Planes, Trains and Automobiles

 Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)

Starring Steve Martin and John Candy

Directed by John Hughes

Written by John Hughes

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Little Shop of Horrors

Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

Starring Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia, Steve Martin, Tichina Arnold, Tisha Campbell, Jim Belushi, John Candy, Christopher Guest, and Bill Murray

And the vocal talent of Levi Stubbs

Directed by Frank Oz

Written by Howard Ashman

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  A-

Pennies from Heaven

Pennies from Heaven (1981)

Starring Steven Marting, Bernadette Peters, Jessica Harper, Vernel Bagneris, and Christopher Walken

Directed by Herbert Ross

Written by Dennis Potter

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)

Starring Steve Martin, Michael Caine, Glenne Headly, Anton Rodgers, Barbara Harris, Ian McDiarmid, Dana Ivey, Meagan Fay, and Frances Conroy

Directed by Frank Oz

Written by Dale Launer, Stanley Shapiro, and Paul Henning

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B

Movie Review - Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016)

Starring Joe Alwyn, Kristen Stewart, Chris Tucker, Garrett Hedlund, Makenzie Leigh, Vin Diesel, and Steve Martin

Directed by Ang Lee

Prior to its release last year, there were some high Oscar hopes lobbied about for director Ang Lee's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, but its failure at the box office didn't help it gain any traction during the awards season.  Sometimes deserving movies just slip under the radar of both the public and the cinematic voting blocs...and sometimes movies that people thought were going to be deserving turn out to be epic flops.  The latter is the case here with Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk proving to be one of the worst 2016 movies I've seen yet.

Nineteen year-old soldier Billy Lynn (Joe Alwyn) has just returned home from Iraq to great fanfare after a video of him attempting to save his superior from Iraqi warriors goes viral.  Celebrated as a hero, Lynn and his troop are being treated like celebrities including being placed front and center in the Thanksgiving Day Dallas Cowboys halftime show.  With Cowboys owner Norm Oglesby (Steve Martin) attempting to broker a deal to make their lives into a movie, Lynn and his mates are faced with attempting to enjoy their fifteen minutes of fame knowing full well that when Black Friday rolls around they have to ship out for another assignment.

The potential for an in-depth look at PTSD is ever present around the edges of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, but the screenplay by Jean-Christophe Castelli and direction by Ang Lee can't find a balance as it attempts to depict the drama of the horrors of war and the semi-comedic satire of our celebrity-driven American culture.  This uneven dichotomy is frankly a failure and leads to one of the most stilted acting ensembles I've seen in ages (including a horrendous performances by Steve Martin).  The film builds itself on being über-realistic, but many of its scenes and most of its dialog never feel real.  Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk is just a huge dud.

The RyMickey Rating:  D

Movie Review - Home

Home (2015)

Featuring the voice talents of Jim Parsons, Rihanna, Steve Martin, and Jennifer Lopez

Directed by Tim Johnson

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

While there's part of me that respects Home for being a two-character dialog-driven film for more than half of its running time, I unfortunately can't praise the film as it lacks drive, interesting characters, and a plot worthy of a feature film.  Animation-wise, it's basically typical Dreamworks -- which means it's a rung lower than Pixar and Disney films -- with its plastic-looking characters that do little to draw in the audience.

The alien race of the Boov are on the run across galaxies from the evil Gorg who is destroying every planet the Boov decide to inhabit.  The Boov happen upon Earth and, as they are wont to do on whatever planet upon which they land, the aliens zap up all the locals -- that'd be the humans in this case -- and place them all in one central location on the planet -- that'd be Australia in this case (and the fact that Australia began its "modern" existence as a penal colony did not escape me).  As the Boov take over the major cities of Earth, one Boov in particular named Oh (voiced by Jim Parsons) finds himself the kooky odd Boov out of his race which is typically very by-the-book and regimented.  With a zest for life, Oh inadvertently sends out a mass e-mail inviting the entire Boov race to a party at his new apartment.  Unfortunately, he also sent the invite to the evil Gorg which causes the villain to set his sights on Earth.  Shunned by his people, Oh goes into hiding where he meets a seventh grade human girl named Tip (Rihanna) who appears to be the only human not transported out of her town.  Missing her mother (voiced by Jennifer Lopez) Oh agrees to help Tip find where the Boov have placed all the humans as he also hopes to hide from all those looking to roast him for alerting the Gorg to their new location.

