Love Wedding Repeat

Love Wedding Repeat (2020)

Starring Sam Claflin, Olivia Munn, Elanor Tomlinson, Aisling Bea, Joel Fry, Allan Mustafa, Jack Farthing, Tim Key, and Freida Pinto

Directed by Dean Craig

Written by Dean Craig

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C

Movie Review - Mortdecai

Mortdecai (2015)

Starring Johnny Depp, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Bettany, Ewan McGregor, and Olivia Munn

Directed by David Koepp

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

I'm not sure movies can come worse that Mortdecai.  A purported comedy, not only did I not laugh once, but I never even found a smile forming on my face.  Johnny Depp is the title character -- an art dealer, but also a bit of a deviant conniver, willing to be a bit unscrupulous in order to try and save his vast English countryside estate from going under due to back taxes.  When an assailant kills an art restorer and steals a priceless painting, Inspector Alistair Martland (Ewan McGregor) enlists Mortdecai's help to try and track the painting.

The problem with Mortdecai - and it's a major problem - is that the film is a jumbled mess in tone and style.  I guess one would call it a spoof of a heist flick, but director David Koepp's cinematic mess never once finds its footing.  There are mild attempts at sex comedy that fall undeniably flat, seemingly in place only to gain the film an R-rating, but even they are so childishly risqué that it seems incomprehensible that the filmmakers felt like a R-rating was the way to go with this one (which is perhaps why you can watch a PG-13 version on Amazon Prime as well).  Action sequences feel out of place and poorly staged, lacking any semblance of excitement.  Dramatic moments are played for laughs which, since this is a spoof, could have been fine, but they play out with excruciatingly mind-numbingly idiocy.

Depp plays Mortdecai so incredibly over-the-top when compared to the rest of the cast (who only play things somewhat over-the-top) that he stands out like a "character" amongst more "real" people which is never a good thing.  Everything about his performance and everything about the movie is so heinously misguided by the director and the screenwriter that after twenty minutes, I desperately wanted to turn it off, but willed myself onward so I could finalize my Worst Films of 2015 list.

I could go on with this one, but quite frankly, I'm already so irritated that I've allowed my life to spend so much time dealing with this one.  Mortdecai is undeniably one of the worst films I've ever reviewed on this blog.

The RyMickey Rating:  F

Movie Review - Deliver Us from Evil

Deliver Us from Evil (2014)

Starring Eric Bana, Édgar Ramírez, Olivia Munn, Joel McHale, and Sean Harris

Directed by Scott Derrickson

If you're prone to epileptic seizures, Deliver Us from Evil may be the worst movie ever for you to attempt to watch.  There are more flickering lights than I've ever seen in a film, and when lights aren't flickering, we're treated to much lighting by a flashlight that enters and exits the frame.  Deliver Us from Evil attempts to be a little more "adult" in the horror story its trying to tell and I do give it credit for not appealing to the lowest common denominator of horror aficionados, but the film is a mess in large part due to the direction and screenplay cowritten by Scott Derrickson who can't seem to coax good performances out of his cast and really fails to create a visually enticing film to watch.  (And I liked what he did with his previous venture Sinister, so this was a big let down.)

To make a long convoluted story short, Eric Bana is a cop named Sarchie who teams up with a Jesuit priest named Mendoza (Édgar Ramírez) to solve a series of crimes that are being perpetrated by a seemingly possessed former US soldier home from Iraq.  There are a bunch of initially unrelated puzzle pieces that take much too long to set up -- the first thirty-five minutes seemed to go nowhere -- and although this opening act eventually made sense, I found myself wondering why in the world I was watching these episodic scenes of a cop investigating seemingly unrelated crimes.  The writing here just doesn't settle into place and the dialog between Sarchie and his wife (Olivia Munn) and his partner Butler (Joel McHale) just feels forced and lacking in any realness.

Add to that the already stated disappointing direction and Derrickson's belief that flickering florescent lights are the only things needed to develop tension and Deliver Us from Evil just doesn't work.  While the final exorcism sequence is a bit compelling and saves the film from being a total disaster, this one just disappoints all around.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Magic Mike

Magic Mike (2012)

Starring Channing Tatum, Matthew McConaughey, Cody Horn, Olivia Munn, and Alex Pettyfer 

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Unexpectedly good reviews and throngs of horny women greeted Magic Mike upon arrival in theaters in Summer 2012.  Like most straight men, there was simply no reason for me to check this out despite the fact that Steven Soderbergh has proven a solid (or at least an interesting) director whom I've certainly appreciated in the past.  Somehow, what was sold as a female fantasy flick about male strippers has managed to already garner awards this season with Matthew McConaughey being named Best Supporting Actor by the New York Film Critics' Association.  Time had come to check it out, throw any uncomfortableness and awkwardness aside, and find out if this thing really was any good.  The answer to that, plain and simple, is that Magic Mike is okay.  It certainly isn't the unabashed raunchfest its trailers made it out to be, but it tells a story that's been told a hundred times before and, despite the addition of male posteriors on display, it doesn't bring a whole lot new to the table.

Supposedly somewhat autobiographical for star Channing Tatum, Magic Mike is the story of the title character (played by Tatum), a man of many trades -- construction worker and furniture designer by day, stripper by night -- who befriends the young nineteen year-old Adam (Alex Pettyfer) while on a roofing job together.  Adam eventually discovers the truth about Mike's late-night source of income and finds himself thrust on stage one evening gyrating his junk in front of a bunch of crazy ladies.  Unable to pass up the nice income, Adam begins to blossom into his own on the nightclub's stage much to his sister's (Cody Horn) chagrin who worries (perhaps rightly so) that this career choice may lead her brother down seedier paths.

The biggest problem with Magic Mike is that the story is far from original despite the fact that director Steven Soderbergh attempts to liven things up with what I can only assume is improvised dialog and creative lensing.  Soderbergh also gets a fun performance out of Matthew McConaughey as Dallas, the owner of the strip club where Mike and Adam work.  Over-the-top and certainly charismatic, McConaughey is a strong presence, but I'm not sold on the fact that he's awards-worthy.  Also of note, Mr. Tatum and Mr. Pettyfer offer up what is likely their best work yet, despite the fact that neither character goes on any semblance of an original arc.

Ultimately, though, Magic Mike suffers from blandness in the story department.  While the horny women may have been able to overlook that because of the chiseled abs and asses, this reviewer wasn't moved by such displays.  Color me surprised that this one was so lauded by the critics.  I think they were just surprised by the fact that Soderbergh had delivered something that wasn't as jokey and hokey as Showgirls.

The RyMickey Rating:  C