Ant-Man

Ant-Man (2015)

Starring Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Bobby Cannavale, Anthony Mackie, Judy Greer, Abby Ryder Fortson, and Michael Peña

Directed by Peyton Reed 

Click here for my Letterboxd review

Click here for my previous RyMickey Review

My current RyMickey Rating:  B

The Thing About Pam

 The Thing About Pam (2022)

Starring Renee Zellweger, Josh Duhamel, Judy Greer, Gideon Adlon, Sean Bridgers, Glenn Fleshler, and Katy Mixon

Directed by Scott Winant, Logan Kibens, and Adam Kane

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

What Women Want

 What Women Want (2000)

Starring Mel Gibson, Helen Hunt, Marisa Tomei, Alan Alda, Ashley Burke, Mark Feuerstein, Lauren Holly, Judy Greer, Sarah Paulson, and Bette Midler

Directed by Nancy Meyers

Written by Josh Goldsmith, Cathy Yuspa, and Diane Drake

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Pottersville

Pottersville (2017)

Starring Michael Shannon,  Judy Greer, Ron Perlman, Thomas Lennon, Christina Hendricks, and Ian McShane

Directed by Seth Henrikson

Written by Daniel Meyer

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

Summary (in 500 words or less):  After discovering his wife (Christina Hendricks) wants to leave him, small town store clerk Maynard (Michael Shannon) goes on a nighttime drunken romp through the town of Pottersvilee in a gorilla costume.  When he wakes up the next morning, Maynard discovers that the town is all abuzz with a sighting of the mythical Bigfoot the night before.  Upon realizing how much Pottersville community has come together over this Bigfoot excitement, Maynard decides to continue dressing up in the gorilla costume in order to keep the town at its best.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C-

Ant-Man and the Wasp

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

Starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Peña, Hannah John-Kamen, Walton Goggins, Bobby Cannavale, Judy Greer, Tip 'T.I.' Harris, Abby Ryder Forston, Randall Park, Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne, and Michael Douglas

Directed by Peyton Reed

Written by Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Paul Rudd, Andrew Barrer, and Gabriel Ferrari

Summary (in 500 words or less):  Back in the 1980s, Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) becomes trapped in the microscopic quantum realm by shrinking herself too small as she successfully disabled a Russian nuclear missile.  Back in the present day, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is on house arrest being monitored by the FBI after assisting Captain America a few years prior with the events of "Captain America: Civil War."  One evening, Scott has a wild dream wherein he sees himself as Janet van Dyne.  Utterly confused, he calls Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) who have all but excommunicated him after the events of the prior Ant-Man film and Civil War.  Upon hearing Scott's dream, however, they determine that Scott's visit to the quantum realm in the first Ant-Man film has somehow connected him to Janet and they hope that Scott can help reunite them with their wife and mother.  

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Grandma

Grandma (2015)

Starring Lily Tomlin, Julia Garner, Judy Greer, Nat Wolff, Laverne Cox, Sam Elliott, and Marcia Gay Harden

Directed by Paul Weitz

I watched Grandma on the first night of the 2016 Republican National Convention.  I say this only to prove that this conservative reviewer can push aside his political leanings when watching a film and judge it based on its cinematic merits and Grandma is a surprisingly funny and touching film about the title character Elle (Lily Tomlin), a bit of a hippie lesbian old lady,  who spends the day traveling around to a variety of friends and enemies attempting to pool up money for her granddaughter Sage (Julia Garner) to be able to get an abortion.  While I'm sure I'd be shunned for appreciating this film by many members of my political affiliation, its story is well told and comes across surprisingly natural.

Plot-wise, there's not much else to talk about as the short under-eighty minute runtime of Grandma keeps things moving.  On its surface, writer-director Paul Weitz's film is really just a series of vignettes with Elle and Sage meeting a variety of kooky (and not-so-kooky) people.  Digging a little deeper, the film allows the character of the somewhat curmudgeonly Elle to blossom a little with each successive introduction of people in her life.  As her layers are revealed to the audience and to her granddaughter, we get a surprisingly multi-dimensional character for such a lighthearted film.  Kudos to Weitz and Lily Tomlin for creating this depth-filled woman whom I may not necessarily agree with all the time but at least has a purpose for having her story be told.

