American Assassin

American Assassin (2017)

Starring Dylan O'Brien, Michael Keaton, Sanaa Lathan, and Taylor Kitsch

Directed by Michael Cuesta

Written by Stephen Schiff, Michael Finch, Edward Zwick, and Marshall Herskovitz

Summary (in 500 words or less):  After his girlfriend and many others are killed in a terrorist attack on a beach in Ibiza, Spain, Mitch Rapp (Dylan O'Brien) seeks revenge on the attackers, but eventually is taken in by the CIA who decide to train him to help America's intelligence agencies.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C-

Movie Review - The Grand Seduction

The Grand Seduction (2014)

Starring Brendan Gleeson, Taylor Kitsch, Gordon Pinsent, Liane Balaban, Mark Critch, Peter Keleghan, Mary Walsh, Margaret Killingbeck, Cathy Jones, and Matt Watts

Directed by Don McKellar

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

I'm sometimes asked why I wait so long to put together my RyMickey Awards every year and my response is always that I like to look for little gems that others may have overlooked to champion to my few readers.  The Grand Seduction is one such film -- overflowing with charm, humor, and a cast that exudes charisma, this barely known flick is a sleeper and one of the Best Films of 2014 That I'm Guessing You Haven't Seen.

The small Canadian fishing village of Tickle Neck has been floundering for years after the fishing industry began to fail the townsfolk.  With many forced to live on welfare checks, they have placed their hope on securing a lucrative business contract that would bring an oil industry refinement plant to their small town.  However, one of the company's stipulations is that a doctor must live in the town and Tickle Neck is without a physician.  By chance, Dr. Paul Lewis (Taylor Kitsch) happens to stop in for a bit of an extended stay and the residents along with interim mayor Murray French (Brendan Gleeson) find themselves doing whatever they can to make their small little port seductive and enticing to the young MD.

Although I've already used the word once in this review, the best way to sum up The Grand Seduction is simply to say that it's charming.  It's a movie that could've been made decades ago with its rather innocent tone (although certainly not without a risqué humorous moment or two).  It's a movie that you can watch with you grandmother or your tween kid without risk of embarrassment.  And it's a movie that has a heckuva whole lot more humor than you'd expect.  These feel good flicks can sometimes feel a bit heavy-handed or too saccharine for their own good, but screenwriters Ken Scott and Michael Dowse create a nice balance of sarcasm, heart, and charm (there's that word again) without going overboard on any one aspect.

Director Don McKellar has assembled one of the best ensembles brought to the screen in 2014.  Although Brendan Gleeson and Taylor Kitsch are certainly well known (and do fantastic work here with Gleeson in particular bringing a surprising amount of genteel humor to the screen), the actors portraying the townspeople of Tickle Neck manage to create memorable, enjoyably amiable, and engrossing characters.  There's a genuineness to the entire ensemble that's difficult to achieve, but magic when it's a success...and it's definitely a success here.  Kudos in particular to Gordon Pinsent as Murray's elderly best friend and Mark Critch as the town's beleaguered banker, both of whom are fresh faces to me, but held my interest every minute they were onscreen and provided many a laugh.

Do yourself a favor.  Add The Grand Seduction to your Netflix instant queue and settle yourself in for a wonderfully sweet flick that will win you over with its gentle tone and lovely charm.

The RyMickey Rating:  B+

Movie Review - Lone Survivor

Lone Survivor (2013)

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster, Yousuf Azami, Ali Suliman, and Eric Bana 

Directed by Peter Berg

The problem with calling your movie Lone Survivor is that you're giving away the ending with the darn title.  Granted, if I had been "up" on my news, I would've known the true story of Marcus Lutrell (played here by Mark Wahlberg) and his Navy Seal mates who head into the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan in order  to capture or kill al Qaeda leader Ahmad Shahd (Yousuf Azami).  But, having not followed this story, I didn't know the details.  Right off the bat in the opening scene, we see that Marcus has survived this ordeal (with the rest of the movie told entirely in flashback), so not only do I know that only one person survives, but I know who the survivor is.

Perhaps I'm being a little petty, but I can't deny that this was a factor for me while watching the film, severely diminishing the tension that absolutely could've been a part of the experience.  Peter Berg does a great job with the action sequences placing the viewer squarely in the heat of the battle in the treacherous Afghan mountains, but he doesn't quite get us to connect with the quartet of American soldiers who are at the forefront of the mission.  Seeing as how there were only four soldiers -- Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, and Ben Foster join the aforementioned Wahlberg -- I expected to find myself a bit more invested in their characters, but with the exception of learning a tiny bit about their home lives, I wanted the emotional connection that I never got.  I don't think it's the fault of the actors, but moreso a fault in the script (also crafted by Berg).

Ultimately, I can't help but think I shouldn't have been "trying to guess" which soldier was going to die first, but the title and the flashback set-up inherently made me go that route.  Needless to say, what Lone Survivor excels at is taking us onto the battlefield -- a different battlefield for a different type of war.  These soldiers are heroes and even though I may not have fully connected with their characters, my admiration for them and their sacrifice cannot be denied.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Battleship

Battleship (2012)

Starring Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgård, Brooklyn Decker, Rihanna, and Liam Neeson 

Directed by Peter Berg

Movies like Battleship make me wonder why I like the cinematic medium as much as I do.  When such dreck can be produced, mass-marketed, and proven successful (at least in the overseas territories), I have to question the taste level of our world as a whole.  There's nothing to like about this movie.  Nothing at all.  It's not like it's the worst thing ever created, but it's simply a waste of two hours that simply shouldn't exist.

