The Hunt

 The Hunt (2020)

Starring Betty Gilpin, Hilary Swank, Ike Barinholtz, Wayne Duvall, Ethan Suplee, Amy Madigan, Reed Birney, Justin Hartley, and Emma Roberts

Directed by Craig Zobel

Written by Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B

Holidate

 Holidate (2020)

Starring Emma Roberts, Luke Bracey, Andrew Bachelor, Jessica Capshaw, Manish Dayal, Alex Moffat, Jake Manley, Cynthy Wu, Frances Fisher, and Kristin Chenoweth

Directed by John Whitesell

Written by Tiffany Paulson 

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Nerve

Nerve (2016)

Starring Emma Roberts, Dave Franco, Colson Baker, Emily Meade, Miles Heizer, and Juliette Lewis

Directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman

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

A mindless teen thriller, Nerve conjures up its titular online game in which players must perform increasingly more intense dares in order to earn money.  This community of players and watchers grow to frighteningly crazed proportions one evening in New York City and things get out of control very quickly.  At the center of the game is high school senior Vee (Emma Roberts) who is anything but a risk taker.  However, with the school year winding down and her good friend Sydney (Emily Meade) taking part in the game, Vee takes a chance and joins the game one night.  Her first dare is to kiss a random stranger in a local diner.  The recipient of her smooch is Ian (Dave Franco) who also happens to be taking part in the game and the two team up to try and get as far in the game as they can.

Taking place over the course of one evening, Nerve is quickly paced and doesn't overstay its welcome with its quick ninety minute runtime.  It tries much too hard at the end to create a social commentary about our technology-addicted society and the group-think snap judgment bully mentality that media websites like Twitter bring to the table and that's where it falters a bit when it nears its conclusion.  Still, for strictly entertainment purposes, Nerve is moderately successful.  Emma Roberts and Dave Franco are decent together and if you're in the mood for a throwaway teen flick, Nerve works in that regard.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - We're the Millers

We're the Millers (2013)

Starring Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Emma Roberts, Will Poulter, Ed Helms, Nick Offerman, and Kathryn Hahn 

Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber

Jennifer.  Aniston.  Striptease.

I could simply leave this review at that, but I guess I'll continue by saying in addition to that sultry dance performed by one of my celebrity crushes, We're the Millers provides enough laughs that even if a nearly naked, seductively gyrating Jennifer Aniston doesn't float your boat, you'll still probably have a good time.  Thanks to a game cast who milk the comedy bits for all they're worth, We're the Millers successfully brings the raunch while also giving us characters and a story that hold our attention.

Jason Sudeikis is David Clark, a pot dealer who ends up losing his stash of weed and a significant amount of dough when an attempt to save a homeless girl being attacked by a bunch of street thugs goes awry.  This doesn't sit well with David's boss (Ed Helms) who forces David to head to Mexico and smuggle into the states a significant amount of marijuana without getting caught at the border.  With seemingly no feasible way to smuggle in the pot on his own, David concocts a plan to rent an RV and make up a fake family, acting as if they're taking a trip to Mexico for recreational purposes hoping that the border agents won't possibly think anything is out of the ordinary when they try and get back into the States.  To achieve this task, he enlists his down-on-her-luck stripper neighbor Rose (Jennifer Aniston) to play his wife, the aforementioned homeless girl Casey (Emma Roberts) to play his daughter, and his virginal downstairs neighbor Kenny (Will Poulter) to be his son.  Along the way, this fake family (known as the Millers) runs into drug kingpins and crazy RV enthusiasts (the latter played by Nick Offerman and Kathryn Hahn) in their attempt to bring an humongous stash of pot over the US border.

