The Call of the Wild

 The Call of the Wild (2020)

Starring Harrison Ford, Omar Sy, Cara Gee, and Dan Stevens

Directed by Chris Sanders

Written by Michael Green

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Burnt

Burnt (2015)

Starring Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Omar Sy, Daniel Brühl, Matthew Rhys, Alicia Vikander,  Uma Thurman, and Emma Thompson

Directed by John Wells

Burnt is a well-acted film about a once great Michelin Star-earning chef named Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper) who lost it all when drugs and horrible behavior upended his career at an early age.  After taking time to reflect on his wrongs back home in the United States, Adam returns to London to start his career again, opening a new restaurant and trying to right the wrongs of his past.

Despite the aforementioned notion that Burnt is well-acted, it's a film that just kind of sits there and doesn't excite the audience in any way.  Director John Wells paces the already short film in such a way that it doesn't engage us and pull us in to Adam's life.  Sure, the glossy and well-lit scenes of kitchen work are pretty, but once we move beyond the boiling pots, buttered-up pans, and fancy sous vide machines, there's no dramatic tension in this otherwise typical film about a formerly unpleasant guy becoming pleasant.

Bradley Cooper is quite good and his character is at least a little bit captivating.  His relationships with his sous chefs (Sienna Miller, Omar Sy), his front-of-house staff (Daniel Brühl), and rival (Matthew Rhys) are all pleasant enough and all well-performed by the cast.  Unfortunately, there's very little for the actors to sink their teeth into which goes hand-in-hand with the lack of any tension and significant plot.  Burnt isn't a particularly bad movie, but by the end I just shrugged my shoulders and moved on.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - X-Men: Days of Future Past

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

Starring Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Nicholas Hoult, Ellen Page, Peter Dinklage, Shawn Ashmore, Omar Sy, Evan Peters, Ian McKellan, and Patrick Stewart

Directed by Bryan Singer

While perhaps an unpopular opinion, I think that X-Men: First Class is one of the best superhero movies of all time.  Upon a second watch right before viewing its sequel, I once again was captivated by the flick's stories, direction, 1960s setting, and acting.  So, X-Men: Days of Future Past admittedly had a tough act to follow and while it doesn't quite live up to the high water mark of its predecessor, the film's attempt to bridge both the current generation of 2010's X-Men franchise with the 2000s X-Men franchise is solid.

Sometime in the future, robots known as Sentinels are killing all of the mutants and Professor X and Magneto (Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan) have devised a plan using Kitty Pryde's (Ellen Page) powers to send Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back in time in order to try and change their present.  It's determined that post-Vietnam War, Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) was captured by the US government and her DNA was studied by military scientist Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) in order to create the shape-shifting beings known as the Sentinals.  By sending Wolverine back to right before Mystique is caught, Professor X and Magneto are hoping that they can change the course of history and prevent the Sentinels from even existing.

Fortunately, the dank, dark, overly computerized world of the future takes a backseat to Wolverine's trip down the 1970s memory lane and the large majority of Days of Future Past takes place in the past with James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender reprising their roles as the younger versions of Charles Xavier and Eric Lehnsherr (Professor X and Magneto, respectively).  Once again, director Bryan Singer does a really great job creating a believable 1970s world for the X-Men to inhabit and it creates a landscape we don't often see in superhero movies that are so often told in the present day.  This retro feel continues to work to this X-Men iteration's advantage.

For the most part, the acting ensemble works well together, although I found the focus on Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique to leave a little to be desired.  Behind all that make-up and computer-generated blueness for her character, Lawrence's emoting stays a bit hidden which is a bit of a shame.  Additionally, the actors that make up the "future" segment of the film aren't given a whole lot to do and what they are tasked with gets repetitive pretty darn quickly.

While X-Men: Days of Future Past isn't as interesting or compelling as First Class, I give the film credit for refusing to back down from its conceit of pitting the X-Men against one another as they struggle to figure out whether the US government wants to help or hurt them.  This creates a constant feeling of uncertainty amongst the characters that gives them all much more depth than we have come to expect in superhero movies and it's one of the biggest reasons I think this X-Men series has been so successful.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

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 - Jurassic World

Jurassic World (2015)

***Viewed in 3D***
Starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson, Vincent D'Onofrio, Irrfan Khan, Jake Johnson, Omar Sy, BD Wong, and Judy Greer

Directed by Colin Trevorrow

While Jurassic World doesn't have the same emotional pull as 1993's Jurassic Park when we first witnessed dinosaurs roam across the screen under the more than capable direction of Steven Spielberg, this 2015 return to that same Costa Rican island is by far the best sequel of that film to come down the pike.  Thanks to similarly capable direction by Colin Trevorrow (of which this is only his second film), his crew of screenwriters, and surprisingly winning performances from Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, Jurassic World is an enjoyable continuation of this series paying enough homage to the past while also creating well-rounded characters all on its own.

