New Year's Eve

 New Year's Eve (2011)

Starring Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Jon Bon Jovi, Abigail Breslin, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Robert De Niro, Josh Duhamel, Zac Efron, Hector Elizondo, Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Seth Meyers, Lea Michele, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sarah Paulson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Til Schweiger, Hilary Swank, and Sofia Vergara

Along with James Belushi, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Matthew Broderick, Cary Elwes, Carla Gugino, Cherry Jones, John Lithgow, Ryan Seacrest, and Nat Wolff

Directed by Garry Marshall

Written by Katherine Fugate

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: F

Movie Review - X-Men: Days of Future Past

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

Starring Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Nicholas Hoult, Ellen Page, Peter Dinklage, Shawn Ashmore, Omar Sy, Evan Peters, Ian McKellan, and Patrick Stewart

Directed by Bryan Singer

While perhaps an unpopular opinion, I think that X-Men: First Class is one of the best superhero movies of all time.  Upon a second watch right before viewing its sequel, I once again was captivated by the flick's stories, direction, 1960s setting, and acting.  So, X-Men: Days of Future Past admittedly had a tough act to follow and while it doesn't quite live up to the high water mark of its predecessor, the film's attempt to bridge both the current generation of 2010's X-Men franchise with the 2000s X-Men franchise is solid.

Sometime in the future, robots known as Sentinels are killing all of the mutants and Professor X and Magneto (Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan) have devised a plan using Kitty Pryde's (Ellen Page) powers to send Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back in time in order to try and change their present.  It's determined that post-Vietnam War, Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) was captured by the US government and her DNA was studied by military scientist Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) in order to create the shape-shifting beings known as the Sentinals.  By sending Wolverine back to right before Mystique is caught, Professor X and Magneto are hoping that they can change the course of history and prevent the Sentinels from even existing.

Fortunately, the dank, dark, overly computerized world of the future takes a backseat to Wolverine's trip down the 1970s memory lane and the large majority of Days of Future Past takes place in the past with James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender reprising their roles as the younger versions of Charles Xavier and Eric Lehnsherr (Professor X and Magneto, respectively).  Once again, director Bryan Singer does a really great job creating a believable 1970s world for the X-Men to inhabit and it creates a landscape we don't often see in superhero movies that are so often told in the present day.  This retro feel continues to work to this X-Men iteration's advantage.

For the most part, the acting ensemble works well together, although I found the focus on Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique to leave a little to be desired.  Behind all that make-up and computer-generated blueness for her character, Lawrence's emoting stays a bit hidden which is a bit of a shame.  Additionally, the actors that make up the "future" segment of the film aren't given a whole lot to do and what they are tasked with gets repetitive pretty darn quickly.

While X-Men: Days of Future Past isn't as interesting or compelling as First Class, I give the film credit for refusing to back down from its conceit of pitting the X-Men against one another as they struggle to figure out whether the US government wants to help or hurt them.  This creates a constant feeling of uncertainty amongst the characters that gives them all much more depth than we have come to expect in superhero movies and it's one of the biggest reasons I think this X-Men series has been so successful.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Frankie & Alice

Frankie & Alice (2014)

Starring Halle Berry, Stellan Skarsgård, Phylicia Rashad, and Chandra Wilson

Directed by Geoffrey Sax

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

Originally shown at Cannes at 2010, but not released until August of 2014, Frankie & Alice is a failure on nearly all fronts.  I have to imagine that this was created and produced as a star vehicle for Halle Berry to earn herself another Oscar nomination (she did snag a Golden Globe nom back in 2010...I'm not sure how considering the film wasn't released in theaters until last year), but Berry's performance as a tortured woman with multiple personalities is mannered, over-the-top, and oftentimes laughable.  Quite frankly, I've never really been a fan of Berry as I find her acting very stilted and artificial and Frankie & Alice does nothing to change that despite a few moments here and there that show some promise.

Unfortunately, it's not just Berry that's a disappointment here.  Stellan Skarsgård as Frankie's psychiatrist is one-note, monotonously boring, and lacks any modicum of emotion.  Phylicia Rashad fares no better as Frankie's mother as she overly dramatizes every scene (obviously taking her cues from the Halle Berry School of Acting).  Based on a true story, Geoffrey Sax's film screams 1990s tv-movie-of-the-week in nearly every aspect and the helmer attempts to use his direction for dramatic effect multiple times, but his camera angles and movements only made this filmgoer chuckle.  Considering the eight (!) screenwriters for this film, one would've thought at least something would've gone right...and one would've thought wrong.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - The Call

The Call (2013)

Starring Halle Berry, Abigail Breslin, Morris Chestnut, Michael Eklund, Roma Maffia, and Michael Imperioli

Directed by Brad Anderson

I'm wary to even post this review saying that the Halle Berry-starring The Call is actually decent simply because I know full well that it's a piece of schlock cinema produced by the WWE (that's World Wrestling Entertainment...you know, the same people that bring you fake wrestling on tv).  It's exploitative and, at times, a bit uncomfortable to watch in its ceaselessly violent children-in-peril nature, but it moves along at such a rapid pace that it doesn't overstay its welcome and ends up being a perfectly acceptable B-movie which is all it ever wanted to be in the first place.

