Doctor Zhivago

 Doctor Zhivago (1965)

Starring Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger, Tom Courtenay, and Alec Guinness

Directed by David Lean

Written by Robert Bolt

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B

Movie Review - The Company You Keep

The Company You Keep (2013)

Starring Robert Redford, Shia LaBeouf, Julie Christie, Susan Sarandon, Nick Nolte, Chris Cooper, Terrence Howard, Stanley Tucci, Richard Jenkins, Anna Kendrick, Brendan Gleeson, Brit Marling, Sam Elliott, Stephen Root, and Jackie Evancho 

Directed by Robert Redford

Just take a look at that talent listed above -- that's a helluva lot of names, most of whom are known for giving good performances.  Robert Redford's film The Company You Keep (culled from a script by Lem Dobbs) plays like a novel, introducing each of these actors for a chapter and then having them disappear.  This episodic nature proves very tedious about halfway through once we realize what's going on.  It fails to allow us to connect to anyone...then again, I'm not sure we really want to connect with any of these people.

The film opens with a brief flashback in newsreel/news footage form about a series of protests in the 1960/70s by a homegrown American "terrorist" group known as the Weather Underground -- a real-life "activist" group that bombed government buildings and banks as public demonstrations to gain notoriety in an attempt to overthrow the US government for what they perceived as wrongdoings during the Vietnam era.  The last blip of the flashback tells us about a 1980 bank robbery in which a civilian was killed and how the three people responsible are still at large.

Cut to present time and Sharon Solarz (Susan Sarandon) is arrested when buying gas at a convenience store in New York.  Solarz was one a Weather Underground member and one of the three people responsible for that ill-fated bank robbery that resulted in a death.  She had lived her life -- got married, had kids -- but the guilt of that day always stayed with her and Solarz, a Vermont resident, specifically crossed the New York state border to buy gas in order to get arrested and turn herself in.  This sets the FBI on a hunt for Solarz's colleagues in the crime, while also piquing the interest of Ben Shepard (Shia LaBeouf), a young reporter at the local Albany newspaper.  Shepard ends up discovering more than the FBI (which doesn't sit too well with the FBI chief played by Terrence Howard) when he uncovers the fact that a local lawyer named Jim Grant (Robert Redford) is actually Nick Sloan, a presumed dead Weather Underground member suspected of taking part in the murder at the bank in 1980.  When Shepard confronts Grant about this, Grant immediately grows suspicious that the FBI will soon be on his tail and he sets off across the country trying to evade the FBI, while also trying to clear his name.

While the premise above is actually interesting that all takes place in the film's opening thirty minutes after which things quickly fall apart, digressing into scenes in which Redford's character meets up an old, hardened former Weather Underground member who then gets tracked down by the FBI just as Grant manages to make an escape.  This seriously happens four or five times and maybe it could've worked if any of these scenes ended up being anything other than two old people reminiscing about how shitty the government's treatment of the less fortunate is.  (Of course, the majority of these old fogies are now living in expensive houses, sailing yachts, or working at prestigious universities...so their sympathetic allegiance with the poor feels disingenuous...then again, that's the good old liberal mindset, ain't it?)

There are a couple of decent performances here -- LaBeouf is strong as the go-getting reporter, Sarandon makes the most of her small role with a particularly good scene in which she explains her actions -- but the typically strong cast isn't given much to work with and Redford doesn't really pull great performances from their small parts.  For someone who was a supposed sex symbol and movie star back in the day, Redford himself is uncharismatic and particularly bland here which is a disappointment considering he and LaBeouf are the only two actors who we see throughout the entire film.  The Company You Keep may very well have the most prestigious cast assembled for a 2013 film, but despite the high quality of actors, Robert Redford's film just meanders along for two hours failing to be anything more exciting than a game of "Which Celebrity Will Appear Next?"

The RyMickey Rating:  C- 

Movie Review - Red Riding Hood

Red Riding Hood (2011)

Starring Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Billy Burke, Virginia Madsen, and Julie Christie

Directed by Catherine Hardwicke

A pale ingenue.  Two brooding teens vying for her romantic attention.  A dark, eerie forest filled with mist.  A werewolf.

