Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman (2017)

Starring Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Danny Huston, David Thewlis, Elena Anaya, and Connie Nielsen

Directed by Patty Jenkins

Written by Allan Heinberg
***This film is currently streaming via HBO***

Summary (in 500 words or less):  The origin story of the titular super hero, we follow a young Diana who as a child admires the warrior women with whom she lives on the island of Themyscira.  Trained by her aunt (Robin Wright) in the ways of the Amazonian females, a grown Diana (Gal Gadot) rescues American pilot Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) after his plane crashes in the waters off of her island home.  He tells Diana that World War II is ongoing and Diana leaves Themyscira in hopes of finding Ares, the God of War, who ages ago caused chaos amongst the gods.  It's decidedly more complicated than that...but long story short, Diana wants to seek revenge on damage Ares caused the Amazonian women years ago.

• While Wonder Woman is the best DC comics film so far, it really didn't need to be all that good in order to achieve that title.
• Much was made about how this was the first female-fronted superhero film and while that's an admirable feat, in my opinion the film was overpraised simply because of that.  At its heart, Wonder Woman is an origin story and most superhero origin stories lack excitement overall and that's the case here.
• Gal Gadot is fine as Diana, but she lacks a bit of nuance.  I think in subsequent films (see Justice League which will be reviewed soon), her character grows in appeal, but here she's a bit too stalwart which at times is a bit off-putting.
• Although directed by someone other than Zack Snyder whose stamp has been on nearly every DC movie thus far, this film still carries his aesthetic at times.  Most of the opening act taking place on the Amazonian island looks so fake and computer-generated that it's tough to really buy into what we're seeing.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - 3 Days to Kill

3 Days to Kill (2014)

Starring Kevin Costner, Hailee Steinfeld, Amber Heard, and Connie Nielsen

Directed by McG

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

3 Days to Kill has no clue what it is.  Is it an action movie in which an older, grizzled CIA officer discovers he has three months to live and sets out begrudgingly on one final mission?  Is it a family drama in which the aforementioned older, grizzled CIA officer tries to reconnect with his ex-wife and now teenaged daughter whom he abandoned for his job?  Or is a quirky comedy starring an older grizzled Kevin Costner as an older, grizzled CIA officer who can't figure out why his teenage daughter (Hailee Steinfeld) finds him so repugnant?  As the film attempts to meld all three of these varied plots, it becomes a muddled mess with none of the three story lines panning out in any desirable fashion.

Although I thought the flick started out promisingly with a moderately intense opening action scene, things quickly devolve from there.  Costner is actually decent and Steinfeld is charismatic although her character is much too much of a stereotypical jerk of a teenager to give a damn about her various plights.  The less said about Amber Heard as Costner's boss, the better -- her character is just so nebulously vague and odd that I never quite understood who she was or why she was told to act like some S&M vixen throughout.  McG's direction doesn't do any of the actors any favors, failing to find any rhythm in the dramatic and comedic scenes.  (He fares a tiny bit better in the film's action moments, but they're so few and far between that it doesn't much matter.)  This one's big ole waste of time.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Nymphomaniac: Vol I and Vol 2

Nymphomaniac: Vol 1 (2014)

Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin, Shia LaBoeuf, Christian Slater, Uma Thurman, Sophie Kennedy Clark, and Connie Nielsen

Directed by Lars von Trier

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Nymphomaniac: Vol 2 (2014)

Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Shia LaBoeuf, Jamie Bell, Mia Goth, Stacy Martin, and Willem Dafoe

Directed by Lars von Trier

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Well, that was four hours of my life that I can't get back...then again, maybe it was worth my time after all.  That's the problem with Lars von Trier -- I despise and appreciate his work at the same time.

Oh, Lars von Trier.  I experienced five of your films now (six if you count Nymphomaniac as two films) and you're a weird son of a gun.  Nymphomaniac is the third and final film in von Trier's "Depression Trilogy" following Antichrist and Melancholia, and, much like those films, it's all pretension and very little substance.

