Tour de Pharmacy

 Tour de Pharmacy (2017)

Starring Andy Samberg, Orlando Bloom, Freddie Highmore, Daveed Diggs, John Cena, Jeff Goldblum, Julia Ormond, Danny Glover, Dolph Lundgren, James Marsden, Will Forte, Maya Rudolph, Kevin Bacon, Nathan Fielder, and Lance Armstrong

Directed by Jake Szymanski

Written by Murray Miller

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Hop

Hop (2011)

Starring James Marsden, Kaley Cuoco, Elizabeth Perkins, and Gary Cole

and Featuring the vocal talents of Russell Brand, Hank Azaria, and Hugh Laurie

Directed by Tim Hill

Written by Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio, and Brian Lynch

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Welcome to Me

Welcome to Me (2015)

Starring Kristen Wiig, Wes Bentley, Linda Cardellini, Joan Cusack, Loretta Devine, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Thomas Mann, James Marsden, Tim Robbins, and Alan Tudyk

Directed by Shira Piven

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

While I must admit that I laughed quite a bit during Welcome to Me, after nearly every chuckle I found myself cringing that I was finding what I was watching humorous.  Sometimes it's a good thing when a movie makes you question your innate emotional reaction, but by the end of Welcome to Me, I ended up just feeling unpleasantly uncomfortable because the film disappoints in creating a well-rounded lead character.

The problem lies in the fact that star Kristen Wiig is playing Alice Klieg -- a woman with Borderline Personality Disorder who wins an $86 million dollar lottery and immediately abandons her meds -- as if she were a caricature from a Saturday Night Live skit rather than a well-rounded person.  That isn't to say that Wiig isn't funny.  As Alice, who obsesses over Oprah Winfrey's feel-good talk show and decides to spend millions to create her own lifestyle low-budget cable access show, Wiig has many moments that elicit laughs.  However the script and Wiig's portrayal full of jittery physical motions and dazed eyes are one-note, attempting to define a character only by a psychiatric disorder and the idiosyncrasies that accompany the disease as opposed to other aspects of life.

Oddly enough, however, despite this obviously major problem, I actually didn't dislike Welcome to Me altogether because the premise was certainly unique enough to warrant its existence.  With a supporting cast of many well-known names -- who really aren't given much to do -- the actors countering Wiig do a nice job of trying to keep the film based in reality.  As mentioned, I laughed during this one, but by the time the film ended, I found myself thinking back on it disappointed as opposed to pleased due to the fact that there was potential there for something only to be hindered by a script that fails to help its lead character.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - The Loft

The Loft (2015)

Starring Karl Urban, James Marsden, Wentworth Miller, Eric Stonestreet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Isabel Lucas, and Rachael Tayler

Directed by Erik Van Looy

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

There is not a single character in The Loft that stands on any moralistic ground.  And it's not even just that everyone is such a deplorable character, it's that there's not even a modicum of pleasantness in anyone.  If you look at movies like The Godfather or Goodfellas, you can at least say, "Hey, these guys are all crooks...but they love their families!"  In The Loft, the five main male characters who purchase a loft together as a sex pad for their out-of-welock dalliances have no love for anyone or anything except for their hormones which appear to be constantly telling them to screw someone other than their wives.

In an attempt to demonize these men a little bit for being such jerks, a female acquaintance of one (or more?) of the men is found murdered in the loft one morning.  This causes the group of friends pointing fingers at one another in order to try and determine which of them (if any) is responsible for the murder.  With every twist and turn, The Loft's ludicrousness grows and grows.  By the end, you're hoping that the entire quintet of male actors ends up going to jail for the crime.

Karl Urban with his stolid demeanor and James Marsden as the "nice guy" are moderately compelling leads, but Eric Stonestreet and Wentworth Miller really should just stick to tv, with Miller particularly growing more laughable as the film progresses.  And the less said about the wooden Isabel Lucas the better.  She landed on my Worst Actor's List a few years ago and I'm already keeping a spot warm for her for next year's RyMickey Awards.

