A Very Murray Christmas

 A Very Murray Christmas (2015)

Starring Bill Murray, Paul Shaffer, Michael Cera, George Clooney, Miley Cyrus, Dimitri Dimitrov, David Johansen, Rashida Jones, Jenny Lewis, Amy Poehler, Chris Rock, Maya Rudolph, Jason Schwartzman, and Julie White

Directed by Sofia Coppola

Written by Bill Murray, Sofia Coppola, and Mitch Glazer

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B-

Movie Review - Money Monster

Money Monster (2016)

Starring George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O'Connell, Dominic West, and Caitriona Balfe

Directed by Jodie Foster

Lee Gates (George Clooney) is the host of the successful financial cable tv show Money Monster, but one afternoon, mid-show, an armed man enters the soundstage on live television.  Aggravated that Lee's advice to invest in a company called IBIS has backfired, deliveryman Kyle Budwell (Jack O'Connell) had had enough and his irritation built to anger at Gates and the 1% culture.  After placing an explosive vest on Lee, producer Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts) must figure out how to save Lee, appease Kyle, and get the crew out alive.

Told closely to real time, director Jodie Foster creates a decent amount of tension in Money Monster, achieving most of that thanks to the solid performances of her three main cast members who certainly create an atmosphere that consistently keeps them on edge.  For the film's first forty-five minutes or so where it's trapped in the confines of the television studio, there is an overarching sense of doom and fear.  Unfortunately, the script drifts during the film's second half, taking Lee and Kyle on a ridiculous journey through the streets of New York City that seems ludicrous and improbable, oftentimes eliciting laughs as opposed to its intended goal.  It's a shame, really, because there was something exciting going on in its first half and the whole affair falls apart a bit as it continues down an ever-increasingly silly path towards its conclusion.  You could certainly do worse than Money Monster, but in the end, it's not quite recommendable thanks to its disappointing conclusion.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Hail, Caesar!

Hail, Caesar! (2016)

Starring Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, and Channing Tatum

Directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

I am not the most erudite guy, but I generally like to think of myself as somewhat intelligent.  When it comes to movies, while I'm sometimes up for a mindless comedic jaunt, I also appreciate more nuanced approaches to humor.  With that in mind, I tried to understand what the Coen Brothers were trying to do with Hail, Caesar!, but I must admit that I found myself lost in the scattered, disjointed, and utterly dull satire that lingered on the screen.  Considering the overwhelmingly positive reviews (85% positive on Rotten Tomatoes), I'm obviously in the minority here, however, this flick never once seems to come together as a cohesive whole.

Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) is the head of film production at Capitol Pictures in the early 1950s, but he spends most of his time working as a fixer, trying to keep his top-of-the-line stars from ending up in the gossip pages of well-known columnists like twin sisters Thora and Thessaly Thacker (Tilda Swinton).  It isn't easy and it gets progressively harder when one of the studio's biggest names -- Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) -- gets kidnapped from the set of the studio's big extravaganza Hail, Caeasar by a group of Communist screenwriters.

Were this the only plot of the Coens' Hail, Caesar, it may have been successful, but the duo pepper in a variety of other characters who serve little to no purpose in the film's overarching storyline.  Sure these characters help to create an atmosphere which is admittedly successfully portrayed, but their side stories are so superfluous and unengaged with the main plot line that I felt as if the movie would've worked better as a ten episode-long tv series rather than a self-contained 100-minute movie.  Scarlett Johansson is humorous as a brash, pregnant, unmarried Esther Williams-type synchronized swimming star.  Channing Tatum is fine as a Gene Kelly-esque singer/dancer.  Alden Ehrenreich steals the show as an "aw shucks" Roy Rogers-esque western star/singer.  Still, while these three actors have crafted believable characters, they're not all that integral to the overarching plot.  Unfortunately, that overarching plot is bland and boring and we find ourselves wanting to spend more time with Ehrenreich and Johansson despite the fact that they do little to forward the film.

