and all aspects of it -- from the acting to the direction to the script to the special effects -- are enjoyable, but I didn't find myself fawning over it which, admittedly, is the case with many of the Marvel films for me.  Rudd is engaging as the lead character and it's nice to see Michael Douglas take a central role in a popular movie.  Corey Stoll is amusingly evil as well and his final showdown with Ant-Man is actually one of the best final battles yet in a Marvel film simply due to the fact that director Peyton Reed doesn't take things too over-the-top and allows the flick to breathe a little bit rather than feel like a nonstop unending action sequence.

But still, considering the raves this one got by people over the summer, I was perhaps expecting a bit more.  Don't mistake me -- Ant-Man is one of Marvel's better efforts, but I longed for a little more.  Perhaps when its sequel rolls around and we're given less of an origin story (which always tend to be boring), we'll be in for more of a treat.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Black or White

Black or White (2014)

Starring Kevin Costner, Octavia Spencer, Jillian Estell, Bill Burr, Mpho Koaho, André Holland, Jennifer Ehle, Paula Newsome, and Anthony Mackie

Directed by Mike Binder

While Black or White certainly isn't a deep introspective look at race relations in America, director and screenwriter Mike Binder's film surprisingly tackles multiple sides of the incessantly hot button topic.  Based on a true story, Kevin Costner is Elliot Anderson, grandfather to Eloise (Jillian Estell), a biracial young girl whose teenage mother died during childbirth and whose father is a drug addict and criminal who has had nothing to do with his daughter's life.  After Elliot's wife Carol (Jennifer Ehle) passes away, the custody of Eloise is brought into question by her paternal grandmother Rowena Jeffers (Octavia Spencer) who wonders if Elliot -- who has a tendency to drink -- is capable of raising his granddaughter on his own.

With the biracial Eloise caught in the crossfire, Black or White raises questions of culture and race with neither side coming out unscathed.  It's intriguing to see a film that doesn't shy away from both sides taking responsibility for actions rather than just playing the blame game.  There are moments on both sides of the race aisle here that were rather revealing and admittedly rang a little true.  Costner gives a good performance, but I'm still a bit unsold on Octavia Spencer who seems to be playing a very similar role here to her Oscar-winning turn in The Help (which placed in my Top Five Supporting Actresses in 2011).  There's been little stretching by her as of late (partly due to scripts that are stereotyping her a little) and I'd like to see a bit more from her in the future.

Admittedly, despite digging a little deep on the race issue, the overall story of Black or White rings a little generic.  The conclusion, which I thought may prove to be powerful, felt like a bit of a cop out.  Then again, this is based on some form of true story, so me calling it a cop out may be an unfair assessment, but cinematically, it disappointed.  However, the lead-up to the final act kept my interest more than enough to warrant this one a watch.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Starring Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Redford, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Emily VanCamp, and Toby Jones

Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo

I was not a fan whatsoever of the first Captain America film presented by Marvel.  There was something about the eccentric over-the-top villain, supporting actors that added nothing to the story, and a bland leading actor that had me yawning and finding the film the second worst Marvel movie to date (it's only ahead of Thor 2).  Needless to say, because of this disappointment in the first film, I was dreading the second in part because the only thing I liked about the initial installment -- the 1940s setting and aesthetic -- was now going to be completely removed from the equation seeing as at the end of the first film our title character had been frozen and woken up thawed nearly seven decades later.  Color me surprised to discover that Captain America: The Winter Soldier is Marvel's best movie to date and a massive upgrade from its predecessor.

