The Lion King

The Lion King (2019)

Featuring the vocal talents of Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alfre Woodard, Billy Eichner, John Kani, John Oliver, Florence Kasumba, Keegan-Michael Key, Eric Andre, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, and James Earl Jones

Directed by Jon Favreau

Written by Jeff Nathanson

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

Starring Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Joonas Suotamo, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Jon Favreau, and Paul Bettany

Directed by Ron Howard

Written by Jonathan Kasdan and Lawrence Kasdan

Summary (in 500 words or less):  The back story of how Han Solo became Han Solo is essentially a heist movie about how our title character (Alden Ehrenreich) teams up with a group of mercenaries to complete a mission to snag some specialty fuel.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C

Movie Review - The Martian

The Martian (2015)

Starring Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Peña, Sean Bean, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie, Mackenzie Davis, Donald Glover, and Chiwetel Ejiofor

Directed by Ridley Scott

A huge success this fall, I avoided The Martian until the final week it was in theaters (heck, it's being released on Blu-Ray in less than a month) because of a lengthier running time in a genre that I don't dislike but isn't particularly my favorite.  Science fiction flicks oftentimes feel so heavily bogged down with jargon or "deep thinking" that they just don't seem fun.  (I'm talking to you, Interstellar - a film that I didn't mind, but at times felt like a chore to watch.)  While The Martian certainly has hefty scientific details running through it, director Ridley Scott's film is surprisingly witty, full of some charming performances, and has a story that is briskly paced and immensely enjoyable.

Matt Damon is, for all intents and purposes, the title character.  In 2035, botanist Mark Watney is left behind on Mars by the crew of the Ares III after he is struck by debris during a gigantic dust storm and unable to be found.  All indications according to the life support systems in Mark's suit point to him being dead so the crew (Jessica Chastain, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, and Aksel Hennie) -- forced to make a difficult decision as the huge storm will soon make their ship unable to function -- start their three year journey home saddened for Mark's apparent death.  After the storm dissipates, Mark wakes up to find his suit impaled by an antenna which took out his biometer, but also, when mixed with Mark's blood, formed a seal on the suit keeping Mark alive.  Mark returns to the Mars astronaut base and begins to analyze his next moves.  Unable to communicate with Earth, Mark figures out a variety of ingenious ways to keep himself alive in hopes that at some point, he'll be able to get back in touch with NASA.

Meanwhile on Earth, satellite analyst Mindy Park (Mackenzie Davis) notices that there is movement on Mars in the area where the Ares crew lived while on the planet and determines that Mark is actually alive.  She immediately informs NASA director Teddy Sanders, NASA media relations head Annie Montrose, and Mars mission director Vincent Kapoor (respectively Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig, and Chiwetel Ejiofor) and plans are put into place to attempt to get Mark back.

Undoubtedly, The Martian is one of director Ridley Scott's best films -- and certainly his best in over a decade.  Quite frankly, I'm amazed at how involved I found myself in the story.  While not as solitary as a film like Cast Away in which Tom Hanks was essentially the only character onscreen, for huge portions of The Martian Matt Damon is the only actor onscreen.  Rather cleverly, screenwriter Drew Goddard has crafted a device where he has Mark talk to a computer screen in a video diary-type set-up which allows the audience to get into Mark's head and allows for quite a few comedic moments as Mark contemplates how to survive.  Combined, Scott's direction and Goddard's script keep things moving at an incredibly solid and tremendously surprising clip, creating a film that's hugely pleasant to watch.

While I certainly don't have anything against the actor, Matt Damon has never been a favorite of mine, but I must admit that the actor is quite captivating here.  There's a charm he brings to Mark that's intensely watchable, handling the humor and drama quite well and balancing both with ease.  The rest of the cast is also quite solid with not a bad egg in the bunch, but even though folks like Jeff Daniels and Chiwetel Ejiofor figure in quite a bit story-wise, this is really Damon's film and he holds our interest much more than I ever thought he would.

