Thor: The Dark World

 Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Christopher Eccleston, Kat Dennings, Stellan Skarsgård, and Rene Russo

Directed by Alan Taylor

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Click here for my previous RyMickey Rating review

Thor

 Thor (2011)

Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Kat Dennings, Idris Elba, Rene Russo, and Anthony Hopkins

Directed by Kenneth Branagh

Written by Ashley Edward Miller, Zach Stentz, and Don Payne

Click here for my Letterboxd review

My Previous RyMickey Review

The current RyMickey Rating:  B

The Father

 The Father (2020)

Starring Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Mark Gatiss, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewall, and Olivia Williams

Directed by Florian Zeller

Written by Florian Zeller

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B

The Two Popes

The Two Popes (2019)

Starring Jonathan Pryce, Anthony Hopkins, and Juan Minujín

Directed by Fernando Meirelles

Written by Anthony McCarten and Frank Cotrrell-Boyce

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B-

Thor: Ragnarok

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Starring Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban, Anthony Hopkins, and Mark Ruffalo

Directed by Taika Waititi

Written by Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle, and Christopher Yost

Summary (in 500 words or less):  Thor (Chris Hemsworth) returns to his home planet of Asgard and forces his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) to help find their father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) who was missing, but then found hiding in Norway.  Odin reveals that he is dying and that his death will unlock the prison cell that his firstborn daughter Hela (Cate Blanchett) has been kept in for years because of Odin's fear that his daughter was becoming too ambitious.  Upon Odin's death, Hela returns to Asgard and chaos begins to reign as she forces Thor and Loki off the planet.  Thor lands on  Sakaar, a weird planet full of space waste and home to massive gladiator-style battles by people captured by The Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum), one of whom happens to be the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) who had been missing ever since the events of "Captain America: Civil War."

• Right off the bat, I should just say that Thor: Ragnarok is my favorite Marvel movie yet.  Director Taika Waititi (along with the trio of screenwriters) have crafted a fun-filled humorous ride filled with solid action sequences that carry some gravitas and importance in the grand scheme of the Thor franchise storyline.
• The balance struck here by Waititi in terms of action and humor is what the Guardians movies wants to be, but hasn't yet achieved. 
• Considering how much I despised Thor: The Dark World, I admittedly wasn't expecting much here, but the change in tone to something a bit more light-hearted works amazing well.
• Despite the oftentimes more whimsical and humorous nature of the film, there's still some important stuff going on here.  The family dynamic between Thor, his sister Hela, and their brother Loki is some heavy stuff and carries heft in the grand scheme of Thor's story...all the while likely helping to set up storylines for the upcoming Avengers film.
• Kudos to the entire cast -- Chris Hemsworth gets to display his comedic chops (which are always impressive), Jeff Goldblum and Mark Ruffalo appear to be having a ton of fun, Tessa Thompson brings a strong female presence to the proceedings, and Cate Blanchett tears up the screen as the villainess.  SPOILER ALERT -- Here's hoping they can find some way to bring her back in future films because she lit up the screen whenever she appeared.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Mission: Impossible II

-- Mission: Impossible Week --
Please note that all Mission: Impossible Week film reviews may contain spoilers related to both the film that is being reviewed and other films in the series.

Mission: Impossible II (2000)

Starring Tom Cruise, Dougray Scott, Thandie Newton, Ving Rhames, Richard Roxburgh, Brendan Gleeson, and Anthony Hopkins

Directed by John Woo

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

Quite frankly, the fact that Mission: Impossible II is the highest-grossing film domestically in the M:I series shows that Americans have no taste whatsoever because this is without a doubt one of the worst action movies crafted for the big screen...ever.  We're talking Transformers series levels of bad here.  Like its predecessor, there's stylized direction on display here.  Unfortunately, John Woo's weird aesthetic overtakes the story and fails to add anything, instead creating an atmosphere that's laughable with horrible visuals, dialog, and acting.

