The Circle

The Circle (2017)

Starring Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, John Boyega, Karen Gillan, Ellar Coltrane, Patton Oswalt, Glenne Headley, and Bill Paxton

Directed by James Ponsoldt

Written by James Ponsoldt and Dave Eggers

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Million Dollar Arm

Million Dollar Arm (2014)

Starring Jon Hamm, Lake Bell, Suraj Sharma, Madhur Mittal, Pitobash, Aasif Mandvi, Bill Paxton, and Alan Arkin 

Directed by Craig Gillespie

Million Dollar Arm is an amiable sports drama that follows many cinematic paths trodden before and does so well enough, although it lacks a bit of drive and momentum, meandering as it tells its true story of two youths from India (Suraj Sharma and MadhurMittal) who are discovered by down-on-his-luck sports agent J.B. Bernstein (Jon Hamm) in a last ditch effort to save his floundering career.  With cricket being India's go-to sport, J.B. concocts an idea to head to India, create a reality show to find those who can fast pitch a baseball (therein building excitement in the country), and help buoy his career by "selling" one of these athletes to a US baseball team.  With this being a Disney film, a happy ending is likely not out of the question so some of the flick's dramatic elements lack some gravitas, but the struggles of young Rinku and Dinesh as they attempt to make their country proud are surprisingly touching.

I've never watched Mad Men -- I've tried a few times and failed -- so my connection with Jon Hamm mainly stems from his guest appearances on 30 Rock.  As a leading man here, there is a charisma present that is much needed, but there's also a smarmy cockiness that exudes which is certainly fitting for a sports agent whose struggle to venture on his own has proven unsuccessful thus far.  We find ourselves rooting for J.B. from the get-go not only in his struggle to succeed in business, but also in his rocky relationship with his renting tenant Brenda played by Lake Bell, who is quite charming and continues to impress this reviewer.

Million Dollar Arm is by no means a home run, but it certainly doesn't strike out either.  With equal opportunity spent on both the young Indian ballplayers and J.B.'s personal troubles, director Craig Gillespie does a nice job balancing both story lines in a way that's respectful to all parties involved.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Nightcrawler

Nightcrawler (2014)

Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Riz Ahmed, and Bill Paxton

Directed by Dan Gilroy

Despite a great performance from Jake Gyllenhaal, the tale of a bug-eyed scrap metal thief who discovers a penchant for becoming a freelance videographer on the streets of Los Angeles that is Nightcrawler doesn't quite have the bite to fully embrace its obvious attempt at criticizing the news industry's incessant need to shock for ratings.

Gyllenhaal is at his best as Louis Bloom, trimmed down significantly so that his gaunt look stands in juxtaposition to his character's headstrong nature.  Fast talking and quite manipulative, Gyllenhaal's Louis makes us feel uneasy while watching him much as he makes those around him a tad uncomfortable too.  By far the best part of Nightcrawler, Gyllenhaal is impressive here fully embodying the character and making the film worth watching for him alone.

Unfortunately, screenwriter Dan Gilroy's directorial debut doesn't match Gyllenhaal's talent.  As a director and in terms of visual aesthetics, Gilroy actually presents a rather fascinating look at the underbelly of a industry and he does so with success in terms of creating a dark and grimy atmosphere.  His screenplay, however, falls a bit short.  First, I never quite bought the concept that a news station would actually purchase and air the rather disturbing images Louis brings to them.  Funnily enough, after watching the film, I've paid much more attention to stories on the local news and none of them have come close to matching the horrors that Louis brings to the newsroom of Rene Russo's Nina, a producer of an early am local news show in LA.  I simply didn't buy into the critique that the film seemed to be selling about local news pushing the envelope.  Had this been a cable news station or perhaps some online news organization, the concept may have been a bit more plausible to me.  I admit that this may seem like an odd fault to find in the film, but not "believing" what it was trying to pitch to me made it more difficult to get behind the flick's premise.

