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 - Good People

Good People (2014)

Starring James Franco, Kate Hudson, Tom Wilkinson, Omar Sy, Sam Spruell, and Anna Friel

Directed by Henrik Ruben Genz

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

The solid cast in Good People is the sole reason this flick was added to my Netflix streaming queue as I had never even known it existed, let alone was released to a small amount of theaters back in September 2014.  Then again, perhaps there was a reason I'd never heard of it as this one is pretty much as generic as they come.

Tom and Anna Wright (James Franco and Kate Hudson) are two Americans living in England and unfortunately having a rough go of it with Tom's fixer-upper, flipping houses business falling flat.  With an eviction notice on his doorstep, Tom is at a loss as to how to keep things afloat when the tenant living in the basement of his and Anna's flat dies.  Upon cleaning up his things, the couple uncover a large stash of money and are faced with the moral question of whether to keep their discovery or hand it over to John Halden (Tom Wilkinson), the lead detective who is investigating their tenant's ties with drug dealers.

Obviously, Tom and Anna are the "good people" in this scenario, but we all know the saying that "bad things happen to good people" and the couple find themselves caught in a triangulated spider web with multiple bad guys trying to lay claim to the money hidden in their basement.  Unfortunately, as the film progresses, we don't find ourselves caring for the couple's plight mainly because they're given so many opportunities to save themselves from harm's way that their incessant need to keep the cash seems foolishly oblivious.  Franco and Hudson attempt to let us in to their characters' intentions, but the actors can't persuade us that their actions are anything other than to create reasons for a movie like this to exist rather than be steeped in any semblance of reality.  The film's denouement devolves into a Home Alone style house of horrors moment that provokes laughter rather than creating tension.

While I have many qualms with Good People, it certainly isn't the worst barely released theatrical film I've seen.  I can't say I recommend it, however, but it kept my interest even though it was utterly ridiculous thanks to a very short running time (which is yet another reason why I even watched it in the first place).

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Wish I Was Here

Wish I Was Here (2014)

Starring Zach Braff, Kate Hudson, Pierce Gagnon, Joey King, Mandy Patinkin, and Josh Gad

Directed by Zach Braff

Wish I Was Here is no Garden State, but I appreciate what film director and screenwriter Zach Braff brings to the table.  There's a melancholic happiness (oxymoronic, I know) that seems to permeate throughout his two feature films that gives the audience the appropriate balance of sadness and joy for the characters he creates.  Unfortunately, there's a failure to connect on an emotional level present in Braff's second feature which is a somewhat large flaw given the film's storyline.

Braff has grown up since Garden State and here he plays Aidan Bloom, husband to Sarah (Kate Hudson), father to Grace and Tucker (Joey King and Pierce Gagnon), brother to Noah (Josh Gad), and son to Gabe (Mandy Patinkin).  Aidan has always longed to be an actor, but he finds himself struggling as of late to find roles, forcing his wife to be the family's sole breadwinner.  When Aidan discovers that his father has failed to pay the semester's tuition at Grace and Tucker's rabbinical private school, he meets with Gabe only to discover that his father's once-in-remission cancer has reared its ugly head again and he must use his grandchildren's tuition money to pay for experimental treatment.  With his kids forced out of school, Aidan finds his life turned upside down as he takes on home schooling in addition to trying to take care of his ailing father.

Wish I Was Here works best when it focuses on the immediate household of Aidan -- his relationship with his kids, his relationship with his wife.  When the film ventures outside of the home -- to Noah who has had a rocky relationship with Gabe all his life; to Sarah at work who's dealing with an unseemly co-worker; to some odd daydreams that find Aidan in a spacesuit -- the film feels like its lost its way.  Zach Braff and his brother Adam don't quite narrow the focus enough and it ends up proving detrimental to the crux of the story which is Aidan's relationship with his father and his coping mechanisms with feeling as if he was never good enough for his dad or a good enough man for his own family.  This film should've had moments that grabbed me -- and it didn't.

