Ghostbusters II

Ghostbusters II (1989) 

Starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, and Peter MacNicol

Directed by Ivan Reitman

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Working Girl

Working Girl (1988)

Starring Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Alec Baldwin, and Joan Cusack

Directed by Mike Nichols

Written by Kevin Wade

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Alien: Resurrection

--Alien Week--

Please note that all "Alien Week" film reviews may contain spoilers related to both the film that is being reviewed and other films in the series.

Alien: Resurrection (1997)

Starring Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, and Ron Perlman

Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet

The Theatrical Version was watched as the director prefers the original cut.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.  After a rousing start with Alien and a terrific follow-up with Aliens, the science fiction horror franchise starring Sigourney Weaver began to falter with Alien 3 and now lands with a horrible thud thanks to Alien: Resurrection, a film that is so tonally different from its predecessors that it's jarring to viewers and almost uncomfortable to sit through.

The blame has to be placed on two people -- screenwriter Joss Whedon and director Jean-Pierre Jeunet.  Whedon -- best known for mixing wry comedy with more dire situations in things like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Cabin in the Woods -- is a good writer, but I'm not quite sure he was the right pick to pen an Alien picture.  Previous installments have been über-serious, but this fourth film in which Weaver's Ripley (who died in Alien 3) returns as a human clone developed by the military solely to give birth to alien life forms is too often played for laughs (and with the ludicrous aforementioned premise it's easy to see why they went for the yuks).  Unlike the third film, Whedon at least attempts to create some memorable characters with distinct personalities, but he isn't always successful at crafting anything more than the standard stereotypical machismo-type folks that typically inhabit action films like this.  We're given caricatures instead of "real" people.

Also needing to take a heap of the blame for the film's failure is director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the helmer behind the fantastical and visually inventive Amelie.  Jeunet doesn't ever really go for scares...and what's an Alien film without scares or at least the imminent threat of scares?  The aliens here are even sometimes played for a laugh and that's almost sacrilegious.  He also fails to get good performances from much of the supporting players, many of whom are asked to play up the humor rather than the sheer terror that should come from killer creatures running rampant in a spaceship.

During the film's second half, the humor gets tossed aside and Jeunet attempts to create an action film (though the scares still remain nonexistent), but he isn't successful in that respect either.  However, it's the combined missteps from both Jeunet and Whedon that make Alien: Resurrection the biggest disappointment thus far in the Alien franchise and an unfortunate coda to the series.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Alien 3

--Alien Week--

Please note that all "Alien Week" film reviews may contain spoilers related to both the film that is being reviewed and other films in the series.

Alien 3 (1992)

Starring Sigourney Weaver, Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance, and Lance Henriksen

Directed by David Fincher

The Theatrical Edition was watched as Fincher has never signed off on the Extended Cut.

Blogger won't permit me to type it this way, but the proper title of David Fincher's first time venture into feature film directing should really read Alien to the Third Power.  While I guess it's clever, it almost implies an overabundance of aliens whereas the second outing in this movie series was definitely the one that upped the alien ante.  Alien 3 is rather subdued and oddly bland, lacking any of the excitement or tension that is so prevalent in the first two installments of this series.

As the opening credits sequence rolls, we see that although there were four survivors of the last flick, only Ripley is left alive when their "escape pod" ship lands on a barren penal colony planet.  Although it doesn't appear that an alien is responsible for the deaths of her former friends, we soon discover that there was a stowaway onboard Ripley's ship of the non-humanoid kind and that this alien will soon cause quite a ruckus amongst the men in the prison.