While certainly raunchy, We're the Millers does have a bit of heart although it never goes too far over that sentimental edge which works in its favor.  As mentioned above, the entire cast works quite well together with nary a bad apple in the bunch which was a welcome surprise.  Watching a film like this in the comfort of your own home alone can oftentimes ruin its ability to succeed because you don't have the rapturous laughter of an audience around you, but We're the Millers made me laugh out loud enough to deem it a success.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Celeste and Jesse Forever

Celeste and Jesse Forever (2013)

Starring Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg, Chris Messina, Ari Graynor, Eric Christian Olsen, Will McCormack, Rebecca Dayan, Elijah Wood, and Emma Roberts

Directed by Lee Toland Krieger

I don't think Rashida Jones will ever become a leading lady movie star, but I've got to say that she's got a fan in me (and it's time to pick up season two of Parks and Recreation from where I left off a long time ago).  There's an easygoing effervescent charm that exudes from her coupled with a edgy sarcastic sassiness that combines into something I find utterly appealing and her starring role in Celeste and Jesse Forever (which she co-wrote) gives her a chance to shine.

Married couple Celeste (Jones) and Jesse (Andy Samberg) recently separated, but despite this life change, they still remain the best of friends, hanging out with each other whenever they have spare time.  Their friends (Ari Graynor and Eric Christian Olsen) find Celeste and Jesse's situation uncomfortable and odd -- how can they move on with their lives if they never are separate from one another?  To Celeste and Jesse themselves, they're simply the best of friends who have come to realize that they are better friends than lovers, but this revelation doesn't change the fact that they care very much about each other.  When Jesse ends up meeting a former one-night stand (Rebecca Dayan) and re-connecting with her, Celeste is thrown into a tailspin despite the fact that of the duo she was seemingly the one who was more amenable to moving on.

This is Rashida Jones' first crack at screenwriting and she crafts a well-rounded role for herself that fits her like a glove.  Andy Samberg also gives a solid performance that is a bit more subdued than we've come to expect from his Saturday Night Live-Lonely Planet persona and it's pleasant to see this side of him.  Unfortunately, when the film slips away from the titular characters, the script slips a little bit into some tired comedic tropes we've seen before.  We've got the pot smoking best friend (co-writer Will McCormack), the quirky co-worker (Elijah Wood), and even a Lady Gaga-ish pop star (Emma Roberts) -- none of whom add anything to plot and only weigh it down.

But with this debut screenplay giving her a debut starring performance, Rashida Jones is certainly a positive takeaway from this witty film.  Hopefully we'll see more from her in the future.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Virginia

Virginia (2012)

Starring Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, Emma Roberts, Harrison Gilbertson, Amy Madigan, and Toby Jones

Directed by Dustin Lance Black

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

Everything but the kitchen sink is thrown into the little seen indie called Virginia which I'd heard about sometime earlier this year in a positive light.  It was only until I was halfway through when I ventured onto rottentomatoes.com and discovered that this had a whopping 4% Fresh rating.  Now, I don't always agree with the general consensus of freshness levels on that site, but they were right on the money here.  The flick, scripted and lensed by Dustin Lance Black, can't ever find an appropriate balance between dark comedy and emotional drama and, as such, it never once appears to be anything other than a jumbled mess.

There is the possibility of potential somewhere in there and I think most of it comes from the all-over-the-place performance of Jennifer Connelly as the title character.  I say "all-over-the-place" not as an insult to Ms. Connelly because actually think she does quite an admirable job considering what she's been given to work with, but rather because Virginia herself is such an odd duck.  She's a single mom with a teenage son named Emmett (Harrison Gilbertson) who seems to be moderately put together enough.  She's got her own home, but a menial job driving a boardwalk tram at a coastal Virginia town has her just gradually scraping by.  As if the economic woes weren't trouble enough, she's in the middle of a decades-long affair with Sheriff Richard Tipton (Ed Harris), a married and purportedly strongly religious Mormon who is currently running for governor of Virginia.  Since Dustin Lance Black is apparently a masochist, he also makes Virginia a schizophrenic who has likely just been stricken with lung cancer.  Let's be honest here -- that's simply too much for one actress to take on in a two hour film, but Connelly tries her hardest and she is the only reason I stuck with the film from beginning to end.