Nymphomaniac follows Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) who is found in an alley by a man named Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård) after she is beaten up.  Seligman takes Joe to his house to recover and Joe begins to tell Seligman her life story through her sexual experiences.  Why does she do this?  I don't know.  Shock effect? Her nymphomatic tendencies?  Because screenwriter Lars von Trier is a weird guy who likes to think he's pushing the envelope whenever possible?  Probably the latter as von Trier takes the approach here of being as graphic as possible including scenes of unsimulated sex in order to be risky and adventurous (but never stimulating or titillating).

Oddly enough, however, despite the heavy-handed nature of the piece and von Trier's incessant need to be provocative, the acting of everyone elevates this to something that at least makes the four hours not a boring sexual epic.  The best of the bunch is Stacy Martin in her first role as the young teenage/twentysomething Joe.  This is an extremely tricky role -- addicted to sex, yet emotionless when undertaking these sexual activities, Martin's Joe is a girl of few words, yet I found myself riveted with her story.  Martin certainly is the focus of Volume 1 with Charlotte Gainsbourg taking more of the reins in Volume 2 and the second film suffers for it.  Gainsbourg is fine, but the film becomes a bit too depressing and melancholic to be all that riveting.  Shia LaBoeuf and Uma Thurman also put in some nice turns, but neither are in either film for an extended period of time.

I appreciate Lars von Trier artistically as a director and I like what he visually brings to the screen.  As a writer, von Trier leaves quite a bit to be desired and that's where my constant see-sawing of "Did I like this or did I hate this?" comes in whenever I watch one of his films.  His pieces never work as a whole and Nymphomaniac is no exception.

The RyMickey Rating:  C (Volume 1)

The RyMickey Rating: C- (Volume 2)

Movie Review - The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden

The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (2013)

Featuring the voices of Cate Blanchett, Thomas Kretschmann, Diane Kruger, Sebastian Koch, Connie Nielsen, and Josh Radnor

Directed by Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine
***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

In the late 1920s, budding philosopher Friedrich Ritter was fed up with the world and escaped with his girlfriend Dore Strauch (both were married and having an affair) to the abandoned isle of Floreana in the Galapagos Islands chain.  The two resided on Floreana alone for quite some time foraging for their survival by finding what they needed from the land only being visited by a sea captain and his crew every now and then.  When word about their secluded paradise hit the newspapers, Heinz and Margret Wittmer (and their teenage son) believed it to be the perfect escape for them as well seeing as how they worried about living in what they believed to be a deteriorating society.  The Wittmers landed on Floreana in the early 1930s much to Freidrich and Dore's dismay, but the two groups eventually figured out a way to deal with one another despite the fact that Friedrich was very discomforted by the notion that he wasn't living out his dream of solitariness anymore.

Shortly thereafter, the rich Baroness Von Wagner and two of her male confidantes landed on the small island of Floreana with the goal to build a hotel for visiting Americans and Europeans.  Needless to say, while Friedrich and Dore made do with the fact that the Wittmers landed on the island, at least that family shared his desire to be secluded from the rest of the world.  With the Baroness now attempting to capitalize monetarily on Friedrich's small piece of paradise, things inevitably were going to take a turn for the worse.

The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden is an interesting documentary that utilizes original writings of all the involved parties to tell its tale.  Through voiceovers by the likes of Cate Blanchett and Diane Kruger taking on the roles of Dore and Margret respectively, we get intimate knowledge about each family's feelings towards one another.  This aspect of storytelling is certainly compelling despite the fact that as things veer into disturbing territory, the original journals seem to be less than descriptive and often contradictory as each family attempts to "cover their ass."

Unfortunately, when the filmmakers attempt to showcase life on the other isles of the Galapagos chain by conducting current interviews of elderly folks who were around in the 1930s and younger folks who currently live on the islands, their film sometimes comes to a screeching halt.  These conversations aren't particularly compelling and don't add much to the overarching mystery of what happened on Floreana in the late 1920s/early 1930s.  Still, The Galapagos Affair is a decent portrait of a certainly little known historical anecdote.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+