Ultimately, the biggest problem with Alien 3 is that you simply don't grow to care about any of the characters, and as they start getting picked off one by one, their deaths don't resonate with the audience a bit.  The prisoners are all interchangeable with not a single one having a real discernible personality (or at least an interesting discernible personality).  I may have criticized Aliens director-screenwriter James Cameron's lack of believable dialog and sometimes cookie-cutter characterizations, but they're Shakespeare compared to what we're given here. Even Sigourney Weaver's Ripley almost feels as if she's phoning it in if only because her character isn't given a whole lot to do.  I mean, sure, she's given the interesting prospect of being impregnated by the same aliens she's been fighting for years, but the film doesn't explore this interesting twist in a manner that is all that fulfilling.

While David Fincher did give the film a unique look in the Aliens filmography -- opting for more earth-like browns as opposed to the steely, futuristic grays of the other installments -- there's unfortunately nothing visually appealing to gaze upon either.  Apparently the final product was heavily tampered with by the studio and that appears most evident in the lack of visceral tension that Fincher is usually so great at creating -- see Se7en or Panic Room or even The Social Network -- which is necessary in order for a film like this to succeed.

Alien 3 certainly isn't an awful film and it's not even the worst of the series (a bit of foreshadowing there to my thoughts on Alien: Resurrection), but it's a disappointing downturn for this Sigourney Weaver-fronted franchise.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - Aliens (Director's Cut)

--Alien Week--

Please note that all "Alien Week" film reviews may contain spoilers related to both the film that is being reviewed and other films in the series.

Aliens (Director's Cut) (1986)

Starring Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn, Lance Henrikson, Bill Paxton, and Paul Reiser

Directed by James Cameron

Note: The Director's Cut was watched because it is the preferred cut of James Cameron.

Nearly every review of James Cameron's Aliens starts out with (or eventually gets to) the fact that while the original Alien was a pure "horror" film, the 1986 sequel falls a bit more into the "action" genre.  They don't fault the production for this (in fact, this sequel is better reviewed on Rotten Tomatoes than its predecessor), but they try and make this a known fact.  While I'm not going to try a debunk their take on it, I can't help but mention the fact that Aliens is a movie in which a whole bunch of people are getting killed by a whole bunch of alien life forms in quite bloody ways.  Sure, these people may be holding futuristic machine guns and grenades, but they're still getting their insides gutted open.  So, in conclusion, don't let that "action" genre descriptor lull you in to a false sense of security.

It's fifty-seven years after the first film and Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley -- our lone survivor from the spaceship Nostromo -- has been drifting around in space in a deep hypersleep for nearly six decades.  Picked up by a salvage ship that just so happens to be piloted by her former bosses at Weyland-Yutani (you know, those creeps who wanted her to capture rather than kill the alien in the last film), Ripley finds herself in a rather angsty depression now that she's become aware that everyone she's known (including her daughter) has died in the years she's been presumed dead. [Note:  This familial yearning is a concept that is made much more prevalent in the Director's Cut which gives much more needed gravitas to Ripley's emotional plight.]  Ripley soon discovers that a crew of dozens of families had been sent by Weyland-Yutani back to the planet in which Ripley's initial crew first discovered the aliens in order to form a colony and now this new crew is failing to respond to calls.  Ripley, Weyland-Yutani representative Carter Burke (Paul Reiser), and a dozen or so Marines venture back to the planet in order to find out what has happened to the colonizers...needless to say, those nasty aliens are going to rear their ugly heads.

James Cameron, despite his rather obnoxiously high opinion of himself, is a very solid director, well aware of what it takes to create and build tension which is key in the success of a film such as Aliens.  Much like its predecessor, Cameron allows for the nerve-wracking edginess to build only to fully release once Ripley and the Marines land on the alien-inhabited planet.

Cameron, however, isn't a perfect director despite what his ego may tell him.  Typical of Cameron films, Aliens has two faults that seemingly come with the territory for his films.  First, he's no whiz at crafting dialog.  In fact, it's probably his worst characteristic as a screenwriter.  Here, it's particularly evident in the way the Marines speak to one another.  There were just moments where I couldn't help but laugh and shake my head at the sheer banality of what Cameron was force-feeding the actors to spout.

