Cruella

 Cruella (2021)

Starring Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser, Emily Beecham, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, and Mark Strong

Directed by Craig Gillespie

Written by Dana Fox and Tony McNamara

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

1917

1917 (2019)

Starring George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, Claire Duburcq, Colin Firth, Richard Madden, and Benedict Cumberbatch

Directed by Sam Mendes

Written by Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Shazam!

Shazam! (2019)
Starring Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer, and Djimon Hounsou
Directed by David F. Sandberg
Written by Henry Gayden

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B-

Movie Review - Miss Sloane

Miss Sloane (2016)

Starring Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alison Pill, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jake Lacy, David Wilson Barnes, Dylan Baker, Christine Baranski, Sam Waterston, and John Lithgow

Directed by John Madden

***This film is currently streaming via Amazon Prime***

There's certainly an undeniable anti-gun tone that squirms its way through Miss Sloane, a seedy look at the art of lobbying in Washington, D.C., but even this conservative is okay with that as I tend to agree that we need some greater from of oversight when it comes to our firearms in this country.  So while I was personally able to look beyond the slant, others may be less inclined.  With that in mind, Miss Sloane does take us inside the cutthroat world of lobbying, but it's a tad too emotionally detaching to really succeed at sucking me in.

That lack of emotional connection comes from the sheer brittleness of its headstrong, ballsy, and determined titular character Elizabeth Sloane played by Jessica Chastain.  Sloane is emotionally attached only to her job -- every relationship is sidelined, every waking minute is spent trying to advance what she's lobbying for at the moment.  Chastain is an actress who has the strength to take on a role like this -- a role where emotions are waylaid for gritty steadfastness.  Yet, as is the case with many of Chastain's roles, the lack of warmth in the character of Miss Sloane makes it almost difficult to really become invested.  Chastain is always an admirable performer, but the brittleness she brings to Miss Sloane is a bit disarming and admittedly harmed the film a bit for me.

(Sidetrack:  Would I say this about a male in this role?  Is it unfair that I make this comment about a female performance?  Maybe it's time to be a bit introspective, because I'm honestly not sure.  Do I need a female lead to have a more emotionally resonant character because I'm used to females being a little more emotional onscreen?)

That isn't to say that Chastain isn't successful in creating an interesting character -- she, along with Jonathan Perera's screenplay do just that.  The problem is that Perera's screenplay has one too many manipulations and oneupmanships by Sloane and her adversaries to really feel truly believable despite a game cast doing their best.  Sure, I'm certain underhandedness runs rampant throughout our nation's capitol, but that doesn't mean it always translates into a believable cinematic experience.  There's a convoluted nature to the film that director John Madden isn't able to wrangle and the flick suffers from a lack of brevity.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Kingsman: The Secret Service

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)

Starring Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Strong, Michael Caine, Sophie Cookson, Sofia Boutella, and Mark Hamill

Directed by Matthew Vaughn

For a movie I actually enjoyed, I've waited over a month to write this review of Kingsman: The Secret Service.  I think part of my issue is that Kingsman is sometimes like two different movies -- there's an attempt to be James Bond-ian in its take on the British spy genre, but then it also feels very Quentin Tarantino-esque in terms of glorified, bloody violence.  While I find both of those genres appealing (at times) on their own, the meshing of the two never quite fits for me.

That said, the story of a rough-around-the-edges young man named Eggsy (Taron Egerton) who is recruited by the suave, debonair, and mysterious Harry Hart (Colin Firth) to join the ranks of an elite secret British spy agency is thoroughly entertaining.  Typically, I'd grow weary of "origin" stories, but Kingsman (based on a comic book) places its character of Eggsy through a recruitment process that is entertaining, exciting, and surprisingly tense.  As Eggsy gets to know both his potential and the intricacies of the agency for which he may soon work, director and co-writer Matthew Vaughn keeps things uniquely stylized.

At the same time Eggsy is learning the ropes, billionaire Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson) is attempting to take over the world via his telecommunications company.  Needless to say, it's obvious that the two stories are eventually going to intertwine and while I enjoyed both the Eggsy and Richmond sides of the plot separately, when they begin to come together is when the film begins to falter a bit.  The disjointed nature of the film hits its peak when Firth's Harry Hart finds himself in the midst of an incredibly gruesome attack where more blood is spilled in one scene alone than I've seen since The Bride went nuts on the Yakuza and the Crazy 88 in Kill Bill.  In Tarantino's flick, however, stylized violence played a role from the beginning of the film, whereas here it feels as if Vaughn brings things on too suddenly to feel cohesive.  It's not that the film proves to be a disappointment, it's simply that the writers (and Vaughn as the director) begin to take things too over-the-top in terms of violence.

