Soul

 Soul (2020)

Featuring the vocal talents of Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton, Rachel House, Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade, Phylicia Rashad, and Angela Bassett

Directed by Pete Docter

Written by Pete Docter, Mike Jones, and Kemp Powers

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B+

Just Mercy

Just Mercy (2019)

Starring Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Brie Larson, Rob Morgan, Rafe Spall, O'Shea Jackson, and Tim Blake Nelson

Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton

Written by Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Lanham

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B

Baby Driver

Baby Driver (2017)

Starring Ansel Elgort, Lily James, Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm, Eiza Gonzalez, Jon Bernthal, and Jamie Foxx

Directed by Edgar Wright

Written by Edgar Wright

Summary (in 500 words or less):  Baby (Ansel Elgort) has worked as a getaway driver for a series of heists headed by kingpin Doc (Kevin Spacey) for several years.  However, he calls it quits until Doc pulls him in for one more crime that ends up being a bit more than Baby bargained for.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Annie

Annie (2014)

Starring Quvenzhané Wallis, Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, Rose Byrne, and Bobby Canavale

Directed by Will Gluck

The movie musical has been making a comeback in recent years and fortunately the remake of Annie doesn't seem to have caused the genre's demise quite yet despite the fact that it is one of the poorly written and acted movies of 2014.  Quite frankly, there's nothing redeeming about this film.  Will Gluck's horribly conceived direction and devastatingly inane musical numbers in this piece (which he co-wrote) are heinously bad with nary a good scene in the film.  In an age where we have an annual live-sung musical air on network television at Christmastime and successful $100 million-plus grossing theatrical musical releases on a seemingly yearly basis, it's flabbergasting to me that Gluck and his producers thought that this version of Annie would come off as anything other than a horrible joke.

Problem #1 stems from the fact that the songs in this "hip" version of Annie are so over-produced and over-digitized that there's never a moment in this film where we in the audience truly believe that these characters are singing.  Their lip synchs to auto-tuned versions of themselves make all of the actors appear to simply be going through the motions rather than actually feeling what they're singing.  This problem is painfully obvious from the get-go and doesn't get any better as the film progresses.  The lack of emotion in the musical numbers makes the whole film kind of moot -- what's the point if the songs can't carry the true heart of the story?

As for the story, the updating of Annie to the modern era isn't grating all of the time mainly because the overarching storyline is similar enough to the 1982 version (of which I barely remember so there are no childhood memories associated with it).   Here, Daddy Warbucks is now Will Stacks (Jamie Foxx), a politician who sees political gain in befriending foster kid (not "orphan") Annie (Quvenzhané Wallis).  With the overall premise not changing a lot, perhaps the reason for the remake is because kids today can't relate to a film if it doesn't contain scenes with cell phones or Twitter.  Of course, mentioning Twitter reminds me of the heinous ending in which Annie, who has been kidnapped at the film's climax, is saved by fans of hers (because she's being touted as a celebrity in this current pop-obsessed culture) telling Will Stacks where she is via Twitter.  Even just typing that out has me disgusted.  Let's just call these modernization elements Problem #2.

Problem #3 is that there's not a single actor here who rises above the shlock they're forced to portray.  Jamie Foxx perhaps comes off best (a phrase I never thought I'd type), but considering he's forced to spit up food at least three times in the movie for purportedly comedic reasons, he certainly doesn't come out unscathed.  Quvenzhané Wallis continues to carry the moniker of "overrated" for me.  The young Academy Award nominee has yet to impress and her take on the title character certainly does nothing to change my mind.  Worst of the bunch, however, is Cameron Diaz whose grating and obnoxious take on the grating and obnoxious foster mom Miss Hannigan is so grating and obnoxious that I can't believe she and the director thought this interpretation would be watchable.  Granted, Hannigan is a sleazy character, but Diaz overtly ups the sex quotient and piles on the vocal screechiness so much so that her scenes are some of the worst I've seen in a movie this past year.  She manages to take two of the film's most underrated songs -- "Little Girls" and "Easy Street" (the latter of which is my favorite from the score) -- and make them unlistenable.  It doesn't help that both of these songs are shot with such awkward cuts by the director that they're not only unpleasing to the ears, but also to the eyes.

I've peppered the above review with a few "nice" words, but I can't stress enough that this version of Annie is horrible.  Absolutely horrible.  There's not a thing redeeming about it, making it truly one of the worst films of 2014.