Because the film was just begging for more story, young Emmett finds himself falling for Sheriff Tipton's daughter Jessie (Emma Roberts), the local amusement park owner (Toby Jones) likes to dress up as a woman in his downtime, and the Sheriff has a fascination with S&M that his wife (Amy Madigan) uncovers.  If you're as confused as I am about how all this crap comes together, I'm here to tell you that watching this movie doesn't help you decipher that puzzle.

Ultimately, the fault lies with Dustin Lance Black whose script and direction can't determine what kind of film Virginia should be.  Anything that's supposed to be funny -- and I think the hugely stereotypical and overly broad characterizations of both Mormons and "southerners" condescendingly fall into that category -- fails to elicit a single laugh.  Anything that's supposed to have us feel empathy for the characters does nothing but cause us to roll our eyes.  Throughout Virginia, there fails to be a moment that rings legitimately true.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Scream 4

Scream 4 (2011)

Starring Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Kieran Culkin, Alison Brie, Mary McDonnell, and Marley Shelton

Directed by Wes Craven

I don't know if I'm just tired of the series or if it's the fact that the new Ghostface's motives in Scream 4 seem even more ludicrous than those of Scream 3's killer, but this latest installment in Wes Craven's self-referential franchise is a letdown (and even moreso since we had to wait over a decade to get this to the screen).  Was the world asking for another Scream flick?  Probably not, but I do feel a slight connection to this series simply because it was the first horror franchise that I latched onto in my youth.  Teens in the 80s had the Elm Streets and Jason and Michael Myers to think fondly of, but as a 90s teen, this felt like my series...and plus, for this burgeoning film buff, Scream began as a series that paid homage to its horror flick predecessors which was something I greatly appreciated.  Unfortunately, the allure has faded and the disappointment of Scream 3 is further continued with the fourth flick in the series.

Ten years have passed since the conclusion of the Hollywood-based last installment and Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) has written her autobiography and is returning to Woodsboro, the scene of the crimes in the original Scream, on her book tour.  Dewey (David Arquette) has become the local sheriff and he and "retired journalist" Gale Withers (Courtney Cox) are happily married.  As soon as Sidney arrives, young high schoolers begin to bite the dust at the hands of a new Ghostface Killer and Sidney, Dewey, and Gale must do what they can in order to save the community and track down the slasher.

Unfortunately, nothing new is brought to the table here.  Scream 2 followed Syd to college and Scream 3 (although not nearly as good as the first two flicks in the series) changed the scene to Hollywood, but returning to Woodsboro and essentially copying the exact same storyline of the first film just makes Scream 4 flounder aimlessly with nothing really driving the plot along.  The new characters introduced including Emma Roberts as Syd's cousin Jill, Hayden Panettiere as Jill's sassy friend, and Kieran Culkin as a high school film geek just seemed liked doppelgangers of characters in the first film.  All were certainly adequate (and the acting in all the Scream flicks is always much better than most horror flicks), but their characters were bland and I never was able to connect with any of them or any of the other new folks introduced.

As mentioned above, once the Ghostface killer is revealed, it was met by me with an eye roll.  The motive (while perhaps fitting in this day and age) isn't solid enough to base a whole movie around and it ends up being a disappointment.  That said, I did think that the final scenes after the reveal were quite tense and helped the film end on a somewhat better note than I expected.  Still, I can't help but think that Scream 4 is just a pale imitation of the original flick and, although this goes against popular opinion since many think the third flick is the worst in the series, this fourth installment is the lowest on the totem pole for me.  I'm sure that if a Scream 5 were made I'd give it a go, but the expectations would certainly be mighty low.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Valentine's Day (2010)

Valentine's Day (2010)

Starring Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Patrick Dempsey, Hector Elizondo, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Ashton Kutcher, Queen Latifah, Taylor Lautner, George Lopez, Shirley Maclaine, Emma Roberts, Julia Roberts, Taylor Swift

Directed by Garry Marshall 

It's not as if ensemble movies about love can't work.  One of my favorite movies of all time is Love, Actually, and that flick is all about an ensemble's quest for love.  However, with last year's He's Just Not That Into You and this year's Valentine's Day, the ensemble romantic comedy appears to be dead in the water.  While this 2010 flick fares a little better than its 2009 counterpart, one would think that with all the star power on display here, someone could craft a decent script.

