Movie Review - Red 2

Red 2 (2013)

Starring Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Byung Hun Lee, David Thewlis, Brian Cox, and Neal McDonough

Directed by Dean Parisot

I got a weird joy out of the first Red film -- there was something oddly compelling about seeing Helen Mirren wield huge automatic weapons and fight evil.  Needless to say, I wasn't sure whether that gimmick of old folks doing battle could sustain itself for another flick.  During the first thirty minutes of Red 2, my worries seemed legit as I came this close to stopping the film out of unnecessariness.  I'm happy I stuck it out as Red 2 proved to be an amiable enough way to spend two hours with a nice mix of comedy and action coupled with an ensemble cast that appears to be having a great time working together.

I'm not going to really bother discussing any plot -- old guys and former government intelligence agents Bruce Willis (plus his girlfriend Mary-Louise Parker), John Malkovich, and Helen Mirren (well...their characters) band together to recover a nuclear weapon in Russia created twenty years prior by a English scientist (played by Anthony Hopkins) who believed he was hired to do something helpful for the British and US government.  Plot is almost superfluous here because you're really not getting anything you haven't seen in any other action movie before.

The reason a movie like Red 2 exists is to see the chemistry of the cast.  Bruce Willis and John Malkovich dryly (and drolly) play off each other perfectly.  Mary-Louise Parker is a true joy, providing many more laughs than I ever could've expected as Willis's excited-for-thrills girlfriend as she tags along on her first mission with him.  Anthony Hopkins is fun.  Byung Hun Lee (the rare youthful element here) is quite good, surprisingly funny, and oddly fleshed out character-wise as a hired assassin set out to take out Willis and his cronies.  And then there's Helen Mirren who I admit I have a little crush on and is for some reason oddly attractive as she nonchalantly pours bleach into a bathtub to kill people.  Is that weird?  Probably.

Red 2 probably didn't need to exist.  The first Red explored this same territory and this one doesn't really bring anything new to the table.  However, it is an excuse to get this cast back together and give them another chance to try their hand at comedy.  That alone is worth it.  Is the film perfect?  Nope.  (Remember, I wanted to turn it off during the first act.)  But it's kind of fun.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Broken City

Broken City (2013)

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Barry Pepper, Jeffrey Wright, and Kyle Chandler  

Directed by Allen Hughes

Broken City is one of those films that makes you ponder how in the world the producers snagged such big names to attach themselves to it.  It's not that it's mind-numbingly bad (although it certainly isn't any good), but it's so utterly generic that it becomes painful to sit through.  There's a corrupt [Republican] New York mayor up for reelection (Russell Crowe), his possibly philandering wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones), the good cop who's forced into doing bad things (Mark Wahlberg), the police chief who may not be running things by the book (Jeffrey Wright), and the upstart [Democratic] opponent who wants nothing more than to bring down his competition (Barry Pepper).  We've seen all these characters' stories before scripted, acted, and directed better, so without Broken City doing a thing to differentiate itself from its predecessors, there's little to recommend about it.

And with that, I'm pretty much done with this one.  However, I will add that as I was watching this, I came to the realization that Catherine Zeta-Jones probably should retire from acting.  I'm not sure she was ever all that good, but her Academy Award win at least gave her some respect from the public and from this blogger.  Perhaps that respect was ill-informed, however, as with last year's Rock of Ages (which garnered her a Worst Performance of the Year award) and this year's Broken City (and even Side Effects, a film that I truly liked, but found her performance lacking), she's more than proven that it may be time to snuggle up with her Oscar, spend some time with Michael Douglas, and bid the acting world adieu.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Side Effects

Side Effects (2013)

Starring Jude Law, Rooney Mara, Channing Tatum, and Catherine Zeta-Jones

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

When leaving the theater after watching Side Effects, the first word that I thought of to describe the film was "pulp," but that implies a sense of cheap sensationalism that doesn't befit this taut, effective thriller in the slightest.  Instead, I'll say that Steven Soderbergh's latest and reportedly last film echoes back to the days of classic film noir (a genre which oftentimes had an elevated "pulpy" sensibility) and, dare I say, is quite Hitchcockian in tone and execution.  Soderbergh has created a flick with many more twists and turns than I was expecting, many of which may be jaw-dropping, but all of which prove to be fitting to the overall story.  

