Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Christopher Eccleston, Kat Dennings, Stellan Skarsgård, and Rene Russo
Directed by Alan Taylor
The RyMickey Rating: D
Showing posts with label stellan skarsgard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stellan skarsgard. Show all posts
Friday, September 02, 2022
Sunday, August 07, 2022
The Avengers
The Avengers (2012)
Starring Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgard, and Samuel L. Jackson
Directed by Joss Whedon
Written by Joss Whedon
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The (current) RyMickey Rating: B-
Saturday, July 09, 2022
Thor
Thor (2011)
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Kat Dennings, Idris Elba, Rene Russo, and Anthony Hopkins
Directed by Kenneth Branagh
Written by Ashley Edward Miller, Zach Stentz, and Don Payne
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The current RyMickey Rating: B
Thursday, August 22, 2019
Chernobyl (TV Miniseries)
Chernobyl (2019)
Starring Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgård, Emily Watson, Paul Ritter, and Jesse Buckley
Directed by Johan Renck
Written by Craig Mazin
The RyMickey Rating: A-
Saturday, August 15, 2015
Movie Review - Frankie & Alice
Frankie & Alice (2014)
Starring Halle Berry, Stellan Skarsgård, Phylicia Rashad, and Chandra Wilson
Directed by Geoffrey Sax
***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***
Unfortunately, it's not just Berry that's a disappointment here. Stellan Skarsgård as Frankie's psychiatrist is one-note, monotonously boring, and lacks any modicum of emotion. Phylicia Rashad fares no better as Frankie's mother as she overly dramatizes every scene (obviously taking her cues from the Halle Berry School of Acting). Based on a true story, Geoffrey Sax's film screams 1990s tv-movie-of-the-week in nearly every aspect and the helmer attempts to use his direction for dramatic effect multiple times, but his camera angles and movements only made this filmgoer chuckle. Considering the eight (!) screenwriters for this film, one would've thought at least something would've gone right...and one would've thought wrong.
The RyMickey Rating: D
Saturday, April 04, 2015
Movie Review - Cinderella
Cinderella (2015)
Starring Lily James, Cate Blanchett, Richard Madden, Sophie McShera, Holliday Grainger, Stellan Skarsgård, Derek Jacobi, and Helena Bonham Carter
Directed by Kenneth Branagh
At the heart of Cinderella is an absolutely lovely performance of Lily James as the title character. In the film's opening moments, we see how the deaths of her mother and father affect her, shaping her into woman who, despite adversity, still carries on the mission of her parents to be kind and generous to all. This little bit of extra background makes Cinderella a much more well-rounded character and gives Ms. James a little bit of development to sink her teeth into. The heartbreaking moments upon hearing of her parents death are handled just as nicely as when James is asked to look in awe upon an opulent ballroom or fall head over heels for a prince she just met. To me, Lily James is the epitome of what Cinderella should be and she is one of the biggest reasons the film succeeds.
Of course, the counterpoint to Cinderella's kind heart is the conniving nature of her Stepmother played with gusto and on-point scenery chewing by Cate Blanchett. Also given a bit of backstory, the audience is given the chance to discover why she becomes so nasty to her stepdaughter and this added bit of depth gives at least a little bit of reasoning behind her actions. Cloaked in some elegant garb, Blanchett snarls and jabs at Cinderella yet still manages to avoid being too cartoonish.
Cartoonish may be a descriptor that could be ascribed to Helena Bonham Carter's Fairy Godmother, but Branagh and Weitz smartly decide to keep her role small, similar to the animated film. Adding a nice amount of comedic relief in the middle to the film, Carter's quirkiness doesn't overstay its welcome. We also get a nice turn as well from Richard Madden as the Prince who gets more screen time and more background than nearly any other Disney film prince we've seen before.
In this day and age of modernization and experimental reboots, Kenneth Branagh instead decides to play things old-fashioned -- and there's an unmistakeable charm that accompanies this decision. Sumptuously designed and elegantly filmed, by eschewing the cynicism we may have come to expect in something like this, Branagh has crafted a rather timeless film in Cinderella that will last through the ages.
The RyMickey Rating: B
Sunday, November 02, 2014
Movie Review - Nymphomaniac: Vol I and Vol 2
Nymphomaniac: Vol 1 (2014)
Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin, Shia LaBoeuf, Christian Slater, Uma Thurman, Sophie Kennedy Clark, and Connie Nielsen
Directed by Lars von Trier
***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***
Nymphomaniac: Vol 2 (2014)
Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Shia LaBoeuf, Jamie Bell, Mia Goth, Stacy Martin, and Willem Dafoe
Directed by Lars von Trier
***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***
Oh, Lars von Trier. I experienced five of your films now (six if you count Nymphomaniac as two films) and you're a weird son of a gun. Nymphomaniac is the third and final film in von Trier's "Depression Trilogy" following Antichrist and Melancholia, and, much like those films, it's all pretension and very little substance.