Ultimately, you're supposed to be rooting for these guys to find out who killed this woman in their loft, but the only thing you're rooting for is for them all to get their comeuppance.  Their deplorable actions create an atmosphere where you always find yourself cringing rather than enjoying the experience.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Lee Daniels' The Butler

Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013)

Starring Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Lenny Kravitz, Terrence Howard, Robin Williams, John Cusack, James Marsden, Liev Schreiber, Alan Rickman, Jane Fonda, Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Redgrave, and Mariah Carey

Directed by Lee Daniels

Can someone please explain to me how Lee Daniels' The Butler was ever in the running for any category at the Oscars?  With an absolutely horrendous script by Danny Strong, pompously self-important direction by Lee Daniels, and overacting out the wazoo by nearly everyone involved, it's mind-boggling to me that people actually thought this movie was good in any way.  Incredibly heavy-handed in its way of trying to pigeonhole seemingly every important civil rights moment from the 1950s-80s into a two hour film, the film plays like a low-rent version of Forrest Gump as famous Hollywood celebrity after famous Hollywood celebrity pops up playing famous political figure after famous political figure.  And then, rather obnoxiously, the film ends with the triumphant crowning of Barack Obama as President signifying that "hope and change" have come and all is right in the world.  The final ten minutes of this movie had me so aggravated that they soured the entirety of the rest of the film (which, as stated, really wasn't that good to begin with).

Ugh.

Based on a true story (although changed DRASTICALLY in order to make things much more dramatic), The Butler centers around Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker), a man who escaped Southern slavery in the 1920s and became well known around Washington, D.C., as a fantastic server/butler in local bars and lounges around the big city.  After catching the eye of someone who worked in the White House, Gaines snags a job as a butler where he stays on to serve eight presidents.  The film attempts to balance Gaines' workplace with his family life, but the transitions between the two are always awkward and oftentimes incredibly heavyhanded.  For, you see, while his professional life is moving along swimmingly, his home life leaves much to be desired.  His wife Gloria (Oprah Winfrey) is tired of her husband putting his focus on his job and abandoning her and their two sons so she fills the void she feels with alcohol and another man (Terrence Howard).  Meanwhile, Gaines' older son (David Oyelowo) is heading to college where he finds himself becoming involved in Woolworth counter sit-ins, Freedom Bus Riders, Martin Luther King's assassination, the Black Panthers, and rallies to free Nelson Mandela.  All this stuff -- and this son never even existed.  That's right.  It's simply the screenwriter's ploy to hammer home what they believe to be significant moments in the Civil Rights Movement.  There's certainly no denying each of these events' importance.  However, none of these moments are ever given anything more than snippets of attention.  Giving each of these pivotal aspects of the movement such short shrift is a disservice.

On Oscar morning, everyone was shocked that Oprah didn't garner a nomination, but her attempt at halfway channeling Mo'Nique's intense performance from Precious was laughable.  Forest Whitaker is as flat as could be, exuding an overwhelming sense of blandness.  Each and every presidential figure plays more like a really good impressionist you'd see on the Vegas strip than a person.  Lee Daniels really failed to reel in a good performance from anyone with the exception of Lenny Kravitz as another butler in the White House and David Oyelowo who, despite the horribly written role as Gaines' older son, does try his best with his ridiculous part.

Lee Daniels' The Butler begins with Cecil Gaines as a young child working on a cotton plantation and the film's first ten minutes echo similar sentiments espoused in Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave.  However, there's simply no comparison and to have even placed The Butler in the same ballpark as 12 Years a Slave in the lead-up to awards season is an indignation that I'm trying to right with this review.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Robot & Frank

Robot & Frank (2012)

Starring Frank Langella, James Marsden, Liv Tyler, Susan Sarandon, and Peter Sarsgaard

Directed by Jake Shreier

In the near future, aging Frank (Frank Langella) is finding himself entering the beginning stages of dementia or Alzheimer's Disease (the specifics are never really discussed in the film).  His son Hunter (James Marsden) lives about six hours away from his father, but still visits him on a regular basis on the weekends leaving his own children behind to care for his ailing dad.  In order to alleviate some of this constant traveling in his life, Hunter decides to buy a robot caretaker (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard) who will clean, cook, and keep an eye on Frank's health, reporting back to Hunter when necessary.  Frank is adamantly against this as is his daughter Madison (Liv Tyler) who is working in Turkmenistan and can't really prevent her brother from bringing this newfangled technology into her father's home.

Eventually, Frank realizes that he's stuck with the robot so he might as well try and get to understand the technology...and this is where Robot & Frank starts to slowly go downhill.  The film's opening act (as detailed in the first paragraph) is amusing, but as the flick progresses, we discover that a long time ago Frank was a rather brilliant small-time thief who happened to get caught and spend some time in prison.  When Frank discovers that his robot companion has been programmed to do what Frank tells him to do, Frank decides to teach the robot the tricks of the trade when it comes to robbing people and this duo sets out to do some damage in their small town.

