American Assassin

American Assassin (2017)

Starring Dylan O'Brien, Michael Keaton, Sanaa Lathan, and Taylor Kitsch

Directed by Michael Cuesta

Written by Stephen Schiff, Michael Finch, Edward Zwick, and Marshall Herskovitz

Summary (in 500 words or less):  After his girlfriend and many others are killed in a terrorist attack on a beach in Ibiza, Spain, Mitch Rapp (Dylan O'Brien) seeks revenge on the attackers, but eventually is taken in by the CIA who decide to train him to help America's intelligence agencies.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C-

Movie Review - Deepwater Horizon

Deepwater Horizon (2016)

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, John Malkovich, Gina Rodriguez, Dylan O'Brien, and Kate Hudson

Directed by Peter Berg

Forty-one miles off the Louisiana coastline in April 2010, the oil rig Deepwater Horizon is preparing to begin drilling into the ocean floor for BP.  However, BP executives wish to forego some important safety tests and, in the midst of prepping the drill, a catastrophic series of events occurs, wreaking an enormous amount of damage on the Deepwater Horizon, the Gulf of Mexico, and the workers on the rig, eleven of whom died on that fateful day.

Thus is the true story of Deepwater Horizon, director Peter Berg's depiction of the biggest oil spill in US history.  Although there are certainly some big name stars in this -- Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, John Malkovich, Kate Hudson -- this isn't a movie where "characters" really matter.  Sure, we're introduced to Wahlberg's electronics technician Mike Williams and his caring and doting wife (Hudson), but his character along with Russell's rig supervisor Jimmy Harrell and Gina Rodriguez's navigation officer Andrea Fleytas are nothing more than nondescript entities who are simply a conduit for the audience to bear witness to the horrors that unfolded.

Ultimately, that's the biggest issue with Deepwater Horizon as a film -- Berg is more interested in upping the ante when it comes to the action than dealing with the human side of things.  Sure, the BP guys are the big baddies, but their manipulative business acumen is never really explored.  Similarly, for the "good guys," there's minimal backstory and what little there is you almost wish Berg had left out because of its stereotypical simplicity.  Deepwater Horizon isn't a bad film by any means, but it's very rote and by-the-book in every aspect from the initial character development in the very first minutes to the written postscript right before the credits roll telling us about the real-life people involved.  I almost feel that I'd have been more invested seeing a documentary of the events rather than a fictionalized depiction even though Berg is certainly adept at creating some exciting action sequences in this new age, true life Poseidon Adventure of sorts.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015)

Starring Dylan O'Brien, Ki Hong Lee, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Dexter Darden, Jacob Lofland, Rosa Salazar, Giancarlo Esposito, Aiden Gillen, Lili Taylor, Barry Pepper, and Patricia Clarkson

Directed by Wes Ball

I still stand by original notion that the overarching plot of the Maze Runner series is perhaps the most interesting of all the dystopian teen epics that we've seen over the past several years.  In the original film, a group of teens was thrown into a deadly labyrinth which, upon their escape, they discover was run by a group called W.C.K.D. in order to experiment on the young.  At the end of the first film, the surviving teens are helicoptered out of the maze facility presumably being taken to safety, however, as The Scorch Trials begins, we see that Earth as we know it is in shambles -- a desolate dust storm where the only survivors seem to live in a facility run by those who saved the kids from the maze.  The teens soon begin to realize that those who saved them may not be their saviors, but may in fact want to harm them.  Led by Thomas (Dylan O'Brien), the group manages to escape the facility, only to find a world overrun by zombies (yeah...) as they try to find safety.

The Scorch Trials starts out incredibly promising as, much like the teens, we in the audience try and determine who's good and bad.  Unfortunately, once the teens escape, the premise of the sequel begins to fall apart.  I mean, zombies?  Really?  Sure, the plot was already ludicrous with the whole maze and then a burgeoning conspiracy, but I had bought into the proceedings...and then you add zombies to the mix?  Ugh.  That said, if I were to remove the zombies from the equation, The Scorch Trials would've been equal to its predecessor.  Yes, it's the middle film of a trilogy so it's really just a stepping stone to the inevitable finale, but there was potential that was squandered with those damn zombies.  I'll still be there for the final movie as I still think the premise is unique enough to warrant its existence -- I haven't given up on the series like I did with Divergent -- but I must say I'm a little disappointed with this one.

The RyMickey Rating: C

Movie Review - The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner (2014)

Starring Dylan O'Brien, Aml Ameen, Ki Hong Lee, Blake Cooper, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Will Poulter, Kaya Scodelario, and Patricia Clarson

Directed by Wes Ball

At a certain point, all of these teen-centered dystopian fantasies start to blend together what with The Hunger Games, Divergent, and now The Maze Runner all of which take place in a future where teens are placed in perilous situations the likes of which seem too outrageous to really be believed thanks to some overriding governmental entity.  Here, Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) wakes up to find himself in the middle of a giant maze inhabited by a group of teen guys -- none of whom know how they got there or have any memory of who they were prior to being placed into the maze.  Every night, the maze shifts and while many have tried to find a way out, most who attempt wind up dead thanks to spider-like bio-mechanical creatures known as Grievers that inhabit the labyrinth.  Someone put these kids here for some reason and Thomas and his fellow runners of the maze will stop at nothing to find out who is behind their captivity.

Although the film finds itself getting a bit repetitive as it progresses, the overall concept of this dark tale is quite intriguing -- perhaps the most interesting of all the aforementioned similarly themed teen flicks.  With a game cast of actors (most of whom I'd never seen before) who all do a solid job of making us believe their plight, The Maze Runner has the makings of something promising as it continues on its way in future films.  Once again, though, similar to the Divergent series, I have serious doubts as to whether it can maintain its "reason for existence" past Movie #1.  All of these teen series feel drawn out as they progress and I worry that The Maze Runner will fall into the same trap.  For now, however, it's unique enough to warrant a look.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-