Sorry to Bother You

Sorry to Bother You (2018)

Starring Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Omari Hardwick, Terry Crews, Danny Glover, Steven Yeun, and Armie Hammer

And the Vocal Talents of David Cross, Lily James, and Patton Oswalt

Directed by Boots Reilly

Written by Boots Reilly

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B

Movie Review - Obvious Child

Obvious Child (2014)

Starring Jenny Slate, Jake Lacy, Gaby Hoffmann, Gabe Liedman, Richard Kind, Polly Draper, and David Cross

Directed by Gillian Robespierre  

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

Quite frankly, more so than probably any other movie released in 2014, Obvious Child was not made for me.  I'm not one that can find humor in a young stand-up comic going on stage and doing a set where she tries to derive humor from the fact that she's getting an abortion the next day.  I won't sit here and say I was offended (because I wasn't because quite frankly very little Hollywood does could offend me nowadays), but I did find the film a bit disturbing in the way it attempts to bring humor to such a situation.

Jenny Slate is Donna, a twenty something gal who, after being dumped by her long-time boyfriend, has a one night stand with Max (Jake Lacy) which results in her getting pregnant.  Without a steady job (her stand-up comedy side gigs don't bring in much income) and having just been told that her cheap apartment is being taken away from her, there's no second guessing as to what Jenny is going to do -- an abortion is to be had.

I give writer-director Gillian Robespierre credit for having the cojones to make a film so bluntly pro-abortion, but from a comedy standpoint, the humor didn't fly for me here.  I laughed out loud once or twice and Slate actually has a presence that's oddly charming in a rough-around-the-edges kind of way, but the subject matter here is such a turn-off to me that I doubt I was ever going to enjoy this one.  When I watch movies, I try my best to separate my political and moral views from what I'm watching onscreen and I think I'm damn good at it.  However, I can't find humor in the subject of abortion.  It's simply not going to fly with me.  Seeing a mother and daughter waxing fondly over the mother's tale about an abortion she had in the sixties is nothing short of unsettling for me when placed in a humorous context.

Once again, credit for being ballsy enough to appeal to the liberal mindset with this one (and the media naturally fawned over it upon its release), but this one just didn't fly with me when it comes to the comedic boundaries it's pushing.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Megamind

Megamind (2010)

Featuring the voice talent of Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, David Cross, and Brad Pitt

Directed by Tom McGrath

Megamind starts out so promisingly as it sets up a longstanding battle between two rivals -- the nefarious though bumbling villain Megamind (voiced by Will Ferrell) and the perfect but cocky hero Metro Man (voiced by Brad Pitt).  Since childhood, the supervillain and superhero have been trying to one up the other with Metro Man always coming out the victor.  This twenty-minute set-up showcasing this rivalry was full of humor, charm and great promise.  However, after the scene has been set, things begin to fall apart.  Megamind proves to be successful at one of his devious plans and things begin to head downhill from there.

It's not that Megamind is a bad film, it's just that it doesn't really go anywhere after its first act.  It tries to humanize its villain, but the character of Megamind is simply much more fun as an inept bad guy than as a reformed good guy.  His attempts to woo tv reporter Roxanne Ritchie (Tina Fey) take up much too much time in the already short film and unfortunately don't advance the story in a positive way.

With the exception of the plot, on all other fronts, Megamind is quite good.  The animation is crisp and appealing to the eye.  The voice talent is all quite good.  I was expecting over-(voice)acting on Will Ferrell's part, but it worked for the character.  Tina Fey was also droll and witty despite the fact that her character's storyline didn't really work for me.

Overall, Megamind is a moderate disappointment if only because the first act showed such promise and evoked laughter which the final two-thirds were sorely lacking.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Year One (2009)

Starring Jack Black, Michael Cera, and David Cross
Written by A Group of Monkeys (seemingly)
Directed by Harold Ramis

When it's possible your movie could be worse than Dance Flick (a name I hoped I would never have to utter again), your movie is the epitome of awful. I half-laughed once in this two-hour debacle during which Jack Black and Michael Cera essentially play themselves -- a fat, bumbling, obnoxious fool and a rambling, annoying, "cerebral-but-not-really" teenager, respectively.

Could be the worst movie of the year. Enough said.

The RyMickey Rating: F

Movie Review - Battle for Terra (2009)

Featuring the voice talents of Evan Rachel Wood, Brian Cox, James Garner, Danny Glover, Amanda Peet, David Cross, Dennis Quaid, and Luke Wilson
Directed and Story by Aristomenis Tsirbas
Written by Evan Spiliotopolous

Well...if this is the start of the summer movie season, it can only go up from here.

Created to be seen in 3D, Battle for Terra was screened (in my case) in regular 35mm format. Most theaters across the country chose to show it in this "regular" way since there was zero buzz on this animated flick (deservedly so).

Pixar (and to a moderately lesser extent, Disney, and, to even lesser an extent, Dreamworks) realize that in order to have a successful animated film, you need to appeal to a broad spectrum of people -- kids, teenagers, their parents, their grandparents. Lesser studios (including the company MeniThings which produced this flick) can't seem to pick up on that...or, if they do, they can't quite grasp what needs to be done in order to achieve broad-spectrum appeal. Battle for Terra has no idea who it wants to appeal to -- the story is much too complicated and boring for kids and ridiculously heavy-handed for grown-ups.

Essentially, Earth has been destroyed in some type of power struggle between humans (we destroyed Venus and Mars, as well, both of which we were inhabiting). Desperate for some place to live, we come across Terra whose inhabitants are sperm-like, completely emotionless creatures (at least I felt no emotion towards them) that float around in their world with little airplanes made of leaves and stuff. These Terra things are "peaceful"...us humans love war. Because we love war so much, we utilize it to take whatever we want...at least the humans in the military do. Who will win in the end? The peaceful people of Terra or the awful, awful humans?

The film is an incredibly thinly veiled attempt at pointing out that war is bad, the military is awful, and peace needs to reign supreme. In an ideal world, the latter would happen, but we don't live that way. Instead, in this movie, it is painfully obvious that the white, Anglo-Saxon male is evil (for, you see, us white men are the military fighters). All we want to do is go kill things. Females and African Americans in this film (who partly make up what is essentially a futuristic Congress) are thoroughly opposed to this. In this Obama Age, I would expect nothing less. The movie was essentially "Down with Republicans! Up with Democrats! Go hug each other and throw away your guns!"

Anyone who knows me knows I fall on the conservative side of most issues, but I'm always willing to listen to jokes and poke fun at the party with which I align myself (I'm no Sean Hannity "Republicans Can Do No Wrong" kind of guy). But this movie was so blatantly in my face about its agenda, it was annoying.

Let alone the awful story, the animation was poorly done, and the voice acting was painfully boring. When the best thing about the movie is trying to figure out whose voice you're hearing, you know you're in trouble. On another note about the voicing...granted, there aren't "huge stars" in this, but that list of actors above is full of highly recognizable names. How the heck did this nobody podunk little animation studio sign up all these big names for this ridiculousness that I watched? Oh...I know...Liberal Hollywood must've fallen head over heels for this one...

The RyMickey Rating: F