The flick admittedly looks lush in its period setting and the acting is solid across the board (Ehrenreich is definitely the star of the bunch).  However, production and costume design can only get you so far.  In this so-called comedy, I can count on one hand the amount of times I laughed...and that's a bit of a problem.  The Coen Brothers are admittedly a directorial and writing team who don't always succeed for me, particularly in the comedy world.  Hail, Caesar! is one of those failures.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Tomorrowland

Tomorrowland (2015)

Starring George Clooney, Britt Robertson, Hugh Laurie, Raffey Cassidy, Tim McGraw, Kathryn Hahn, Keegan-Michael Key, Thomas Robinson, Pierce Gagnon, and Judy Greer

Directed by Brad Bird

As a devoted Disney fan, it pains me to say that Tomorrowland is a big piece of trash.  As the first hour of the Brad Bird directed and co-written film came and went, I found myself asking the question out loud, "What is the story here?"  Seriously, an hour in, I felt like I was still sitting through an incredibly repetitive expositional phase with the film aimlessly meandering, completely failing to progress its story in any way.  Not a good start to an ambitious film that I wanted to like (in part because it's an original cinematic idea in a sea of big budget sequels), but found truly disappointing.

The film begins with a young boy named Frank (Thomas Robinson) showcasing his jetpack invention to an unimpressed judge (Hugh Laurie) at the 1964 World's Fair.  However, a young girl named Athena (Raffey Cassidy) sees potential in Frank, gives him a special orange and blue pin, and tells him to follow her onto the It's a Small World ride at the fair.  Frank obliges and, thanks to the pin that is scanned while on the ride, the young boy is transported to a futuristic city called Tomorrowland.

Cut to present day and teenage activist and optimist Casey (Britt Robertson) is arrested for attempting to stop the dismantling of NASA's Cape Canaveral space shuttle launching bay.  When she picks up her belongings from her short hours-long stint in jail, she sees the same pin orange and blue pin that transported young Frank to Tomorrowland.  When she grabs the pin, Casey is instantly taken to the futuristic land, but when she tries to show her father (Tim McGraw) the pin's magic, she realizes that no one but she can travel to Tomorrowland.  Completely confused by the pin which has now lost its battery life and refuses to work, Casey goes on a journey to try and find out about the pin which causes her to meet up with Athena and curmudgeonly Frank (now played as an adult by George Clooney) who wants nothing to do with Tomorrowland after he was banished decades ago for challenging the authorities there.

As I type this summary out, I actually find myself intrigued by the premise...unfortunately, that aforementioned story stretches itself out over nearly seventy minutes, repeating itself over and over again with extended sequences that showcase some decent special effects, but do nothing to progress the story.  It also doesn't help that in the final act, the denouement feels silly and too "up with people" to really have any impact.  As Casey and Frank try and figure out how to use Tomorrowland to their advantage, I found their ramblings incomprehensible -- although, admittedly, I had checked out at that point and my lack of interest most likely led to the unintelligible aspects of the plot.  Brad Bird and his co-writers Damon Lindelof and Jeff Jensen really dropped the ball with this one.  There was maybe potential for a franchise here (and Clooney and Robertson are both game and by far the best parts of the movie), but Tomorrowland is really a painfully awful big budget flick.

The RyMickey Rating:  D-

Movie Review - The Monuments Men

The Monuments Men (2014)

Starring George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Hugh Bonneville, and Bob Balaban

Directed by George Clooney

Director George Clooney's The Monuments Men definitely feels like a throwback to the days when "Hogan's Heroes" was on tv.  That show went straight for the comedic aspects of WWII, but The Monuments Men attempts to mix comedy and drama and Clooney and his fellow screenwriter don't quite mesh the two together.  Unfortunately, this creates a film that never finds its footing, feeling slightly off balance all the way throughout with the comedic aspects never quite being funny enough and the dramatic aspects never quite mustering up the emotion they likely should.

Clooney's trademark charm is evident throughout the film -- and not just in his acting.  The film itself feels deeply rooted in 1960s cinema, a time when things were perhaps more innocent.  Yes, The Monuments Men is a war movie, but this is no Saving Private Ryan in terms of blood, guts, and action.  Instead, the film focuses on a band of merry older men with backgrounds in art who are brought together to retrieve important European sculptures, paintings, and other artistic media that Hitler's Nazi army took upon their take-overs of various countries.  These men -- played by Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Hugh Bonneville, and Bob Balaban -- have no military experience yet are thrown head-first into some war-torn parts of Europe where the Nazi regime -- although now retreating as the war comes to an end -- has not quite abandoned.