Second, while Louis is a well-conceived (though freaky) character, the rest of the film is inhabited by one note personas that can't hold a candle to Louis's idiosyncrasies.  Russo, in particular, is wasted here, given essentially only reaction shots to Louis's craziness.  Desperate for stories that can keep her job relevant to her bosses, I just couldn't buy into the fact that she would sell her soul (essentially) to Louis to keep her job secure.

Despite my qualms, however, I think Nightcrawler has more pros going for it than cons.  It's a bit slow moving, but Gyllenhaal's presence is so intriguing that you oftentimes forget that not much is going on around him.  It's a decent flick, but not one into which I could completely buy the premise it was selling.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Edge of Tomorrow

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Starring Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, and Brendan Gleeson

Directed by Doug Liman

***viewed in 3D***

Reviews have called Edge of Tomorrow an action-oriented version of the 1990s comedy classic Groundhog Day and that's certainly an apt comparison with Tom Cruise the Bill Murray equivalent here -- a man who is forced to keep living the same day over and over again.  Cruise is Major William Cage, a military man who is the media relations guy for the United Defense Forces, a NATO-fronted organization who finds themselves (in the near future when our film takes place) on the forefront of fighting an alien race known as Mimics who have taken over most of Europe.  Unfortunately for Cage, he's summoned to meet General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson) who orders Cage into combat -- an arena that Cage has never found himself in before and one in which he has no desire to take part.  Despite his qualms, Cage is sent to ship out, taking part in a D-Day style Normandy-esque invasion against the aliens in France.  During the invasion, Cage is killed -- however (and this is why that isn't a spoiler), before he dies, Cage is covered in the "blood" of one of the more "sophisticated" aliens which causes Cage to live this same day and this same battle over and over again.  (There's a reason that I'll leave this vague on purpose.)

What Doug Liman and his trio of screenwriters successfully accomplish in Edge of Tomorrow is providing a unique experience each time Cage ends up reliving his day and, because of this, the film never once becomes the slightest bit boring.  Mixed with humor, Edge of Tomorrow actually ends up being one of the better science fiction-action flicks I've seen since in a long time.  Tom Cruise is certainly charismatic as Cage and does a nice job balancing the action and comedic sides of his character.  Emily Blunt plays Cage's confidante on the battlefield -- a warrior woman who, fortunately for Cage, once experienced the same exact thing he finds himself facing, only to lose the ability to relive the same day through an unfortunate (or perhaps fortunate) event that Cage himself needs to be wary of occurring.  Blunt is certainly the "straight man" to Cage's confusion and humor, but she holds her own as the tough gal in what I believe is her first action role.

I'm not quite sure why Edge of Tomorrow did so poorly at the box office although I'm sure it was a mix of things -- the title sucks, the trailer was very weak and unappealing, Tom Cruise himself isn't a draw and hasn't overcome the Oprah couch-jumping thing despite putting out a string of solid movies as of late (last year's Oblivion as another example).  It's rather unfortunate because, despite a "Hollywood-ized" ending (the film's only fault), Edge of Tomorrow is a perfect summer action flick that rocks and rolls its entire run time, keeping the viewer on the edge of their seat.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Haywire

Haywire (2012)

Starring Gina Carano, Michael Angarano, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas, Bill Paxton, and Michael Douglas

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Haywire is mindless fluff.  That's not meant as a criticism, but it's the truth.  No one's going to mistake this female-led action flick as great cinema, but it's certainly an enjoyable ride.  A day after I watched it, I may not remember much in the way of plot or character development, but I will remember that I had an enjoyable 85 minutes seeing it unfold in front of me and sometimes that's all one needs when watching a movie.

MMA-star Gina Carano is Mallory Kane, a "black ops super soldier" (according to imdb's description) who is used by the government to head out on certain missions for them.  She's good at her job and can kick some serious ass, but she often finds herself a bit at odds with Kenneth (Ewan McGregor), her ex-boyfriend and also the man that sets up her jobs for the government.  When set on a job to Ireland, she quickly discovers that she has been set up by her bosses and must go rogue in order to save her life.

