Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

Starring Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Caleb Landry Jones, Lucas Hedges, Abbie Cornish, Zeljko Ivanek, Peter Dinklage, and John Hawkes

Directed by Martin McDonagh

Written by Martin McDonagh

Summary (in 500 words or less):  Following her daughter's unsolved rape and murder, Mildred (Frances McDormand) buys advertising space on three billboards questioning the effectiveness of the local police force headed by the sure-fototed Sheriff Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) and the off-the-hinges officer Jason Dixon (Sam Rockwell). 

• Quite frankly, this is one of the worst movies I've seen in a while.  Very little of what happens in this film feels even remotely believable which, in a sci-fi film would be one thing, but in dramedy set in a realistic setting simply doesn't work.  
• I've seen a few plays and movies by Martin McDonagh and his blend of dark comedy and drama usually strikes a nice balance, but here the script's comedic moments feel ludicrous and its dramatic moments fail to resonate in the slightest.
• McDonagh throws the kitchen sink in to this one -- racist cops, foul-mouthed mothers, jokes about Catholic priests and midgets -- hoping something will stick, but nothing does.
• Frances McDormand is okay, but I feel like I've seen her do this before.  She could play this role in her sleep.  Sam Rockwell (who, like McDormand, seems poised to win an Oscar for this role) lacks nuance, with his character experiencing a change of heart that feels unwarranted.
• Characters do horrible things to others in this film with little repercussion which might've worked fine in In Bruges or Seven Psychopaths (other McDonagh films), but they weren't nearly as based in reality as this film is and when these characters fail to be punished for things, it irritated me immensely.
• In short form (as I'm writing all my "reviews" now), my reasons for my utter hatred of this movie aren't fully described, but rest assured this movie is completely undeserving of the praise bestowed upon it.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Robocop

Robocop (2014)

Starring Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Abbie Cornish, Jay Baruchel, Jennifer Ehle,  Jackie Earle Haley, Michael K. Williams, and Samuel L. Jackson 

Directed by José Padilha

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

I've never seen the original Robocop film (my 1980s popular movie oeuvre is decidedly thin), but I knew that the story consisted of a cyborg cop who hunts down bad guys.  Not much has changed in this 2014 remake which stars Joel Kinnaman as Alex Murphy, a cop in 2028 Detroit who is near fatally injured when he begins to uncover a large crime syndicate.  Desperate to save her husband's life, Clara Murphy (Abbie Cornish) agrees to allow billionaire Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton) to permit his technicians to place pieces of Alex's body (brain, heart, lungs) into a cyborg that will not only allow him to "stay alive," but also allow Alex to become a high tech, state-of-the-art one-man police force.  Sellars has been working on this technology for years, but after a shaky issue in the Middle East in which some of his robots went a little haywire, the entrepreneur feels that this robot Alex will help advance his cause and show the US government that they need to pay for his expertise.

I must say that I was more impressed with Robocop than I expected to be.  Now, that doesn't necessarily mean I thought it was a masterpiece, but I like the fact that it takes its time to get its story going and that it doesn't rely on huge action set pieces in order to get its point across.  Granted (and this may seem like an oxymoron considering what I just wrote), there's a part of me that missed a grand showdown at the film's conclusion, but I appreciate that director José Padilha digs a little deeper into the social, political, and business aspects of the tale rather than just focus on a robot seeking justice.

