The Cloverfield Paradox

The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)

Starring Daniel Brühl, Elizabeth Debicki, Aksel Hennie, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Chris O'Dowd, John Ortiz, David Oyelowo, Zhang Ziyi, Roger Davies, and Clover Nee

Directed by Julius Onah

Written by Oren Uziel

***This film is currently streaming via Netflix***

Click here for a link to my Letterbxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Burnt

Burnt (2015)

Starring Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Omar Sy, Daniel Brühl, Matthew Rhys, Alicia Vikander,  Uma Thurman, and Emma Thompson

Directed by John Wells

Burnt is a well-acted film about a once great Michelin Star-earning chef named Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper) who lost it all when drugs and horrible behavior upended his career at an early age.  After taking time to reflect on his wrongs back home in the United States, Adam returns to London to start his career again, opening a new restaurant and trying to right the wrongs of his past.

Despite the aforementioned notion that Burnt is well-acted, it's a film that just kind of sits there and doesn't excite the audience in any way.  Director John Wells paces the already short film in such a way that it doesn't engage us and pull us in to Adam's life.  Sure, the glossy and well-lit scenes of kitchen work are pretty, but once we move beyond the boiling pots, buttered-up pans, and fancy sous vide machines, there's no dramatic tension in this otherwise typical film about a formerly unpleasant guy becoming pleasant.

Bradley Cooper is quite good and his character is at least a little bit captivating.  His relationships with his sous chefs (Sienna Miller, Omar Sy), his front-of-house staff (Daniel Brühl), and rival (Matthew Rhys) are all pleasant enough and all well-performed by the cast.  Unfortunately, there's very little for the actors to sink their teeth into which goes hand-in-hand with the lack of any tension and significant plot.  Burnt isn't a particularly bad movie, but by the end I just shrugged my shoulders and moved on.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

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 - Woman in Gold

Woman in Gold (2015)

Starring Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds, Daniel Brühl, Katie Holmes, and Tatiana Maslany

Directed by Simon Curtis

While Woman in Gold doesn't reinvent any cinematic wheel of any kind, I came away from the film surprised by how much the true story of Maria Altmann kept my interest.  During the 1930s, Altmann  (played during this time period by Tatiana Maslany) and her wealthy Austrian Jewish family lived in Vienna.  However, when the Nazis invaded, the Altmann family's vast collection of art including five pieces by the revered artist Gustav Klimt was seized.  Maria and her sister escaped Austria and several decades later following her sister's death, Maria (now played by Helen Mirren) uncovers several of her sister's letters detailing attempts to get back these Klimt paintings which now reside in an Austrian museum with one piece in particular -- "Woman in Gold" -- being revered much in the same way as Paris's "Mona Lisa."  Maria hires Randy Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds), a young lawyer and family friend, to aid her in determining whether she has any pull in getting the paintings back to her -- the rightful owner.  Needless to say, the Austrian government is staunchly against this and the struggle to make this happen is a difficult one.

While the film follows typical "biopic" tropes, thanks to a nice performance from Helen Mirren, Women in Gold is oddly compelling.  Granted, the film has a lightness to it -- thanks to witty repartee between the older Maria and the younger Randy -- but that nicely counters the more serious aspects of the plot which admittedly seem a little bit glossed over at times with that Hollywood Magic sheen. Still, despite the lack of some emotional heft (especially considering the Holocaust storyline), there's still heart which some could possibly view as corny, but I found charming.

Helen Mirren helps to elevate the material as is typical of the great actress and, honestly, she probably makes the film more enjoyable than it really should be.  However, there's nothing particularly wrong with that.  The film itself at least tells a new story from a much-filmed cinematic time period and it does so with solid technique, making Woman in Gold worth a watch.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - A Most Wanted Man

A Most Wanted Man (2014)

Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright, Daniel Brühl, Grigoriy Dobrygin, Homayoun Ershadi, and Willem Dafoe

Directed by Anton Corbijn

What starts out very promisingly ends up being a bit too slow for its own good in A Most Wanted Man, a "thriller" about the leader of a secret German government intelligence agency's search for Muslim terrorists making their home on the streets of Hamburg.  Director Anton Corbijn's film is well acted, nicely directed, and adequately scripted, but the flick pulls the audience along with the notion that something surprising or exciting or intriguing will happen at the film's end.  To me, the flick's conclusion wasn't shocking or thrilling in the slightest as I found it rather obviously telegraphed from the film's onset.  Granted, there may be a detail or two that wasn't blatantly conspicuous, but not enough to really wow me.