I'm not even going to go into a summary here because (as is evidenced by the incredibly long "starring" list up above) there's just too many tangential stories to discuss.  And therein lies the problem.  Too many people with too many unnecessary tales.  Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner's high school romance -- I'd nix 'em since we've already got one youthful tale starring the charming Emma Roberts, but they're appealing to the youth.  Julia Roberts and Bradley Cooper's meeting on a plane -- totally pointless, but Roberts is a huge star and Cooper's star wattage is on the rise.  Shirley Maclaine and Hector Elizondo's out-of-left-field reveal of a "bombshell secret" -- who gives a damn -- oh, that's right, we need to appeal to the grandparents.

That's the problem.  The movie just wants to hit every demographic and it fails because of that.   Any positive vibes that come from actors like Jennifer Garner, Anne Hathaway, Topher Grace, Julia Roberts and her niece Emma, and (shockingly) Ashton Kutcher and George Lopez just get washed away by a horrible script.  Not that I'm necessarily one to criticize on this front, but screenwriters need to learn to edit.

And the awful script is shot so incredibly poorly by director Garry Marshall that I laughed out loud because of some of his choices.  Hey, let's put some nuns in that scene.  Throw a sign-language interpreter in there.  Let's have a girl with cerebral palsy point and yell at Ashton Kutcher because he doesn't have shoes on.  Yes, I realize that last sentence might seem callous, but these "attempts at realism" just come across as preposterous.  It honestly seemed like he had family members that he wanted to put into the movie somehow and he was going to do whatever it took to make it happen.

If you want a great romantic ensemble movie, just do yourself a favor and go with Love, Actually.  Skip this one.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Hotel For Dogs (2009)

Starring Emma Roberts, Jake T. Austin, Kyla Pratt, Don Cheadle, Lisa Kudrow, and Kevin Dillon
Written by Jeff Lowell, Bob Schooley, and Mark McCorkle
Directed by Thor Freudenthal

Andi and Bruce (Roberts and Austin) are a sister and brother who have moved around from foster home to foster home, settling in with the apparently kid-hating Lois for the time being. The siblings bring along Friday, their cute dog, but they need to keep him a secret (because, naturally, the foster mom dislikes pets). Through a series of events, Andi and Bruce come upon an old abandoned hotel that happens to house a few stray canines. Somehow without any money and without any adult knowledge, Andi, Bruce, and few friends (including the requisite fat kid -- because fat kids are funny! -- and the sassy [is there any other kind in movies?] black girl) create a unique haven for all these neglected pets.

The movie actually started out really promisingly. For the first 30 minutes (prior to them setting up the hotel), it was actually quite good. Emma Roberts and Jake Austin were actually really holding their own and keeping me interested, despite the simplicity of the plot. However, at around the 40 minute mark, there were three "stepping in poo" jokes within three minutes and that's when it started to fall apart. That was followed by a five-minute long detailing of how the kids were (literally) "potty-training" the dogs. It then ventures down the teen romance trail that so many of these movies do and it does so in a completely generic way. And maybe it's just because I'm not a "pet guy," but I couldn't really give a damn during the climax when (SPOILER) the dogs get taken away from the hotel by the authorities.

Still, I gotta be honest, I've seen much worse kid flicks. First-time director Freudenthal did nothing special, but the film actually looked much better than your average children's movie. Like I said above, Roberts was quite charming. I haven't seen her in anything before (although "Girl in Purple T-Shirt" in her aunt Julia's America's Sweethearts should've been a memorable role), but she should have a promising future in movies (just stay away from the horror genre, Emma). For the most part, the other kid actors also outperform the adults here, the latter of whom are all forced to play idiotic caricatures (I'm talking to you, Lisa Kudrow!).

You could definitely do worse if you're looking for a decent flick to watch with your kids/cousins/nieces/nephews/etc.

The RyMickey Rating: C