This lack of believable (or interesting) dialog leads into the second problem which is somewhat typical of Cameron films -- the acting isn't always top notch.  While Weaver is great as is a slimy Paul Reiser in a rather understated "villain" role, nearly all the Marines are so stereotypical "ooh-rah!" over-the-top that I couldn't help but be taken out of the "realism" the movie tries to create.  Bill Paxton, in particular, is really awful, hamming it up in nearly every single scene.  Cameron also, unfortunately, fails to get a good performance from young Carrie Henn in her first (and only) cinematic role.  As Newt, a young girl found by Ripley in the colony after they land, Henn just never inhabited the character to me...but I'm probably being a bit too harsh on the young gal.

It's because of these issues that Aliens doesn't quite match the excellence of Alien even though Cameron's film is actually a bit better paced than its predecessor.  Still, these two films were wonderful franchise starters...it's just a shame that future films couldn't live up to their levels.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Alien

--Alien Week--
Please note that all "Alien Week" film reviews may contain spoilers related to both the film that is being reviewed and other films in the series.

Alien (1979)

Starring Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto

Directed by Ridley Scott

The Theatrical Edition rather than the Special Edition was watched as the theatrical cut is the preferred edit of Ridley Scott.

I've always had a certain fondness for the Alien franchise ever since I was scared out of my mind as a nine year-old seeing the creature "first hand" on The Great Movie Ride at the then-named Disney-MGM Studios theme park in Orlando, Florida.  I remember clutching onto my parents as that ride headed through a replica of the spaceship Nostromo with an audio-animatronic figure of female badass Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) shaking as she holds a massive gun on the lookout for the nasty title creature who manages to surprisingly pop out from the ceiling and walls, thus frightening that little nine year-old me and scarring me for, at the very least, the next twenty minutes of my theme park-going experience.  I may not have known about Ridley Scott's Alien at that point in my life, but from that moment on, I became aware of this cinematic science fiction horror flick, and as I have grown older and had the opportunity to watch this classic, I find it nearly impossible not to appreciate the tense and horrifying two hours that slowly unfold onscreen.

Seven people stuck on a spaceship with nowhere to go and a nasty, vicious alien onboard who knows nothing else except to kill.  Sounds like a fun turn of events, but that's the story of Alien in a nutshell.  As our septet begins being picked off one by one by the frightening-looking creature, tension builds in the claustrophobic atmosphere and our crew members begin to slowly turn on one another in order to try and figure out the best way to take down the monster.

This horror film succeeds first and foremost because Ridley Scott takes things slow, gradually ratcheting up the tension and excitement.  As I watched Alien this go-around (for what is probably my fourth or fifth time), I was actually amazed at Scott's pacing throughout the film's first half -- he really takes time to build the atmosphere before he unloads the scares during the movie's last hour.  Some may even feel it's so slow it's boring, but I find it rather refreshing.  Even though he takes his time, Scott always allows a sense of foreboding and eeriness to be prevalent throughout.

Secondly, and what puts this film head over heels above most horror movies, the acting here is of quite a high caliber.  Sigourney Weaver is certainly best known across the world for her role as the headstrong Ripley and there's good reason for that -- she holds our attention and manages to do so even with a hard-edged, sometimes emotionless role.  She's a presence here -- a smart woman who despite her bosses' urges to bring the alien life form back to them has the courage and tenacity to go against their wishes and attempt to eradicate the beast.

And it's certainly not just Weaver who excels.  Her six costars each have crafted their own distinct personalities thanks to a great screenplay from Dan O'Bannon.  None of them disappoint...and neither does the alien itself thanks to the wonderful creature design by H.R. Giger.  It's a menacing beast, made even more frightening by the fact that Ridley Scott keeps him hidden and in the shadows for so long.  While the creature doesn't disappoint when finally seen, the anticipation is a key to the horrors that lie ahead.  When we see the little snake-like monster rip through the chest of an unfortunate Nostromo crew member about an hour in, we soon realize this must be one nasty full-grown alien if a "baby" one looks as horrific as this one does.

