Beatriz at Dinner

Beatriz at Dinner (2017)

Starring Salma Hayek, John Lithgow, Connie Britton, Jay Duplass, Amy Landecker, Chloë Sevigny, and David Warshofsky

Directed by Miguel Arteta

Written by Mike White

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

Summary (in 500 words or less):  Masseuse Beatriz is invited to spend the evening at a dinner party given by her client's husband.  However, when the liberal Beatriz discovers the party's guests are all conservatives, she stands up to them and their beliefs (in a way only Hollywood movies could depict).

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C

Movie Review - Sausage Party

Sausage Party (2016)

Featuring the vocal talents of Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Salma Hayek, James Franco, Danny McBride, Paul Rudd, Nick Kroll, David Krumholtz, and Edward Norton

Directed by Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan

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

I'm guessing that in order to really and truly appreciate a movie like Sausage Party, certain psychotropic enhancements may be needed.  Undeniably raunchy, this animated tale takes us into Shopwell's supermarket where we find anthropomorphic food dreaming about being chosen by humans (whom the food believes are gods) to take a trip to the outside world (the "Great Beyond") where they will be treated to the most glorious existence they could ever know.  Being chosen is the ultimate goal of Frank (Seth Rogen), a hot dog in a pack of eight who, along with his girlfriend Brenda (Kristen Wiig), a hot dog bun in a pack of ten, desperately want to leave the supermarket so they can fulfill their destiny of consummating their relationship instead of being stuck in their respective plastic wraps.  Life is pretty grand for these food items until a can of honey mustard (Danny McBride) is returned to Shopwell's and he details the sheer horror the human gods enact on food - boiling, cutting, and chewing in a murderous, heathen-like way.  This sends the food into a bit of a tizzy and, through a series of chaotic events, Frank and Brenda find themselves outside of their packages and trekking across the store to find out if there is any truth to Honey Mustard's claim.

There is some cleverness to Sausage Party that is undeniable.  Decidedly adult, the film doesn't mince any punches when it comes to the risqué aspects of the story.  While this works for a while, Frank and Brenda's sexual innuendos wear thin after a bit as does the film's notion that simply dropping an F-bomb or some other variation of curse word automatically yields a laugh.  Perhaps I'm just becoming a much-too-stuffy adult, but a little restraint in the coarse language would've worked wonders here because about twenty minutes in, I almost gave up seeing as how all the supposed humor was coming from seeing a piece of corn say "Eff This or That."  Nonetheless, I hung on and while I don't think Sausage Party ends up being a successful film simply because the writers cheapened the whole thing by their verbiage, there are some stellar set pieces that are incredibly humorous.  While I won't spoil these moments, they all revolve around the food realizing just how "evil" their human gods really are and they work incredibly well at providing humor that isn't necessarily coarse-language-based.

I realize I may be coming off as a bit of a prude and that's not my intention with this review.  I drop F-bombs often...but there's such a thing as moderation.  Impact is lost when that's your only way of trying to be humorous.  In the end, this hurt Sausage Party overall for me.  Despite some clever moments and some rather ingenious set pieces, there were too many lulls where the writers thought they were being funny, but really weren't.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - The Pirates! Band of Misfits

The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012)

Featuring the voice talents of Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, Imelda Staunton, David Tennant, Jeremy Piven, Anton Yelchin, Brendon Gleeson, and Salma Hayek

Directed by Peter Lord and Jeff Newitt

The Pirates! Band of Misfits feels distinctly Aardman, the same animation studio that brought us Flushed Away, Chicken Run, and the Wallace and Gromit shorts and film.  There's no mistaking the company's wry British sense of humo(u)r and the Claymation-style stop motion animation.  However, while the animation proves to be fantastic (I honestly thought it was computer-animated until I did a bit of research), the story about a band of misfit pirates (hence the title) doesn't quite have enough oomph to satisfy.

All Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) wants is to be named Pirate of the Year.  For years, he's never been able to get the coveted award and he's clamored to be anything other than a laughing stock amongst his fellow pirates (some voiced by Jeremy Piven and Salma Hayek).  However, Pirate Captain's biggest problem is that he's simply not very good at his chosen profession.  He always seem to fail when it comes to one of the key factors in gauging a pirate's success -- stealing booty.  Determined to find his place at the top of the Pirate of the Year ballot, Pirate Captain sets off on a mission to steal as much booty as he can find and ends up raiding the ship of Charles Darwin (David Tennant).  Darwin has nothing worth stealing, but discovers that Pirate Captain's parrot is actually the last remaining dodo on the planet.  Seeing dollar signs before his eyes and with the prospect of earning much admiration from Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton), Darwin convinces the Pirate Captain to travel to London with him to present the dodo at a huge science convention.  The Pirate Captain, lured by the prospect of a "giant prize" at the affair, obliges despite the fact that the Queen absolutely despises pirates and does all that she can to see they are executed.

All of that plot is certainly amusing and it had me convinced that I was in for a nice and unexpected treat.  However, that all takes place in the film's first thirty minutes and the remaining fifty minutes simply wanders about rather aimlessly, losing the momentum of the strong first act.  As I mentioned above, the animation is rather stunning.  I've always been a fan of Aardman's unique stop-motion style and it doesn't disappoint here.  In fact, the fluidity of movement in Pirates is the best I've seen from them, but it still maintains the uniqueness that is stop-motion animation.  Couple the beautiful animation with some nice voice acting particularly from an unrecognizable Hugh Grant as Pirate Captain and Martin Freeman as his trusty partner Pirate with a Scarf and you have all the makings of a nice film.

Which is why it's all the more unfortunate that the story didn't have a little more to offer.  The Pirates! Band of Misfits isn't a bad film and it's not even something I'd consider a disappointment.  It's disheartening, however, that there appeared to be so much potential here that wasn't quite fully realized.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Puss in Boots

Puss in Boots (2011)

Featuring the voice talents of Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, and Zach Galifianakis

Directed by Chris Miller

The Shrek franchise is not one I'm fond of in the least.  While its pop culture sensibilities and cheap attempts at humor changed the animation genre, I don't think it did so for the better and, fortunately, we're seeing a shift away from that.  Quite surprisingly, Puss in Boots, a spin-off of the Shrek flicks, tells a pleasant story riffing on Mother Goose tales, but leaves the pop culture references behind.

Admittedly, I watched this while on a plane so I failed to get a good look at the animation since the screen was literally the size of a large index card, but I was impressed with the story this was trying to tell.  After learning that Jack and Jill have magic beans that will grow a magic beanstalk, Puss (Antonio Banderas) sets out on a mission to find them in order to gain access to the golden eggs laid by the golden goose at the top of stalk.  He teams up with fellow sassy cat Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) and his former childhood friend Humpty Dumpty (Zack Galifianakis) and adventures inevitably ensue.

Even with the short 85 minute running time, the film felt a tad "empty" in terms of story, but I give Puss in Boots credit for taking a different tonal approach from its Shrek predecessors and doing so successfully.  Rather than mean-spirited (which Shrek sometimes feels to me), the flick contains amusing characters that are more than capable of holding their own with the fairy tale fables played for their charm rather than for a snarky joke.

The RyMickey Rating:  B