It's as if the film was created solely using focus groups trying to determine what the mass populous likes in the broadest sense possible.

1. Tropical Settings -- Hawaii should work, so let's set this thing there.  Plus, it's surrounded by water and since our movie's name is Battleship that means we have to spend time on boats.
2. Military Men in Uniform -- Ladies love that, plus it implies "war" and that appeals to the men.
3. Sports Illustrated Models -- Brooklyn Decker fits the bill, trying her hardest to make you look anywhere other than her breasts. (FYI -- she doesn't succeed at that task.)
4. Aliens -- They've proven successful in terms of entertainment value in the past, so let's have some aliens come to earth...and they won't be friendly...but they won't be real nasty either...
5. War -- As mentioned in Point #2, let's have the military men go to war against the alien beings.  Men can relate to the machismo, while women can swoon over a guy like Taylor Kitsch who can save the day.  [Poor Mr. Kitsch -- after this and John Carter he's not a guy you can bet on for quality, that's for sure.]
6. Top 40 Music -- Can we just throw some urban singer in the movie since our cast is mostly caucasian?  We need to appeal across the boards here.  L.L. Cool J isn't available? Okay, Rihanna fits the bill.  Doesn't matter that she hasn't acted before and doesn't exude any charisma.  She's popular.  That's all that we need to worry about.
7. Sassy Side Characters -- See Point #6
8. Action, Action, Action! -- People like explosions.  People like gunfire.  People apparently like to watch a movie where the action sequences make no sense and are pieced together in the most ridiculous ways creating a sense of incoherence.
9. "Pearl Harbor" Romance -- Remember in Pearl Harbor how people loved that the first hour was filled with nothing but Kate Beckinsale flip-flopping between whether she liked Ben Affleck or Josh Hartnett?  People loved the fact that we held off seeing the action, right?  Let's not copy that exactly, but let's take forty minutes before anything happens.  Ms. Decker and Mr. Kitsch should be more than adequate to hold an audience's interest.
10. Gaming Culture -- We're a culture of gamers and while I know that tends to mean video gaming, why not go retro and create a movie around a game like Battleship?  Isn't that what focus groups were asking for when they said they liked gaming?

The problem with Battleship is simply that it takes too many basic concepts, throws them into the pot, and lets them simmer without allowing any cohesiveness to form.  Director Peter Berg has crafted his worst film yet by a mile.  Not only does he fail at creating decent action sequences, but his quiet character moments are laughable and painful to sit through.  Quite simply, there's no reason Battleship needed to be made and it's certainly a waste of time.

The RyMickey Rating:  D-

Movie Review - John Carter

John Carter (2012)

Starring Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Samantha Morton, Willem Dafoe, Thomas Haden Church, Mark Strong, Ciarán Hinds, Daryl Sabara, and Bryan Cranston

Directed by Andrew Stanton

While John Carter may not be worthy of the ridicule that came its way thanks to its extremely high budget and disappointing box office returns, this Andrew Stanton-directed picture was already at a disadvantage in my book as its premise simply isn't up my alley in the slightest (remember, you're talking about the guy who's never seen Star Wars and likely never will).  Ultimately, the film's biggest problem is that there's way too much story here for 130 minutes.  We've got introductions to multiple alien races, at least two civil wars amongst rivaling sanctions on the planet we know as Mars (but known to the natives as Barsoom), and, perhaps the most intriguing aspect (yet least focused upon) that some Civil War-era American has been transported to Mars and rather nonchalantly becomes the savior of some of Barsoom's peoples.

I could delve into more plot, but if I did it'd just take too long, so that last sentence in the above paragraph will have to do.  That said, that last sentence is really the reason the film isn't successful.  I understand that this was likely setting up any future films (that will now never happen), but I'm still not sure why there was a need to place so many different plotlines into this first movie.  If anything, these various storylines fight for prominence and oftentimes become incomprehensible due to the plot's overly ambitious nature.  Ultimately, the fault lies in the director and co-screenwriter Andrew Stanton (to whom this was a pet project for years) for failing to either simplify (or at the very least condense) the various plotlines to create something a bit more enjoyable to watch.

I should say, though, that for Stanton's first foray into live action, he does a fine job in terms of creating an aesthetically pleasing landscape and he has quite an eye for mixing humor and action especially at the beginning of the film.  And, given the enormity of the plot he tries to present, the film's pacing is actually decent.  But in the end, there's simply too much story where there doesn't need to be.

Taylor Kitsch is fine, but bland, as the title character.  He's given very little to do despite being in nearly every scene.  I had hoped his character would've been given a little more emotional oomph considering this American got mystically transported to Mars, but after an amusing few minutes of Carter getting used to differences in gravity, the character almost acts as if this new planet is nothing he hasn't seen before.  The rest of the acting is par for the course.  Nothing exceptional, but about what is to be expected in a sci-fi/fantasy flick.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-