The Call of the Wild

 The Call of the Wild (2020)

Starring Harrison Ford, Omar Sy, Cara Gee, and Dan Stevens

Directed by Chris Sanders

Written by Michael Green

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Lucy in the Sky

 Lucy in the Sky (2019)

Starring Natalie Portman, Jon Hamm, Zazie Beetz, Dan Stevens, and Ellen Burstyn

Directed by Noah Hawley

Written by Brian C. Brown, Elliott DiGuiseppi, and Noah Hawley

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C-

Her Smell

 Her Smell (2019)

Starring Elisabeth Moss, Amber Heard, Cara Delevingne, Dan Stevens, Agyness Deyn, Gayle Rankin, Ashley Benson, Eric Stoltz, and Virginia Madsen

Directed by Alex Ross Perry

Written by Alex Ross Perry

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B+

The Man Who Invented Christmas

The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017)

Starring Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer, and Jonathan Pryce

Directed by Bharat Nalluri

Written by Susan Coyne

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

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Colossal

Colossal (2017)

Starring Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis, Austin Stowell, Tim Blake Nelson, and Dan Stevens

Directed by Nacho Vigalondo

Written by Nacho Vigalondo

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

Summary (in 500 words or less):  A woman in America soon realizes that she may have some control over a monstrous creature that is wreaking havoc in Seoul, South Korea.  

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C 

Movie Review - Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Starring Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Josh Gad, Ewan McGregor, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Audra McDonald Stanley Tucci, Kevin Kline, Hattie Morahan, Nathan Mack, Ian McKellan, and Emma Thompson

Directed by Bill Condon

Although I stopped my Disney Discussion before I got to their fantastic 1991 animated classic, it should be noted that the original Disney Beauty and the Beast is my second favorite film of all time.  (Only Psycho tops it.)  Needless to say, I was not avidly looking forward to Disney's live-action remake.  Much like the 1998 nearly shot-for-shot remake of Psycho which proved to be a waste of time when the infinitely superior original exists, I was extraordinarily hesitant heading into a theater to watch the remake of Beauty and the Beast.  While I'd love to say that this 2017 version is a glorious take on the classic animated film, I can't in the slightest.  Instead, I found myself asking the the following question throughout:

Why does this film exist if its creative team is not going to make a single thing better than the original?

Here's the thing about this 2017 version of Beauty and the Beast -- the story still holds up incredibly well.  I was never bored as I watched the tale of Belle (Emma Watson) and the Beast (Dan Stevens) unfold with the layers of their distrust in one another changing to love blooming in its place.  The nuances of Alan Menken's music and the late Howard Ashman's lyrics still paint a lovely picture in song and add pivotal characterizations to the film's core ensemble.  Yet despite a few new songs and some odd and misguided changes to the story, director Bill Condon has assembled a film that hews much too close to the original to have a feeling that it's its own unique piece.  If the only purpose of this film is create the same exact tone and feel of its animated predecessor but to do so in live action, what was the point other than to simply be a major cash grab for the Walt Disney corporation?

Frankly, it's obvious that there was no other point.  This is a cash grab through and through, moreso than any of the previous Disney live action remakes of the past few years.  Despite its epic failure, Alice in Wonderland at least was manically what it was.  Maleficent took on the Sleeping Beauty story from a different perspective.  Cinderella gave us more well-rounded and deeply developed characters.  The Jungle Book provided a sensory special-effects experience that was visually enticing.  This Beauty and the Beast does none of that, instead insisting on staying so close in tone to its predecessor that its reason for existence proves moot.  Sure, the film attempts to give us a little more backstory to Belle and the Beast (hence its 30-minute-plus longer runtime than the richly developed, yet concise original), but that exposition proves to be silly most of the time rather than insightful.  (As an example, one of the few unique moments of the piece -- a journey back in time to when Belle was a child -- seems aggravatingly unnecessary despite its attempt at character development.)

I realize my last parenthetical comment seems contradictory to my biggest qualm with the film.  Here I am complaining about this iteration's lack of originality and yet I'm berating its attempts to be different at the same time.  I was all for "difference" here, but there has to be a reason for it and I found most of the film's changes disappointingly uncreative.  Frankly, the best change is one that's been widely criticized in a large chunk of the reviews I've read.  Following their dance to the titular song (which is a huge let-down in and of itself in both visual and aural execution), Belle runs home to her father who she discovers is being harmed by the maleficent Gaston (Luke Evans -- the one shining aspect of the piece).  The Beast is in emotional shambles, destitute that his one true love (and his one chance of overcoming the horrible spell that's been placed upon him) has run away.  He sings a desperately emotional plea in the new song "Evermore" which, while not quite as emotionally heartbreaking as Broadway's equivalent version of this number "If I Can't Love Her, still succeeds in cluing the viewers in to the Beast's psyche at the time.  This unique moment is what I wanted more of from this film and instead director Condon, writers Stephen Chbosky and Evan Spiliotopoulos, and the Disney corporation have just regurgitated nearly everything that made the animated film so fantastic.  The second time isn't always the charm, however, and that's the case here.