Unfortunately, Clooney's desire to create a more lighthearted romp with the serious subject matter doesn't work in the film's favor.  While I understand the drive behind the film and Clooney's inclination to imbue comedy into this tragic war, the humor waters down the serious moments whenever they pop up.  Rather than feel an emotional connection to several tragic occurrences that happen in the film, the relationship the audience has with the characters isn't there in the way that it should be which is a big detriment in the film's serious moments.  Perhaps a more deft director could have righted the ship, but Clooney doesn't quite have the chops yet.  I certainly appreciate the charming vibe he brought to the piece, but The Monuments Men simply doesn't balance itself out on the scale between humor and seriousness and this off-kilter nature is its downfall.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Gravity

Gravity (2013)

***viewed in 3D***

Starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney

Directed by Alfonso Cuarón

Now that my mouth has been relieved of the parched feeling I had from holding my breath for ninety minutes, it's time to hunker down and discuss what may very well be the best science fiction film I've ever seen.  I must say, though, that tagging Gravity with the nomenclature of "science fiction" feels slightly inaccurate to me.  This is a "science reality" film in the sense that every aspect of it could happen right now as I type this.  There are no man-eating aliens or spaceships "light-speeding" through the galaxy or ominous Death Star vehicles roaming the atmosphere above Earth in Alfonso Cuarón's brilliantly directed film.  Instead, a seemingly innocent NASA mission to fix an issue with the Hubble telescope turns horribly wrong when a Russian satellite is hit by a missile, gets shattered to pieces, and sends chunks of debris rapidly hurtling towards spacewalking astronauts Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) along with the rest of the crew aboard the spaceship.  Not only does the debris create havoc, but it also halts all transmissions from the astronauts to Mission Control.  Broken off from the rest of mankind, not everyone survives and those that do have any incredibly tough road ahead to try and find a way home.

Moreso than anyone else, Gravity lives and breathes on the vision of Alfonso Cuarón.  As director, Cuarón gives the vastness and openness of space a more claustrophobic feeling than I've ever seen before on film.  With stunning cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezski, Cuarón's camera is constantly spinning, moving around the landscape smoothly and rapidly which, coupled with some exquisite long takes (including an astonishing opening shot that lasts for well over ten minutes) and more than adequate use of 3D, creates a palpable tension that kept me precariously hanging on the edge of my seat the entire ride.  As a co-writer (along with his son), Cuarón eschews the spiritual tone that I somewhat expected to see here and instead focuses his film on the fight to overcome seemingly impossible obstacles both physical and emotional in nature.  We're hit in the gut with overarching theme of man (and in this case woman) versus nature and I must credit the Cuaróns with keeping things simple while still managing to create a nonstop feeling of unease for the audience.

Along for the ride is Sandra Bullock who carries the movie on her shoulders and does so with believability.  A scientist on her first space mission, Ryan Stone has certainly not adjusted to the gravity (pun not intended) of the scope of her work.  As the film begins and she's fixing an electronics panel on the Hubble telescope, you can hear the nervous tension in her voice despite attempts to appear strong to her colleagues.  We know -- just because of the basics of storytelling -- that she'll overcome this jittery anxiousness, but we're never assured she'll escape the hell that space has become for her.  Bullock brings her character's desperate longing for companionship, courage, and will to survive front and center in what is probably the best work I've seen from her.

In this technologically savvy age, one of the greatest compliments I can give a movie is if I never look at my phone once to see how much time is left.  Gravity receives this (perhaps ignominious) distinction.  This is an eighty-five minute roller coaster ride from start to finish and I never longed for it to end.  I can only hope that the unbridled success of this unique vision brings us more smart, expertly acted, and exquisitely directed films in the future.

The RyMickey Rating:  A

Movie Review - The Descendants

The Descendants (2011)

Starring George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller, Nick Krause, Robert Forster, Matthew Lillard, and Judy Greer 

Directed by Alexander Payne

The Descendants is a pleasantly crafted character piece set in the beautiful landscape of Hawaii exploring a short snippet of time in the life of lawyer Matt King (George Clooney) and his two daughters -- teenage Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) and ten-year old Scottie (Amara Miller) -- as they deal with their comatose wife and mother and the prospect that she isn't likely to regain consciousness.  While a nice film with some very good acting and enjoyable characters with whom to spend two hours getting to know, The Descendants finds itself bogged down with a rather silly subplot involving land ownership that is an attempt to add some gravitas and self-importance to the flick, but ends up being just as boring as it sounds.  Still, ultimately the film has a lot of good things going for it including some really nice acting -- some of the best I've seen this year, in fact.