The RyMickey Rating:  F

Movie Review - The Amazing Spider-Man 2

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

Starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, Chris Cooper, Colm Feore, Felicity Jones, Paul Giamatti, Embeth Davidtz, Campbell Scott, and Sally Field

Directed by Marc Webb

While moderately better than 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man mainly because we're able to move on beyond the re-telling of Spidey's origin story, there's something about this title character that doesn't quite click with me.  If I remember correctly, there has always been some sly, comedic aspect to Peter Parker whenever he finds himself wearing the Spiderman attire and I find it oddly disconcerting.  When faced with evil villains like Electro (Jamie Foxx), a lowly worker at the Oscorp Power Company whose obsession with Spiderman takes a nasty turn, and the Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan), who was previously Harry Osborn, son of the founder of Oscorp, Spidey just makes jokes.  Because of this, any potential for suspense is oftentimes mitigated.

When compared to the Tobey Maguire/Kirsten Dunst trilogy, I still think Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone fare better in the acting department as both Garfield and Stone more believably inhabit their characters' tumultuous relationship.  With the exception of Jamie Foxx -- who, admittedly, is given a bit more of a stock character type of role than those around him -- most of the acting is solid which certainly helps matters and makes things watchable.  However, I still find myself utterly uninterested whenever Garfield's Peter Parker puts on the Spidey suit.

Perhaps it's the lack of believable special effects.  I commented on this after watching the first film as well, but there must be something about having some guy fly around in a suit like Spidey's that makes things look incredibly fake.  Unfortunately, the fx wizards didn't fix things with this second film -- you're always well aware that you're watching animation onscreen and it's irritating, removing us from the story at times.  While there have certainly been worse superhero films, this new reimagining of the Spider-Man story doesn't really have the cinematic chops to make it worth continuing.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - White House Down

White House Down (2013)

Starring Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke, Joey King, Richard Jenkins, and James Woods

Directed by Roland Emmerich

I keep trying to tell myself that I shouldn't like Channing Tatum.  I keep telling myself that I should laugh off all of his movies.  I keep saying that since the ladies love him I should automatically carry some disdain towards him.  Because of this, it was easy to avoid Tatum's summer action picture White House Down.  Of course, that wasn't the only reason to scoff at this film.  I could certainly do without Jamie Foxx's irksome overacting and this was the second movie to come out within five months detailing a terroristic takeover of the White House following Olympus Has Fallen.  Plus, the trailer for Olympus seemed much better than this Roland Emmerich-directed "blockbuster."  Having watched Olympus Has Fallen a few months ago and finding it disappointing, when White House Down arrived in my mailbox last week, I was actually irritated that I hadn't reordered my Netflix queue.  Needless to say, White House Down proved to be surprisingly enjoyable -- a film that doesn't necessarily do a single thing we haven't seen before, but somehow manages to revel in its ridiculousness and keep things rocking and rolling for over two hours.

Like I said, White House Down doesn't reinvent the wheel.  Channing Tatum is Cale, a security officer for the Speaker of the House (Richard Jenkins).  Hoping for something more, he heads to the White House for an interview, bringing with him his precocious eleven year-old daughter (Joey King).  After being interviewed by Finnerty (Maggie Gyllenhaal), one of the President's high-ranking Secret Service officers and (of course) a former fling of Cale's, Cale and his daughter bogart their way into a White House tour.  While on the tour, the White House finds itself under attack, taken over by a crew of men headed by the leading Secret Service agent Walker (James Woods), a man upset by the President's foreign relations policies that caused Walker's military son to be killed in combat.  Naturally, Cale springs into action, doing what he can to protect the well-liked President Sawyer (Jamie Foxx) along with his daughter.

Honestly, I could've written the basic story behind White House Down, but I must give credit to director Roland Emmerich and screenwriter James Vanderbilt who keep the flick moving along at a steady pace punctuating some of the most ridiculously over-the-top action sequences with humorous quips wherein the characters themselves admit the ridiculousness of said action sequences.  Tatum is certainly game for both the action scenes and he's already proven himself a charmingly sly comedian.  Jamie Foxx is shockingly understated -- I was pleasantly surprised by the way he allowed his presidential character to play second fiddle to Tatum.  The supporting cast from Woods to Jenkins to Gyllenhaal all give better performances than is to be expected in a movie like this.