Despite its imperfections, Kingsman: The Secret Service proves to be an enjoyably fun ride.  Vaughn takes some risks here and while some pay off -- I very much appreciate that no one is safe here in terms of characters making it out of the movie alive -- others don't quite work.  Still, I'd certainly be willing to check out any sequel should it make its way to the big screen as I found the whole flick entertaining enough to warrant a second go with the characters it presents.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Before I Go to Sleep

Before I Go to Sleep (2014)

Starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, and Anne-Marie Duff

Directed by Rowan Joffe

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

Considering the strength of the actors involved, Before I Go to Sleep had the potential of being a solid thriller.  Unfortunately, the combined talents of Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, and Anne-Marie Duff (all of whom I've certainly liked in things in the past) can't save a script that keeps hitting the same beats over and over again making this 90-minute flick a bit of a snooze.

Kidman plays Christine, a forty year-old woman who wakes up every morning unaware of who she is and where she's been for the last decade.  Next to her every single morning is Ben (Firth), her husband of fourteen years who strives to make the best of his wife's unfortunate situation which came about after a horrible accident caused trauma to her head.  Also trying to help Christine is Dr. Nasch (Strong) who gives Christine a camera to record her thoughts and memories throughout her day in an attempt to jog her mind the next morning.  However, Dr. Nasch seems to believe that Ben is not being entirely forthcoming with Christine and he may be hiding some dark secret from her.  Christine, on the other hand, begins to question whether Dr. Nasch is someone she can even trust.  This constant uncertainty plagues Christine and she can't help but question if she is truly safe in her own home.

I'll give Before I Go to Sleep credit in that admittedly I didn't peg the ending in director/screenwriter Rowan Joffe's flick.  I probably should have -- it's not like it was incredibly off-the-wall or unfathomable -- but I did wind up a tiny bit surprised at the end.  Unfortunately, the film's inherent flaw is that when Christine loses her memory and wakes up the next morning, we in the audience are constantly bombarded with her need to relearn everything again.  We seemingly witness the same scenes over and over and over again with the tiniest minutiae of changes.  While I understand this is a way for Joffe to allow us to connect with the film's dazed protagonist, it just wears out its welcome very quickly and it bogs down the film to an almost unwatchable point halfway through.

Credit certainly goes to the quartet of actors listed above who all make the most of what they've been given here.  Firth and Kidman in particular more than carry the film and strive to elevate it above the level of a television movie.  I'm not quite sure they achieve that goal, but their attempts are admirable.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - The Imitation Game

The Imitation Game (2014)

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Allen Leech, Rory Kinnear, Matthew Beard, Charles Dance, Alex Lawther, and Mark Strong

Directed by Morten Tyldum

Paced extraordinarily well, fantastically acted, and cleverly written passing through three timelines which dramatically strengthen one other without feeling gimmicky, The Imitation Game is one of the surprise treats of the 2014 Oscar season.  The raves it received should seemingly negate the notion that it could ever be a "surprise," but it's the type of film -- an historical drama -- that one often finds difficult to feign excitement.  However, I found director Morten Tyldum's film to cast a light on a subject with which I was unfamiliar and do so in a manner that was engaging and extremely well executed.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays Alan Turing, an incredibly intelligent young man only recently graduated from university with a talent for solving a wide variety of puzzles.  This piques the interest of the British Intelligence Agency who hire Turing to try and decode Germany's encoded messages to one another during the height of WWII.  Germany had created a machine known as Enigma which provided millions of different codings making it near impossible for the Allies to figure out what the Nazis were relaying to one another.  Cleverly, the Germans changed the settings on Enigma on a daily basis so unlike Turing's hired colleagues who put pen to paper in order to solve the intricate Enigma messages (only to be devastated at day's end having their work prove all for naught), Turing believed that the only way the Allies could fight Enigma was to build a machine that matched Enigma's prowess.  Although most thought the quirky sensibilities of Turing pointed towards him being crazy, the genius eventually managed to convince his fellow brainiacs (and the British government) that his plan would be a success.  Needless to say, the Nazis didn't overtake Europe, so -- spoiler alert -- he succeeds.

In and of itself, the historical plot of The Imitation Game is worth the price of admission, but there's a devastating personal aspect as well with Turing discovering his homosexuality as a teenager and having to hide his sexual orientation seeing as how being gay was a criminal offense in England through the 1950s.  This adds another layer to the story and makes Turing's life all the more painful in the end.