The RyMickey Rating:  A-

Movie Review - Abduction

Abduction (2011)

Starring Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins, Alfred Molina, Jason Isaacs, Maria Bello, Michael Nyqvist, and Sigourney Weaver

Directed by John Singleton

I should have known that in the first scene when high school senior Nathan Harper (Taylor Lautner) and his two buddies get excited about going to the home opener of the Pittsburgh Pirates season that Abduction was going to be lacking in realism.  I mean, it's the Pirates...does anyone get excited about them?  Still, I told myself to suspend disbelief for a few more minutes and give what was one of the worst reviewed movies of 2011 a chance.  In the end, and I've used this criticism before, Abduction is a movie that I can't help but feel I could've written in my childhood "novel" writing days where dialog was cheesy, characters were ill-conceived, and plots were by-the-book.

I'm only familiar with Taylor Lautner from the Twilight films and I always thought that he was the strongest part of that series -- I confess that I was probably quite wrong in that assessment.  Lautner here is simply painful.  Mugging for the camera and overly mannered, he's the opposite of charming and charismatic.  Here, Lautner is Nathan, a typical high school senior.  When working on a research paper with his childhood friend Karen (Lily Collins), he comes across a picture of his four year-old self on an internet site for missing persons.  Just as he confronts his folks (Jason Isaacs and Maria Bello) about his discovery, their house is broken into by some foreign baddies and Nathan and Karen are forced to go on the run.

How a film so obvious and surprise-deficient managed to snag people like Maria Bello, Alfred Molina, and Sigourney Weaver to join the cast is beyond me.  None of those names are given anything to do here and it's completely obvious this was a "paycheck only" movie.  Lily Collins comes off as okay -- I'll reserve judgment on her until I see a bit more.  She's certainly attractive, but she isn't given a whole lot to do here and what she is given is mind-boggingly bland.

But the biggest problems with Abduction are the "star" Lautner whose faults I mentioned above and the director John Singleton who has done such a poor job crafting this movie that I have to think someone off the street could've done better.  Fight scenes are poorly choreographed and edited, transitions are abysmal, and Singleton fails to get a good performance from his lead.  To me, despite the simplicity of the plot, the fault with this movie lies squarely with Singleton who is to unable to bring anything to the table.  Abduction may not be the worst movie of the year as some may have called it, but it's certainly not any good.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - The Cabin in the Woods

The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

Starring Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Bradley Whitford, and Richard Jenkins

Directed by Drew Goddard

Five college kids head to a remote cabin in the woods for a fun weekend, but they're soon in for much more than they bargained for as their vacation turns into a hellish nightmare.  And that's the only summary I'll give you for The Cabin in the Woods because part of the fun of watching this incredibly absurd and original horror flick is watching it unfurl in front of you with the rather unique turns seemingly coming out of left field, but proving to be completely believable by the film's end. (Well, maybe not believable in the "real world," but believable in the "cinematic world" this film inhabits.) 

It should be noted that when I like a horror movie, it's generally a good bet to assume that the American public will not.  And that very well may be why Drew Goddard's film has sat on the shelf since 2009.  This is certainly not going to be a movie for everyone.  And, admittedly, it wasn't a movie for me for the first thirty minutes (which I must say felt a little interminable).  The humor wasn't clicking for me and I was quite bored as the film followed an incredibly typical horror flick arc.  However co-screenwriters Goddard and Joss Whedon twist things around and while The Cabin in the Woods remains most definitely in the "slasher flick" genre, it expands upon the boundaries we think of when we think of cinematic blood and gore.  In a sense, it echoes a bit of what Scream did back in the 90s, but Whedon and Goddard push things even further.

