The Polka King

The Polka King (2018)

Starring Jack Black, Jenny Slate, Jason Schwartzman, J.B. Smoove, Vanessa Bayer, and Jacki Weaver

Directed by Maya Forbes

Written by Maya Forbes and Wallace Wolodarsky

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B-

Movie Review - Goosebumps

Goosebumps (2015)

Starring Jack Black, Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush, Ryan Lee, Amy Ryan, and Jillian Bell

Directed by Rob Letterman

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

Were I a nine to twelve year-old kid, Goosebumps would be a great film.  Hints of comedy, teen romance, and fun horror-adventure would've been exactly what I was looking for in a Jumanji-style flick.  However, I'm over two decades removed from that ten year-old me, so the faults in Goosebumps stand out more than they would to the targeted viewer.  While Goosebumps is a fun watch (even for someone who wasn't a Goosebumps reader as it came on the scene several years too late for me), it doesn't have the universality to appeal to all age demographics.

When his mother (Amy Ryan) moves to Delaware(!) for a new vice principal job, teenage Zach (Dylan Minnette) is disappointed to have to start anew.  However, he soon meets his next-door neighbor Hannah (Odeya Rush) and she keys him in to the fun stuff in the small town of Madison.  Unfortunately, Hannah's father (Jack Black) is a bit overprotective of his daughter and forbids Zach to hang out with her.  One evening, upon hearing what he thought was a scream from inside Hannah's house, Zach and his new buddy Champ (Ryan Lee) break in to the house and discover that Hannah's father is the popular author R.L. Stine.  His Goosebumps manuscripts are all kept individually locked and when Zach opens one up, chaos ensues as all of Stine's literary creations begin to wreak havoc on the town.

Goosebumps works best when it focuses on the comedically scary creations of Stine's books.  Whether it be a smartly sarcastic dummy that's come to life or the Abominable Snowman or a cadre of sweet-looking though menacing garden gnomes, the special effects sequences in the film (which are tinged with moments of comedy) all work surprisingly well.  Disappointingly, when the flick doesn't focus on Stine's creatures, things are a bit of a mess.  We get subplots galore that are either unresolved or unnecessary.  Zach's crazy aunt looking for love (played by an admittedly humorous Jillian Bell); a gym teacher trying to make the move on Zach's mother; Champ trying to find a(ny) girlfriend; a quickly tossed together love story between Zach and Hannah; Zach's father's recent death and its effect on him -- it's just too many subplots for a film that doesn't need any of them, quite frankly.

There was potential here for Goosebumps to be an instant kids' movie classic, but the writers squandered that away by throwing everything but the kitchen sink into the mix.  As it stands, Goosebumps is only a moderately entertaining diversion that doesn't live up to what it could have been.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Bernie

Bernie (2012)

Starring Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, and Matthew McConaughey

Directed by Richard Linklater

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

Bernie Tiede is perhaps the nicest guy in the small town of Carthage, Texas.  Loved by all, as the assistant funeral director at the local mortuary Bernie is quiet, kind, gentle, and a seemingly genuinely sweet man.  Shortly after the chairman of the local bank dies, Bernie (played brilliantly by Jack Black in by far the best role of his career) pays a visit to his widow Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine) to check in to see how she's doing and a friendship is formed.  Despite Marjorie's reputation around town as being the bitchiest and meanest woman for miles, Bernie refuses to listen to the naysayers.  For Marjorie, the relationship gives her an emotional connection with someone since her attitude has turned many (including all her family members) away from her.  For Bernie, while he also enjoys the friendship (which is only vaguely, if at all, sexual), he finds himself able to live a bit beyond his means thanks to Marjorie's bank account.  However, rather than spending the money on himself, he often doles it out to needy townsfolk, endearing him to all those in Carthage.  Unfortunately, after several years, Marjorie becomes more and more possessive, creating a rift in her relationship with Bernie and forcing the town's saintly gentleman to go to extreme means to cut ties with her.

Bernie is rather surprisingly and unexpectedly one of the best films of 2012 thanks in huge part to Jack Black's great performance.  Admittedly, I've been avoiding watching this movie on Netflix simply because of Black's starring role, but this was certainly a different turn for the actor known for his comedic roles.  While certainly humorous, the character of Bernie so easily could've fallen into an SNL parody-type one-note role (reminiscent perhaps of the Al Franken Stuart Smalley character), but Black manages to create depth and layers in a type of character who often isn't given such opportunities.  That's likely due in part to the fact that Bernie is based on a true story -- so the title character is "real" as opposed to "created" -- but Black is certainly the conduit to bring the real person to believable life onscreen.

Director Richard Linklater has created an interesting film in Bernie.  Just as much as Bernie is a portrait of a flawed man, it's also a picture of small town Americana that someone could easily see as insulting, but I see as a tribute to that slowed-down, "old school" Bible-thumping lifestyle.  Linklater sets up much of the film as a faux-documentary using a mix of actors and real-life Carthage residents who knew Bernie Tiede first hand who comment on the much revered man.  Yes, I found myself laughing at the folks at times which is why I could see some taking this flick as a diatribe against this Southern culture, but I never found it condescending or demeaning in tone.

Still, Bernie is a film of many tones -- comedy, drama, courtroom saga -- all of which are nearly perfectly melded together into one of the most interesting and underseen films of 2012.

The RyMickey Rating:  A-

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