This is George Clooney's best role yet as he takes on Matt, a loving, caring, yet out-of-the-loop father forced to become the "main parent" as opposed to his usual role as the "secondary one" after a terrible boating accident puts his wife into a coma.  Faced with the prospect of following his wife's wishes to remove her from life support, Matt reconnects with his teenage daughter Alexandra after bringing her home from a boarding school where she resided in an attempt to reshape her rambunctious ways.  It's not that we haven't seen these "reconnection" stories before and it's not as if The Descendants necessarily does anything new with the formula, but it succeeds in telling its simple story of "father getting to know his daughter" because of the believable rapport between Clooney and Shailene Woodley who, although initially a little off-putting in her profanity-laden dialog, ends up giving a surprisingly moving performance as her bratty character is forced to grow up quickly by the film's end.

Of course, Alexandra's character has reason to be angry at the start of the film because she's the only one in the family who is aware of the fact that her mother had been cheating on her father.  When Alexandra reveals this to Matt, it's obviously quite a blow and sends the devoted (although distant) husband on a mission to track down the man who had the affair with his wife.  While this journey which Matt undertakes with his two daughters and Alexandra's outwardly dim-witted boyfriend (or maybe just boy friend...it's never really made clear) Sid (Nick Krause) is certainly played for laughs, thanks to Clooney it's also a rather heartbreaking and eye-opening experience for Matt.  His wife cheated because he was too wrapped up in his successful work life to make his life at home the best it could be for his wife and daughters.  As he begins to realize his faults, he can't help but take some of the anger he feels towards his wife and turn it on himself.

Clooney's performance alone is reason enough to check out The Descendants.  When I think back on the movie, it's him that I think about most.  I've never been the biggest George Clooney fan, but what I find so engaging about him in this movie is his ability to easily become a believable family man which is a role we really don't get to see often from him.  Playing opposite Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller (in her first acting role) along with the hilarious Nick Krause (who genuinely plays one of the most lovable and least annoying surfer dudes I've seen depicted on screen), Clooney inhabits a fatherly sensibility with gusto and naturalness.

Yes, this film has some quirky indie sensibilities to it, but in the end, it's director Alexander Payne's most "commercial" and artistically successful movie yet.  While there's still a sense (as is the case in all of his films) that some of the characters are "characters" as opposed to real people (meaning they may not act in the fashion us normal folks would -- a trait that is sometimes a staple of indie comedies), Payne's definitely scaled back that oddness that we saw him create in About Schmidt and Election.  In a way, this almost seems like a film Jimmy Stewart would have starred in were he acting today -- albeit with a bit more profanity than a star like that would have uttered, but there's a sense of simplicity, wit, and poignancy on display here that was a bit more common back then.  (Note to self: It's time to watch Harvey again...)

While I certainly wasn't a fan of the subplot involving Matt's family's business venture in selling off their thousands of acres of waterfront land (even though I'm well aware that this was the "important" part of the movie that talked about the need to respect history and familial connections), the personal tale of Matt and his two daughters more than made up for those failings.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - The Ides of March

The Ides of March (2011)

Starring Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Evan Rachel Wood, Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Max Minghella, and Marisa Tomei

Directed by George Clooney

I'm not sure if The Ides of March was attempting to be something more thought-provoking than the simple melodrama I took away from it, but if George Clooney's film was trying to be meaningful and insightful, it didn't succeed at all on that level.  The slowly unfolding story (and I do mean slowly...particularly in the first fifty minutes of tedium) eventually turns into something rather riveting, but it's really just a glorified soap opera -- not that there's anything wrong with that if it's as well-crafted as this is in its final moments.  That said, The Ides of March tries to mask the overly dramatic moments, wanting instead to feign that it's incredibly important when, in fact, it simply reiterates what is already known -- politics is full of shady dealings and lapses in ethics by the very people who purport to be the moral pillars of society.