Emma Watson is lackluster (though serviceable) as Belle.  She lacks the charisma present in the animated character and while Watson's Belle is perhaps a bit more assertive and "feminist" (in a good way), there's an emotional blankness behind her eyes in many of the scenes.  I'll also never understand why one's singing voice isn't always a top priority when casting actors in a musical.  Sure, some musical films -- La La Land, as an example -- can skate by on the charm of the characters whose less-than-perfect singing actually adds a layer to their cinematic personas.  I simply don't think that works in a movie like this which sets itself up as an old-school stylized musical.  Being able to sing is important here and with the exception of a few adequate moments in the song "Something There," Watson lacks the emotional phrasing needed to succeed when starring in a movie musical.  Dan Stevens as the Beast fares a little better with the aforementioned "Evermore" number granting him an opportunity to give his character some hefty gravitas.  Granted, his performance is essentially crafted by motion capture special effects experts, but I found the Beast to be a well-animated effect at least.

Unfortunately, that's more than I can say for many of the other special effects-created animated supporting cast who take on the forms of candlestick Lumiere (Ewan McGregor), teapot Mrs. Potts (Emma Thompson), clock Cogsworth (Ian McKellan), feather duster Plumette (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), armoire Madame Garderobe (Audra McDonald), and piano Maestro Cadenza (Stanley Tucci).  None of these performers (with perhaps the exception of Mbatha-Raw) do a thing to exceed their marvelous vocal predecessors who came before them and their gothic, dark design is almost always visually unappealing.  Essentially all doing voice-overs, the heart and charm of the animated film is lost in this version's characters.  Pivotal moments like "Be Our Guest" and "Beauty and the Beast" are disappointingly staged, poorly re-enacted, and oddly paced and sung by the likes of McGregor and Thompson, creating emotional vacuums where there should've been charm and heart.

The funny thing after writing all of the above which should seemingly yield a scathing rating below is that inherently the story behind Beauty and the Beast is still a successful one and since this version hardly deviates from the original, it's not an all-out failure.  While nothing in this go-around is better than the original -- although Luke Evans interpretation of Gaston comes awfully close as he fully embraces the hammy machismo that shaped that character in the animated version -- it's tough to say this film is unwatchable.  What I can't understand, though, is why anyone would want to watch this version when a perfect version of this same story is available.  Inherently, I do have problem with Disney reaching back into its animated vault to create live action versions simply to pad its coffers (albeit with boatloads of money if this film's success is any indication).  However, it they're going to have to do it, they need to at least be willing to deviate somehow from the original especially if it's one as perfect as Beauty and the Beast.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - The Cobbler

The Cobbler (2015)

Starring Adam Sandler, Method Man, Ellen Barkin, Melonie Diaz, Dan Stevens, Steve Buscemi, and Dustin Hoffman

Directed by Tom McCarthy 

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

While The Cobbler is one of the better Adam Sandler movies I've ever seen, you must take that news with a grain of salt because the bar isn't set too high.  Written and directed by Tom McCarthy (and released in the same year as his Best Picture-winning Spotlight - which is a crazy juxtaposition of a set of movies), the film attempts a mix of light-hearted comedy with light-hearted drama with light-hearted fantasy aspects, and while segments of each genre work at certain times, the flick doesn't really ever come together as a cohesive whole.

Sandler is Max Simkin, owner of his family's cobbler shop in the Lower East Side of New York City. Passed down for generations, Max took over the shop when his father left Max and his mother abruptly one day.  Run down and not entirely happy with his life, Max is looking for a way out, but continues the day in-day out routine of fixing peoples' shoes.  When a thuggish guy name Leon (Method Man) arrives at Max's shop near closing time and demands that his shoes be ready within a few hours, Max agrees to fix them, but while doing so, his stitching machine breaks.  Remembering an old non-electric machine in his shop's basement, Max fixes the guy's shoes and then waits for him to arrive.  When he doesn't, out of boredom, Max tries the shoes on...and suddenly transforms into Leon.  With the shoes on, he's Leon, yet as soon as he removes them, he's back to Max again.  Curious as to what the heck is going on, Max stitches another set of shoes on the old-school machine and the same thing occurs, inhabiting the persona of the owner of the shoes.