Nymphomaniac follows Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) who is found in an alley by a man named Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård) after she is beaten up. Seligman takes Joe to his house to recover and Joe begins to tell Seligman her life story through her sexual experiences. Why does she do this? I don't know. Shock effect? Her nymphomatic tendencies? Because screenwriter Lars von Trier is a weird guy who likes to think he's pushing the envelope whenever possible? Probably the latter as von Trier takes the approach here of being as graphic as possible including scenes of unsimulated sex in order to be risky and adventurous (but never stimulating or titillating).
Oddly enough, however, despite the heavy-handed nature of the piece and von Trier's incessant need to be provocative, the acting of everyone elevates this to something that at least makes the four hours not a boring sexual epic. The best of the bunch is Stacy Martin in her first role as the young teenage/twentysomething Joe. This is an extremely tricky role -- addicted to sex, yet emotionless when undertaking these sexual activities, Martin's Joe is a girl of few words, yet I found myself riveted with her story. Martin certainly is the focus of Volume 1 with Charlotte Gainsbourg taking more of the reins in Volume 2 and the second film suffers for it. Gainsbourg is fine, but the film becomes a bit too depressing and melancholic to be all that riveting. Shia LaBoeuf and Uma Thurman also put in some nice turns, but neither are in either film for an extended period of time.
I appreciate Lars von Trier artistically as a director and I like what he visually brings to the screen. As a writer, von Trier leaves quite a bit to be desired and that's where my constant see-sawing of "Did I like this or did I hate this?" comes in whenever I watch one of his films. His pieces never work as a whole and Nymphomaniac is no exception.
The RyMickey Rating: C (Volume 1)
The RyMickey Rating: C- (Volume 2)
Friday, May 30, 2014
Movie Review - Thor: The Dark World
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Christopher Eccleston, Kat Dennings, Stellan Skarsgård, and Rene Russo
Directed by Alan Taylor
What the sequel really boils down to is this: Two species in space -- one of which is Thor's people and one of which is someone else -- fought with each other a long time ago. Thor's people won and buried this other people's energy source (or something) deep in the earth. Thanks to wormholes (which played a prominent role in The Avengers) this energy source has been found by Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) who has been sitting around in London depressed since Thor (Chris Hemsworth) left her at the end of the last film. This magical energy source somehow gets transferred into Jane which causes the bad guys to chase after Jane only to have Thor help her.
It's all so ridiculous...even more ridiculous than a guy from space coming down to Earth and fighting people with a magic hammer. Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman look bored out of their mind in this with Portman in particular a blank slate whenever she appears onscreen (and, unfortunately, she's onscreen a lot in this one). Tom Hiddleston injects a little bit of pizzazz into the mix, but even his Loki isn't able to overcome the inanity of the plot.
The one advantage the Thor flicks have going for them is that they do seem to understand just how silly their plots truly are. There are jabs here and there about how ridiculous the goings-on are and I do appreciate that. However, Thor: The Dark World is such a huge step down from the original that I don't think I'll be looking forward to the next one at all.
The RyMickey Rating: D
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Movie Review - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Starring Rooney Mara, Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer, Robin Wright, and Stellan Skarsgård
Directed by David Fincher
Even though I watched the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo only a little over a year ago, I was rather surprised when I went back and looked at my original review because I don't remember liking it as much as I apparently did. I think, unfortunately, the disappointments of the two subsequent Swedish flicks in the trilogy must have sullied my thoughts on the overall series because I certainly don't look back fondly on the saga as a whole.
That being said, David Fincher's remake falls into the category of "Completely Unnecessary." It basically seems like a shot for shot retelling and although it's well acted and nice looking, I found myself bored since I'd seen this exact same story before. Also, watching this tale unfold a second time made me realize that the three distinct storylines that the movie attempts to tell fail to combine and gel in a proper manner causing me to wonder why in the world they were told in the same movie to begin with.
I'm not going to rehash the summary here -- that can be found in the original review linked above -- except to say that this is a movie in search of which plot matters the most. We've got shamed journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) who has just lost a libel suit brought on by a Swedish corporate bigwig. He wants to go into hiding, but he's hired by an elderly retired man named Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) to discover what happened to his niece Harriet who went missing over forty years ago. Henrik suspects that someone in his family is to blame and he wants Blomkvist to get to the bottom of things.
