Guardians of the Galaxy

 Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Lee Pace, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, and Benicio Del Toro

And the voice talents of Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper

Directed by James Gunn

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Click here for my previous RyMickey Rating review

Charlie's Angels

Charlie's Angels (2019)

Starring Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, Ella Balinska, Elizabeth Banks, Djimon Hounsou, Sam Claflin, Noah Centineo, Nat Faxon, and Patrick Stewart

Directed by Elizabeth Banks

Written by Elizabeth Banks

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: D

Serenity

Serenity (2019)

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Diane Lane, Jason Clarke, Jeremy Strong, and Djimon Hounsou

Directed by Steven Knight

Written by Steven Knight

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel (2019)

Starring Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan, Clark Gregg, Annette Bening, and Jude Law

Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck

Written by Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck, and Geneva Robertson-Dworet

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C

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 - Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Lee Pace, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, and Benicio Del Toro

And the voice talents of Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper

Directed by James Gunn

The hit of Summer 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy is Marvel's funniest flick to date and it's those comedic aspects that work the best and give the film its life and vivacity.  Whereas some of the action sequences feel a bit derivative of things we've seen before (not just in Marvel flicks necessarily), the humor keeps Guardians kicking and makes it one of Marvel's better efforts to date.

Despite seeming perhaps convoluted, the overarching premise here is simple -- in outer space, a group of low-level criminals band together to fight a supervillain in hopes of saving their people and making a little money on the side.  While we're not reinventing the wheel, a film like this hinges on finding a credible cast of actors to portray an amusing cadre of characters in order to carry the film beyond the average.  Guardians succeeds undoubtedly as it's the characters (and the actors portraying them) that elevate this film to something worth watching.

Head of the brigade is Peter Quill -- an Earthling abducted when he was a young boy by a group of space pirates who saw potential in him to carry out various petty criminal acts because of his background.  Quill (played amusingly by It Guy of the Moment Chris Pratt) is a ladies' man, a guy's guy, and a self-aware jerk.  Having carried out many a petty crime, Quill is being hunted by bounty hunters as the film opens and, this being based on a highly inventive series of comic books, two of those hunters happen to be a small raccoon named Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and a tree-humanoid-type create named Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) whose English vocabulary consists only of the sentence "I am Groot."  Quite frankly, Rocket and Groot make Guardians of the Galaxy the success it is.  Virtually unrecognizable vocally, Cooper's take on Rocket is hilarious giving the genetically engineered raccoon more hutzpah and humorous grit than I ever could have expected.  Add to that Diesel's shockingly amazing ability to convey a variety of emotions simply by spouting the words "I am Groot," and the dynamic duo of Rocket and Groot should be formulating their own spin-off as I type this.

Nice turns from Zoe Saldana and Dave Bautista round out the ragtag bandits who end up doing battle against the vicious Ronan the Accuser (a virtually unrecognizable Lee Pace) who is attempting to find the Infinity Stone which will give him great power and set him up to handily defeat his foe in Thanos (a cameo turn from Josh Brolin), widely considered to be one of the most powerful men in the universe.  With this being an origin story for the Guardians and their universe, it's obvious that set-up was going to be needed for Marvel virgins like myself, but the tensions between Ronan, Thanos, and the Guardians felt a bit underserved here.

Director James Gunn certainly ups the humor quotient in Guardians of the Galaxy to great effect, but the action sequences in the film he also co-wrote feel a bit underdone.  Perhaps it's just the silliness of battling in space -- which never feels "real" to me in any film -- but the sense of tension or excitement was never really present for me in any of the flick's action sequences.  Ultimately, this is a real shame because Guardians of the Galaxy attempts to be a breath of fresh air in the Marvel Universe.  While it certainly succeeds at being different, the potential was there for something better and it doesn't quite achieve it.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - How to Train Your Dragon 2

How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)

Featuring the voice talents of Jay Baruchel, Cate Blanchett, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J. Miller, Djimon Hounsou, and Kristen Wiig

Directed by Dean DeBlois

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

I have to start this review with a bit of disclosure -- I had some tasks I had to complete while watching How to Train Your Dragon 2 and as the film headed towards its conclusion, I found myself drifting off a tiny bit and not giving the film my complete focus.  I typically try and avoid this occurrence as much as possible, but kudos to the film itself for drawing me back in for its particularly heartfelt finale...which made me all the more disappointed that I didn't give the flick my undivided attention.

By far, the How to Train Your Dragon franchise is Dreamworks Animation's best series of films they've ever created.  From a studio that built itself on pop culture references and "Big Hollywood Star Voice Acting," the Dragon series eschews that to a certain degree -- or, at the very least, places a bigger emphasis on story.  Much like its predecessor, Dragon 2 keeps the focus on now twentysomething Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) who, five years after the conclusion of the last film, has managed to keep his fellow village folk of Berk recognizing dragons' abilities to assist humans.  With his partner in crime Toothless, Hiccup and his dragon friend fly around searching for other dragons in need of assistance which happens to bring Hiccup back into contact with his presumably dead mother Valka (Cate Blanchett) who was supposedly taken by dragons upon an invasion when Hiccup was merely an infant.

Dragon 2 attempts to explore the relationship between Hiccup and his long-lost mother and how this newfound connection affects those around him, particularly his father Stoick (Gerard Butler).  These moments involving the newly reunited family are the film's most effective and are rendered quite nicely from an emotional perspective.  When the film throws in a bad guy in Drago (Djimon Hounsou) who desires to utilize all dragons for their worst potentials possible in order to gain control of various Nordic lands, things falter a bit.  However, and to the film's credit, the character of Drago is responsible for several of the film's most emotional moments so while the villain seemed a little too maniacal at times, this nastiness was put to great effect to forward the story.

Animation-wise, I must admit that I wasn't as wowed as Dragon 2's predecessor, but the film still boasts quality craftsmanship.  I continue to be a little disenchanted with Jay Baruchel voicing Hiccup -- I still stand by the fact that I feel like the voice doesn't quite fit the character or the time period of the piece, but it's not detrimental to the film in any way.  Nice turns from Blanchett and Butler utilize those "star voices" to great effect without drawing attention to their "star status" in any way.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Push (2009)

Starring Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, Camilla Belle, and Djimon Hounsou
Written by David Bourla
Directed by Paul McGuigan

I think I've reached that point now of getting tired of watching everything at Movie #71. It's not that Push is an awful flick (Lord knows, I've seen three worse movies that were released in theaters this past weekend), but you just reach a point of getting tired of (slightly below) average films.

In fact, I'm honestly too lazy to write a summary, so, here's the wikipedia run down: The plot centers on a group of people born with various powers who band together to attempt to take down a government agency that is using a dangerous drug to enhance their powers in hopes of creating an army of super soldiers. While that is what the movie's about, that idea of "super soldiers" makes the plot sound even dumber than it is already.

The flick felt very much like NBC's Heroes, a show I watched for a season-and-a-half and then never went back to again because of its sheer ridiculosity (yes, I'm coining that as a new word). Similarly here, if I could've stopped watching here, I might have. Once again, though, it's not that it was all that bad, it's just that I didn't care at all about the plot or the characters.

That being said, I thought the flick actually looked moderately cool. Apparently, it was shot on location in Hong Kong and director Paul McGuigan uses the area to great effect. Sure, he doesn't really bring anything new to the table, but there's an edginess to his direction that fit the story and didn't seem forced.

Once again, it's not like the flick was awful, but I was bored out of my mind during it.

The RyMickey Rating: D+