Ultimately, though, it isn't the story that takes Robot & Frank down a notch.  It's the fact that I failed to find myself connected to Frank in the way that I think was necessary in order for the movie to succeed on all levels.  Frank Langella certainly does a good job here...he's better than the part he's given, in fact.  Unfortunately, considering his condition of a slowly deteriorating memory, I never found myself invested in his plight.  When Frank says to his daughter who desperately wants to take the robot away after several weeks together, "But he's my only friend," I can't help but think that was supposed to hit me in the gut.  It didn't in any way, however, and the fault has to either lie in the direction of first time auteur Jake Shreier and/or the script from first time screenwriter Christopher D. Ford.  Somehow the screenplay and the direction never quite made the emotional connection with me in the way that the film desperately desires and needs in order to fully succeed.  Here's this old guy whose health is fading and he's being reinvigorated by a friendship with someone (or something, to be more accurate) he thought he was going to hate.  There's depth there worth exploring and while I think the film tries, it didn't click for me in the way it should have.

While it may seem like I'm critiquing Robot & Frank in a manner that would deem it not worth watching, it's actually a somewhat solid film with some nice performances from the whole cast.  The problem is that the potential for something greater is always present, but the film is never quite able to grasp it.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Bachelorette

Bachelorette (2012)

Starring Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher, Lizzy Caplan, Rebel Wilson, James Marsden, Kyle Bornheimer, and Adam Scott

Directed by Leslye Headland

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

The comparisons to 2010's hilarious Bridesmaids have to be expected when it comes to a movie like Bachelorette if only because the movie industry doesn't have too many female-centric comedies in the marketplace, and by having both films focus on a wedding further connects the two.  However, Bachelorette skews much darker in its comedy which creates quite a different tint on the whole affair, allowing writer-director Leslye Headland's play-turned-film to not play like a retread of the Oscar-nominated (and RyMickey Award Best Picture Top Ten finisher) Kristen Wiig film.

Whereas the characters in Bridesmaids were in their mid-thirties and genuinely excited about their best friend's wedding, the late twentysomethings in Bachelorette who were friends in high school look at the upcoming nuptials of Becky (Rebel Wilson) with disdain.    Becky was always the fourth wheel in the group known as "The B Faces," and it doesn't sit well that "the fat one" in the quartet is the first one to get married.  Regan (Kirsten Dunst), like Becky, lives in New York City and has kept in touch with the soon-to-be-bride more than the rest of the group, so she gets the role of Maid of Honor.  Outwardly showing enthusiasm, Regan's ice queen, bitchy demeanor comes out right away as she calls her fellow "B Faces" Gena (Lizzy Caplan) and Katie (Isla Fisher) to tell them the news.  As the group convenes for the wedding weekend, they begin to realize that they haven't changed all that much since high school...and maybe that's not such a good thing.  Katie's still a crazy bed-hopping party girl, Gena's cocaine snorting is still a commonplace occurrence, and Regan's bulimic tendencies still rear their ugly head at times.  None of these girls are the epitome of perfection and there are moments where they're all incredibly nasty to one another, but they're still friends despite their sometimes warped view of what being "friends" actually means.  They have a shared history that continues to bring them close together and, as time has passed, they begin to wonder whether it's maybe time that they all begin to grow up a little bit.

This isn't to say that Bachelorette ends on a sensitive up-with-people note.  These characters aren't "changed" in miraculous ways by seeing their child-like mannerisms.  Instead, the movie concludes with them simply glimpsing the fact that it's likely time they try to turn into adults as they head into their third decade and maybe Becky's wedding is the impetus to getting that ball rolling.  Kirsten Dunst and Lizzy Caplan succeed the best at coming to this realization for their characters.  Both Dunst and Caplan are given nice arcs and they surprised me by making me give a damn about their rather loathsome characters by the end of the film.  I don't watch Girls on HBO, but I imagine that the reason it's buzzed about (I refuse to say successful because less than two million people watch it per episode and yet it's praised like it's a huge hit) is that it showcases twentysomething women in a light that typically isn't shone on them.  That's definitely the case here and Dunst and Caplan are able to imbue their characters with enough depth to make the film overall a success.

That isn't to say that Ms. Headland's script gives adequate dimensionality to all characters.  Isla Fisher's Katie is decidedly one-note in her party hard attitude and Rebel Wilson's Becky is simply like every other character Wilson has played before meaning she'll make fun of her weight and then act "funny-cute" followed by being "funny-tough."  (Seriously, I just do not get the fawning over her, although I will say Wilson comes off surprisingly good here, it's just that she isn't adding anything new to her repertoire.)  Each lady also has a guy that she hooks up with the night before the wedding and only Adam Scott's Clyde as Gena's high school boyfriend is given anything to work with, but the story isn't really about the men, so I feel like this isn't as much of a letdown.