Although he fought alongside all of the Avengers not that long ago, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is still getting acclimated to modern society as Captain America: The Winter Soldier opens.  Working for intelligence agency S.H.I.E.L.D., Steve goes on various missions alongside Natasha Romanov AKA The Black Widow (Scarlett Johannson) under the direction of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) who heads the agency.  Fury has doubts about a major new initiative -- Project Insight -- that will utilize three helicopter-ish devices to link to spy satellites and eliminate potential threats before they happen.  After discussing his concerns with project leader and S.H.I.E.L.D. official Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford), Fury ends up being ambushed by a large group of men headed by a masked man known as The Winter Soldier whose identity will create a bit of chaos for Steve and his fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. colleagues setting up a battle within the falls of the spy agency itself.

Although the film blows it at the end by creating a much-too-long final battle sequence, the build up to that in directors Anthony and Joe Russo's film is surprisingly tense and exciting.  Anchored by a very strong opening scene in which Captain America and Black Widow invade a spy ship, the directing brothers up their game in each subsequent action sequence culminating in an intense showdown on the streets of Washington, D.C.  Unfortunately, that showdown comes in the middle act of the film as opposed to the end, but the lack of a really taut finale actually proved to be less of a let down than I thought perhaps because everything prior to that was so darn good.

As a character, I found Steve Rogers to be bland and lifeless in the first film, but he came alive in The Avengers and continues that streak here.  His repartee with his fellow agents was dryly amusing and Chris Evans more than carries the film with the help of his humorous and captivating co-star Scarlett Johannson.  The duo work extremely well together and create an atmosphere that exudes fun and amusement in all their scenes together.  Nice work from Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Mackie, and Robert Redford round out the very good ensemble.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier works best, however, because I think this is the Marvel film that's most based in reality.  While many of the devices that are utilized and inventions that are created are rather preposterous, the stakes feel the most real here in this film as opposed to many others.  Main characters are put into situations that are incredibly difficult from which to escape and it's entirely possible they won't.  This sense of tension adds a great deal to the impact of the film which is the best flick I've seen thus far come out of the Marvel Universe.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Gangster Squad

Gangster Squad (2013)

Starring Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Nick Nolte, Emma Stone, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, Robert Patrick, Michael Peña, Mirielle Enos, and Sean Penn

Directed by Ruben Fleischer

Los Angeles.  1949.  Gangster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) and his goons have taken control of everything and everyone.  The cops.  The politicians.  The drug dealers.  Even a good cop like Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) is being told by his superiors to let Mickey be.  However, police chief Bill Parker (Nick Nolte) hasn't been bought by the mob and he commissions O'Mara to form a gangster squad of cops under the table to infiltrate all aspects of Cohen's shady dealings.

I must say that two-thirds of the way through the "based on a true story" Gangster Squad, I was digging the slight buddy comedy-retro action vibe that was going on amidst O'Mara and his cronies played by Ryan Gosling, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, Robert Patrick, and Michael Peña.  There were enough hints of humor, drama, and action that it made each scene leading up to the final act interesting enough to not feel so derivative of movies past.  However, when the final act kicks in and the Gangster Squad actually comes face to face with Cohen, the film falls apart for me.  The action scenes prove to be bland and the big showdown with Cohen himself is a bit of a letdown.  No one was ever going to say Gangster Squad was fantastic, but it had potential that it somewhat squanders in the end.

However, the film has a real solid cast going for it.  I wanted to dislike Sean Penn immensely because I can't really stand the pretentious guy in real life, but he makes a decent bad guy here, and Mirielle Enos brings just enough of a stock character to life in her role as O'Mara's wife, helping to humanize and give a more well-rounded portrayal of her husband.

The stars, really, are Josh Brolin and his gang.  Brolin's actually the lead here (despite the fact that I thought this was going to be Ryan Gosling's show all the way) and he steps up to the plate in a role that, in a better written film, may have had potential to be something really special.  Still, as it stands now, he's completely compelling and makes his quiet scenes with Enos have just as much meaning as the ones with his cop buddies.  And it's in those scenes with his cronies that the film really springs to life.  Brolin, Gosling, Ribisi, Patrick, Mackie, and Peña really make each other better and play off each other quite well.