Director Morten Tyldum keeps the film moving at a surprisingly rapid clip without any lulls.  He very deftly moves the film from WWII era to Turing's youth (when he's played by the wonderful Alex Lawther) to the 1950s when Turing is being investigated by the police for indecency.  Each of these segments builds upon one another to give us an extremely well-rounded glimpse of the complicated individual that is Alan Turing.  Much credit goes to the young Mr. Lawther who makes it entirely believable that he was playing a younger version of Benedict Cumberbatch's Turing.  Through Lawther's portrayal, we can see the obvious evolution of Turing and I found this a pleasant addition to the film.

Benedict Cumberbatch is surprisingly soulful as the adult Alan Turing.  His unique tics and idiosyncrasies coupled with the extremely intelligent manner of speaking give us a character that while awkward is also heartbreaking without ever feeling treacly or emotionally forced.  His supporting cast includes Keira Knightley, quite good as an intelligent woman with whom Turing finds himself a bit infatuated, and Matthew Goode as another smart codebreaker who finds himself often at odds with the shy, introverted Turing.  There's truly not a bad performance in the bunch.

The Imitation Game could easily have been a boring historical docudrama, but, much like The King's Speech several years ago, it rises above the stolid, heavy feeling that sometimes accompanies period pieces and becomes a movie that emotionally resonates while also teaching a little bit about an important part of our past.

The RyMickey Rating:  A- 

Movie Review - Blood

Blood (2013)

Starring Paul Bettany, Mark Strong, Brian Cox, Stephen Graham, and Ben Crompton

Directed by Nick Murphy

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

Rarely do you hear me saying that I wish a movie were longer.  In the case of Blood, however, a noir-ish character study, I longed for a few more minutes to give a little more depth to Paul Bettany's Joe Fairburn, a British cop who takes a trip on quite an emotional roller coaster after a young teenage girl turns up dead on the streets of his town.  The case itself isn't anything particularly out of the ordinary, but this murder affects Joe more than usual causing him to take his investigation to harsh (and illegal) extremes.

Paul Bettany is fantastic here, creating a great amount of depth in (I think) the best film role I've seen him tackle.  Guilt is a key factor in Joe Fairburn's emotions and Bettany makes the audience fully understand his pained conscience.  Alongside Bettany are some very nice turns from Stephen Graham as Joe's brother and police officer partner Chrissie who also finds himself racked with guilt over his brother's misdeeds, Brian Cox as Joe and Chrissie's father (their former police captain boss and now dementia-ridden and addled), and Mark Strong as a fellow investigator who thinks Joe may be hiding something from his colleagues.  All four men are quite strong and they're all given some nice characteristics to sink their teeth into.

The problem with Blood is that it almost moves along too rapidly.  While Joe's psychological downturn is fully understandable, I wanted a bit more time to allow Bettany to gradually express his character's swings of emotions.  Upon the film finishing, the credits rolled and stated that the film was based off the tv series "Conviction" which I discovered was a six-part British miniseries.  Perhaps the story works better in that format as opposed to the quite shortened ninety minute runtime here.   Still, director Nick Murphy creates an ominous atmosphere surrounding the character of Joe Fairburn that I must recommend a watch.  Blood is one of those reasons why I haven't crafted my Best of 2013 list yet.  It's little gems like these that may find a placement or two in my final lists.  One of these days I'll get around to the RyMickey Awards (probably not until September now), but that'll just give you more time to check this out.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Starring Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Jennifer Ehle, Reda Kateb, Mark Strong, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt, and James Gandolfini

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow

It is an inevitability that people are going to compare director Kathryn Bigelow's Afghanistan and Pakistan-based Zero Dark Thirty with her fantastic Best Picture-winning Iraq-centric The Hurt Locker.  Whether that is a fair comparison or not, I'm not going to say, but Ms. Bigelow (and her reunited screenwriter Mark Boal) doesn't stretch much from her comfort zone of Middle Eastern-set war movies.  With such a powerful first glance at this landscape a few years ago, hopes were set high for Zero Dark Thirty and unfortunately it's simply not as good as her previous effort.

In my Hurt Locker review, I stated that the film contained "edge-of-your-seat excitement" and I know many would scoff at that remark thinking that the film actually moved at a rather slow pace.  Somehow, though, Bigelow managed to achieve great amounts of tension for me despite deliberately pacing the film.  In Zero Dark Thirty, the pacing is still slowly deliberate, but the tension simply isn't there.  Is it because we already know the result in that Osama bin Laden is killed?  I think that's part of the issue, but not the sole problem.