Qualms aside, however, Bachelorette is a really good film.  It's surprisingly funny, mining laughs from not only pop culture references that are perfect for my age bracket (ie. the age bracket depicted in the film), but also very naturally from the characters themselves.  Thanks to some nice performances from Kirsten Dunst and Lizzy Caplan and a solid (though not perfect) script, this one is absolutely one of the better comedies to come out of 2012...and it's streaming on Netflix...so watch it.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Straw Dogs

Straw Dogs (2011)

Starring James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, Alexander Skarsgård, and James Woods

Directed by Rod Lurie

When screenwriter David Sumner (James Marsden) and his actress wife Amy (Kate Bosworth) move back to her childhood hometown in Mississippi, they're hoping for some peace and quiet away from the Hollywood spotlight so David can work on his new screenplay.  The couple hire a group of hicks (and, yes, I'm using that word derogatively because like in every Hollywood movie, the Southerners here are all hicks that spit a lot and carry shotguns around with them) to fix up the roof of a rotting barn at their secluded house.  The workers, headed by Amy's former boyfriend Charlie (Alexander Skarsgård), look like trouble from the get-go -- so much so that the thought that a smart guy like David would hire these guys is completely irrational and ruins the movie's plausibility right in the opening act -- and the group proves to be a handful.  Needless to say, Straw Dogs (and the original 1971 movie upon which this remake is based) is touted for both its violence and its message that even a civilized man can resort to heinous acts to save the ones he loves, but that isn't nearly enough to recommend this flick.

The problem is that beyond that overly violent final act, Straw Dogs has nothing going for it.  It's built upon a premise that's simply unbelievable -- David is a smart guy (he plays chess so we know that's the case) and yet he hires this grungy looking group to fix his house.  The movie tries to play it up that he was just trying to be nice to some hometown guys, but as soon as he hires this construction crew, all realism went out the window for me.  And, if I'm being completely honest (and this may make me sound awful), I wanted the violence to come into play a whole lot sooner than it actually did.  There's a particularly heinous act that happens about halfway through the movie that should have precipitated the ending to come a lot sooner, but the film just lingers around for nearly an hour more.

James Marsden and Kate Bosworth are fine, but I found their relationship to be rather odd and off-putting and I don't think that was supposed to be the point.  Alexander Skarsgård is kinda creepy, but he's certainly not bringing anything new to the table.  And the less said about the overacting James Woods whose character precipitates the third act's violence the better.

But at least this flick gave me a better appreciation for using bear traps as a means of enacting revenge on your worst enemy.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - The Box (2009)

Starring Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, and Frank Langella
Directed by Richard Kelly

The Box is a movie that I definitely appreciate for its story, visuals, and simple uniqueness when compared to other modern-day films. However, it pushes the story way into Crazyland and it isn't helped by a poor leading performance by Cameron Diaz.

What would you do if you were presented with the following: If you press a button on a box, you'll receive a million dollars, but someone that you don't know will die. That's the premise of the flick. Diaz's Norma Lewis is presented with the box by the creepy Arlington Steward (Frank Langella). After she discusses the idea with her husband, Arthur (James Marsden), they decide to press the button. You see, rather conveniently, they are in the midst of some financial issues and the million dollars will certainly help. Now, this idea is pretty darn cool and if writer-director Richard Kelly had simply explored the human emotions behind this heavy decision, it could have been one of my favorite movies of the year. Instead, the movie drifts into science fiction mumbo-jumbo -- it gets simply ridiculous for the final hour.

It's a shame, really, because Richard Kelly crafts an interesting looking film that he ruins with a ludicrous script. The film takes place in the 1970s and the era certainly lends to some pretty nifty visuals -- the costumes and set design really made this stand out. As a director, Kelly throws in some camera tricks (like a silly unnecessary long shot), but overall, it's a cool looking retro flick.

Also unfortunate is Diaz trying to tackle a country accent. Painful. But at least she sticks with it for the whole movie -- James Marsden's accent goes in and out for scenes at a time. Still, Marsden is decent, but Diaz continues to be mindboggling in her appeal to me. Yes, I didn't mind her in My Sister's Keeper, but I don't get her star power...she's a lukewarm actress at best.

It's a shame, really, because they don't make movies like this anymore. This morality play has a really strong base to build off, but writer Kelly just failed himself by drifting towards the supernatural. All this being said, and despite the rating below (which, admittedly, may be a tad high), I'd recommend this to certain folks because even though it somewhat fails, it showed promise and I appreciate its aesthetics.

The RyMickey Rating: C-