We return to Isla Nublar, and despite the chaos that ensued in the first three films of this series, the InGen corporation and its CEO Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan) have decided to bankroll the theme park Jurassic World.  Years have gone by and the park is a huge success -- which is more than can be said for John Hammond's initial attempts in the first film of the series.  However, much like your typical theme park experience, the guests keep wanting more and more.  In order to satisfy the masses, the park's operations manager Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) has had InGen's geneticists (headed by Dr. Henry Wu -- BD Wong of Jurassic Park fame) cook up a genetically-modified dinosaur called the Indominus rex which is bigger and more deadly than any predator currently on the island.  While he certainly appreciates the "Bigger!  Faster!  Scarier!" mindset, Masrani wants to ensure his guests' safety, so he asks Claire to have one of the park's well-respected trainers and former military man Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) check out the Indominus' paddock.  Unfortunately, as is wont to happen in a film like this, something goes wrong...and then things start getting worse and worse.

While the basic plot is certainly similar to that of Jurassic Park, the film never feels as if it's simply aping the original.  The amusement park aspect of this film is much more fully realized and more commercialized -- more fitting for today's society -- and feels unique enough to not be a simple rehash.  Yes, we're still given two kids in peril -- Claire's nephews Zach and Gray (Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins) are visiting their aunt when all hell breaks loose.  We have another vehicle malfunction which causes some issues with the dinos (although this is at least almost as exciting as the Jeep sequence in the original since The Lost World gave us such a hideous car moment).  We have an ending that is nearly identical to the original.  Yet, somehow, Jurassic World still comes out feeling fresh (and this is coming from someone who just watched all the films in the Quadrilogy within the span of a week).

Part of the reason for Jurassic World's success is the charisma and charm exuded from Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard.  While I've liked Howard in things, I've never thought her to be a captivating presence onscreen.  She tends to always play dour and forlorn, yet here she totally won me over with an authoritative bitchiness which then gradually cedes into a somewhat heartwarming aunt who not only fears for her nephews but for her guests within the park.  It helps, of course, that in her scenes with Chris Pratt the two have a natural chemistry that creates a humorously amorous relationship.  Their constant bickering at the film's outset is inevitably foreshadowing a romance down the line, but the duo make the obviousness work.

Quite frankly, I'm not sure Pratt could ever not have chemistry with someone onscreen.  It's obvious that this guy has the charm, suaveness, and debonair attitude to be this decade's Movie Star and Jurassic World continues to prove that point.  He's fun to watch and I think that has to stem from the fact that Pratt is just beginning this leg of his career path.  He knows what's ahead and I think he's living in the moment and relishing every second of it.  His excitement is contagious and certainly works in the film's favor.

There's nothing wrong with having a little fun at the movies and Jurassic World is just that.  While it can't reach the levels of the original, it's certainly a worthy successor and one that carries on Spielberg and Michael Crichton's legacy proudly.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

*Note:  I'm really hovering between a B+/B here.  I'm so early in my 2015 reviews -- I've only seen three films at this point -- that my rubric is so small, it's tough to really judge.  I reserve the right to lower or raise this slightly once I've seen ten or so 2015 films.*

Movie Review - The Intouchables

The Intouchables (2012)

Starring François Cluzet, Omar Sy, Anne Le Ny, and Audrey Leurot

Directed by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano

The most successful French film (shot in French) in nearly two decades, The Intouchables is based on a true story of a wealthy white man named Philippe (François Cluzet) who becomes a quadriplegic after a horrible paragliding accident.  Needing someone to assist him with everyday activities like getting dressed, eating, and bathing, Philippe hires Driss (Omar Sy), a black man who only applied for the job in order to get a signature to continue to receive his welfare checks.  The two couldn't be more opposite -- Philippe lives in a mansion in the heart of Paris, Driss is an ex con recently released from prison -- but  in the tradition of films like The Blind Side and Driving Miss Daisy, these two very different people become good friends despite what society may think about the relationship.

The Intouchables is incredibly basic.  The simplicity of the whole thing coupled with the fact this is a dramedy has me shocked that this was so popular in France.  However, there is something that grabs you with this story and makes it quite compelling even though the whole thing isn't all that original.  Co-directors and screenwriters Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano weave just the right amounts of comedy and drama into the mix to have the film move along at a brisk pace and their efforts help to elevate the film beyond what it really is.

Despite that backhanded praise, the film truly succeeds thanks to the efforts of François Cluzet and Omar Sy both of whom capture your attention from their first moments onscreen.  There's an energy the two have both as individuals and as a duo that is rarely captured on film.  Like the best buddy comedies, Cluzet and Sy play off of each other incredibly well.  Both have a captivating presence and can easily switch between the humor and drama that their roles require of them.  Additionally, Anne Le Ny and Audrey Leurot give some nice performances, too, as two of Philippe's assistants, so the entire cast is a pleasure to watch.

There's no denying that The Intouchables is quite basic in terms of what it brings to the table, but not every movie has to reinvent the wheel.  With performances worthy of attention and a wonderful balance in tones, this one is absolutely worth a watch and a nice primer for those wary of watching foreign subtitled films.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+