Like I said, though, the film flounders in the final act.  Perhaps it's because the film's end was reshot after 2012's horrible Aurora, CO, movie theater shooting and the whole thing just didn't come together, or perhaps the screenwriter just didn't have a solid way to conclude the flick.  While the first two-thirds certainly aren't perfect (a love story between Gosling and Emma Stone should've really been left on the editing room floor), Gangster Squad is a fun ride for about seventy minutes and a bit of a letdown in its final thirty.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)

Starring Benjamin Walker, Dominic Cooper, Anthony Mackie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Rufus Sewell

Directed by Timur Bekmambetov

It's always nice when I can finally watch a movie and call it the worst I've seen all year.  There's a little bit of a thrill that is unleashed when I finally get one of the worst under my belt.  I feel like the pressure's off.  If someone were to ask me "What's your least favorite film of 2012?," I can at least answer with conviction and say "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," a horrendously painful mix of history and horror filmed with ludicrously gimmicky camerawork by "visionary director" Timur Bekmambetov.

The title of the film tells the story for the most part.  As a child, Abe Lincoln witnesses his mother being attacked and killed by a vampire and as he grows older, he vows to fight the evil monsters who somehow or another are a driving force to keep slavery enacted during the Civil War -- or at least I think they are.  I'll admit to losing interest multiple times, but with a wooden performance by Benjamin Walker as the title character and a director who attempts to do anything he can with his camera -- slow motion, sped-up motion, close-up kills -- I found myself fighting back the yawns.  None of the action sequences look remotely real.  Everything is either too computer animated or too choppily edited to either look believable or make sense.

But the biggest problem is that for a film called Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter there's zero fun on display.  Everything feels incredibly heavy-handed and overly serious.  This movie is about a really tall president killing a bunch of supernatural beings.  There should be some modicum of unabashed fun...and there's not the slightest to be found.

The RyMickey Rating:  F

Movie Review - Man on a Ledge

Man on a Ledge (2012)

Starring Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Jamie Bell, Genesis Rodriguez, Edward Burns, Anthony Mackie, Kyra Sedgwick, and Ed Harris

Directed by Asger Leth

The cast of solid, but (let's face it) second-tier movie stars should've clued me in that Man on a Ledge wasn't exactly a high-caliber, but I was willing to give the thing a shot.  Unfortunately, the ludicrous plot and horribly written dialog ends up being a painful affair to suffer through.  The actors try, but are given an impossible task at which they simply can't succeed.

The film's title gives away a substantial amount of the plot, but why Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington) is out on that ledge is the question that seems to take forever to answer.  We learn from a flashback that Nick, a former cop, was in jail for stealing a pristine and large diamond from stereotypical nasty rich guy David Englander (Ed Harris) -- a crime which he denies he committed.  When his father dies, Nick is able to obtain a day leave from prison to attend the funeral.  While there, he manages to escape only to find himself months (years? maybe days?) later on the ledge of a hotel building threatening to jump.  There's a well-thought out reason Nick's there involving some insanely convoluted plan involving his brother (Jamie Bell) and his sassy Latina girlfriend (Genesis Rodriguez) to prove his innocence, but the attempt to clear his name is so ridiculously ludicrous that it's utterly laughable.

It shouldn't have been surprising when I looked at director Asger Leth's imdb page that Man on a Ledge is his first feature film.  There's simply not a grasp at how to handle the action on display and he certainly fails at achieving any emotional attachment to the characters.  Then again, Leth really isn't the film's biggest problem which is an awful script from Pablo F. Fenjves who also happens to be having his first foray into feature films with this piece of junk.  One needs only to look at the extraneous sidekick cop character of Edward Burns or the completely unnecessary tv news reporter played by Kyra Sedgwick to know that both Leth and Fenjves were failures at learning how to edit themselves -- just two of the many things in this movie that could have and should have been left on the cutting room floor.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - The Adjustment Bureau

The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

Starring Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Anthony Mackie, and John Slattery

Directed by George Nolfi

I've never had any real "connection" to The Twilight Zone.  I didn't watch it in repeats as a kid and, frankly, I've probably only ever seen five episodes at most.  Still, I'm kind of fascinated by the premise and the execution of those said episodes.  The Adjustment Bureau (much like 2009's The Box) certainly has that Twilight Zone-retro feel.  However, despite some decent turns from Matt Damon and Emily Blunt, the whole affair fell amazingly flat and left me clamoring for a better story to go along with the surprisingly effective romance between the two leads.