A Most Wanted Man is buoyed by a good performance from Philip Seymour Hoffman -- one of his last -- as Günther Bachmann, the head of the covert German terrorism unit.  Troubled by the notion that the 9/11 terrorists planned their attacks right under his nose, Hoffman's Bachmann heads to the drink and the smokes quite often in order to placate himself into a calmer disposition.  A little more depth for his character would've been nice, but in the end, the film's focus is actually more on the purported terrorist Issa Karpov (Grigoriy Dobrygin) who just entered the country who Bachmann and his team are vigilantly following around.  The tension in the film stems from the notion that Bachmann's undisclosed governmental team desires to simply track Karpov in order to hope he'll lead to bigger terroristic fish while the "official" German and American authorities (the latter headed by Robin Wright) want to jump on Karpov right away.  This tug of war between Bachmann and his bosses is the most interesting aspects of the film, presumably basing itself in realistic tension and adding a layer to the film that we oftentimes don't see portrayed.

Unfortunately for the film, it's too long for its own good.  Yes, the length builds the tension, but the payoff doesn't correlate to the running time.  Instead, we get the same things over and over again -- Bachmann fighting with the higher-ups, Karpov talking with his human rights lawyer (played by Rachel McAdams), Bachmann following people around in his car -- and after the first admittedly good forty-five minutes, I found myself twiddling my thumbs.  A Most Wanted Man wants to be called a smart thriller, but there simply aren't enough thrills to warrant the "thriller" moniker.  A decent film, but one that's missing a bit of oomph.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Rush

Rush (2013)

Starring Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Brühl, Alexandra Maria Lara, and Olivia Wilde

Directed by Ron Howard

Ron Howard's directed a lot of good films over the years, but with the exception of Apollo 13, I'm not quite sure I've ever looked at his movies and thought he was a brilliant director.  While he creates good stories often with very nice family dynamics, he's not exactly known for his edge-of-your-seat, exciting direction.  Rush changes that.  To me, the stand out factor in Rush -- what elevates it beyond your typical sports flick -- is what Ron Howard brings to the table.

There's a palpable excitement that runs almost throughout the true story of the rivalry between 1970s Formula One race car drivers James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth), the ladies man, and the focused and serious Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl).  The two started out competing against one another on the Formula Three level, finding each others' very different attitudes towards racing almost repulsive.  Then, in 1976, they found themselves duking it out for the Formula One cup with Lauda needing to prove his 1975 Formula One cup victory not a fluke and Hunt attempting to showcase that he wasn't just the chauvinistic party boy that many in the racing world thought him to be.  The rivalry between the two was intense and made for a very interesting and exciting competition.

As I mentioned, I always felt like Ron Howard was very good at focusing on a story's intimate moments -- the connections between characters -- and that's certainly proven once again here.  Both Hemsworth and Brühl imbue Hunt and Lauda with a vicious rivalry, but also with an aire of respect for one another.  Recognizing that they mutually push each other to better results, I found their relationship uniquely depicted and compelling, and thanks to two fine performances by Hemsworth and Brühl, the rather simple story is elevated beyond what I expected especially considering the subject matter that I initially assumed would be completely unappealing to me.

In addition to the quieter moments, Howard steps up his game with Rush as he and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle craft a retro-looking depiction with modern sensibilities.  Auto racing isn't my cup of tea in the slightest, yet Howard makes the multiple races all feel unique, placing us into the cars for some, following from behind on others, and mixing the vantage points up often enough to keep the viewers on their toes, yet completely unconfused about what is being shown.  Considering how similar all the racing cars look, it's a feat in and of itself that Howard makes these races comprehensible to a racing novice like me, but making them tension-filled edge-of-your-seat moments is another coup altogether.  The fact that we can't even tell where the "real" and the "special effects" begin and end is a credit to all involved.  Rush gives us a new Ron Howard who proves that he may have more up his sleeve than I ever thought he did before.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+