It helps that, for the most part, the acting is above average for your standard horror flick and Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford prove to be a real treat as a duo whose purpose would be too much of a spoiler to reveal here.  As soon as Jenkins and Whitford appeared, it was quite obvious that The Cabin in the Woods was going to be a bit different and their quirky sensibilities provide many a laugh.

While there are certainly positives, I can't help but think that there isn't a whole lot of rewatchability in this one.  Knowing the twists and turns ahead of time may very well spoil what made the film so much fun the first go-around.  And, as I mentioned, the movie takes a bit too long to get rolling.  That said, this movie provides the right amounts of humor, tension, and scares, making The Cabin in the Woods an enjoyable ninety minute ride.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Ghostbusters

Ghostbusters (1984)

Starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, Annie Potts, and Ernie Hudson

Directed by Ivan Reitman 

***Ghostbusters is being re-released in select theaters for one daily show only on Thursday evenings in October.***

Without a doubt, 1984's Ghostbusters still remains a classic flick from my childhood.  Certain movies just maintain that nostalgic feeling and this is one of them.  At a certain point, your mind may get clouded by these thoughts and allow yourself to overlook what some may perceive as flaws, but that's what nostalgia does to you.  And that's not a bad thing.

With all this talk about a third film being added to the series, it's completely obvious that without Bill Murray (who is apparently the lone holdout on the movie's progress), the best part of the series would be missing.  Murray's parapsychologist Peter Venkman is one of those characters that is iconic to me.  Full of wry, witty, and dry humor, I found myself chuckling (or at the very least smiling) after nearly every single line reading of his.  His interactions with his ghostbusting partners Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) and Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) are priceless and coupling that with his flirtatious attempts to bed Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver as a customer who needs the help of the paranormal experts), Venkman is comedic genius.

That certainly isn't meant to belittle Aykroyd, Ramis, and Weaver who, along with Rick Moranis as the geek living next door to Dana and Annie Potts as the overworked and sassy Ghostbusters' secretary, provide ample reason to watch.  In fact, with the exception of Ernie Hudson as newly hired Ghostbuster #4 Winston -- a character who is given nothing to do and adds nothing to the plot whatsoever in terms of either comedy or purpose -- Ghostbusters is filled with characters you'd desire to see again.

Despite moving at a rather rapid pace, the film's conclusion does seem a little anti-climactic to me and feels like a jumbled mess at moments.  For that reason, Ghostbusters doesn't quite make it into The Personal Canon despite the fact that I did enjoy taking this nostalgia trip with the gang on the big screen again.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Paul

Paul (2011)

Starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kristen Wiig, Jason Bateman, Bill Hader, and Seth Rogen

Directed by Greg Mottola

Right off the bat I need to say that Paul isn't quite the movie I expected it to be.  Based off of previews, I was thinking I was in for some Pineapple Express-like stoner comedy with a pot-smoking extraterrestrial.  Instead, I got an oddly heartwarming romp about two British guys and an alien.  While I'm certainly pleased that the movie veered towards the latter description than the former, it's still a flick that attempts to be a comedy, but provided me with only two or three laughs which isn't nearly acceptable.

Leaving California after visiting the geek heaven of Comic-Con, vacationing Brits Graeme (Simon Pegg) and Clive (Nick Frost) decide to trek across the Southwest in an old RV stopping at places prominent in alien folklore.  Late at night, the duo witness a car veer off the road and crash.  When stopping to help, they realize that the car was not driven by a human, but rather an alien named Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen) who's on the run from government agencies looking to snag some of his stem cells in order to better understand his kind.  Somewhat reluctantly, Graeme and Clive agree to help Paul make it back to his spacecraft to return home to his planet.