M:I II goes in a completely different direction from its predecessor which felt like a more intelligent spy film as opposed to a straight action flick.  While the remainder of the series also eschews the aesthetics of the first flick, none of the remaining three films stoop to levels as low as this film.  Quite frankly, the majority of the blame falls squarely on director John Woo's plate.  Saturated with an orange palette, Woo creates some of the silliest action sequences in the M:I series (that finale motorcycle scene is simply ridiculous) and then peppers in some of the hokiest non-action moments as well -- white doves flying out of fire, a lengthy flamenco dance (filmed via sweeping camera) that the main characters watch but never participate in, poorly directed scenes of romance between Tom Cruise and Thandie Newton.  There really is nothing good to talk about here.  Nothing.

While I mentioned in the first film's review this series' expertise in bringing together great casts, Woo directs typically solid actors like Anthony Hopkins and Brendan Gleeson so poorly that they can't add anything to the film.  Dougray Scott and Richard Roxburgh play villains with such a caricaturish spin that I half expected them to grow mustaches to twirl as they maniacally laugh.  Tom Cruise admittedly is solid -- a trait that will continue for him throughout the series -- but his beaming smile isn't enough to save this piece of dreck.

While Woo is certainly responsible for most of the blame, the trio of screenwriters here (one of whom actually helped to write the first film) must accept some responsibility for this film's failure as well.  One of the key gadgets of the Mission: Impossible series is a machine that creates a realistic face mask, accurately duplicating a person's facial features and vocal timbre.  I lost count of the number of times the writers used this trick in this film and utilizing this "gotcha"-type moment numerous times rings cheap and feels like a cop out.

I remember when this flick was released in 2000, I thought it was one of the worst movies of that year.  Having not watched it in over 15 years, I had hoped that maybe my mind was maybe just playing tricks on me and it wasn't nearly as bad as I had remembered.  Unfortunately, I realized that I'm not that senile as Mission: Impossible II is one of the worst action movies I've ever seen.  Fortunately, we move in a slightly different direction as the series moves forward because had this caliber of film continued, the Mission: Impossible franchise would've been one I'd have abandoned.

The RyMickey Rating:  F

Movie Review - Red 2

Red 2 (2013)

Starring Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Byung Hun Lee, David Thewlis, Brian Cox, and Neal McDonough

Directed by Dean Parisot

I got a weird joy out of the first Red film -- there was something oddly compelling about seeing Helen Mirren wield huge automatic weapons and fight evil.  Needless to say, I wasn't sure whether that gimmick of old folks doing battle could sustain itself for another flick.  During the first thirty minutes of Red 2, my worries seemed legit as I came this close to stopping the film out of unnecessariness.  I'm happy I stuck it out as Red 2 proved to be an amiable enough way to spend two hours with a nice mix of comedy and action coupled with an ensemble cast that appears to be having a great time working together.

I'm not going to really bother discussing any plot -- old guys and former government intelligence agents Bruce Willis (plus his girlfriend Mary-Louise Parker), John Malkovich, and Helen Mirren (well...their characters) band together to recover a nuclear weapon in Russia created twenty years prior by a English scientist (played by Anthony Hopkins) who believed he was hired to do something helpful for the British and US government.  Plot is almost superfluous here because you're really not getting anything you haven't seen in any other action movie before.

The reason a movie like Red 2 exists is to see the chemistry of the cast.  Bruce Willis and John Malkovich dryly (and drolly) play off each other perfectly.  Mary-Louise Parker is a true joy, providing many more laughs than I ever could've expected as Willis's excited-for-thrills girlfriend as she tags along on her first mission with him.  Anthony Hopkins is fun.  Byung Hun Lee (the rare youthful element here) is quite good, surprisingly funny, and oddly fleshed out character-wise as a hired assassin set out to take out Willis and his cronies.  And then there's Helen Mirren who I admit I have a little crush on and is for some reason oddly attractive as she nonchalantly pours bleach into a bathtub to kill people.  Is that weird?  Probably.