I knew very little going into The Ides of March and, in the end, that's probably for the best, so I'm going to reveal very little in terms of the plot except to say that the film focuses on thirty-year-old Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling), a young campaign advisor for Pennsylvania governor/Democratic presidential candidate Mike Morris (George Clooney).  Stephen is a strong up-and-comer and is lauded for his smarts when it comes to the political spectrum.  Stephen's partner/boss on Morris's campaign is Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a longtime advisor to Democratic candidates.  Paul and Stephen seem like a solid duo, offering the opposite spectrums of weathered experience and wide-eyed optimism, respectively, to the Morris campaign.  For nearly the first fifty minutes, the film simply feels like a look at these three men on the campaign trail with occasional looks at Morris's competitor's campaign headed by Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti) who is certain his candidate will overtake Morris's apparent lead.

Finally, nearly an hour into the movie, something interesting finally happens which I won't reveal here and the movie takes the viewer on an interesting little ride which, while not full of necessarily surprising twists and turns, is at least thoroughly entertaining.  As an auteur, George Clooney (like his fellow actor/director Clint Eastwood) is very old school, utilizing very little in terms of gimmickry.  Usually, I'd be all for that, but in all of Clooney's films (much like Eastwood's) he can't move the movie along at a quick enough clip to keep me interested.  While well shot and nicely framed, the story just lacks a powerful punch for nearly half of the running time.

Part of the problem in The Ides of March is that the film doesn't give the viewer anything new to chew on.  Are we surprised that members of the same political party do anything and everything they can to defame their fellow members (shades of Herman Cain and the current Republicans perhaps)?  Are we shocked by a lack of ethics from our political candidates and their campaign workers?  There's just nothing surprising about the uncouth underbelly of politics.  The film at least comes alive when it gravitates towards the melodrama that comes hand-in-hand with lapses in morality.  The lack of vivacity and any modicum of excitement in the first half, though, doesn't push the film forward at all.  [Truth be told here...I looked at my watch about twenty minutes into the movie and I seriously felt that at least fifty minutes had gone by...I almost said aloud, "You've got to be kidding me."]

"Star" George Clooney actually takes a backseat to Ryan Gosling's Stephen, but this is still Gosling's least interesting role this year (after Crazy, Stupid, Love and Drive).  However, Gosling continues to prove that he is probably the best actor of my generation.  He plays a smooth talker here with Stephen's up-and-coming status in politics not having sullied him yet by the cynicism that permeates his fellow older co-workers' daily lives.  Clooney is fine, but is hurt by an opening hour that simply has him spouting off speeches that seemed too well-written to ring true.  Hoffman and Giamatti are both quite good in their roles of the weathered campaign advisors and Evan Rachel Wood is also strong as the young intern who has a thing for Stephen.

Still, had The Ides of March simply dropped the pompous aire of self-importance in the opening acts and skipped directly to the smart soap opera-like twists and turns that made up the rather exciting climax, this would have been a flick I could have wholeheartedly recommended.  As it stands, though, it's too bland to really amount to anything worth talking about.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - The American

The American (2010)

Starring George Clooney, Violante Placido, Thekla Reuten, and Johan Leysen

Directed by Anton Corbijn

For a movie about killers, snipers, and hit men, The American is oddly low key.  Some may even go so far as to throw out the word "boring" when describing it.  Surely, when compared to other tales of similar ilk, this flick about a hired American hit man and his assignment in a small Italian town doesn't jump off the screen.  However, thanks to a subdued performance from Clooney and some lovely direction and cinematography, The American succeeds as long as you know what you're getting into when you watch it.

Thinking that The American is some shoot-em-up thriller will only do you harm.  Instead, it's an introspective look at hit man Jack (George Clooney) and his desire to connect with people, rather than kill them (in other words, he's searching for love and not war).  That makes the flick sound silly, but in the grand scheme of things, that's the crux of the film.  Much more of a personal story than a thriller, in terms of keeping the audience interested, the film rests squarely in George Clooney's hands.  In nearly every scene, his quiet nature throughout the picture may be one of the reasons the flick was given that "boring" tag.  To me, I actually liked his character a lot and think that this may be Clooney's best performance yet.  While some may deem it emotionless (which it sort of is), his Jack is a guy whose job won't allow him to show emotions, but it's obvious that under the surface, he desires to stop keeping things so pent up.