David Norris (Damon) is running for senator of New York City.  As one of the youngest-ever candidates, he's got the buzz, but unfortunately, he doesn't necessarily garner the respect of the general public and he finds himself losing the election.  While preparing his concession speech in what he believes to be an empty men's room, he meets Elise (Blunt), a free-spirited gal who crashed a wedding at the locale and is hiding out from security.  Nearly immediately, there's a connection between the David and Elise, but they're quickly pulled apart without either being able to give each other their contact information.  

Cut to a couple of months later and, by chance, David meets Elise on a bus as he travels to his new job.  The connection is still there between them and this time the duo exchange numbers.  However, immediately after the meeting, David arrives at his office and stumbles upon a group of mysterious men who work for the equally mysterious Adjustment Bureau which David soon discovers attempt to control nearly every major event that occurs in the world.  Leaving nothing up to Fate or Chance, the hat-wearing members of the Bureau state that David and Elise are not supposed to be together.  While the group attempts to pull the two lovers apart, David desperately tries to stay with the woman he knows he's meant to spend his life with.

Matt Damon and Emily Blunt admirably try to make this film work and the scenes depicting their budding romance are the best part of the movie and a breath of fresh air.  However, any scene dealing with the men of the Adjustment Bureau (including the incredibly wooden acting of Anthony Mackie and John Slattery) is a failure.  The constant exposition in these moments in which the screenwriter (George Nolfi, who is also the director) feels the need to explain everything -- and do so multiple times -- is simply painful.  The repetitive nature makes the film endlessly drag in the middle hour, and while it seemed to be heading towards an edge-of-your-seat ending, the promise of excitement is never delivered.

Two disparate storylines -- one of which works and one which doesn't -- are the downfall of The Adjustment Bureau.  The palpable chemistry between Matt Damon and Emily Blunt is charming, but the retro science fiction aspect of the titular group responsible for controlling the lives of everyone is nothing less than an epic failure.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - The Hurt Locker (2009)

Starring Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce, David Morse, and Ralph Fiennes
Written by Mark Boal
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow

Whether you support the war in Iraq or not makes no difference to the filmmakers behind The Hurt Locker. They simply want to present what really happens to our courageous soldiers who risk their lives daily. It was a rather refreshing take and it made the flick play out as an action-suspense thriller rather than a message movie. [As surprising as this may be to those who know my Republican leanings, I'm not opposed to message movies, by the way. The two-year old In the Valley of Elah was a stunningly good look at post-war depression told in a fascinating way.]

Jeremy Renner is Staff Sergeant William James who is one of the army's best bomb diffusers. James and the two other soldiers in his Explosive Ordinance Disposal unit who serve as James's help and protection -- Sergeant JT Sanborn (Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Geraghty) -- go out on seemingly daily missions across Iraq diffusing a variety of different explosive devices. The flick is essentially a series of the various missions this EOD unit undertakes, but we also get glimpses into the different personalities of these three men.

Renner is fantastic. His James appears to be the strong one in the unit, but he's addicted to the adrenaline rush of diffusing bombs and also finds himself emotionally involved in helping the Iraqi people. There's one scene in particular where he breaks down after being so resolute that really got to me. Anthony Mackie is also great as Sanborn who doesn't take well to Sgt. James's approaches to diffusing EOD's. Similarly, Brian Geraghty's Eldridge is certainly emotionally unstable after having witnessed the death of a fellow soldier, and Sgt. James's gung-ho and reckless techniques don't sit too well with him. Geraghty was absolutely my favorite supporting character here. There wasn't a bum note in his performance which had to range from courageous to utterly frightened. I really loved it.