Performances across the board (for the most part) are certainly enjoyable.  Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (of Shaun of the Dead fame) are both incredibly likable and shockingly (and pleasantly) low key.  They stand in contrast to Kristen Wiig's Ruth Buggs, playing a conservative Christian who gets picked up by traveling trio, who comes off as much too over-the-top amongst everyone else in the cast.  Truth be told, her character is incredibly one-note when compared to everyone else, so I'm not quite sure if the blame can solely be placed on the oftentimes overacting Wiig.

Seth Rogen's voicework on the title character is amusing and rather charming.  Yes, he's crude at times, but Paul's a genuinely nice guy and his rapport with Graeme and Clive is always a positive aspect of the film.  Additionally, kudos to the special effects craftsmen -- Paul never once comes across as an animated character amidst a sea of real-life humans.

In a movie that's an ode to the Spielberg and Lucas classics of the late 70s/early 80s, it shouldn't be entirely surprising that the film skews a bit sweet and charming.  Still, Paul tries to derive a good chunk of its humor from crudeness which just doesn't mesh with the overarching tone of the entire film for me.  Yes, it would've been a completely different film and its R-rating would've been unnecessary, but I can't help but think it would've been a better overall tale.  As it stands now, Paul is a confusing film for this reviewer in that I liked a good chunk of it and find myself thinking rather fondly of it, but can't help but think that a change in tone would've created a much better movie.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - The Guys

The Guys (2002)

Starring Sigourney Weaver and Anthony LaPaglia

Directed by Jim Simpson

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

"New York. My beautiful, gleaming, wounded city."  So begins The Guys, likely one of (if not) the first film take on the 9/11 tragedy.  As we near the tenth anniversary of this day that changed our country forever, I wanted to take a look at a cinematic take of the event.  Taking place in the days immediately following that fateful Tuesday in 2001, The Guys (based on a play by Anne Nelson) focuses on an editor named Joan (Sigourney Weaver) who helps fire chief Nick Costello (Anthony LaPaglia) write eulogies for the members of his company that died that day.

Despite two very good performances including a particularly excellent and sometimes heartbreaking turn from Anthony LaPaglia's guilt-ridden fire chief Nick, the flick feels a little uneven.  Nick's character arc is certainly touching and well-written, but the role of Joan is a much trickier one and it's here where The Guys falters.  To me, Joan (who narrates the picture) is presented as being the heart of the film (and I'm not so sure that's a positive).  Here is a New Yorker who, despite not knowing anyone who was closely affected by the attacks, was deeply affected by that day's events.  By talking with Nick and doing what she does best -- writing -- she manages to express her feelings as well.  While I fully accept and acknowledge that she is deserving of feeling grief, her pain ends up paling in comparison to that of Nick and I think the film attempts to place the two characters on an equal playing field in that department.  I'm not making a judgment as to whether their respective grief should be equal or not, but if the film was attempting to try and state that (which in some ways, I think it was), it just doesn't succeed in showing us an equivalent grief in Joan.  Bookending scenes with Joan spouting some odd thought probably worked very well on stage (and probably made the two characters more of an "equal"), but in the film, it just doesn't work.

The Guys isn't a bad film.  In fact, I give it much credit for coming out so soon after the tragedy.  It's a simple glimpse into the lives of two different New Yorkers days after the events of 9/11.  Still, when that list of firefighters who gave their lives rolls by at the film's end, you can't help but get a little choked up even if the flick doesn't succeed on all levels.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - Cedar Rapids

Cedar Rapids (2011)

Starring Ed Helms, Anne Heche, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Sigourney Weaver, and John C. Reilly

Directed by Miguel Arteta

Cedar Rapids kind of feels like The Office transplanted to the Mid-West and paired with a bit more raunch and a little less humor (despite its best attempts).  There's a droll, dry sensibility on display that works some of the time.  However, there are simply too many moments in the film's short 86 minutes that fall flat, relying on that indie comedy staple that humor can be derived from poking fun at the small town local yokels who live inside some cocoon and go a little cuckoo once the bubble pops enabling them to escape into the more metropolitan world.