Meanwhile, we're introduced to the incredibly rough-around-the-edges Lisbeth Salandar (Rooney Mara) whose jet black hair, pale skin, and multiple piercings help her to hide a horrible past. Lacking in any type of people skills, Lisbeth spends her days as a hired hand hacking computers and unearthing personal information for big companies -- sort of a modern day private eye. Lisbeth also finds herself having to deal with the fact that she's a ward of the state -- I mentioned that "horrible past" that is coming back to haunt her despite her efforts -- and she's forced to report to a new and nasty legal guardian who proves to be a handful for the young woman.
Alone, these stories may have worked fine as their own film, but combining these tales -- Mikael's libel suit, the mystery of Henrik's missing niece, and Lisbeth's life -- ultimately doesn't work. The missing girl storyline is the heart of the story and when that ends (in a rather unsatisfying way, I might add) and the film still goes on for another 35 minutes, you've got a major problem.
Fortunately, what this movie has going for it is a very nice performance from Rooney Mara. Despite seemingly lacking any type of emotion and appearing almost Aspergers-like, Mara imbues a rawness into Lisbeth that is exciting to watch despite the character's seemingly outwardly monotonous dryness. It also helps that Daniel Craig is much better than his counterpart in the Swedish version of this film and gives Mara something to play off of once their characers meet nearly 100-plus minutes into the movie.
The acting is the ultimate reason to watch this American version rather than the Swedish original because Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig really do elevate this to a higher level. David Fincher does a fine job directing, but this film is rather straightforward in terms of visuals. If anything, though, Fincher should have been able to find a way to better edit this thing down and get to the true crux of the tale instead of allowing it to meander as much as it does.
Admittedly, had I seen this remake first, I very well may have given it a higher rating, but having seen the original and seeing that this unnecessary redo does very little to fix the problems its predecessor, I can't help but give this the lower rating that I give it below.
The RyMickey Rating: C
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Movie Review - Melancholia
Melancholia (2011)
Starring Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Alexander Skarsgård, Stellan Skarsgård, and Charlotte Rampling
Directed by Lars von Trier
***An early review -- This film arrives in local arthouses on Friday***
That aforementioned problematic character is Justine (played by Kirsten Dunst who won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival this past May), a young woman whom we meet on her wedding day as she arrives at the reception held at a fancy country club owned by her brother-in-law John (Kiefer Sutherland) and her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg). She is seemingly happy, fawning over her new husband Michael (Alexander Skarsgård). Sometime in the night, though, things seem to fall apart for Justine and she retreats from the festivities, falling into a depression that just simply doesn't seem warranted (or, if warranted, comes on much too quickly and intensely), causing her to do things that seem so incredibly out-of-place thereby ruining the "credibility" of the character for me.
Part One of the film focuses on "Justine," but the much more successful Part Two focuses on her sister "Claire." At the beginning of the film, we are treated to an odd eight-minute long wordless dreamlike sequence set to classical music detailing an apocalyptic moment. It is in Part Two that we begin to realize what the heck that opening barrage of images was all about. After having welcomed an almost catatonically depressed Justine back into their country club home, Claire is worried about the fact that a rogue planet called Melancholia is set to pass by Earth, just missing a catastrophic collision. While her astronomy-nut husband John tries to console her, Claire finds herself slowly slipping into a state of depression. Unlike Justine's depression, however, Claire's emotional state feels legit -- she's got a young son and the thought of the world ending is intensely foreboding.
While I may not have understood the emotional state of Justine at all, I will say that Kirsten Dunst is in top form and I blame director-writer Lars von Trier for crafting an unbalanced character rather than harp on Dunst for the flaws. Dunst particularly shines in Part Two (as does the whole movie in general) thanks to interactions with the wonderful Charlotte Gainsbourg who, unlike Dunst, is given a character with an arc that is fully believable. Because of this, Gainsbourg's emotional journey is the one which the viewers will respond to the most and the film's final moments are rather riveting because of this. [I should also note that I was rather surprisingly impressed by Kiefer Sutherland here, portraying (at least outwardly) the only sane person amidst this group of crazies.]
Melancholia is at times a beautiful film. There are images that are sometimes stunning to look at. The film's final moments are pretty good (perhaps even verging on great) cinema. However, the great forty-five minute finale can't negate the fact that the film's opening ninety minutes are intensely flawed due to the fact that the main character rings so untrue.
The RyMickey Rating: D+
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Movie Review - Thor
Thor (in 3D) (2011)
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Kat Dennings, and Anthony Hopkins
Directed by Kenneth Branagh
No one will ever mistake Thor for being a cinematic masterpiece, but in the realm of summer action movies (and in their subset "comic book movies"), it's a solid flick that is decently written, capably directed, and (for the most part) adequately paced.