Admittedly, Joel Kinnaman isn't given much to do especially considering the fact that during the film's last ninety minutes all we see of him is his face sitting atop the body of a metal robot.  Still, in everything that I've seen from Kinnaman (including the tv show The Killing), he's not exactly an actor that emotes all that much and while I get that he's playing a bit of a robot here, I wanted a little more passion from the actor.  Gary Oldman is quite good as Dr. Dennett Norton, adding a bit more heart and substance to what could've easily been an underwritten throwaway role.  Michael Keaton also carries a bit of impact here as I appreciate that he walks the line of genuine compassion and strong-willed, shrewd businessman without ever being too over-the-top maniacal -- which is where he absolutely could've taken his role as the billionaire Sellars.  Although his motives may be solely financially based, Keaton never allows the character to stoop to a stereotype which helps Robocop immensely, in turn making it a better film.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Seven Psychopaths

Seven Psychopaths (2012)

Starring Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Abbie Cornish, Woody Harrelson, and Christopher Walken

Directed by Martin McDonagh

I'm not quite sure why Seven Psyhopaths took me two sittings nearly a week apart to make it through, but something in the opening forty minutes didn't reel me in and didn't lure me back to complete it after I had to stop watching.  Oddly enough, the same thing happened with director-writer Martin McDonagh's first film In Bruges.  I started that one, stopped after about twenty minutes, and then never went back (I know, I know, people love that one).  Admittedly, maybe I do need to give In Bruges another chance because once I finished up Seven Psychopaths, I found the whole thing a bit refreshing and, while a bit derivative of other films at the beginning, surprisingly original in how its story plays out.

Having recently seen Mr. McDonagh's work onstage in The Cripple of Inishmaan, the Irish writer certainly has an ear for witty dark humor and Seven Psychopaths certainly fits into that category.  Marty (Colin Farrell) is a struggling screenwriter toiling away at his latest endeavor about a movie containing a tale of seven psychopathic murderers (scenes of which we often see in blips as the flick progresses).  Marty's good buddy Billy (Sam Rockwell) is quite the off-the-wall wackadoo who has partnered up with Hans (Christopher Walken) to establish a dog-stealing business in which they kidnap dogs only to return them for the inevitable reward money their owners put up.  However, when Billy and Hans kidnap the dog of Los Angeles gangster Charlie (Woody Harrelson), Marty soon finds himself tangled up in the criminal underworld.

Most intriguing about Seven Psychopaths is the "meta" aspect of the whole thing that kicks in during the second half and elevates the film more than I could have imagined at the outset.  As Marty's script comes alive around him, McDonagh shifts from what was simply a "been there-done that" darkly comedic modern "gangster" film into something with a bit more depth whose twists and turns become much more interesting and plausible despite their inherent implausibility.  McDonagh jokingly (and referentially) points out his script's "flaws" creating a more elevated comedy than we're used to experiencing in a nationwide Hollywood release.

Across the board, the actors are all game with Sam Rockwell standing out mainly because his character is such a live wire that the actor is given a bit more to do.  As McDonagh's self-referential script mentions, the females here are essentially tossed aside and it makes me wonder why Abbie Cornish, former Bond girl Olga Kurylenko, and Gabourey Sidibe's roles were even written into the script in the first place.  While it's true that McDonagh recognizes this fault, I can't help but think we actually would have had a slightly stronger film here without the ladies being included.

Seven Psychopaths didn't really come alive for me until the film's second half when the "meta" aspects came front and center.  Prior to that, it felt like a rehash of other dark comedies we've seen before, but by the end I realize that this was likely McDonagh's point.  By creating something so typical, his final acts the way they are writtern are able to branch away and revel in their absurdity.  I wonder if watching it again, I might appreciate things a bit more.  Maybe I need to try to watch In Bruges again...

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Limitless

Limitless (2011)

Starring Bradley Cooper, Abbie Cornish, Anna Friel, and Robert De Niro

Directed by Neil Burger

Was the world really asking for a PG-13 version of the gritty, harsh, and absolutely amazing drug addiction drama Requiem for a Dream?  Personally, I think not, but Limitless is kind of like a low-rent version of that 2000 Darren Aronofsky film complete with the same pulse-pounding music, rapid, fast-paced camera movements and edits, and "inside the body" glimpses of drugs entering someone's blood stream.  It's like a toned-down Requiem for folks like my mom (but she didn't like this movie either).  Try as he might and not helping matters in the slightest, I'm not quite sold on the concept of "Bradley Cooper -- Hollywood Star" despite the fact that his cache is certainly rising in the entertainment industry.  Add Robert De Niro into the mix continuing his trend of choosing rather ridiculous roles to garner a paycheck and Limitless just doesn't really have much going for it.

