Death on the Nile

 Death on the Nile (2021)

Starring Kenneth Branagh, Tom Bateman, Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Ali Fazal, Dawn French, Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Rose Leslie, Emma Mackey, Sophie Okonedo, Jennifer Saunders, and Letitia Wright

Directed by Kenneth Branagh

Written by Michael Green

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C

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 - Trolls

Trolls (2016)

Featuring the vocal talents of Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Zooey Deschanel, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Christine Baranski, Russell Brand, James Corden, Jeffrey Tambor, and John Cleese

Directed by Mike Mitchell

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

In all of my 2016 viewings, animated films have been decidedly lukewarm, failing to truly excite or entertain in any magnificent fashion.  Color me surprised, then, by my reaction to Trolls, a colorful, finely animated, nicely voice-acted, incredibly fun romp.  And the fact that it's brought to us by Dreamworks -- an animation studio that often leaves me disappointed -- is even more flabbergasting to me with Trolls undoubtedly being my favorite animated film the studio has released thus far.

The tiny elf-like creatures known as the Trolls are an incredibly happy group, prone to singing, dancing, and hugging every hour on the hour.  The Bergens, on the other hand, are human-sized goblin-like folks who live in a perpetual state of disappointment, unable to find happiness.  Years ago, however, the Bergens discovered that eating a Troll can provide a feeling of happiness and, because of this, the Bergens rounded up all the Trolls and caged them in a tree in a courtyard in Bergentown.  Every year on Trollstice, the Bergens allow themselves to eat one Troll and be truly happy for a few hours, and this year young Prince Gristle (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) is going taste his first Troll, feeling contentment for the first time.  The Trolls, however, have finally had enough and plan an elaborate and successful escape from Bergetown thanks to King Peppy (Jeffrey Tambor) and his daughter Princess Poppy (Anna Kendrick).  For years, the Trolls lived a blissful Bergen-free life, but following a raucous singing party, the Trolls are discovered by Chef (Christine Baranski), a Bergen banished from Bergentown following the escape of the Trolls.  Chef catches several of the Trolls and takes them back to the now King Gristle, but Princess Poppy along with the help of the only sad Troll around -- Branch (Justin Timberlake) -- set out to save their friends from digestion.

Sure, all of that sounds ridiculous and as I typed it, I couldn't actually fathom how I could've possibly enjoyed this silliness, but Trolls tells its upbeat story well and embraces the sheer frivolity.  The peppiness of the trolls is surprisingly enhanced by well-known pop songs as well as some pleasantly ear-catching original numbers sung by the likes of Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, and Zooey Deschanel all of whom -- as well as the rest of the vocal cast -- create believable voices for their characters.  Animation-wise, I found the computer animation to carry a slight Claymation tone and the environments which the Trolls and Bergens inhabit feel decidedly unique -- bright, cheerful, and arts-and-crafts-like for the Trolls and pointy, dark, and gloomy for the Bergens -- lacking the somewhat generic habitats we sometimes see in the cinematic animation landscape.

Pixar often aims for the heart, but Trolls doesn't even attempt that instead aiming for a visceral euphoria via its music, color, and pleasantly engaging (though simple) story.  While Trolls doesn't attempt to be deep or emotionally-investing in a Pixar-like way, it's fun...and sometimes that's enough.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Rock of Ages

Rock of Ages (2012)

Starring Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Malin Akerman, Mary J. Blige, Bryan Cranston, Alec Baldwin, and Tom Cruise

Directed by Adam Shankman

Movies don't get much worse than Rock of Ages, one of the most dreadful films I've seen in a long time.     There's a line in Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" which is sung two or three times in this musical that says "the movie never ends / it goes on and on and on and on," and, boy, does this movie seem an interminable mess.  I'm legitimately not sure why I watched the whole thing except to say that I knew within the first ten minutes that this was going to be the worst movie of 2012 and I needed to at least be able to have seen the movie that warranted that ignominious prize.

Somehow or another, this melange of horrible '80s rock music has been running on Broadway since 2009 and it's still going strong.  With a paper thin plot involving "small town girl" Sherrie (Julianne Hough) who moves to L.A. to make it in the music industry only to find that life is more difficult than she could have imagined, Rock of Ages throws in a bunch of perfunctory characters to try and round out the tale.  Of course, Sherrie falls in love almost immediately upon arrival with Drew (Diego Boneta), an aspiring rock star who works at the iconic rock venue The Bourbon Room run by Lonny (Russell Brand) and Dennis (Alec Baldwin) whose "witty" repartee proves groan-inducing.  The Bourbon Room is unfortunately a bit behind in paying their taxes and Dennis formulates a deal for aging rock star and nonsensical alcoholic druggie Stacie Jaxx (Tom Cruise) to play a solo performance at the establishment, much to the chagrin of the new L.A. mayor (Bryan Cranston) and his bitchy wife Patricia (Catherine Zeta-Jones), the latter of whom is on a mission to "sanitize" the city by ridding it of its bars and strip clubs.