Somewhere in the cosmos is the land of Asgard, ruled over by Odin (Anthony Hopkins). Long ago, Odin waged a successful war against the Frost Giants of Jotunheim who desired to take over the Nine Realms (one of which is Earth). Cut to a thousand years later and Odin is ready to pass on his crown to his son Thor (Chris Hemsworth), but the ceremony is interrupted by an invasion of the Frost Giants which sends war-hungry Thor into a vengeful state. Odin, desiring to keep the long-standing peace between Asgard and Jotunheim banishes Thor to Earth where he meets scientist/astrologer Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and finds himself in the midst of a fish out of water storyline. Meanwhile, back in Asgard, Odin's other son, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who has always been jealous of Thor, is finding himself next in line for the throne now that his father has slipped into what is essentially a (magical) coma. Let's just say Loki may not be keen on allowing Thor to return to his homeland.
Believe me, the whole thing is as silly as can be -- sillier and lighter weight than the premises behind any Iron Man, Spiderman, or X-Men "origin" (read: first) movie. Still, somehow this thing works and I think a large part of that is due to the tone set by director Kenneth Branagh. He knows that what is unfolding is altogether ridiculous, but he never sets this movie up with a winking tone. This will sound kind of silly, but Branagh culls some Shakespearean undertones from the script -- brother vs. brother, son vs. father, etc. -- and successfully gives them gravitas when they really had no right to have any. He plays it for all its seriousness, while allowing a few moments of needed humor when necessary. Normally, I'm all for tongue in cheek flicks, but I don't know if that would've worked here especially because Thor is part of the overarching storyline setting up an Avengers movie sometime in the upcoming years (and contains cameos from some folks who will be part of that story as well).
Branagh also manages to get some above average performances from his actors. Not being familiar with the source material one bit, I'll be honest and say I expected Thor to be more of a "Me Tarzan, you Jane" kind of macho figure. However, Chris Hemsworth's Thor isn't like that a bit. In fact, Hemsworth is absolutely believable as both action figure and romantic love interest for Natalie Portman's equally likable Jane. Portman is eons better than moviegoers are used to seeing onscreen in a part like this that amounts to hardly anything but is standard in any kind of comic book movie. While she doesn't play a damsel in distress, she's pretty much there simply to gawk and stare with mouth agape at the wonders of the superhero she's feasting her eyes upon. Still, Portman manages to really hold her own here despite the irrelevant role and she manages to be completely enjoyable every time she is onscreen.
Kudos also to Tom Hiddleston as Thor's devious younger brother who Branagh allows to chew the scenery a bit...which I found altogether necessary for a role like his. It was also nice to allow Hiddleston to take on the "chewing the scenery" role as opposed to Anthony Hopkins who tries to do that in every single movie he's in anymore (heck, he won his Oscar for doing that same thing). Here, Hopkins is rather subdued and that's a good thing.
Overall, I was impressed by Thor. It's certainly not perfect and the middle felt a little draggy (although I do commend Branagh for keeping the flick under two hours which is altogether uncommon for movies like this nowadays), but it's a pleasant start to the summer season.
The RyMickey Rating: B
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Movie Review - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
Starring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Bill Nighy, Stellan Skarsgård, and Jack Davenport
Directed by Gore Verbinski
I realize this isn't necessarily popular opinion, but I think the second flick of the Pirates saga -- Dead Man's Chest -- is actually a fairly solid effort and better than the first film. While Chest lacks the absurd humor and overall charm of Black Pearl, it more than makes up for that in its solid action scenes and more cohesive story.
Rather surprisingly, I couldn't help but think Johnny Depp's kooky Jack Sparrow got pushed a bit to the wayside in this one with Orlando Bloom taking on more of a leading role with his character of Will Turner finding himself fighting to free his father (Stellan Skarsgård) from a life of indentured servitude at the hands (or, more fittingly, claws) of Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), a half-man, half-tentacled sea creature. That said, Sparrow certainly plays a key role in a film that pits nearly all of its main characters -- Jack, Will and Elizabeth (Keira Knightley), and Davy Jones -- against one another in a quest to gain their respective freedoms (of which I'm not going to discuss seeing as how nearly everyone in the world other than me had seen this flick given that it's the fourth highest grossing film of all time).
For someone that didn't particularly like when the first film placed its focus on Will and Elizabeth, I greatly appreciated that Dead Man's Chest gave everyone a solid storyline instead of just Jack Sparrow. If you're going to have three main characters, it's best to give all three something to do and this flick does that a lot better than Black Pearl. It also helps this film immensely that the action sequences are a bit better staged and we don't need the background set-up that is always present in the first movies of any series. Granted, I can't help but think that director Gore Verbinski could have edited things down a bit (I didn't really need to see three Kraken attacks...two would have sufficed), but overall, this is a solid action film that fares a bit better than its predecessor.
The RyMickey Rating: B
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