Admittedly, I found this premise surprisingly pleasant and perhaps full of great (unrealized) potential.  There was an innocence in the film's opening forty-five minutes that I bought into with McCarthy nicely honing in on a bedraggled and downtrodden working class man who discovers the pleasures (and disappointments) of life as other people in his neighborhood.  However, the film takes a turn for the worse, becoming a mess in its second half as Max uncovers some of Leon's secrets that hurl him into a world of trouble for which he is completely ill-prepared.  I'm blown away by the fact that the same guy who wrote Spotlight could actually pen this as well because The Cobbler is just a melange of styles and genres that don't coalesce properly.

Sandler is actually surprisingly solid here and helps the film succeed in its first half.  However, most of the rest of cast are playing severely under-conceived caricatures that don't add anything to the plot.  Also, it should be noted that I'm not one to get particularly in a tizzy about such things, but there's a portrayal of a cross-dressing (or perhaps transgender) character here that is so poorly portrayed that I couldn't believe it made it to the screen.  Like I said, I'm not one to usually care about stuff like this (because I'm obviously inherently callous and inconsiderate...ha!), but this struck me as quite disheartening.  Still, while it has its faults for sure, The Cobbler works for half of its runtime...which is more than I can say for most Adam Sandler films.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - The Guest

The Guest (2014)

Starring Dan Stevens, Maika Monroe, Brendan Meyer, Sheila Kelley, Leland Orser, and Lance Reddick

Directed by Adam Wingard

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

Director Adam Wingard had a critical success with his previous horror film You're Next, but I found the flick a little blander than most.  With The Guest, Wingard fared even better with the reviews and while I agree that it's a more intriguing effort, it still didn't quite hit all the right notes and beats to be hugely successful for me.

Downton Abbey's Dan Stevens is David, an Army vet who shows up on the doorstep of the Peterson family home one afternoon.  Mom Laura, Dad Spencer, and daughter and son Anna and Luke (Sheila Kelley, Leland Orser, Maika Monroe, and Brendan Meyer) are still coping with the death of their son who died in action, but David claims to have been one of their son's war buddies.  Pictures seem to prove the veracity of this claim, but as mysterious deaths begin to pile up, the family begins to question whether David is who he really claims to be.

With a Halloween-esque 1980s-inspired electronic score and some likely purposeful corny acting, The Guest certainly is paying a bit of an ode to horror films of the past and while it does so successfully, sometimes I find myself wondering whether the self-referential aspects to films like this are a bit of a cop out for a director who can't quite find his own place in the auteur realm.  While this isn't necessarily a problem here -- going for "corny" works for The Guest especially as the story unfolds -- it sometimes feels like the aesthetic trumps the plot which typically isn't a good thing.

Elevating The Guest is a solid performance from Dan Stevens as the titular character.  Even if you hadn't seen a trailer or read a review, it would be obvious from the beginning that David isn't who he seems to be, but Stevens knowingly plays up the ambiguity and brings us along for the ride.  The film's quick pace never allows it to overstay its welcome and while I had hoped for a bit better because of its overwhelmingly positive critical reviews, you could certainly fare worse on the streaming side of Netflix.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - A Walk Among the Tombstones

A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014)

Starring Liam Neeson, Dan Stevens, David Harbour, Boyd Holbrook, and Brian "Astro" Bradley

Directed by Scott Frank

There's something wrong with the notion that since A Walk Among the Tombstones doesn't feature Liam Neeson in "Hellbent Revenge Mode," I found myself enjoying this one a little more than I probably should.  Considering that nearly every movie Neeson makes places him in the Vengeful Family Member Role, his role here as private eye Matt Scudder at least feels like a breath of fresh air.  Sure, he's still playing an aging badass, but at least Neeson changes tone here a little bit, creating a character who isn't a carbon copy of nearly everything else he's been playing in big budget pictures since Taken made him a star late in life.

The plot here is fairly simple -- after an unfortunate event in 1991, Matt Scudder quit the NYC police force and became a private detective.  Now, in 1999, Matt is currently hired to help wealthy drug dealer Kenny Kristo (Downton Abbey's Dan Stevens) track down the men who kidnapped his wife and then delivered her back to him literally chopped into little pieces.  Because of his drug connections, Kenny is unable to call the police so Matt reluctantly agrees only to discover that the culprits of the crime haven't finished their reign of terror.

Don't kid yourself here -- while Neeson isn't playing a revenge-obsessed family member, he's still playing a morose, downtrodden, tough-as-nails guy so he's not exactly stretching the boundaries here, but at least director-screenwriter Scott Frank gives Neeson a role that's a tad different.  While most of the other actors here feel as if they're hamming it up for the camera, Neeson appears genuine as does relative newcomer Brian "Astro" Bradley as a young orphan who befriends Matt and helps him solve his case.  Sure, this relationship is essentially unnecessary in terms of plot development, but it added a nice change of pace to the depression that permeates the rest of the film.  Plus, Bradley definitely has a presence that kept my interest and makes the most of a throwaway role.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-