The film is slowly building for nearly two hours to the invasion of bin Laden's hideaway in Pakistan and while there are moments along the way that create tension, Bigelow isn't able to create a steady escalation which, in retrospect, almost makes the bin Laden raid (which is shown rather interestingly in an almost first person-"you are one of the soldiers" style of filmmaking) a bit of a letdown.  For the entirety of the movie, we watch as CIA agent Maya (Jessica Chastain) fights her superiors on almost every step of the way in the hunt for the terrorist leader.  The movie is much more about the character of Maya and her struggles, and, to be quite honest, I never found myself caring about her.  It doesn't help that the script gives Chastain nothing to work with.  She's told to be averse to torture at first, but then slowly come around to embracing it.  She's told to look steadfast and resolute at all times.  She's told to be strong and not break down.  She's told to never waver in her desire to catch bin Laden and her belief that she is right in terms of his location.  Don't get me wrong -- I'm thrilled that this woman existed in real life (although I've read that "Maya" isn't based on any one specific person, but is an amalgamation of several), but I'm not quite sure this is a character to build a movie around.  The character is such a one-note figure only doing what the film's plot requires of her rather than actually having her own journey and I feel that this is another key reason why the film isn't quite a success.

Zero Dark Thirty isn't a bad film.  The story certainly kept me interested and despite my issues with the film, Bigelow is still a better director than most out there (and Mark Boal's screenplay is still a smart adult drama albeit with some problems).  Perhaps it's unfair to compare a film like this to Bigelow and Boal's earlier work, but as I said above, I think it's inevitable, and Zero Dark Thirty just comes out significantly below their fantastic collaboration in The Hurt Locker.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - John Carter

John Carter (2012)

Starring Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Willem Dafoe, Thomas Haden Church, Mark Strong, Ciarán Hinds, Daryl Sabara, and Bryan Cranston

Directed by Andrew Stanton

While John Carter may not be worthy of the ridicule that came its way thanks to its extremely high budget and disappointing box office returns, this Andrew Stanton-directed picture was already at a disadvantage in my book as its premise simply isn't up my alley in the slightest (remember, you're talking about the guy who's never seen Star Wars and likely never will).  Ultimately, the film's biggest problem is that there's way too much story here for 130 minutes.  We've got introductions to multiple alien races, at least two civil wars amongst rivaling sanctions on the planet we know as Mars (but known to the natives as Barsoom), and, perhaps the most intriguing aspect (yet least focused upon) that some Civil War-era American has been transported to Mars and rather nonchalantly becomes the savior of some of Barsoom's peoples.

I could delve into more plot, but if I did it'd just take too long, so that last sentence in the above paragraph will have to do.  That said, that last sentence is really the reason the film isn't successful.  I understand that this was likely setting up any future films (that will now never happen), but I'm still not sure why there was a need to place so many different plotlines into this first movie.  If anything, these various storylines fight for prominence and oftentimes become incomprehensible due to the plot's overly ambitious nature.  Ultimately, the fault lies in the director and co-screenwriter Andrew Stanton (to whom this was a pet project for years) for failing to either simplify (or at the very least condense) the various plotlines to create something a bit more enjoyable to watch.

I should say, though, that for Stanton's first foray into live action, he does a fine job in terms of creating an aesthetically pleasing landscape and he has quite an eye for mixing humor and action especially at the beginning of the film.  And, given the enormity of the plot he tries to present, the film's pacing is actually decent.  But in the end, there's simply too much story where there doesn't need to be.

Taylor Kitsch is fine, but bland, as the title character.  He's given very little to do despite being in nearly every scene.  I had hoped his character would've been given a little more emotional oomph considering this American got mystically transported to Mars, but after an amusing few minutes of Carter getting used to differences in gravity, the character almost acts as if this new planet is nothing he hasn't seen before.  The rest of the acting is par for the course.  Nothing exceptional, but about what is to be expected in a sci-fi/fantasy flick.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - The Guard

The Guard (2011)

Starring Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle, and Mark Strong 

Directed by John Michael McDonagh

A 95% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes is usually an indicator of a good flick...however, I'm not one to necessarily toe the company line and I simply could not find myself getting into the Irish dark comedy The Guard.  There are some really solid performances here -- Brendan Gleeson is oddly charming as a kooky Irish police officer forced to partner with an American FBI agent (played by Don Cheadle in an admirable "straight man" comedy role) to hunt down some Irish drug smugglers -- but the thick brogues from the very onset had me struggling to comprehend things, and then once I did settle into the accents, I simply didn't really care about the story and various subplots this flick threw at me.

Honestly, the above paragraph about sums up all my thoughts.  Good performances, but a lukewarm script just made this flick unappealing.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-