In order to attempt a release from his everyday life, Jack finds himself befriending a prostitute, Clara (the lovely Violante Placido).  As is the case in many foreign movies (of which this American production surely resembles), all the ladies in The American are beautiful (with and without clothes on).  Of course, beauty doesn't necessarily mean sweet and innocent and Jack's mistrust of everyone in his life is one of key elements of his character that move the plot along and keep things interesting.  While this concept of an alluring woman perhaps being a man's downfall is a staple in movies, it doesn't seem a bit tired here which is a credit to writer Rowan Joffé.  Joffé knows just the right times to throw in the suspenseful moments which, while low key by most movie standards, contained quite a few genuine surprises.

Is The American a great film?  Not quite.  That "boring" word that was used in many reviewers' critiques of the film isn't entirely incorrect.  I feel like with some trimming here and there, director Anton Corbijn's flick could've been a little tauter and, consequently, a little more enjoyable to watch.  Still, this is an interesting one with a pretty nice turn from Mr. Clooney who is slowly morphing from simply being "Star Celebrity GEORGE CLOONEY" up on screen to a nice little character actor.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Up in the Air (2009)

Just watched this flick again and it held up surprisingly well. After I wrote this original review, I began to think Anna Kendrick was overrated by most -- there's simply not a lot there character-wise in order to garner such praise. Well, I still think that's the case, but it's not really a detriment to the flick as the movie still works as a whole thanks in large part to Clooney and Farmiga's performances.

Original Post: 1/20/10

Up in the Air

Starring George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, and Anna Kendrick
Directed by Jason Reitman

This late in the Oscar season with the Golden Globes already given out and the Screen Actors Guild Awards in three days it's impossible to avoid "the buzz." The raves for certain films just keep coming and Up in the Air is one of those flicks. I'll be honest -- in this film's first ten minutes or so, I was firmly in the camp that this was going to be the overrated critics' darling of the year. However, after the slow start, I was won over by three spectacular performances, a witty script, and one of the most poignantly contemplative films of the decade. [I don't even know if "poignantly contemplative" makes sense...but it sounds important.]

Movie star George Clooney is Ryan Bingham, a man who is hired by major companies across the country in order to fire their employees. He loves his job and takes great pride in his work, but it leaves him without any emotional attachments to anyone. That is until he meets Alex (Vera Farmiga) who, like him, is a bigwig corporate type who also happens to travel cross country. They meet in a hotel bar one evening and, after a night of fooling around, decide to meet each other at their various layovers in cities.

At the same time, Ryan is dealing with being saddled with showing a newbie the ins and outs of his job. Twenty-three year-old Natalie (Twilight's Anna Kendrick) has crafted a new system of firing employees via a computer screen which would save the company hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on travel expenses. Ryan, however, thinks Natalie's idea is too impersonal -- they're performing a task that causes severe life changes in people and digitalizing the job seems wrong to him. Much to his surprise, Ryan begins to bond with the young woman who provides quite a bit of insight into what Ryan is truly missing and longing for in his life.

I wasn't expecting nearly as much humor as there was in this movie. There were many "laugh out loud" moments which were balanced by some truly touching and insightful thoughts on life. While it could've screamed "SELF HELP" (which I imagine it may to some), there were some shockingly astute revelations doled out by screenwriters Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner.

George Clooney is a good actor and I rarely dislike him in things. However, he tends to always just be "George Clooney" to me...I never really get a sense of character from a lot of his roles. Well, the same thing could be said here. Still, he crafts an effortless heartfelt performance that is a joy to watch onscreen. True, I may not ever be able to not see "George Clooney" on the big screen, but, in the end, is it really his fault he's such a big star?

Vera Farmiga is probably my favorite actress working today. After her stellar turns in this year's Orphan, last year's Nothing But the Truth (seriously...rent this one!), and 2006's The Departed, she exudes an intelligence and authenticity that isn't typically present in actresses. Her Alex is sexy and funny, and it's obvious why Clooney's Ryan would fall for her. Young Anna Kendrick actually has the most polarizing role in that she essentially starts the movie as an icy bitch, but manages to win Ryan and the audience over by the film's conclusion. Kendrick was, by far, the best part of The Twilight Saga: New Moon, and hopefully this role opens some doors for her beyond the tween market.