So, I must say that no one is more shocked than me to say that White House Down is worth your time and better than it really should be.  I think I need to admit that Channing Tatum isn't nearly as bad as I want him to be.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Django Unchained

Django Unchained (2012)

Starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

There aren't any surprises in Django Unchained.  This is just like every other Quentin Tarantino movie you've seen.  The dialog is clever.  The acting is all above average.  The violence is outrageously over-the-top.  The direction is off-the-wall at times, but totally enjoyable.  In other words, Tarantino doesn't really bring anything new to the table here, but what he does provide is a flick that you know is inherently his own.  I will admit that I have to be in the mood to watch one of this auteur's films simply because they walk the fine line between serious film and B-movie exploitation, but admittedly that tricky balance is what makes Tarantino the filmmaker he is.  While Django Unchained is much too long for what is an incredibly simplistic story (perhaps his most basic to date), the thing still works...as long as Tarantino is your cup of tea.

Despite stretching to nearly three hours, the story of Django Unchained is relatively simple and lacks the epic scope of most movies this length.  German bounty hunter King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) has come to mid-1800s America for the prospect of making some easy money capturing bad guys and the biggest baddest guys of them all are the trio of the Brittle brothers.  The only problem is that King doesn't know what the Brittle brothers look like.  However, he soon discovers that the brothers recently sold away a slave named Django (Jamie Foxx) and King decides to set out to find him in order to have Django assist in capturing his former captors.  [It should be noted that all that story above occurs before the movie and is simply implied.  I only include it to show you how measly the rest of the story really is.]  King meets up with and frees Django, discovering that the former slave has a flair for shooting guns and utilizes him to assist him in making a boatload of money.  In an effort to show his appreciation, King agrees to help Django track down and attempt to free his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) from the clutches of plantation owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).

And that's it in a nutshell.  Two sentences stretched out over three hours pretty much sum up what we see onscreen.  Somehow, though, Django Unchained works because of clever sequences filled with witty repartee and wordplay.  Still, it's quite obvious that the film didn't need three hours as there were certain scenes that, while enjoyabe, could have just been completely snipped out without any damage to the overall product.  At the heart of the story is Django's desire to be with Broomhilda, but we never even make it to the Candie Land plantation until over halfway through the film.  With the emotional crux of the film riding on Django's reunion with his wife, it's just too long of a tease to get to that point.

While the film is called Django Unchained and I will admit that this is one of the few roles in which I could actually stand Jamie Foxx as a performer, the film belongs to Christoph Waltz who once again makes the most out of a nice role written for him by Quentin Tarantino (Waltz placed second on my 2009 Best Actor List for his Oscar-winning work in Inglourious Basterds).  Whereas Waltz's Hans Landa had meatier villainous tendencies behind him, his King Schultz is conceived a bit one-note, but Waltz makes the absolute most out of what he is given, hitting just the right amount of humor and a surprising amount of heart.

Mr. Dicaprio takes on a different role than we're used to seeing from him as the rather disgusting Calvin Candie who has a penchant for watching his slaves fight to the death in brutal one-on-one boxing matches.  Considering this is the first image we see of Calvin, his deviant nature is apparent right from the beginning.  DiCaprio, however, imbues Calvin with an odious Southern charm -- his sly smiles attempt to hide his repugnant nature.  It's a nice change of pace for the actor.  The film also contains some nice work from Kerry Washington and a surprisingly strong turn from Samuel L. Jackson whose role is actually surprisingly deep.  As Mr. Candie's head house slave Stephen, Jackson takes on a complicated character who proves to be just as damaging to his fellow African Americans as their Caucasian owner.

Ultimately, I respect Quentin Tarantino for who he is as a director and writer.  However, with the exception of Kill Bill (which I'm due to rewatch to determine whether it's as good as I hope I remember it being), I'm not sure Tarantino has it in him to create anything more than fun romps.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with a cinematic jaunt, but a "jaunt" implies something fleeting and Tarantino does need to learn how to trim his ideas into something a bit more cohesive.  Still, Django Unchained is a good film filled with everything Tarantino does best...though it may certainly not appeal to all.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Horrible Bosses

Horrible Bosses (2011)

Starring Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Charlie Day Jamie Foxx, Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell, and Jennifer Aniston
Directed by Seth Gordon

Perhaps I did Horrible Bosses a disservice by watching it a day after Bridesmaids, but this modern-day retelling of 9 to 5 from a male point of view just didn't provide the laughs needed to succeed (especially when compared to the Kristen Wiig-starring raunchfest).