Admittedly, the film's big set piece that makes up the conclusion seems a little far-fetched, but despite the ridiculousness of it, I still found the denouement quite compelling and excitingly lensed.  Quite honestly, though, what's most intriguing about The Martian is how the science of what keeps Mark alive is placed so squarely front and center and seems shockingly plausible (with the exception of that seemingly ludicrous conclusion).  Not only is The Martian funny, but it's also surprisingly smart...and somehow it's still enjoyable.  Kudos to the entire team behind this one as I wasn't expecting to enjoy this one nearly as much as I did.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - The Lazarus Effect

The Lazarus Effect (2015)

Starring Mark Duplass, Olivia Wilde, Donald Glover, Evan Peters, and Sarah Bolger

Directed by David Gelb

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

If you've seen the Scarlett Johansson flick Lucy, there's certainly no reason to watch The Lazarus Effect which is essentially a horror version of that film.  If you haven't seen Lucy (and really you're missing nothing if you haven't), there's still no reason to watch The Lazarus Effect because besides an ending that perks up the thrill quotient after a decidedly bland and surprisingly boring first hour, the conclusion fails to really make a whole lot of sense and ends things hugely disappointingly.

Here, a group of scientists headed by engaged couple Frank and Zoe (Mark Duplass and Olivia Wilde) create a manipulated serum of cells that through injection and electrical stimulation have the effect of being able to bring the dead back to life.  After years of unsuccessful attempts, the team succeeds in bringing back to life a dog, but they discover that the newly resuscitated canine is utilizing huge portions of his brain, making him overly aggressive and violent as he's unable to control his emotions.  Needless to say, following an unfortunate accident, the team doesn't just stop the experiment with the dog and instead find themselves using it for more a more advanced carbon-based life form which may yield some truly frightening results.

The overarching question of this film (and Lucy for that matter) is what happens when humans -- who typically use only 10% of their brain capacity -- are given the opportunity to utilize much more than that.  Whereas Lucy somewhat succeeds in answering this question through the format of an action film, The Lazarus Effect as a horror movie isn't nearly as successful.  The biggest reason for this is that it's utterly boring for the film's first sixty minutes.  Part of the reason I was intrigued with the flick was the cast who I thought may elevate this beyond your typical cliché-ridden genre pic, but the quintet listed up above just sputters out scientific mumbo-jumbo for the film's first twenty minutes and then spends the rest of the first hour debating whether to continue with their now successful experiment.  In a better film, the tension between the scientists may have been intriguing, but here it amounts to nothing but absolute boredom.

Unfortunately, when the film delves into horror during its final twenty minutes (although its eighty minute runtime should seem short, it feels interminable), it's more laughable than anything else and that's never a good thing.  There are no scares whatsoever with the film throwing out one horror cliché after another trying to get something to land successfully.  Nothing does.

The RyMickey Rating:  D-

Movie Review - Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014)

Starring Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner, Ed Oxenbould, Dylan Minnette, Kerris Dorsey, Bella Thorne, Jennifer Coolidge, Donald Glover, and Megan Mullally  

Directed by Miguel Arteta

I'll just come right out and say it despite the prospect of being ridiculed -- Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is a truly enjoyable kid flick that does an excellent job of creating an atmosphere that is amusing to both adults and children alike reminiscent of Disney pics of yore like Freaky Friday and The Parent Trap.  It may not be a popular opinion, but I found myself thoroughly entertained for seventy-five minutes as young Alexander Cooper (Ed Oxenbould) and his family go through one of the worst days possible as havoc wreaks quite a spell on everyone.

Alexander is just about to turn twelve and he's discovered that a more popular kid at school has decided to throw his birthday party on the same night as his.  With the prospect of no one coming and having just had a school day filled with some huge blunders, Alexander wants to cancel his party, but his parents Ben and Kelly (Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner) won't allow it.  With his brother Anthony (Dylan Minette) prepping for his prom and his sister Emily (Kerris Dorsey) landing the lead in the school musical, at 12:01am on the night of his birthday, Alexander blows out the candle on a bowl of ice cream wishing that his family could experience how un-fun is life is for just one day.  In the grand tradition of wishes coming true in movies, when the Cooper family wakes up the next morning, chaos breaks out -- and the humor surprisingly flies all around.

Admittedly, there's a need for a bit of a suspension of disbelief here -- too many things are scheduled on this particular day for even the most reliable family to accomplish -- but if you're willing to make this acceptance, you're in for a treat.  Rather surprisingly -- and perhaps the reason for the film's success -- Alexander focuses not only on its title character, but gives equal opportunity to each member of the Cooper family to be fleshed out in terms of their bad days and all story lines work quite well.  Perhaps because of the notion that the parents are almost the focus here, adults are welcomed into the film in a way that isn't usually expected in movies aimed at a younger demographic.

Carell and Garner do a really nice job with both their slapstick and verbal comedy moments and all of the Cooper siblings also pleasantly create humor in their scenes.  The kudos really belong to screenwriter Rob Lieber in his debut for crafting a film that not only appeals to the kiddos, but also to the kid in all of us by never talking down to the younger audience.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+