So, as much as I'd not like to jump on the bandwagon, Up in the Air is an impressive film, that, while not the absolute best of season, deserves a chunk of the recognition that's been bestowed upon it.

The RyMickey Rating: B+

Movie Review - Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Featuring the voice talents of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Michael Gambon, and Willem Dafoe
Directed by Wes Anderson

I can't even begin to tell you how thrilled I am that this movie lived up to all my expectations. I've been desperately trying to not get excited about this film, but from the first preview, I was in love with the look of this thing and I couldn't wait for its release. Unlike some flicks that have had kick-ass trailers this year and failed to live up to expectations (*cough*Where the Wild Things Are*cough*), Fantastic Mr. Fox lived up to and exceeded my hopes for this film.

Mr. Fox (Clooney) has become "domesticated" in his later years. Once a criminal known for breaking into chicken, turkey, and squab farms, his wife (Streep) convinced him to give up that life upon the birth of their child, Ash (Schwartzman). A few fox-years have passed and Mr. Fox, having somewhat of a mid-life crisis, decides to move his family out of the foxhole they reside in and into a tree that happens to face the factories of Boggis, Bunce, and Bean, who specialize in raising poultry and making alcoholic apple cider. Mr. Fox's old "wild animal" tendencies arise again and he decides to tackle one last caper. Little does he know that the three factory owners decide to join forces to fight back against the fox and his animal friends.

Quite simply, this film is a joy to watch. The stop-motion animation here is exquisite. I'm a big animation buff and this has got to be the best-looking stop motion animation I've seen on the big screen. The thing that's really neat about it is that it looks totally old-school, bringing to mind the Rankin-Bass Christmas classics like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The stop-and-go style isn't seamless, but that's what makes it so darn cool to watch. The colors, character movements, costumes, and backdrops simply add to the stellar production.

The voice acting -- wow. Sure, you knew you were listening to George Clooney and Meryl Streep, but their subdued voices just fit with the tone of the movie so well. Particularly winning was Jason Schwartzman as Mr. and Mrs. Fox's son, Ash. That character and his relationship with his fox cousin, Kristofferson (which is seriously the coolest name ever), was absolutely my favorite part of this movie.

No doubt the script has a quirky nature that may not appeal to all. It's certainly felt like a live-action Wes Anderson film that just happened to be animated. Granted, I've only seen two of Anderson's other works -- The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic -- but the flick certainly reminded me of those previous works, filled with odd characters and dry humor. As I mentioned above, the production design -- colors, set design, costumes -- was reminiscent of those two Anderson movies I've seen as well. I remember reading a ton of Roald Dahl when I was a kid and I loved all of his books. (Perhaps as one of my final books in my Book-a-Week Quest, I'll wind up reading one of his books again.) His style and tone certainly seems to fit Wes Anderson very well.

I find it much more difficult to write about movies that I love...I simply don't want to write about them, but instead just want to get back to the theater and watch them again. So, this may seem like a lack of enthusiasm, but whatever I say won't begin to convey my love for this movie.

The RyMickey Rating: A
(Finally! My first A of 2009!)

Movie Review - The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)

Starring George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey, and Goat
Directed by Grant Heslov

I haven't been this bored in a movie in a long time. Good Lord, I couldn't wait for this thing to end. Thanks goodness it was only 90 minutes...and that was about 50 minutes too long.

The story, told in flashbacks, is that the US Military had some special ops division of the Army that dealt with "new age" forms of combat, focusing on the mind rather than hand-to-hand combat...the notion of a real-life Jedi apparently. Ewan McGregor is a reporter who uncovers this secret division, George Clooney is a man who was a successful "graduate" of the program, and Jeff Bridges is the freak who created the thing.

Ugh...I really don't even want to waste time on this one. It tried to be funny...it wasn't. The quirk was lost. And any attempts at action seemed silly. All the actors were weak, with Goat being the only one who really shined.

The RyMickey Rating: D-

Movie Review - O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

Starring George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman, and Holly Hunter
Directed by Joel Coen (and an uncredited Ethan Coen)

If only films could be based solely on looks/cinematography, movies like O Brother, Where Art Thou? would take a place in my favorite movies of all time. Unfortunately, they don't, and this Coen Brothers effort falls a tad short for me.