Red 2 probably didn't need to exist.  The first Red explored this same territory and this one doesn't really bring anything new to the table.  However, it is an excuse to get this cast back together and give them another chance to try their hand at comedy.  That alone is worth it.  Is the film perfect?  Nope.  (Remember, I wanted to turn it off during the first act.)  But it's kind of fun.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Thor: The Dark World

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Christopher Eccleston, Kat Dennings, Stellan Skarsgård, and Rene Russo

Directed by Alan Taylor

I know this is an unpopular opinion, but 2011's Thor is my favorite Marvel comics movie (not including some X-Men co-productions...for some reason I don't think of them [or Spider-Man] when I think of "Marvel" movies).  There was something about the fun that director Kenneth Branagh brought to the flick that made the sheer ridiculousness of the title character and his hammer wielding an enjoyable summer romp.  Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Thor: The Dark World which feels like a heavy burden to sit through lacking any modicum of the fun and excitement that was found in its predecessor.  Quite frankly, this one is probably the worst film to come out of the Marvel/Disney pipeline in part because of an awful screenplay and direction that can't really compare to Mr. Branagh's in the first Thor. 

What the sequel really boils down to is this:  Two species in space -- one of which is Thor's people and one of which is someone else -- fought with each other a long time ago.  Thor's people won and buried this other people's energy source (or something) deep in the earth.  Thanks to wormholes (which played a prominent role in The Avengers) this energy source has been found by Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) who has been sitting around in London depressed since Thor (Chris Hemsworth) left her at the end of the last film.  This magical energy source somehow gets transferred into Jane which causes the bad guys to chase after Jane only to have Thor help her.

It's all so ridiculous...even more ridiculous than a guy from space coming down to Earth and fighting people with a magic hammer.  Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman look bored out of their mind in this with Portman in particular a blank slate whenever she appears onscreen (and, unfortunately, she's onscreen a lot in this one).  Tom Hiddleston injects a little bit of pizzazz into the mix, but even his Loki isn't able to overcome the inanity of the plot.

The one advantage the Thor flicks have going for them is that they do seem to understand just how silly their plots truly are.  There are jabs here and there about how ridiculous the goings-on are and I do appreciate that.  However, Thor: The Dark World is such a huge step down from the original that I don't think I'll be looking forward to the next one at all.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Noah

Noah (2014)

Starring Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, and Douglas Booth; with the vocal talent of Frank Langella and Nick Nolte

Directed by Darren Aronofsky

I go to church.  

I also go to movies.  

When I go to movies, they don't need to reflect any of the teachings that are espoused in the church, but if they do, I prefer not to be hit over the head with them.  I'm an intelligent enough guy to read between the lines and grasp any philosophical or religious undertones.  You won't ever catch me heading to the insanely (though perhaps dubiously) popular God's Not Dead for this very reason.  Blatant religious proselytization is a complete turn-off to me perhaps because it's not how I live my religious life.  (I'm one who you'll never find preaching my beliefs to others -- which perhaps makes me a bad Catholic, but I can't help but feel my beliefs are my own.)

The reason for that preface is to illustrate the point that those who are ragging on Darren Aranofsky's Noah for "taking liberties" with a Bible story that is two pages long don't know what they're talking about.  The criticisms lobbed at this one are utterly unfounded and quite honestly paint "religion" in a bad light.  Then again, I'm one of those religious folks who believe most aspects of the Bible are simply "stories" that present "how to live one's life" as opposed to "actual happenings."  But you Noah-complainers can go on believing that Noah lived to be 950 years old...

Noah is a beautiful film told by a talented director headlined by a movie star giving what could very well be the best performance of his career...and it espouses the overall tone of the biblical story of Noah to boot.  All of those reasons are why Noah is a success.  Granted, the film doesn't quite hit all the right notes -- Aronofsky (who also co-wrote the film with Ari Handel) throws in a "bad sheep" subplot revolving around one of Noah's sons Ham that proves to be the biggest issue -- but I greatly appreciated the film's attempt to display a man's religious convictions and how they shape his life.  While it's true that Noah may "go off the deep end" a little bit in the film's third act as he attempts to bring an end to all mankind as he feels that was God's plan for him, the film more than justifies that stance while also supplying an appropriate ending and epiphanic-type moment for the title character to realize the error of his interpretation of God's word.