While the film does suffer from what I like to call Finding Nemo Syndrome in that it always feels like we're just moving from place to place for quick little meet-cutes with a variety of characters, Grandma still proves to be much more successful than I ever could have expected.  While its somewhat nonchalant way of dealing with abortion won't suit everyone's tastes, part of the reason the film works and feels decidedly not preachy (despite one horribly blunt scene outside an abortion clinic that is unnecessarily bashing of pro-life supporters) is that it's not really about abortion.  It's about an older woman coming to grips with things that have haunted her past and because that's the focus, the film comes off well.  Well acted by all members in the cast -- with a particularly moving and somewhat heartbreaking small cameo from Sam Elliott -- Grandma succeeds with me when I didn't even think it had a chance.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Ant-Man

Ant-Man (2015)

Starring Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Bobby Cannavale, Anthony Mackie, Judy Greer, Abby Ryder Fortson, and Michael Peña

Directed by Peyton Reed

Congratulations are in order to Marvel Studios who has managed to consistently deliver films that audiences clamor to see at the box office.  Having tackled their marquee superheroes, they've begun heading into the lesser known characters starting with 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy and continuing with 2015's Ant-Man, the tale of Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), a thief who is released from prison and finding it tough to make a living outside in the real world.  Desperate to reconnect with his daughter (Abby Ryder Fortson) but without any money to provide child support, Scott agrees to take part in another heist at the home of the rich Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas).  Unfortunately, upon breaking into the home's safe, Scott discovers simply a suit rather than any money.  He takes the suit and ends up trying it on, only to shrink to the size of an ant.  Pym finds Scott and asks him to go on a mission to infiltrate the workplace of Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) who is trying to use the shrinking technology that was created by Pym to create weapons of war.

Ant-Man is a perfectly acceptable film and all aspects of it -- from the acting to the direction to the script to the special effects -- are enjoyable, but I didn't find myself fawning over it which, admittedly, is the case with many of the Marvel films for me.  Rudd is engaging as the lead character and it's nice to see Michael Douglas take a central role in a popular movie.  Corey Stoll is amusingly evil as well and his final showdown with Ant-Man is actually one of the best final battles yet in a Marvel film simply due to the fact that director Peyton Reed doesn't take things too over-the-top and allows the flick to breathe a little bit rather than feel like a nonstop unending action sequence.

But still, considering the raves this one got by people over the summer, I was perhaps expecting a bit more.  Don't mistake me -- Ant-Man is one of Marvel's better efforts, but I longed for a little more.  Perhaps when its sequel rolls around and we're given less of an origin story (which always tend to be boring), we'll be in for more of a treat.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

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 - Jurassic World

Jurassic World (2015)

***Viewed in 3D***
Starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson, Vincent D'Onofrio, Irrfan Khan, Jake Johnson, Omar Sy, BD Wong, and Judy Greer

Directed by Colin Trevorrow

While Jurassic World doesn't have the same emotional pull as 1993's Jurassic Park when we first witnessed dinosaurs roam across the screen under the more than capable direction of Steven Spielberg, this 2015 return to that same Costa Rican island is by far the best sequel of that film to come down the pike.  Thanks to similarly capable direction by Colin Trevorrow (of which this is only his second film), his crew of screenwriters, and surprisingly winning performances from Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, Jurassic World is an enjoyable continuation of this series paying enough homage to the past while also creating well-rounded characters all on its own.

We return to Isla Nublar, and despite the chaos that ensued in the first three films of this series, the InGen corporation and its CEO Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan) have decided to bankroll the theme park Jurassic World.  Years have gone by and the park is a huge success -- which is more than can be said for John Hammond's initial attempts in the first film of the series.  However, much like your typical theme park experience, the guests keep wanting more and more.  In order to satisfy the masses, the park's operations manager Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) has had InGen's geneticists (headed by Dr. Henry Wu -- BD Wong of Jurassic Park fame) cook up a genetically-modified dinosaur called the Indominus rex which is bigger and more deadly than any predator currently on the island.  While he certainly appreciates the "Bigger!  Faster!  Scarier!" mindset, Masrani wants to ensure his guests' safety, so he asks Claire to have one of the park's well-respected trainers and former military man Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) check out the Indominus' paddock.  Unfortunately, as is wont to happen in a film like this, something goes wrong...and then things start getting worse and worse.