The star of the show, though, is Kathryn Bigelow's stellar direction. This flick is edge-of-your seat exciting and Bigelow is the one responsible for that. While she employs the shaky cam that has become so popular as of late, she doesn't overuse the method. In fact, my favorite scene of the film -- an hours-long showdown in the Iraqi desert that occurs about halfway through the flick -- is full of long pauses and absolutely has the feeling of tedium and weariness thanks in part to Bigelow's direction (and it's also helped immensely by the three actors I mentioned above).

I don't really want to ruin the movie for anyone, but I did have a problem with one particular vignette in the film. Sgt. James seeks revenge after a particular incident occurs and I honestly didn't buy it completely. It's not that I didn't understand the motivation behind it (I certainly understood it), but I just have my doubts that it would ever really happen. Without the extra ten minutes depicting this "event," the flick would've been a little more taut and would've been as close to a perfect movie as one could get.

Despite that one flaw, the film, as I said above, is nearly perfect. With spot-on performances, believable dialogue, three great performances, and some of the best direction I've seen in a long time, The Hurt Locker is an exciting piece of filmmaking that shouldn't be missed.

The RyMickey Rating: A-

Movie Review - Notorious (2009)

Starring Jamal Woodard, Derek Luke, Anthony Mackie, and Angela Bassett
Written by Reggie Rock Bythewood and Cheo Hodari Coker
Directed by George Tillman, Jr.

It's tough for me to get behind a movie that idolizes a drug dealer. Yes, he "rose above" the drug trade and decided to rap about his difficult life, but he still is known and revered for being part of the infamous East Coast/West Coast rivalry. The sole purpose of this movie is to appeal to youth and I'm not really sure that Christopher "Biggie" Wallace is someone that they should deify.

Despite my generalized misgivings, I actually thought the film was decent. The biopic is probably my least favorite genre, and while this didn't break the mold, it wasn't boring which is my major issue with these types of films. Still, I went into this knowing not a whole lot about the life of Notorious B.I.G. and I came out (at the very least) interested in the guy, despite the fact that I will never download a song by him (or his friend-turned rival Tupac).

The film is helped by some good performances from the supporting cast. Naturi Naughton as Lil' Kim was the stand-out to me -- quite appealing, exuding sex appeal, while at the same time, holding her own against the larger-than-life "characters" onscreen. Derek Luke's Puff Daddy was a notch above his co-stars, as well, although a little spastic and jumpy (although, I simply took that as the way Puffy actually is). I also liked Angela Bassett as Biggie's mother -- Bassett is always a strong presence onscreen and it really was no different here. If anything, the performance I was most disappointed in was that of Jamal Woodard's Biggie. This was his first (and as of now, only) role, but something didn't click for me with his performance. Not that he ruined the film for me, but I just felt like he was overshadowed by some of his costars, and he should've been the one that towered over them.

The film is full of incredibly corny dialogue -- "We can't change the world unless we change ourselves" is just one example -- and this is especially evident towards the end. Try as I might, I just can't seem to shake the thought that the movie paints Biggie as this saintly figure who just wants to follow the "Why can't we all just get along" mantra which I find incredibly unbelievable. And it still boggles my mind that this guy who released one album prior to his death at age 24 (with another that was to be released mere days after his death) was such a major figure in the rap scene during the 90s.

Despite these problems, the film looked good, flowed well, and helped me "learn" about something/someone that I really knew nothing about in an enjoyable manner. And while rap is a genre of music that I'll never get and probably never like, this flick was certainly better than I ever expected it to be.

The RyMickey Rating: B-