Everyone knows the story of Noah (played by Russell Crowe) and his ark, but Aronofsky and Handel expand upon the short tale in great detail and with significant "free reign."  I'm pretty certain the Transformers-like Watchers -- six-armed stone creatures who protect Noah as he builds his ark -- didn't make an appearance in the Bible.  Nor was there an epic battle between Noah and the descendants of Cain headed by Tubal-cain (Ray Winstone) who desperately want to find refuge on the ark to live through the water apocalypse.  Personally, I found that this expansion of the biblical Noah story added depth, heart, and even strengthened the religious aspects of the tale.

Noah is a man who wants nothing more for his family to live a life at peace with the Earth and the creatures and humans who inhabit it.  When we first meet Crowe's Noah, he's a humble, quiet man who we can tell deeply cares for the well-being of his family and has a strong faith in the Creator.  (This "Creator" nonsense is perhaps the biggest "uproar" the movie caused.  With only one mention of the word "God," opponents of the film are up in arms.  This criticism is utterly unfounded.)  However, when he "hears" God speak to him, telling him to build an ark to safely shepherd his family and two of every creature through the approaching storm, his calmness shifts to diligence and steadfastness to the Creator.  However, upon seeing the Creator's wrath upon humanity, Noah admittedly starts to go off the deep end, feeling that this horrific event imposed upon humans must mean that God doesn't want them to inhabit the Earth anymore.  (This religious fervor that Noah feels is essentially mirrored in the religious folks who don't want you to see this film.  To me, they're eerily similar in that they both feel they are fully aware of what God would want from them.)  Nevertheless, Aronofsky's Noah character is a tricky one and Crowe absolutely succeeds at portraying every aspect of the complicated and thought-provoking character.

Jennifer Connelly as Noah's wife Naameh and Emma Watson as Noah's adopted daughter Ila also provide powerful performances in a film that also heavily focuses on the women in Noah's life.  In fact, it's when the film attempts to shift to the trials of Noah's two oldest sons Shem (Douglas Booth) and Ham (Logan Lerman) that the film falters.  Their "love triangle" of sorts with Ila is disappointingly trite and Ham's attempts to undermine his father oftentimes feel cheap and overly dramatic.

As far as the cinematic aspects of the film are concerned, despite the subject matter this is most certainly Darren Aronofsky's most "mass appeal" film to date.  After the quick cuts of Requiem for a Dream, the somewhat erotic Black Swan, and the inward "simplicity" of The Wrestler, Aronofsky allows the story to take center stage (despite having a much bigger budget for this one than any of his other features).  That isn't to say that there aren't some typical trippy moments -- the "creation" story Noah details in the third act is beautiful in that it stands in such stark contrast to the rest of the aesthetic of the film while still feeling like it naturally belongs in the piece -- but this is the "least Aronofsky" Aronofsky film I've seen.  Personally, I love what he brings to the table and I think he created a very thoughtful big budget flick.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - 360

360 (2012)

Starring Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, Anthony Hopkins, Ben Foster, Maria Flor, Jamel Debbouze, Lucia Siposová, and Gabriella Marcinkova

Directed by Fernando Meirelles

***This film is streaming instantly on Netflix***

Some people can't stand it, but I'm a fan of films that have seemingly unrelated stories that manage to somehow weave together by the film's end in unexpected ways.  Whereas films like 2009's The Burning Plain and 2006's Babel use this storytelling technique to take on more serious subjects like domestic abuse and gun control, respectively, 360 attempts to utilize its interweaving stories by focusing on love.  However, we already have an excellent movie that does this incredibly well in Love, Actually, and 360 fails at creating the depth needed for its much more serious tone than that 2003 film.

