Thor: Ragnarok

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Starring Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban, Anthony Hopkins, and Mark Ruffalo

Directed by Taika Waititi

Written by Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle, and Christopher Yost

Summary (in 500 words or less):  Thor (Chris Hemsworth) returns to his home planet of Asgard and forces his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) to help find their father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) who was missing, but then found hiding in Norway.  Odin reveals that he is dying and that his death will unlock the prison cell that his firstborn daughter Hela (Cate Blanchett) has been kept in for years because of Odin's fear that his daughter was becoming too ambitious.  Upon Odin's death, Hela returns to Asgard and chaos begins to reign as she forces Thor and Loki off the planet.  Thor lands on  Sakaar, a weird planet full of space waste and home to massive gladiator-style battles by people captured by The Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum), one of whom happens to be the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) who had been missing ever since the events of "Captain America: Civil War."

• Right off the bat, I should just say that Thor: Ragnarok is my favorite Marvel movie yet.  Director Taika Waititi (along with the trio of screenwriters) have crafted a fun-filled humorous ride filled with solid action sequences that carry some gravitas and importance in the grand scheme of the Thor franchise storyline.
• The balance struck here by Waititi in terms of action and humor is what the Guardians movies wants to be, but hasn't yet achieved. 
• Considering how much I despised Thor: The Dark World, I admittedly wasn't expecting much here, but the change in tone to something a bit more light-hearted works amazing well.
• Despite the oftentimes more whimsical and humorous nature of the film, there's still some important stuff going on here.  The family dynamic between Thor, his sister Hela, and their brother Loki is some heavy stuff and carries heft in the grand scheme of Thor's story...all the while likely helping to set up storylines for the upcoming Avengers film.
• Kudos to the entire cast -- Chris Hemsworth gets to display his comedic chops (which are always impressive), Jeff Goldblum and Mark Ruffalo appear to be having a ton of fun, Tessa Thompson brings a strong female presence to the proceedings, and Cate Blanchett tears up the screen as the villainess.  SPOILER ALERT -- Here's hoping they can find some way to bring her back in future films because she lit up the screen whenever she appeared.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Star Trek Beyond

Star Trek Beyond (2016)

Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoë Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yeltsin, Sofia Boutella, and Idris Elba

Directed by Justin Lin

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

I have admiration for the new incarnation of the Star Trek film series and I think it's been quite successful thus far thanks to its ability to balance an homage to the past with an updated aesthetic.  Star Trek Beyond, the third film in this modern reboot, still maintains this equity, but it's the least engaging of the three films thus far, failing to really create a story that feels cinematic and instead seemingly could've taken place over a 45-minute episode of one of the Star Trek tv series.

The cast remains rock solid in this third film, but the direction shifts hands from J.J. Abrams to Justin Lin and the screenplay also moves to co-writers Simon Pegg and Doug Jung and unfortunately both aspects end up being quite lacking when compared to their predecessors.  While Star Trek Beyond adds a little more comedic and emotional rapport between its characters, it comes as a bit of a disappointment after what is likely the best Star Trek film to date in Star Trek Into Darkness.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Pete's Dragon

Pete's Dragon (2016)

Starring Oakes Fegley, Bryce Dallas Howard, Robert Redford, Oona Laurence, Wes Bentley, and Karl Urban

Directed by David Lowery

The original 1977 Pete's Dragon doesn't hold a particularly fond place in this Disney fan's heart simply in that it wasn't a staple in my household growing up.  I was hoping that would bode well for the prospects of Disney's 2016 remake, but unfortunately the updated version was a bit of a disappointment.  Although it was well acted, I found the film to be rather dull, lacking enchantment considering the somewhat whimsical subject matter.

While driving with his parents through the forests of the Northwest United States, a horrible car accident occurs and leaves six year-old Pete the only survivor.  Wandering the woods with no one to help him, Pete comes across a green, furry dragon whom he names Elliot and the two become close friends.  Six years later, an eleven year-old Pete (Oakes Fegley) is discovered by Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), a national park ranger, who brings the young boy back to town.  Despite having the luxuries of modern-day conveniences, Pete misses his friend Elliot, but he has a difficult time convincing people that his dragon/friend/caretaker is real.

Throw in some bad (though not necessarily "evil") loggers, Grace's somewhat kooky father (played by Robert Redford), and a bit of an unnecessarily destructive climax involving a bridge collapse and you end up having a film that feels like it needed a little more focus in order to succeed.  As mentioned, the acting across the board is quite good, but the cast isn't given much to work with here.  This is a kid's movie about a dragon for goodness sakes -- it should scream "fun" and "enchanting," but director and co-writer David Lowery's film lacks any charm and fancifulness.  While Lowery crafts a film that looks good and creates a believable atmosphere for its characters (including the computer-generated Elliot) to inhabit, I found myself not wanting to spend all that much time with them with the heavy dreariness that seems to permeate throughout the piece.

Once again, as is often the case, Disney's live-action remake machine disappoints.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - The Bourne Supremacy

***Movie #2 of BOURNE Week***
The Bourne Supremacy (2004)

Starring Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Joan Allen, Brian Cox, Karl Urban, and Julia Stiles

Directed by Paul Greengrass

Director Paul Greengrass carries a certain amount of caché for me as he helmed one of the films that is part of my Personal Canon -- United 93.  The Bourne Supremacy, however, was only his third feature film and his first big budget Hollywood flick...and unfortunately, his nascence shows a little here.