All that Boov and Gorg talk has me tired -- and Home unfortunately feels a little tired as well.  Its premise lacks originality as I feel like I've seen similarly themed stories done better in the past.  For being rather short, the flick feels repetitive, hitting the same emotional beats over and over again -- how many times do we have to witness Oh do something silly with a human item or misuse an English word?  Jim Parsons is okay, but Rihanna's deep, somewhat grizzled voice just doesn't fit the part for a seventh grader -- unless that seventh grader has spent a lot of time smoking cigarettes on the corner.  Jennifer Lopez does provide a quiet nurturing to her character and Steve Martin as the ruler of the Boov add a little bit of spark, but neither are major roles so any positives they add are somewhat muted.  Overall, Home just doesn't hit the mark and lacks the emotion that a flick like this needs.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Movie Review - It's Complicated (2009)

It's Complicated (2009)

Starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, and John Krasinski

Directed by Nancy Meyers

I'm going to quote my Adventureland review here for a moment (and let me tell you, that's something that I never thought I'd ever do):

Any movie where all the characters pretty much sit around and smoke pot all day never really does a thing for me. Life's so bad, let's smoke pot. Life's so boring, let's smoke pot. Let's smoke pot and giggle a lot.

Now, It's Complicated certainly isn't all about smoking pot, but there's an extended twenty-minute scene where Streep, Martin, and Baldwin's characters smoke some weed and act all kooky.  Let me just say that the "smoking pot to humorous effect" is a tired movie staple that isn't funny and always comes off incredibly forced to me.  If I never see this "scene" in any film again it'll be too soon.

That being said, the pot isn't really what It's Complicated focuses on in the slightest.  Instead, we get Jane (Streep) and Jake (Baldwin) as a divorced couple with three grown kids.  Jake has remarried a much younger woman, while Jane hasn't slept with anyone since their divorce (which leads to talks with her girlfriends about her vagina closing up which was as incredibly unappealing as it sounds).  At their son's college graduation in NYC, Jane and Jake sleep together.  And that's when things get complicated (aah...there's the title connection).  For, you see, Jane is actually enjoying being with Jake despite the fact that she has now turned into the mistress.  Jake's changed a bit...and they've both grown and matured.  But Jane remembers the past and perhaps sees a nice future with Adam (Martin), the nice divorced architect guy who's working on renovating her house.  What's Jane to do?

Honestly, the only problem with this movie lies in the story.  It doesn't feel like there's anything new being presented here and, in the end, it's really just not all that funny.  There were a couple times when I laughed out loud, but it felt like Jane's internal struggle went on for far too long.  Writer-director Nancy Meyers just can't seem to wrap things up quick enough and feels the need to drag things out.  I will say, though, that with the exception of the pot smoking scene, Jane, Jake, and Adam all felt like very real people.  They weren't caricatures or presented in over-the-top manners, so I will give credit to Meyers there.

But credit also must go to Meryl Streep, Steve Martin (who makes the most of his character who is essentially a boring old lump with zero personality), and Alec Baldwin.  Baldwin is really the one who comes off the best.  His Jake begins as a older ladies' man, but soon morphs into a guy who you genuinely are rooting for to win back his former wife.  He plays Jake with just a little bit of his trademark "30 Rock" Jack Donaghy mannerisms, but knows when to back off of them and play the nice guy.

And I've said it before, but Meryl Streep is...well, she's MERYL STREEP for a reason.  She's so goshdarn good in everything.  I try and try to dislike the woman, but when she's onscreen, she's really great.  Even in these throwaway roles (and this is certainly a throwaway "I need to make money" kind of role), she puts such soul into her characters that you can't help but admire what she does.

The RyMickey Rating:  C