Ed Helms is Tim Lippe, an insurance salesman from the small town of Brown Valley, Wisconsin.  Having never really set foot outside of the confines of the town, when Tim's boss asks him to attend an insurance conference in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he finds himself a bit on the edge.  With the encouragement of his lover and former elementary school teacher Macy (Sigourney Weaver), Tim gets the courage to head to the "big city," getting on his first plane and sleeping at his first hotel.  With the goal to win his company the coveted Two Diamond Award, Tim finds himself spending time with three conventioneers who have been to the affair before -- the serious and solemn Ronald (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.), the crazy and lewd Dean Ziegler (John C. Reilly), and the sexy and wry Joan (Anne Heche).  Needless to say, Tim's eyes will be opened to a brand new world unlike his small-town eyes have ever seen before.

The problems with Cedar Rapids certainly don't stem from the actors.  Everyone here is actually quite charming and surprisingly believable.  Based off of his introduction, I figured I'd have been rolling my eyes every time John C. Reilly's oafish Ziegler came on the screen, but he won me over somehow.  Isiah Whitlock (apparently of The Wire) probably struck the best note with me thanks to his dry delivery.  And Anne Heche is goshdarn charming and cute here.  Ed Helms simply seems to be playing his character from The Office and he's the weak link of the quartet, but that's more the fault of "Tim Lippe" than "Ed Helms."

All in all, with the pleasant group of actors, it's a disappointment that the humor just isn't there.  The film veers off into an odd and rather uncomfortable finale which is supposed to serve as some kind of awakening for Helms' Lippe, but it ends up veering into my Movie Pet Peeve which I've mentioned numerous times before -- Old People Doing Drugs for the Purposes of Laughter.  And while that's not the only sticking point -- see my initial paragraph about a common indie comedy staple that applies here as well -- it made the film end on more of a down note than I would have preferred.  Cedar Rapids is pleasant enough thanks to the actors, but it's a shame they weren't given a bit better material.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - You Again

You Again (2010)

Starring Kristen Bell, Odette Yustman, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver, Victor Garber, Kristin Chenoweth, and Betty White

Directed by Andy Flickman

You Again has me in a bit of a conundrum.  I laughed much more than I thought I would watching this PG-rated comedy, but there are also uncomfortable stretches of time where the comedic pacing falls incredibly flat making this 105-minute film feel a whole lot longer than it actually is.  Parts of this movie push me to rate it higher than a 'C'; other parts are pulling me to rate it lower than a 'C.'  In this tug of war, there isn't really a winner and You Again simply falls into the middle.

In an appealing performance, Kristen Bell stars as Marni, a twenty-something gal who returns home for her brother Will's (James Wolk) wedding.  Upon arrival, Marni meets Will's fiancé Joanna (Odette Yustman) who just so happens to be the bitchy cheerleader who made Marni's life hell in high school.  While Joanna appears to be a completely different person now, she acts as if she's never met Marni which irritates the former "nerd" to no end.  Couple all that with the fact that Marni and Will's mom, Gail (Jamie Lee Curtis), and Joanna's aunt Ramona (Sigourney Weaver) were also former friends turned high school rivals and hilarity is meant to ensure.

And, like I said, humor does arise from moments, but there are times where much of the attempted laughter just doesn't work.  In particular, Betty White as Marni and Will's grandmother and Kristin Chenoweth as the wedding planner were seemingly thrown into the mix as afterthoughts to try and showcase the two actresses' talents rather than creating actual meaningful characters...and it unfortunately shows.  It's not quite a fault of White or Chenoweth, but there's just no real reason for either lady to be in the film.

Kristin Bell, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Sigourney Weaver are all game and it's actually really nice to see Curtis and Weaver on the screen again...it doesn't seem like their talents are showcased enough in this day and age.  Curtis, in particular, is a comedienne that's always rather pleasant to watch.  That said, in the end, even the talents of these lovely ladies can't quite elevate You Again to anything above average.