Two years have passed since the events of The Bourne Identity and Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) and his girlfriend Marie (Franka Potente) are living a peaceful existence in India.  In Russia, however, the CIA are in the midst of an operation headed by Deputy Director Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) to retrieve the "Neski Files" which contain details about the theft of millions of dollars of CIA allocations.  The mission is interrupted when a Russian agent steals the files, kills all the CIA agents present, and plants Bourne's fingerprints at the scene of the crime.  The Russian agent then sets out on a mission to kill Bourne, but that goes horribly awry, sending Bourne out into the world to track down the man who tried to assassinate him.  Meanwhile, Landy and the CIA believe that former agent Bourne is the one who killed their men in Russia.  With Bourne being tracked down by both the Russians and the CIA -- with both seemingly intent to end his life -- he's found himself in a bit of trouble again all the while trying to overcome his amnesia to determine how exactly he became a spy for the CIA in the first place.

Most pleasant about The Bourne Supremacy is that it does a nice job of slowly building the backstory of the title character.  Getting little tidbits here and there places the viewer in Bourne's shoes -- just as he is unaware of his background, we are as well.  This ambiguity connects us to the character in a way that most other films of this ilk are unable.

However, The Bourne Supremacy feels a little too complex for its own good.  It's not that it's particularly confusing, it's just that it seems "big" and more worldly than it needs to be.  Having Russian spies trying to frame Bourne in an effort to keep info from the US expanded the story beyond where I felt or wanted it to be, pulling the focus too much away from Bourne himself.  Director Greengrass also lacks the eye just yet to really lens an action sequence, with many of the moments feeling less impressive than director Doug Liman's venture in the series' first film.  Fortunately for the series, by the time Greengrass went behind the camera again for the third Bourne edition, he learned a tremendous amount.

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 - Star Trek Into Darkness

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Alice Eve, and Benedict Cumberbatch

Directd by J.J. Abrams

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

With the origin story of 2009's Star Trek reboot behind us, I was looking forward to seeing what J.J. Abrams was going to bring to the table in Star Trek Into Darkness.  I should preface things by saying that while I like Star Trek, I'm no über-fan.  I haven't really seen any of the original movies and essentially was a ST:Next Generation guy and that was it.  So, if this movie resembles another (which I heard it did upon its release last year), it's news to me.  So, with that caveat out of the way, I'll say that I found Into Darkness to be a truly fun ride that nicely paces its action sequences and never once feels like the typical non-stop in-your-face special effects spectacle that most summer action movies are -- and I mean that in a good way.

Into Darkness places an emphasis on story and that's a welcome treat.  As far as the story goes, however, I'm not going to delve greatly into it as there are a few surprises in terms of Star Trek lore that are best to be left unsaid.  Needless to say that the way director Abrams and his long-time collaborator screenwriter Damon Lindelof (along with writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman) are able to weave the old Star Trek with this new reboot are inventive and enjoyable.  I'll also add that even if you've never seen another Star Trek film, you can start with Star Trek Into Darkness and not be lost.  Although it's a continuation of the 2009 film in terms of character development, there's nothing presented here that will make you feel lost if you start your Star Trek journey here.

As I mentioned, I appreciated that those involved creatively didn't feel the need to place action scenes directly after one another in a whiz-bang fashion.  However -- and this is the film's one true detriment -- because of the lack of action sequences, much of the cast wasn't showcased to its fullest potential. Whereas in the first film, I felt that actors like John Cho, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, and Anton Yelchin all got their moments in the sun that doesn't necessarily happen here.  In some ways, that's better -- the film's focus on Kirk, Spock (Zachary Quinto), and the villainous renegade Star Fleet member John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) streamlines things a bit more and eschews the need for "action moments" simply to place characters in scenes.  However, with a cast this good, I missed seeing them at times.  That said, Chris Pine has taken the character of Captain Kirk and imbued him with just the right amount of the suavely chauvinistic vibe William Shatner brought to the character without taking things overboard that he's quite enjoyable to watch.  Actors in movies like this don't get a lot of credit, but I think what Pine is doing with Kirk -- making him a cocky guy with a lot of heart -- is great stuff.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Red

Red (2010)

Starring Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Karl Urban, and Richard Dreyfuss

Directed by Robert Schwentke

This is the movie that crapfest The Expendables wishes it could have been.  Fun, entertaining, full of explosions, and good acting (although even ho-hum acting would've been a step up from the empty visages of Sly Stallone and Dolph Lundgren), the "geriatric actioner" Red was a pleasant surprise that had me smiling from beginning to end.

Recently retired CIA agent Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is in trouble.  For some reason or another, he has been targeted to be killed.  Narrowly escaping some home invaders, Frank flees and manages to reunite with some former (older) friends and fellow agents as they try and uncover who exactly is the mastermind behind the hit.

Now that the quick summary is out of the way, can I just mention how much fun it was to see Helen Mirren shooting machine guns?  There's an odd joy in the concept and director Robert Schwentke does a great job keeping a fun comic book-ish style going throughout the film (I'm not a comic guy at all, but now I kind of wanna read the book upon which this flick was based).  Perhaps because it's based on a graphic novel (or maybe in spite of it), Red has a hint of intelligence about it.  It's not just an idiotic shoot 'em up -- there's actually a purpose behind the kills.

Ultimately, though, what makes this movie work is the acting.  Across the board, you're looking at top-notch talent.  Bruce Willis is oddly charming and his relationship with Mary-Louise Parker provided surprising laughs.  Morgan Freeman and John Malkovich show comedic chops that I didn't think either actor had.  And Helen Mirren -- is it really wrong to think a 65-year old woman is sexy?  It's gotta be a British accent, I guess...I'll take Helen Mirren over Stallone any day.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+