360 opens (and ends...hence the title) with Mirka (Lucia Siposová), a young Slovakian twentysomething getting nude photos taken in an attempt to enter the lucrative world of being an internet call girl.  Almost immediately after having her pictures posted, she's chosen to have a meeting with Englishman Michael Daly (Jude Law) while he's on a business trip in Vienna.  Michael is a married man and, thanks to a serious of events, ends up not going through with the meeting with Mirka.  Little does Michael know that back in London, his wife Rose (Rachel Weisz) is having an affair with a Brazilian hunk named Rui.  When Rui's girlfriend Laura (Maria Flor) finds out about his escapades, she leaves him to head back to Brazil.  On the plane, Laura sits next to John (Anthony Hopkins) an older gentleman who has been looking for his missing daughter for years.  He's flying to Denver because he has been told that an unidentified woman matching his daughter's description has been found dead.  While on a layover in Colorado, Laura meets Tyler (Ben Foster) at an airport restaurant and she sees an opportunity to have an invigorating one-night stand as a means to forget about Rui who has done her wrong.  Tyler, however, has just been released from prison for committing what we can only assume was a horrible sex crime and has to fight the urges to turn into the horrible man he once was.

As these stories begin to link up with one another, the problem begins to arise that we don't really care about any of them.  Somehow, every single one of these stories seems superficial and fails to resonate on any type of emotional level with the audience.  It's not that all these characters are flawed (although most of them are) as a movie full of flawed characters has a tendency to create some intriguing conflict; it's just that none of their stories are given the opportunity to create any impact.  And, as 360 begins to come full circle, we realize that in the end these stories are rather mundane.  This movie by its very nature wants you to look at the grand scheme of things by focusing on more intimate moments, but neither the big nor small pictures are charismatic enough to carry the film.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Hitchcock

Hitchcock (2012)

Starring Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson, Danny Huston, Toni Collette, Michael Stuhlbarg, Michael Wincott, Jessica Biel, and James D'Arcy 

Directed by Sacha Gervasi

On the outset, it appeared that Hitchcock was a movie made for a guy like me.  Psycho, plain and simple, is the best movie ever made and director Sacha Gervasi has crafted a movie detailing the making of that film.  Sign me up for this one!  Oh, wait.  It's really just a movie about Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) doubting his wife Alma's (Helen Mirren) love for him?  And it's a movie about Alma questioning Hitch's affections for her?  So it's a romance?  Well, then...maybe I'm just better off reading the book this film is based on that's been sitting on the Kindle for nearly a year now.

Despite some good performances from Hopkins and Mirren and a nice supporting turn from Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh, Hitchcock plays like a cutesy almost-Hallmark-esque glimpse at The Master of Suspense.  It took a lot for Hitch to get Psycho made, but this movie feels like it shoves the "movie-making" aspect of the story to the side in favor of the "psychology" of Hitchcock and how his fascination with blondes (including his favorite Grace Kelly) gradually led to a schism in his marriage.  In order to get into his mind, the screenwriters and directors decide to have their Hitch imagine that he's viewing the inspiration for Norman Bates -- Ed Gein (played by Michael Wincott) -- as the criminal performs his murderous acts.  As Hitch talks with Ed, the famous director's inner thoughts are brought to the forefront.  To me, it felt gimmicky and it didn't work in the slightest.

Hitchcock isn't awful by any means.  It's got touches of humor (which were always prevalent in Hitch's films themselves) and there are some nice macabre moments that would make Alfred proud.  However, anytime the film shifts towards the romance between the director and his wife, I wanted it to get back to the movie set.  And that's not to say that Hopkins and Mirren are doing anything wrong.  In fact, as is always the case with the two actors (especially Mirren as of late), they find ways to elevate the rather mundane work that is placed in front of them.  I simply just didn't really care about their characters' marital troubles.  The set of Psycho was where the real interesting stuff was taking place...and this film just doesn't linger in those moments long enough for this Hitchcock buff to find a need for this movie to have been made.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - The Edge

The Edge (1997)

Starring Anthony Hopkins, Alec Baldwin, Harold Perrineau, Elle MacPherson, and Bart the Bear

Directed by Lee Tamahori

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

Nowadays, it seems like Anthony Hopkins will do anything for a paycheck (a la DeNiro), but he usually still manages to elevate some of those projects probably simply because a British accent will make anything seem more highbrow than it usually is.  When The Edge was made back in 1997, Hopkins hadn't quite started down that path, however, but this could very well be considered his first venture into the action film genre.  