Oscar winner Halle Berry is Jordan Turner, a 911 operator who takes a call one evening from a teenage girl whose home is being invaded.  After a series of unfortunate events, the girl is kidnapped and later turns up dead.  With Jordan's actions playing a part in the devastating event, she recuses herself from taking any further calls and begins a job teaching new recruits at the call center.  One day, however, a call is received from another young girl named Casey (Abigail Breslin) who has also just been kidnapped and stuffed into the trunk of her attacker's car.  Casey, armed with a cell phone, dials 911 and ends up speaking with Jordan.  Desperate to seek redemption for her earlier actions, Jordan finds herself doing all she can to help Casey escape.

Ultimately, the story is simple and could easily have been made into a tv movie on Lifetime.  Perhaps that's where it belongs as well, but considering this is now out of theaters and available to view at home, I can't deny that I had a fun time with it.  Had I shelled out $10 bucks I may have been disappointed, but as a rental, it's better than it really deserves to be thanks in large part to director Brad Anderson's quick pace and nice turns from Berry and Breslin.  Yes, it's moderately trashy, but I don't think there was ever any pretense about this being high class stuff.  It entertained me, kept me interested in the story, and I'm not sure I could've asked for more from something like this.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas (2012)

Starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Ben Whishaw, Susan Sarandon, Hugh Grant, Doona Bae, and Keith David

Directed by Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, and Lana Wachowski

"Our lives are not our own.  From womb to tomb we are bound to others past and present.  And by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future."

The epic, nearly three hour Cloud Atlas can be summed up in the quote above that comes at the film's end.  As actress Doona Bae said the words, it was immediately obvious that she was spouting the film's thesis as set forth by its trio of writer-directors Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, and Lana Wachowski.  And after that line is said, I found myself asking this question: Is it possible to really like a movie even if you feel like its deep underlying meaning isn't fully realized despite the fact that its screenplay tries to hammer it home over and over again?  The answer I've realized is yes because Cloud Atlas is a film that may not be perfect, but is wholly original, visually appealing, and surprisingly compelling throughout its lengthy run time.

Essentially six separate stories, the overarching point of Cloud Atlas is to tell us that all of our current actions affect those that come after us which is why the stories here -- spanning the centuries from 1849 to 2321 -- are somewhat connected to one another, some by tenuous strands and some by significant plot points.  With each story undertaking a different genre -- there's comedy, suspense, romance, sci fi, historical drama -- it's as if we're watching a bunch of separate movies that are held together by both the film's theme and the interesting, entirely successful gimmick of having the members of the cast play different roles in all of the storylines.  So, as an example, while Halle Berry is the lead in the suspense segment, her role as a different character in the romance tale is a minimal one.  The same goes for Tom Hanks, Ben Whishaw, Jim Broadbent, Jim Sturgess, Hugo Weaving, Susan Sarandon, and Hugh Grant, all of whom make up a very nice ensemble and get the chance to play a variety of roles.

The film looks expensive and for a movie spanning so many genres and centuries, it's good that things don't look as if they were done on the cheap.  From the special effects to the scenic design to the nice score, all of the technical aspects of Cloud Atlas deserve praise.  Directors Tom Tykwer and the Wachowski siblings have really crafted something that I found rather intriguing on the visual side of things.

Overall, what prevents the film from thoroughly reaching its ambitious intentions is the fact that some of the stories just don't carry the gravitas of, as one character put it, showing "the consequences of one's life rippling through eternity."  As an example, I loved the comedy segment of the film featuring Jim Broadbent as a book editor who, after running afoul with one of his clients, is forced to go on the run and finds himself locked up in an old person's home.  I thought the story was well thought out, humorous, and completely entertaining.  However, I don't quite understand how it fit in with the six other stories.  Yes, there is a brief mention of Broadbent's character in the sci fi segment, but for the heftiness of the overarching theme, it doesn't quite work.  Granted, I understand that many people on this planet will only affect others in small ways, but I'm not quite sure for the scope and grandeur of Cloud Atlas that we should've been focusing on these people in this movie.

Still, while that may seem like a somewhat large "problem," it really isn't.  While it knocks the film down from a perfect level, Cloud Atlas is still a fascinating film that I'm still thinking about days after watching it.  Moreso than many of 2012's films, this is one that I look forward to watching again a few years in the future.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+