That said, Braff deserves additional opportunities and the fact that he's only made two films so far in a decade is a bit disheartening.  Quite frankly, I love the tender, charming, and melancholic happiness (there's that oxymoron again) that's seemingly inherent in his creative process.  He's got something and I wish he'd be given the opportunity to explore his talent behind the lens and on paper a bit more.  I may not have loved Wish I Was Here, but I certainly recognize the potential that is there in Mr. Braff and I hope we don't have to wait another ten years to see some more output from him.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Nine (2009)

Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Judi Dench, Fergie, Kate Hudson, Nicole Kidman, and Sophia Loren
Directed by Rob Marshall

As of this writing, Nine (not 9, the other 2009 release with the same title) is a conundrum to me. The more that I think of it (it's been settling in for about four hours now), the more I like it. In fact, I'm beginning to truly appreciate Rob Marshall's take on the Broadway musical which itself is a take on Frederico Fellini's 1963 film 8 1/2 (which, like most Italian cinema, I haven't seen...I'm not remotely familiar with the Broadway musical either). There's something really good here -- I think a huge chunk of the "good" lies in Marshall's direction. Unfortunately, there's some bad here, too, and that lies in the music behind the musical. When the music in your musical is lukewarm, it casts an unfortunate pallor over the whole affair and that seems to be the case here.

Guido Contini (Day-Lewis) is a famous Italian film director in the 1960s. He's in the midst of directing his latest film, the ambitious Italia, when he begins to have a mid-life crisis-type occurrence. The film he's making is somewhat autobiographical -- his take on how great women can affect a great man -- and Guido begins to think back on seven important women in his life (why not nine women? I have not clue). For some reason or another (this is a musical after all), all of these flashbacks occur with the ladies singing a song about their relationship with Guido.

Similar to Marshall's previous big screen musical, Chicago, in which the musical numbers were figments of characters' imaginations, all of the songs in Nine take place in Guido's mind. While this theatrical device works, I must admit that it took me a bit to warm up to the technique, but three songs in or so, I was on the bandwagon with Marshall. It helps that Marshall utilizes a variety of techniques during these flashbacks. While he overuses the quick cut, I appreciated how a few flashbacks were in beautiful black-and-white, really creating that old Italian film look (or that old Italian film look I've seen in clip retrospectives since, as I mentioned above, I'm quite unfamiliar with Italian cinema).

The burden of the film seems to be that the music just isn't all that good. Black-Eyed Peas singer Fergie actually has the most memorable and catchy song by far -- "Be Italian" -- and she performs it with zest. Kate Hudson sings "Cinema Italiano" which was apparently specifically written for the film and this number is also upbeat, whimsical, and enjoyable. I must admit that I never really got the love affair with Penélope Cruz's looks prior to this film, however she was completely sexy and alluring in her song (it's unfortunate that she's burdened with a silly subplot throughout the film). Judi Dench, Sophia Loren, and Nicole Kidman unfortunately come off the worst here, with Loren and Kidman being stuck with the worst songs by far in the flick (both of which come towards the end of the film, bringing the film to a halt after it had been on somewhat of an uptick).

By far, the shining star of the women here is Marion Cotillard. As Guido's wife, she gets to sing two songs, both of which, to me, contain the heart, soul, and emotional center of the film. As she longs for her husband to be faithful, she realizes that she's probably fighting a losing battle. Her "My Husband Makes Movies" was just heartbreaking and she sells it.

Daniel Day-Lewis is perfectly adequate and believable as the man-slut of the film. While I don't really think he learns his lesson in the end, I bought Day-Lewis as this sleazy director. But even though the film's center is his Guido, the film really belongs to the women in his life and Marshall rightly puts the focus on them.

I really think that this is a film that I will grow to appreciate more on repeated viewings. For now, though, I'm going to say Nine's a flawed picture. Rob Marshall certainly moves the episodic film along, but, in the end, it's really just that -- an episodic film that goes from woman to woman in Guido's life, giving each of them a song to sing with several of those songs being lukewarm at the very best.

The RyMickey Rating: C+

Movie Review - Bride Wars (2009)

Starring Kate Hudson, Anne Hathaway, and Candice Bergen
Written by Greg DePaul and Casey Wilson
Directed by Gary Winick

I'm an unabashed Anne Hathaway fan. She's cute, seems smart, and is a talented actress (see Rachel Getting Married for proof...go on...watch it...). Even in her silliest and inconsequential of movies (Get Smart as an example), she shines -- Bride Wars really isn't an exception. It's unfortunate that the movie itself is so devoid of laughs.

Movies like these make me wonder why women are so petty. You ladies really gonna lose a friendship over the fact that both of your weddings were scheduled on the same day? One of you really won't switch? Hathaway and her cohort, Kate Hudson, actually prove to be fine actresses in this one, but there's not a single damn thing worth watching in this film. Co-stars are weakly written; the music montages are ridiculously stupid; there's nothing here beyond two adequate performances from Hathaway and Hudson. And that's certainly not enough to recommend this film to anyone.

The RyMickey Rating: D