Unlike typical action films, though (and this is probably due to the script by well-known playwright and newly-turned-Republican David Mamet), this film gains its suspense from the age-old concept of Man vs. Nature.  When Hopkins' rich billionaire mogul Charles Morse gets stranded in the Alaskan wilderness with photographer Robert Green (Alec Baldwin) and his co-worker Stephen (Harold Perrineau of Lost fame), it turns into a "Survival of the Fittest" type showdown, with the three men needing to fight off both the mindgames they throw at one another and the physicality of the huge bear (played by Bart the Bear who gets first billing in the credits) that is hunting them down.

Surprisingly, for a film written by the well-known wordsmith Mamet, it's the action sequences between the men and the bear that work the best.  Director Lee Tamahori creates some true genuine suspense between the men and their beastly attacker.  It's when the men try to one up each other with their words where things begin to get a little bland.  Tamahori and Mamet can't quite find an adequate balance between these two worlds and it causes the film to limp along to its drawn-out conclusion.

That said, the film looks lovely and Hopkins and Baldwin are both quite good, but part of me wanted their back-and-forth repartee to be more biting than it was ever given the chance to be.  The Edge is a decent film, but one that doesn't pack the punch its promising premise could have allowed it to have.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Thor

Thor (in 3D) (2011)

Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Kat Dennings, and Anthony Hopkins

Directed by Kenneth Branagh

No one will ever mistake Thor for being a cinematic masterpiece, but in the realm of summer action movies (and in their subset "comic book movies"), it's a solid flick that is decently written, capably directed, and (for the most part) adequately paced.

Somewhere in the cosmos is the land of Asgard, ruled over by Odin (Anthony Hopkins).  Long ago, Odin waged a successful war against the Frost Giants of Jotunheim who desired to take over the Nine Realms (one of which is Earth).  Cut to a thousand years later and Odin is ready to pass on his crown to his son Thor (Chris Hemsworth), but the ceremony is interrupted by an invasion of the Frost Giants which sends war-hungry Thor into a vengeful state.  Odin, desiring to keep the long-standing peace between Asgard and Jotunheim banishes Thor to Earth where he meets scientist/astrologer Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and finds himself in the midst of a fish out of water storyline.  Meanwhile, back in Asgard, Odin's other son, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who has always been jealous of Thor, is finding himself next in line for the throne now that his father has slipped into what is essentially a (magical) coma.  Let's just say Loki may not be keen on allowing Thor to return to his homeland.

Believe me, the whole thing is as silly as can be -- sillier and lighter weight than the premises behind any Iron Man, Spiderman, or X-Men "origin" (read: first) movie.  Still, somehow this thing works and I think a large part of that is due to the tone set by director Kenneth Branagh.  He knows that what is unfolding is altogether ridiculous, but he never sets this movie up with a winking tone.  This will sound kind of silly, but Branagh culls some Shakespearean undertones from the script -- brother vs. brother, son vs. father, etc. -- and successfully gives them gravitas when they really had no right to have any.  He plays it for all its seriousness, while allowing a few moments of needed humor when necessary.  Normally, I'm all for tongue in cheek flicks, but I don't know if that would've worked here especially because Thor is part of the overarching storyline setting up an Avengers movie sometime in the upcoming years (and contains cameos from some folks who will be part of that story as well).