Loosely based on Homer's The Odyssey (which I know I've read at some point in time), the flick follows three hickish guys who have just escaped from a chain gang and are on a mission to find a secret treasure (sounds corny, but it's not as bad as that one sentence makes it sound). My biggest issue with the film, though, is that the story is essentially a series of small set pieces with quirky side characters simply connected by these three escapees coming across them. Parts of the film are great -- the scene with Michael Badalucco's Baby Face Nelson, the Ku Klux Klan scene -- but they don't add up to a super whole for me.

George Clooney as the "ringleader" of the on-the-lam criminals always throws me for a loop. Try as I might, I often have a very difficult time differentiating him from his real-life movie star persona and the characters he plays in his films -- I feel like I'm watching Clooney rather than a character (same goes for Julia Roberts and John Travolta most of the time). It's not that Clooney disappoints here (or really disappoints in any film), but I still never get the feeling that I'm watching a character. Turturro and Blake Nelson are each fine, but didn't wow me. I was actually pretty impressed with Holly Hunter's minimal role (and was equally unimpressed by an over-the-top John Goodman).

Still, there are laughs to be had here. And, like I said above, the film really looks spectacular. The sepia-colored tones tempered with strong use of yellows provided a palette that was certainly visually appealing and one that I imagine would look great on the big screen. I just wish there was a little more cohesiveness to the story, rather than just a series of segments strung together.

The RyMickey Rating: C

DVD Round-Up 4/1/09

A completely random assortment of DVDs here...

Role Models (2008)

I had heard that this Paul Rudd-Seann William Scott comedy was funny, but I hardly laughed at all when sitting in my living room. Maybe a movie theater experience was necessary. There were some funny lines, but they couldn't even create one funny scene. Rudd and Scott were okay, but lacked any type of charisma...dull as could be. As the head of the volunteer organization that Rudd and Scott were forced to join to complete some community service, Jane Lynch was completely wasted, forced to deliver the most ridiculous lines about drugs and phallic-shaped hot dogs. Kid actor Bobb'e J. Thompson (really Bobb'e...an apostrophe in your name?) is perhaps one of the most annoying people ever to grace the screen...the unfortunate thing was that in this poorly constructed movie, having a 12 year-old kid spout curse words was about the funniest thing it had going for it.

The RyMickey Rating: D

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Burn After Reading (2008)

There were some great actors here who all turned in some amusing work -- George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins, and a particularly funny Brad Pitt -- but the writing-directing Coen Brothers team didn't really know what to do with them. There's definitely a story here -- McDormand and Pitt come across an innocuous computer disk that they believe contains secret government information and try to blackmail its owner -- but in the end, I didn't really give a damn about it or any one of the characters. Not bad, but certainly nothing you need to rush out and rent.

The RyMickey Rating: C

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Lakeview Terrace (2008)

It's cliché to even say it nowadays, but Samuel L. Jackson will do anything for a paycheck. As a racist L.A. cop, Jackson is pissed that an interracial married couple moved in next door, and if you've seen the classic Snakes on a Plane, you know not to mess with motherf'n Samuel L. Jackson. This movie was awful. It bills itself as a suspense, but nothing happened in this movie for 115 minutes and then in the last 10 minutes it follows things way too "by the book" to be suspenseful in the least. Throw in a ridiculous storyline about impending California wildfires (which I'm sure is some metaphor for racism or something) and this was one of the worst movies I've seen in years.

The RyMickey Rating: F

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Reservation Road (2007)

Not to be confused with one of my favorite movies of last year (see review here), this Road movie is actually just as depressing, but ultimately not as good. The film starts out stunningly as the young son of Joaquin Phoenix (pre-rap artist crazy) and Jennifer Connelly is killed in a horrific hit-and-run car accident. Mark Ruffalo is the man who killed him, and he is wracked with guilt. When the police fail to find the killer, Phoenix attempts to take things into his own hands. The first 30 minutes of this one were utterly gripping. My eyes were literally welling up over the grief that was depicted onscreen. But then things got a little kooky...there were way too many coincidences and odd connections and too much time with Phoenix sitting in front of a computer. Despite my problems with the film which definitely falters in the final 45 minutes, the acting and story in the first half is too good to miss.

The RyMickey Rating: B