While these are certainly adequate descriptors of any of the Twilight flicks, it also fits Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke's newest teenage angst melodrama Red Riding Hood, a re-imagining of the classic Grimm fairy tale.  Here Amanda Seyfried is Valerie, a young gal living in some European town in the wooded mountains in what is likely the 1800s (even though the ladies still wear tons of make-up and apparently have access to flat-irons for their hair).  She's in love with her childhood sweetheart Peter, but she's set to be married to Henry (the names of the two actors are irrelevant...as are their characters).  In the midst of this romantic triangle, there's a werewolf wreaking havoc on the townsfolk.  There's some kind of gobbledy-gook spouted by religious figure Solomon (Gary Oldman) that states that the werewolf comes out once every few years when the moon turns red in order to pass on his werewolf genes to someone else.  Of course, the moon is now red and the werewolf's on a mission to take a bite out of someone.  Now we just have to guess which one of Amanda's fellow townsfolk is half-canine.  (Needless to say, the identity of the monster was guessed by this viewer a mere twenty minutes into the film.)

Red Riding Hood seriously looked just like a spin-off of the Twilight films.  Hardwicke's direction is simply a paint-by-numbers replica of that series.  From the soundtrack to the sets to the camera shots (all of which were actually decent), the film didn't feel "original" in the slightest.  The acting by Amanda Seyfried is just as bland and boring as that of Kristen Stewart.  Even supporting actors like Gary Oldman and Julie Christie find themselves unable to rise out of the muck that is the lousy script.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Heaven Can Wait

Heaven Can Wait (1978)

Starring Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, James Mason, Charles Grodin, and Dyan Cannon

Directed by Warren Beatty and Buck Henry

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

This is just one of those random movies that's been on the "maybe I'll watch that someday" list and that day has come.  Warren Beatty is pro football quarterback Joe Pendleton who is poised to take his team to the Super Bowl.  Unfortunately, a car accident brings Joe into the afterlife.  However, in the limbo between heaven and earth, Joe discovers that his guardian angel pulled him out of his body too quickly -- Joe simply wasn't scheduled to die yet.  So, it is decided that Joe can return to earth in the body of someone else.  This someone else just happens to be rich multi-millionaire Leo Farnsworth who is in a bit of trouble of his own involving both his wife (Dyan Cannon) and his executive secretary (Charles Grodin) attempting to kill him in order to carry out their torrid affair and an angry British woman (Julie Christie) who is upset that Farnsworth is building an oil refinery in her town.  All the while, Joe longs to be the football quarterback he was in his former body.

An odd summary, I realize, but the movie's odd, too.  There's a lot of everything thrown in here -- comedy, drama, romance -- and the jumbled summary is indicative of a movie that doesn't quite know what it wants to be.  None of the aforementioned elements really takes precedence over any other so you never get a great idea of the tone that co-director-co-screenwriter Beatty was going for.  Things aren't properly balanced and it hurts the movie to a certain extent.

I like Warren Beatty as an actor and I like him here as well.  He's certainly charming and has a nice presence onscreen. Aiding him is Charles Grodin and Dyan Cannon as the conniving couple attempting to kill off Leo Farnsworth in order to gain access to his fortune.  Unfortunately, the biggest letdown in the film is Julie Christie whose romantic subplot with Beatty's Farnsworth is absolutely ridiculous and has no reason for even existing.  It's a subplot that is completely unnecessary and weighs the movie down.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Don't Look Now

Don't Look Now (1973)

Starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie

Directed by Nicolas Roeg

***Currently streaming on Netflix*** 

Even though you may not have heard of it, Don't Look Now is a rather "revered" film.  Ebert calls it a "horror masterpiece" and he is not alone in his fawning.

My response to those praising this 1973 flick:  Don't listen to them.

This is one of the most boring films I've seen in years.  There's 108 minutes of set-up leading to, quite possibly, two of the worst final minutes of any film I've watched.

Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland are Laura and John Baxter, a married couple who lose their daughter in a tragic drowning.  Shortly after her death, the couple travels to Venice, Italy, for John to begin renovations on an old cathedral.  While there, Laura meets two old ladies, one of whom sees both visions of the couple's dead daughter and prophesies of the future, which, unfortunately for Laura and John appears to be filled with some more tragic events.

A promising set-up is completely wasted here by pretentious direction from Nicolas Roeg (who has since gone on to direct classics like Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession and Erotic Tales II).  There's a self-importance on display that comes off as laughable.  Roeg never achieves any modicum of suspense or eeriness except for during the film's final minutes.  Unfortunately, those final minutes lead up to a ridiculous "reveal" that makes one wonder why the hell one spent nearly two hours with this flick.

As a positive, Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland are actually fine here, but their acting (which is filled with a surprising amount of chemistry) isn't nearly enough to save this so-called suspense "classic."

The RyMickey Rating:  D