Branagh also manages to get some above average performances from his actors.  Not being familiar with the source material one bit, I'll be honest and say I expected Thor to be more of a "Me Tarzan, you Jane" kind of macho figure.  However, Chris Hemsworth's Thor isn't like that a bit.  In fact, Hemsworth is absolutely believable as both action figure and romantic love interest for Natalie Portman's equally likable Jane.  Portman is eons better than moviegoers are used to seeing onscreen in a part like this that amounts to hardly anything but is standard in any kind of comic book movie.  While she doesn't play a damsel in distress, she's pretty much there simply to gawk and stare with mouth agape at the wonders of the superhero she's feasting her eyes upon.  Still, Portman manages to really hold her own here despite the irrelevant role and she manages to be completely enjoyable every time she is onscreen.

Kudos also to Tom Hiddleston as Thor's devious younger brother who Branagh allows to chew the scenery a bit...which I found altogether necessary for a role like his.  It was also nice to allow Hiddleston to take on the "chewing the scenery" role as opposed to Anthony Hopkins who tries to do that in every single movie he's in anymore (heck, he won his Oscar for doing that same thing).  Here, Hopkins is rather subdued and that's a good thing.

Overall, I was impressed by Thor.  It's certainly not perfect and the middle felt a little draggy (although I do commend Branagh for keeping the flick under two hours which is altogether uncommon for movies like this nowadays), but it's a pleasant start to the summer season.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)

Starring Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Gemma Jones, Freida Pinto, Lucy Punch, and Naomi Watts

Directed by Woody Allen

Woody Allen keeps churning out the movies at a rate of about one a year.  Maybe if he took a tad more time between flicks, he'd come up with an actual plot because in You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, the lack of any story and any comedy (and this certainly attempts to fall into Allen's comedy genre as opposed to his dramatic undertakings) makes this film flounder about aimlessly without ever going anywhere.

I guess I'm fibbing a bit when I say there's no story...there's just not a story here that anyone would find moderately interesting.  There's an older couple (Anthony Hopkins and Gemma Jones) who are recently divorced -- the husband finds himself a younger woman (Lucy Punch) who happens to be a prostitute, while the wife mopes around depressed.  They have a daughter (Naomi Watts) who's in a loveless marriage with her struggling writer husband (Josh Brolin) who has fallen head over heels for the exotic guitar player (Freida Pinto) who lives across the street.  There's not a doubt that these relationships were supposed to be played for a bit of laughs, but, with the exception of Lucy Punch (whose over-the-top hooker doesn't fit in at all with the rest of the character landscape of the flick but at least supplies the film's few moments of humor), there's nary a chortle to be had here.

I can take or leave Woody Allen's films (and I'd mostly leave them), but I keep watching his newer ventures (without delving into many of his earlier, more well regarded works for some reason) realizing that every now and then there's a diamond in the rough (example).  Not here.  It seems like the actors were well aware of this drab script because (with the exception of the previously mentioned Lucy Punch) none of them brought their A-game...although Allen certainly didn't bring his best to the table here either.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - The Wolfman (2010)

The Wolfman (2010)

Starring Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, and Hugo Weaving

Directed by Joe Johnston

When the scariest thing about a monster movie is the eerie sense of foreboding created by a promotional item -- that poster to the right -- you've got a problem.  The 2010 remake of an old-school monster flick The Wolfman just exudes "boring" from every single frame.

The story is simple -- a guy turns into a wolf when there's a full moon and wreaks havoc on a British town.  This version of the film sets up this awkward father-son relationship between Benicio Del Toro's Lawrence and his father John played by Anthony Hopkins.  From the onset, it's absolutely obvious where the film is going with these two characters, and when they reveal the "surprise" secret about midway through, it comes as an enormous letdown. 

The film is certainly not helped by the brooding Del Toro who is so ungodly boring to watch.  It's like watching a heart monitor on flatline -- no emotional ups and downs to his character at all.  Gloominess is all that crossed his face. [That in and of itself really shouldn't be a surprise because I'm not entirely sure Del Toro as an actor can play a role anything other than glumly.]  On the opposite end of the spectrum, Hopkins hams it up in a laughably awful manner.

I understand that an inherent characteristic of gothic horror is to be moody and morose, but there wasn't an ounce of life in this flick which makes it quite a chore to sit through.

The RyMickey Rating:  D