As the film opens, twenty-eight year-old Emily (Rooney Mara) is eagerly awaiting the release of her husband Martin (Channing Tatum) from prison.  After serving four years for insider trading, Martin is ready to jump right back into the business end of things, but Emily finds herself quickly slipping into a depression.  After a suicide attempt, Emily begins seeing psychiatrist Dr. Jonathan Banks (Jude Law) who puts Emily on a series of anti-depressant medication.  Seeing little to no improvement and after talking with Emily's former psychiatrist Dr. Victoria Siebert (Catherine Zeta-Jones), Dr. Banks puts Emily on a new drug named Ablixa.  Unfortunately, one of the side effects of Ablixa is blackout-like sleepwalking.  While in one of these blackouts, Emily commits an act that places her into a mental institution and the questions begin to arise as to who exactly is to blame.

The film does take a little bit to find its balance and several of the actors, particularly the overly glum Rooney Mara and the rather one-note Catherine Zeta-Jones (who we know we're supposed to think is sexy because she wears tight skirts and thick-rimmed glasses like a librarian from a young kid's wet dream), are curious enigmas that certainly had me doubting Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Burns' screenplay during the first half.  [It should also be noted that I couldn't buy for a second that Channing Tatum was a smart, Wall Street-type stockbroker.] However, much to my delight, as the film heads into its final hour, puzzle pieces begin to fit together and twists, turns, and double crosses veer the flick on a decidedly different course than one expects at the onset.  It's at this time that the film shifts focus from Emily and towards Dr. Banks who is rather unexpectedly facing the brunt of the blame for his patient's criminal act.  Jude Law very nicely balances his character's need to find out the truth behind the questionable new drug while at the same time hoping that his findings won't prove him criminally culpable.  

No one's going to mistake Side Effects for a cinematic masterpiece, but it's fun, smart, and very nicely places you on the edge of your seat for a good bit of its running time.  Sex, violence, and drugs -- a potent combination, but one that always has the potential of creating a good amount of riveting drama as is the case here.  A very nice start to cinema for me in 2013.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Rock of Ages

Rock of Ages (2012)

Starring Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Malin Akerman, Mary J. Blige, Bryan Cranston, Alec Baldwin, and Tom Cruise

Directed by Adam Shankman

Movies don't get much worse than Rock of Ages, one of the most dreadful films I've seen in a long time.     There's a line in Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" which is sung two or three times in this musical that says "the movie never ends / it goes on and on and on and on," and, boy, does this movie seem an interminable mess.  I'm legitimately not sure why I watched the whole thing except to say that I knew within the first ten minutes that this was going to be the worst movie of 2012 and I needed to at least be able to have seen the movie that warranted that ignominious prize.

Somehow or another, this melange of horrible '80s rock music has been running on Broadway since 2009 and it's still going strong.  With a paper thin plot involving "small town girl" Sherrie (Julianne Hough) who moves to L.A. to make it in the music industry only to find that life is more difficult than she could have imagined, Rock of Ages throws in a bunch of perfunctory characters to try and round out the tale.  Of course, Sherrie falls in love almost immediately upon arrival with Drew (Diego Boneta), an aspiring rock star who works at the iconic rock venue The Bourbon Room run by Lonny (Russell Brand) and Dennis (Alec Baldwin) whose "witty" repartee proves groan-inducing.  The Bourbon Room is unfortunately a bit behind in paying their taxes and Dennis formulates a deal for aging rock star and nonsensical alcoholic druggie Stacie Jaxx (Tom Cruise) to play a solo performance at the establishment, much to the chagrin of the new L.A. mayor (Bryan Cranston) and his bitchy wife Patricia (Catherine Zeta-Jones), the latter of whom is on a mission to "sanitize" the city by ridding it of its bars and strip clubs.

But since bars, strip clubs, alcohol, and rock and roll are totally tubular (there's an '80s term that thankfully faded), screw the government and rock on!  At least, that's what we're supposed to feel.  Instead, I just longed for this movie to come to a close.  Filled with some of the worst performances of the year (Mary J. Blige should never get another acting job after this), there's nothing even remotely positive to latch onto.  I thought maybe Tom Cruise who is certainly taking on a different role in Stacie Jaxx than we've seen from him before might at least provide some amusement in hamming it up for the screen, but instead I just felt bad for him to be involved in this dreck.  The two leads in Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta actually come out of this the most unscathed simply because their characters were the most "normal," and despite looking all doe-eyed and innocent for much of the film, neither were given embarrassing moments to undertake like the rest of their fellow cast members.

Director Adam Shankman who did a rather brilliant job with the amusing and cheerful Hairspray several years ago should've known better.  The film jolts back and forth between its various characters too much and the musical numbers are filmed rather blandly, lacking any imagination or creativity.  I don't think you could pay me enough money to watch Rock of Ages again.  Painful...just painful...

The RyMickey Rating:  F