Three guys all have severe problems with their bosses.  Nick (Jason Bateman) is aggravated when his sadistically controlling boss (Kevin Spacey) passes him over for a vice president's job at a big corporate firm.  When Kurt's (Jason Sudeikis) boss dies, the job is taken over by the boss's druggie party-guy son (Colin Farrell) making day-to-day activities a living hell.  For Dale (Charlie Day), a dental assistant, his problem revolves his sex-obsessed, completely inappropriate dentist boss (Jennifer Aniston) as she attempts to do whatever she can to get Dale into bed despite the fact that he is engaged to be married.

Fed up, the three concoct a plan to kill their respective bosses and, unfortunately, that's where the movie falls apart.  Ultimately, the scheme to do aware with their uncouth supervisors isn't all that funny.  In the first third of the film, when the focus is on the devious bosses, the humor comes across rather easily -- Jennifer Aniston, in particular, is riotously hilarious at moments in a role that is unlike anything she's ever done before.  However, the characters portrayed by Bateman, Sudeikis, and Day simply aren't interesting enough to have a movie crafted around them.  Jason Bateman, in particular, is incredibly bland here, giving his character zero personality.  Jason Sudeikis feels like he's rehashing the same character we saw in the better Hall Pass earlier this year.  Charlie Day is the only one of the trio to provide some truly funny moments, but I still couldn't help but think he was playing the same guy he plays on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.  And the less said about Jamie Foxx's role as a hired hit man the better.  Completely humorless, his scenes grind the film to a screeching halt.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Valentine's Day (2010)

Valentine's Day (2010)

Starring Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Patrick Dempsey, Hector Elizondo, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Ashton Kutcher, Queen Latifah, Taylor Lautner, George Lopez, Shirley Maclaine, Emma Roberts, Julia Roberts, Taylor Swift

Directed by Garry Marshall 

It's not as if ensemble movies about love can't work.  One of my favorite movies of all time is Love, Actually, and that flick is all about an ensemble's quest for love.  However, with last year's He's Just Not That Into You and this year's Valentine's Day, the ensemble romantic comedy appears to be dead in the water.  While this 2010 flick fares a little better than its 2009 counterpart, one would think that with all the star power on display here, someone could craft a decent script.

I'm not even going to go into a summary here because (as is evidenced by the incredibly long "starring" list up above) there's just too many tangential stories to discuss.  And therein lies the problem.  Too many people with too many unnecessary tales.  Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner's high school romance -- I'd nix 'em since we've already got one youthful tale starring the charming Emma Roberts, but they're appealing to the youth.  Julia Roberts and Bradley Cooper's meeting on a plane -- totally pointless, but Roberts is a huge star and Cooper's star wattage is on the rise.  Shirley Maclaine and Hector Elizondo's out-of-left-field reveal of a "bombshell secret" -- who gives a damn -- oh, that's right, we need to appeal to the grandparents.

That's the problem.  The movie just wants to hit every demographic and it fails because of that.   Any positive vibes that come from actors like Jennifer Garner, Anne Hathaway, Topher Grace, Julia Roberts and her niece Emma, and (shockingly) Ashton Kutcher and George Lopez just get washed away by a horrible script.  Not that I'm necessarily one to criticize on this front, but screenwriters need to learn to edit.

And the awful script is shot so incredibly poorly by director Garry Marshall that I laughed out loud because of some of his choices.  Hey, let's put some nuns in that scene.  Throw a sign-language interpreter in there.  Let's have a girl with cerebral palsy point and yell at Ashton Kutcher because he doesn't have shoes on.  Yes, I realize that last sentence might seem callous, but these "attempts at realism" just come across as preposterous.  It honestly seemed like he had family members that he wanted to put into the movie somehow and he was going to do whatever it took to make it happen.

If you want a great romantic ensemble movie, just do yourself a favor and go with Love, Actually.  Skip this one.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Law Abiding Citizen (2009)

Starring Jamie Foxx, Gerard Butler, Bruce McGill, Leslie Bibb, Regina Hall, and Viola Davis
Directed by F. Gary Gray

Nicely directed, but absolutely ludicrous is the way I'd describe Law Abiding Citizen. F. Gary Gray (who directed the underrated The Negotiator in the 90s and the moderately amusing The Italian Job in the aughts) keeps this flick moving along at a very brisk pace, but he is forced to work with a ridiculous script, silly dialogue, and he's unfortunately unable to get a good performance out of Jamie Foxx (then again, is anyone able to get a really good performance out of the overrated actor?).