While the basic plot is certainly similar to that of Jurassic Park, the film never feels as if it's simply aping the original.  The amusement park aspect of this film is much more fully realized and more commercialized -- more fitting for today's society -- and feels unique enough to not be a simple rehash.  Yes, we're still given two kids in peril -- Claire's nephews Zach and Gray (Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins) are visiting their aunt when all hell breaks loose.  We have another vehicle malfunction which causes some issues with the dinos (although this is at least almost as exciting as the Jeep sequence in the original since The Lost World gave us such a hideous car moment).  We have an ending that is nearly identical to the original.  Yet, somehow, Jurassic World still comes out feeling fresh (and this is coming from someone who just watched all the films in the Quadrilogy within the span of a week).

Part of the reason for Jurassic World's success is the charisma and charm exuded from Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard.  While I've liked Howard in things, I've never thought her to be a captivating presence onscreen.  She tends to always play dour and forlorn, yet here she totally won me over with an authoritative bitchiness which then gradually cedes into a somewhat heartwarming aunt who not only fears for her nephews but for her guests within the park.  It helps, of course, that in her scenes with Chris Pratt the two have a natural chemistry that creates a humorously amorous relationship.  Their constant bickering at the film's outset is inevitably foreshadowing a romance down the line, but the duo make the obviousness work.

Quite frankly, I'm not sure Pratt could ever not have chemistry with someone onscreen.  It's obvious that this guy has the charm, suaveness, and debonair attitude to be this decade's Movie Star and Jurassic World continues to prove that point.  He's fun to watch and I think that has to stem from the fact that Pratt is just beginning this leg of his career path.  He knows what's ahead and I think he's living in the moment and relishing every second of it.  His excitement is contagious and certainly works in the film's favor.

There's nothing wrong with having a little fun at the movies and Jurassic World is just that.  While it can't reach the levels of the original, it's certainly a worthy successor and one that carries on Spielberg and Michael Crichton's legacy proudly.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

*Note:  I'm really hovering between a B+/B here.  I'm so early in my 2015 reviews -- I've only seen three films at this point -- that my rubric is so small, it's tough to really judge.  I reserve the right to lower or raise this slightly once I've seen ten or so 2015 films.*

Movie Review - Men, Women & Children

Men, Women & Children (2014)

Starring Adam Sandler, Jennifer Garner, Rosemarie Dewitt, Judy Greer, Dean Norris, Kaitlyn Dever, Ansel Elgort, Timothée Chalamet, Olivia Crocicchia, Elena Kampouris, Dennis Haysbert, J.K. Simmons, and Emma Thompson

Directed by Jason Reitman

Are you aware that the internet can pose a dangerous threat to our youth?

Are you aware that the pressures of being a teen nowadays are amplified exponentially by the power of social media and texting?

Are you aware that some people get so lost in the internet worlds of role-playing games and pornography that they lose touch with their actual reality?

If you've been living under a rock for the past ten years, then writer-director Jason Reitman's Men, Women & Children is the movie for you!  However, if you're anything like me and pretty much everyone else, I'm sure that none of the above questions are altogether surprising.  Reitman seemingly thinks that these notions are somewhat new as he tries to present all of them to riveting, shocking, and dramatic effect.  Unfortunately, we've seen this story before in both movies and television -- and we've seen it done much better.

This is one of those movies where you simply try to guess at the beginning which teenager is going to commit suicide and which one is going to get pregnant because you know it's going to happen -- and, sure enough, Reitman doesn't do anything to reinvent the wheel because halfway through the flick someone gets knocked up and three-quarters of the way through we witness the suicide.  Neither of which surprise us in the slightest as we could see them telegraphed from the film's opening five minutes.  Reitman hasn't crafted characters here, he's simply created stereotypical avatars of what he must think sex-crazed teens (Olivia Crocicchia, Timothée Chalamet) or loner teens (Kaitlyn Dever) or jock teens (Ansel Elgort) or overprotective parents (Jennifer Garner) or cool parents (Judy Greer) or emotionally detached spouses (Adam Sandler, Rosemarie Dewitt) are really like.  He then tosses in a tongue-in-cheek British narrator (Emma Thompson) to spout pithy remarks about the goings-on which confused the heck out of me as I couldn't tell whether Reitman was trying to craft something serious or whether this whole film was just an awful attempt at satire.

Across the board, some typically solid actors are left wallowing.  Kaitlyn Dever (so good in Short Term 12) and Ansel Elgort (quite a charming surprise in The Fault in Our Stars) fare the best, but maybe it's simply because their roles felt the least cookie cutter.  Also, would it be too hard for Judy Greer to land some more gigs?  She makes the best of her part as a mom who posts risqué pictures of her daughter on the internet by imbuing a bit of heart and personality into the film -- something that Men, Women & Children is missing in spades.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

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