But since bars, strip clubs, alcohol, and rock and roll are totally tubular (there's an '80s term that thankfully faded), screw the government and rock on!  At least, that's what we're supposed to feel.  Instead, I just longed for this movie to come to a close.  Filled with some of the worst performances of the year (Mary J. Blige should never get another acting job after this), there's nothing even remotely positive to latch onto.  I thought maybe Tom Cruise who is certainly taking on a different role in Stacie Jaxx than we've seen from him before might at least provide some amusement in hamming it up for the screen, but instead I just felt bad for him to be involved in this dreck.  The two leads in Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta actually come out of this the most unscathed simply because their characters were the most "normal," and despite looking all doe-eyed and innocent for much of the film, neither were given embarrassing moments to undertake like the rest of their fellow cast members.

Director Adam Shankman who did a rather brilliant job with the amusing and cheerful Hairspray several years ago should've known better.  The film jolts back and forth between its various characters too much and the musical numbers are filmed rather blandly, lacking any imagination or creativity.  I don't think you could pay me enough money to watch Rock of Ages again.  Painful...just painful...

The RyMickey Rating:  F

Movie Review - Arthur

Arthur (2011)

Starring Russell Brand, Helen Mirren, Greta Gerwig, Geraldine James, and Jennifer Garner

Directed by Jason Winer

Having never seen the original somewhat beloved and Oscar-winning 1981 Arthur with Dudley Moore and Liza Minnelli, I came into this with no preconceived notions.  To be honest, the only thing I really associated with the film was the cheesefest of a song by one of my father's favorites shlockmeister songwriters Christopher Cross.  I did know (as the previews for this 2011 re-telling made clear) that the film focuses on the titular character, Arthur, a booze-swilling rich guy who, as the aforementioned song says, "does as he pleases...but deep in his heart he's just a boy...showing himself a really good time laughing about the way they want him to be."

And, sure enough, that premise is pretty much spot on in the remake.  Arthur (Russell Brand) is a rich man-child who proves to be quite a handful for his mother Vivienne (Geraldine James) who, while running the billion dollar Bach Corporation, finds her son's crazy antics across New York City to be quite detrimental to her company and its investors.  In order to curb his shenanigans, she presents her son with an ultimatum -- either marry the up-and-coming businesswoman Susan (Jennifer Garner) who can then be next in line to run the company or be completely cut off from mommy's pocketbook.  Afraid to give up his lavish and outrageous lifestyle, Arthur agrees to the plan, but soon finds himself falling in love with Naomi (Greta Gerwig), a "normal girl" whom he meets on the streets while gallivanting one day.  The quasi-love triangle puts Arthur in quite a predicament.

All of the above is a perfectly acceptable storyline.  As a matter of fact, I thought the first hour of Arthur flew by, provided me with enough guffaws, and proved to be pleasant enough thanks to a surprisingly charming performance from Russell Brand.  However, the second hour delves into trying to get Arthur to "change" from a drunken oaf to a regular Joe Schmo.  And the problem is I didn't give a damn about Arthur's reform.  This guy's much more fun as a lewd drunk than he is as a serious guy.  Apparently the original recognized this to a certain degree as they left the awkward Alcoholics Anonymous bit, but this remake just falters when it forces Brand to try and act sane.

It's a shame, really, because I did find myself somewhat admiring Brand's performance here.  He manages to be both debonair and repulsive at the same time and that's not exactly an easy task.  Similarly, although Jennifer Garner and Greta Gerwig don't have much to work with as stereotypical opposite ends of the dating spectrum, they do well with what they're given.  And Helen Mirren as Arthur's nanny, even with her hair up in bun and clad in muted grays, is still a pretty darn attractive 66-year old lady.  And all of those performances make it rather disappointing that the film is fundamentally flawed in its attempt to change the attitude and mindset of the title character.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Despicable Me

Despicable Me (2010)

Featuring the voices of Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews, Will Arnett, and Kristen Wiig

Directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud

Perhaps I'm just a curmudgeon, but the animated flick Despicable Me just didn't resonate with me in the slightest.  I came away with the equivalent of shrugged shoulders -- it wasn't bad, it wasn't good, it was just "meh."

Ultimately, the fault lies in the story because the animation and voice acting are more than adequate.  While the idea behind the flick is amusing enough -- a down-on-his-luck, aging evil villain plots the ultimate crime by stealing the moon -- Despicable Me becomes bogged down by the addition of three orphaned girls who attempt to provide an emotional counterpoint to the lunacy of the villain.  In its attempt at aiming for the "heart" that Pixar is so adept at providing in its films, Despicable Me doesn't succeed.  I'm honestly not quite sure why the filmmakers attempted to go for the emotion because sometimes simple fun is more than enough.

In the end, my lack of words in this review is because I'm just "meh" on Despicable Me.  I didn't like or dislike it...it was just 85 minutes of "meh."

The RyMickey Rating:  C