Gerard Butler is Clyde Shelton and, at the start of the film, his wife and child have been brutally murdered. Two men are charged with their murder, but Philadelphia district attorney Nick Rice (Foxx) seals both of their convictions by using one of the men to testify against the other, thereby giving one of the murderers a death sentence and the other only a five-year prison term. Cut to ten years later and the prisoner on death row's lethal injection goes awry, causing him an incredibly painful death, and the murderer released from jail gets butchered in a ghastly manner. Who committed the crimes? Clyde, the emotionally shattered widow. Clyde's sent to prison, but he's not done his murderous spree. Even from behind bars, he's exacting revenge on those he feels let the one murderer walk free after five years.

First off, let's just say that the way Clyde manages to kill people is pretty damn cool. Unfortunately, all of these elaborate traps seem to rely on people being in the right place at the right time...it's as if he knew where people were conveniently going to be at 'x' hour and was able to plan his crimes around their time table. It's honestly a little too difficult to describe my issues with this issue without revealing too much of the plot, but everything felt a little Saw-esque in terms of the crimes he was committing (granted, I've only seen bits and pieces of Saw movies -- the final 20 minutes of nearly every one while waiting for them to end at the theater and I've seen the first one edited on tv)...elaborate killings that rely on people being right where the killer wants them to be. And the way that Clyde manages to do these things that's revealed in the final act of the film was just silly -- completely unbelievable that he would be able to get away with what he was doing. I guess there's only one solitary confinement cell in prisons...

Second, the dialog here is ridiculous. Everything seemed forced. Jamie Foxx's character was given some ludicrous things to say simply to advance the plot. Despite the fact that the film moved at a brisk pace, it felt like there were several scenes that simply could've been excised and it would've made no difference to the overall film.

As far as the acting goes, Foxx is lukewarm at best. I didn't believe him as a D.A. for a second. Butler is decent, although his American accent is incredibly weak (at least, I think he was playing an American...the accent went back and forth so many times, I'm unsure). Other than that, Butler is actually quite engaging onscreen. With this, The Ugly Truth, and Gamer this year, I find that he's able to rise above an average script and come out looking better than the overall movie itself. And I loved every second Viola Davis was in the flick as the mayor of Philadelphia. She brings a strength to the screen that's not too overpowering to be unbelievable. (That being said, the ridiculous cameo by the real mayor of Philly, Michael Nutter, made people laugh at a time when the audience really shouldn't have been laughing. Stupid move on the director's part there).

So, unfortunately, despite the fact that the story overall never bored me and the director kept the flick moving, the silliness of the plot, the corny dialogue ("He's got police costumes...and other things..."), and a less-than-average performance by one of the film's leads make this one that I can't recommend.

The RyMickey Rating: D+

Movie Review - The Soloist (2009)

Starring Jamie Foxx, Robert Downey, Jr., and Catherine Keener

Written by Susannah Grant

Directed by Joe Wright

This flick was supposed to come out last year and delays in the film industry typically signal an inferior product. Unforunately, that rule reigns true in the case of The Soloist.

The plot's simple. Reporter Steve Lopez stumbles across homeless guy Nathaniel Ayers playing a violin. Friendship blossoms.

And that is all.

The problem with this film didn't necessarily come from the actors, although I never once got a sense that Downey, Jr., was playing anyone other than himself (Foxx, on the other hand, gives a surpringly strong turn as the schizophrenic musical "genius").

Half of the problem comes from the script (nothing really happens in the film when you look back on it). There was humor and pathos in the main storyline, but when some of the subplots take the front seat -- the L.A. Times newspaper in economic trouble, the difficultly in providing care to L.A.'s homeless population -- the movie just falters.

The other major issue with the film is Joe Wright's shoddy direction. There were shots that had me flabbergasted as to why they were in the film at all -- a scene where we follow birds as they fly over L.A. while classical music plays; a Fantasia-esque light show to "symbolize" (I guess) what Nathaniel "feels" when he's listening to an orchestra. These shots in particular were there simply to "show off," and the rest of the film, if anything, is rather stodgy in how it's presented (the complete opposite of "show-off," to me). The film jumps back and forth from feeling like a PBS Masterpiece Theater piece to an ABC afterschool special from the 90s. Granted, that's just as much the screenwriter's fault as it is the director's, but the film was just too flat and "blah" too much of the time for me to recommend it.

The RyMickey Rating: C-