There's nothing special that the story brings to the table, and while director Steven Soderbergh does an admirable job of filming the action scenes and keeping the story rolling at a good pace, things are by the book for the most part.  The acting is all above par, even that of Gina Carino who was criticized in reviews that I read for her lack of acting chops.  I found her perfectly acceptable for what this role asks of her.  Do I wanna see her tackle something a bit more weighty?  I'm not sure, but as an action chick, she handles herself well.

Admittedly, there's not a ton to say about this because Haywire is just a standard action flick, but it's a good one and worth a watch.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Aliens (Director's Cut)

--Alien Week--

Please note that all "Alien Week" film reviews may contain spoilers related to both the film that is being reviewed and other films in the series.

Aliens (Director's Cut) (1986)

Starring Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn, Lance Henrikson, Bill Paxton, and Paul Reiser

Directed by James Cameron

Note: The Director's Cut was watched because it is the preferred cut of James Cameron.

Nearly every review of James Cameron's Aliens starts out with (or eventually gets to) the fact that while the original Alien was a pure "horror" film, the 1986 sequel falls a bit more into the "action" genre.  They don't fault the production for this (in fact, this sequel is better reviewed on Rotten Tomatoes than its predecessor), but they try and make this a known fact.  While I'm not going to try a debunk their take on it, I can't help but mention the fact that Aliens is a movie in which a whole bunch of people are getting killed by a whole bunch of alien life forms in quite bloody ways.  Sure, these people may be holding futuristic machine guns and grenades, but they're still getting their insides gutted open.  So, in conclusion, don't let that "action" genre descriptor lull you in to a false sense of security.

It's fifty-seven years after the first film and Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley -- our lone survivor from the spaceship Nostromo -- has been drifting around in space in a deep hypersleep for nearly six decades.  Picked up by a salvage ship that just so happens to be piloted by her former bosses at Weyland-Yutani (you know, those creeps who wanted her to capture rather than kill the alien in the last film), Ripley finds herself in a rather angsty depression now that she's become aware that everyone she's known (including her daughter) has died in the years she's been presumed dead. [Note:  This familial yearning is a concept that is made much more prevalent in the Director's Cut which gives much more needed gravitas to Ripley's emotional plight.]  Ripley soon discovers that a crew of dozens of families had been sent by Weyland-Yutani back to the planet in which Ripley's initial crew first discovered the aliens in order to form a colony and now this new crew is failing to respond to calls.  Ripley, Weyland-Yutani representative Carter Burke (Paul Reiser), and a dozen or so Marines venture back to the planet in order to find out what has happened to the colonizers...needless to say, those nasty aliens are going to rear their ugly heads.

James Cameron, despite his rather obnoxiously high opinion of himself, is a very solid director, well aware of what it takes to create and build tension which is key in the success of a film such as Aliens.  Much like its predecessor, Cameron allows for the nerve-wracking edginess to build only to fully release once Ripley and the Marines land on the alien-inhabited planet.

Cameron, however, isn't a perfect director despite what his ego may tell him.  Typical of Cameron films, Aliens has two faults that seemingly come with the territory for his films.  First, he's no whiz at crafting dialog.  In fact, it's probably his worst characteristic as a screenwriter.  Here, it's particularly evident in the way the Marines speak to one another.  There were just moments where I couldn't help but laugh and shake my head at the sheer banality of what Cameron was force-feeding the actors to spout.

This lack of believable (or interesting) dialog leads into the second problem which is somewhat typical of Cameron films -- the acting isn't always top notch.  While Weaver is great as is a slimy Paul Reiser in a rather understated "villain" role, nearly all the Marines are so stereotypical "ooh-rah!" over-the-top that I couldn't help but be taken out of the "realism" the movie tries to create.  Bill Paxton, in particular, is really awful, hamming it up in nearly every single scene.  Cameron also, unfortunately, fails to get a good performance from young Carrie Henn in her first (and only) cinematic role.  As Newt, a young girl found by Ripley in the colony after they land, Henn just never inhabited the character to me...but I'm probably being a bit too harsh on the young gal.

It's because of these issues that Aliens doesn't quite match the excellence of Alien even though Cameron's film is actually a bit better paced than its predecessor.  Still, these two films were wonderful franchise starters...it's just a shame that future films couldn't live up to their levels.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+