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Movie Review - Avatar 3D (2009)

Starring Sam Worthington, Zoë Saldana, Giovanni Ribisi, and Sigourney Weaver
Directed by James Cameron

James Cameron's Avatar takes us to the planet Pandora where ten foot-tall blue human-like creatures roam, gaining strength (via some anemone-like phalanges at the ends of their ponytailed hair) from elements of their environment like trees and animals. The Marines, however, have been commissioned to assist some corporate bigwigs in mining for some special expensive, coal-like element on Pandora. In order to both better learn about and infiltrate the Na'vi people of Pandora, scientists have crafted avatars -- they take a human and create a Na'vi-like creature that the human can control from hundreds of miles away via some sophisticated machinery.

Jake Sully (Worthington) is a paraplegic marine whose twin brother was heavily involved in the avatar program. However, at the beginning of the film, the brother has died and since Jake's DNA is similar to his brother's, Jake is pulled into the program to take his brother's place. At odds with the program's scientific director, Grace (Weaver), Jake takes control of his avatar much too quickly and almost immediately infiltrates the Na'vi people, taking a liking to their leader's daughter, Neytiri (Saldana). Jake soon finds himself conflicted between his strong Marine training and the passive nature of the Na'vi.

The story is ridiculously drawn out over an unnecessary 165 minutes. Somehow, though, even with an incredibly boring middle 40 minutes, I didn't find myself wondering when this thing was going to be over. And the reason for that is the visuals and the visuals alone.

This is, without a doubt, the best looking 3D film I've seen in theaters. Cameron has crafted a rich, sumptuous land in Pandora, one that is unlike any I've seen on film. We're completely taken into this new land filled with dinosaur-like creatures and phototropic plants. While on Pandora, we venture into a land completely created by CGI and witness characters brought to life via motion-capture technology. Just recently, I reviewed Disney's A Christmas Carol and I said I wasn't completely sold on the motion-capture technique. Well, I'll eat my words because Avatar has taken this new technology and stepped up the game by leaps and bounds. Sure, it still feels like I'm watching a cartoon, but it's the most realistic-looking cartoon I've ever seen.

Often with 3D, there's a slight blur to any type of quick motion, but Avatar looked amazingly crystal clear. Whether on Pandora or on the human's spaceships, everything looked stunningly "perfect." It really was a beauty to behold.

While the story lacked, it certainly wasn't the fault of the actors, all of whom really brought their A-game. Sam Worthington who starred in this summer's Terminator: Salvation proves an strong leading man who, whether in his human or avatar form, is quite an onscreen presence. Sigourney Weaver is unfortunately saddled with the worst lines of the script, forced to often spout the "science" behind the goings-on, but she still manages to rise above the silly dialogue (and she's really quite attractive for being sixty). I loved Giovanni Ribisi's bit role as the corporate shill for the company going after the lucrative mineral deposits on Pandora. Taking on what is esentially the nasty Paul Reiser part in James Cameron's Aliens, Ribisi is a joy to watch...I just wish he had a bigger role.

Surprisingly, my favorite role belongs to Zoë Saldana who was completely computer-animated the entire time. As Jake Sully's love interest, the geniuses at the special effects departments captured every little nuance of Saldana's body language (they captured this in everyone...it really was a treat to watch the little facial and body tics like a tensing of the neck or a slight raise of an eyebrow...it certainly didn't go unnoticed by me). Saldana's really is an exquisite, unique, and gripping portrayal -- both animal and human in one.

So, is this the best movie of the year? Nah. But James Cameron really has created something special, one-of-a-kind, and innovative. Going into this, I had big doubts, but having seen it, I'm able to look past the simply average, mundane script and see the bigger picture. Avatar is quite possibly a revolution in animation and digital cinema and something that really shouldn't be missed on the big screen.

The RyMickey Rating: B+