I was a fan of Bradley Cooper when he first appeared on my entertainment landscape via Alias, but I've never quite warmed to his smarmy attitude that's inhibited nearly every one of his movie characters to this date.  In this flick, Cooper is down-and-out writer Eddie who can't seem to get motivated to write his latest novel.  While roaming the streets of New York City, he meets his ex-wife's brother Vernon, a drug dealer who gives him a special pill called NZT that perks up all his senses and activates his brain into remembering nearly everything he's ever learned throughout his life.  Eddie is amazed and goes to meet his ex-brother-in-law for more pills, but finds him murdered and his apartment ransacked.  Someone was looking for NZT, but Eddie somehow magically figures out Vernon's hiding spot and finds a huge stash of pills.  Time passes and Eddie turns from a bum to a ladies man who finishes his novel and manages to become one of the best stock brokers in the industry, working for the famed Carl van Loon (Robert De Niro).

Perhaps I was a little harsh above on Mr. Cooper.  It's not that he's bad here, it's just that I don't quite see him as a "movie star" yet and this film attempts to put him in that role.  That being said, he comes off much better than De Niro who continues slumming it in his later years.  He's really just become a caricature of himself...there was a moment in this movie where his simple presence and squinty-eyed facial expression made me chuckle, ruining what should have been a rather serious moment.

Still, the biggest issue with Limitless is that is has no clue what movie it wants to be.  Is it a mystery surrounding who killed Vernon and why they did so?  Is it a drama about Eddie butting heads with new boss van Loon?  Is it a romance as Eddie tries to win back his ex-girlfriend Lindy (Abbie Cornish) who left him when he was a struggling novelist?  Or is it morality tale about our drug-addicted society?  While it tries to be all of these things, it doesn't succeed at any of them.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Sucker Punch

Sucker Punch (2011)

Starring Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Oscar Isaac, Scott Glenn, and Carla Gugino 

Directed by Zack Snyder

Zack Snyder is the King of Style over Substance.  From 300 to Watchmen, Snyder finds a way to make stories seem pointless while transporting viewers into video game-reminiscent settings complete with a pulsing soundtrack. [Note:  This is coming from someone who actually didn't mind Watchmen.]  Sucker Punch is really no exception to the above characteristics and his stylized direction has worn out its welcome (if it was ever welcome to begin with).

In his latest assault on the senses, Snyder introduces us to Baby Doll (Emily Browning) who finds herself being forced into a mental institution after she accidentally kills her younger sister while trying to save her from their evil sexually abusive stepfather.  Unfortunately, after the surprisingly promising and genuinely exciting opening moments, things fall apart.  While in the institution, Baby Doll dreams that she, her fellow inmates, and all of the doctors work at a brothel.  Mirroring her thoughts in the loony bin, Baby Doll tries to rally her fellow hookers into escaping the clutches of the evil owner Blue (Oscar Isaac).  In order to do that, Baby Doll performs some sultry, sexy dance (which we the viewer never see) that puts all men into some sort of trance, thus allowing Baby Doll and her friends to steal the necessary supplies to bolt.

But wait...that's not all.  Instead of seeing Baby Doll dance, we go into her mind and see what she is imagining while she shakes her moneymaker.  And what she sees apparently is a war going on between her ladyfriends and Nazis, dragons, and futuristic robots.  It's these moments in particular (which take up at least half the film) that grow ridiculously repetitive and ultimately wreck Sucker Punch.  While I completely understand that none of these epically shot fight sequences are supposed to seem "real" since they're all occurring within Baby Doll's imagination, I couldn't help but think that the video game commercials I saw on the Blu-Ray prior to the film starting had better aesthetics and graphics.  Everything in these sequences (and the whole movie for that matter) is so washed out and hued in grays and browns that nothing is pleasing to the eye.  [This is a consistent problem for Snyder...for a guy that loves visuals so much, he manages to create worlds that are completely devoid of luminosity and appeal.]

While all of the ladies in the flick are certainly attractive, some -- Abbie Cornish and Jena Malone -- fare better than others -- Vanessa Hudgens and Jamie Chung -- in the acting department.  Rather oddly, as the film's main character, Emily Browning is given absolutely nothing to do with her role.  She barely speaks and finds herself being told to stare blankly at things more often than not.  And the less said about Carla Gugino forcing out some laughable German or Austrian accent the better.

Not that I was ever on the Zack Snyder bandwagon, but Sucker Punch certainly knocked me off of it.  This writer-director needs to shake things up a bit and actually create a story that's worth telling and craft visuals to go with it that don't look so cheap.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Bright Star (2009)

Starring Abbie Cornish, Ben Whishaw, Kerry Fox, and Paul Schneider
Directed by Jane Campion

I had to look over the list of movies I had watched in 2009 to be sure, but I can wholeheartedly say that Bright Star is the most romantic movie of the year. Buoyed by four incredibly strong performances, director Jane Campion weaves a tale of passion without the least bit of luridness -- a relationship based on actual love rather than simply something physical.

Newcomer (to me, anyway) Abbie Cornish is Fanny Brawne, a seamstress/clothing designer, who, despite her young age, certainly has her own set of opinions and isn't afraid to make them known. This being the early 19th century, her opinions are not always greeted with enthusiasm from male counterparts, including Mr. Brown (Paul Schneider), an aspiring poet and friend of John Keats (Ben Whishaw), another aspiring poet, who both share a home with the Brawne family. Fanny and Keats soon embark on a romance that isn't greeted too fondly by those around them -- Mr. Brown feels that Fanny is stunting Keats' creativity, and Fanny's mother (Kerry Fox) believes that a poet cannot provide financial support for a spouse.

We've certainly seen this type of story depicted before and it's not that director Campion does anything over-the-top. In fact, it's the subdued style of the film that helps the four actors mentioned above stand out from the beautiful scenery. Still, despite the lack of camera trickery, the film is a joy to look at, with "nature" itself playing yet another character, echoing the emotions of the actors, which, while it sounds corny, works incredibly well.

Abbie Cornish is stellar here as Fanny. She creates a vulnerable young woman, unafraid to love, but well aware of the hurt that comes from that emotion. To me, crying and completely breaking down onscreen oftentimes can come off as corny and/or scream "OSCAR BAIT!", but the final ten minutes of this film are a showcase for Cornish's talent. Some excellent work on display, for sure.

And Cornish is balanced wonderfully by Ben Whishaw. Keats is perhaps an even tougher character to play here than Fanny. He needs to be intelligent, but doubtful of his talent. Romantic, but uncertain why anyone could love him. Wistful and dreamy, but grounded. He's a man full of contradictory emotions and Whishaw is, for lack of a better word, elegant here. He's absolutely subdued, but completely holds your attention.

And Cornish and Whishaw together -- what a couple! They work so well together and made every moment they shared completely believable. There wasn't a moment I doubted their characters' love for one another.

And I didn't even discuss the brilliantly mean Paul Schnieder (the only actor here I was actually familiar with) as Keats' friend and the kindly Kerry Fox as Fanny's mother. All the actors in this movie (even those I haven't mentioned) proved they deserve to be on the big screen. One of the best ensembles of the year.

So, with all this good, it's a shame that the movie moves along a little too slowly. I really can't think of any scene I would've even wanted Campion to have cut, but there were moments here and there where I was a little bored.

Still, this is an intelligent romance, filled with some beautiful poetry (stick around through the credits to hear Whishaw recite one of Keats' works over a lulling melody) and some great performances.

The RyMickey Rating: B+