King Richard

 King Richard (2021)

Starring Will Smith, Aunjanue Ellis, Saniyya Sidney, Demi Singleton, Jon Bernthal, and Tony Goldwyn

Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green

Written by Zach Baylin

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B

The Belko Experiment

The Belko Experiment (2017)

Starring John Gallagher, Jr., Tony Goldwyn, Adria Arjona, John C. McGinley, Melonie Diaz, Owain Yeoman, Sean Gunn, Brent Sexton, Josh Brener, David Dastmalchian, David Del Rio, Gregg Henry, and Michael Rooker

Directed by Greg McLean

Written by James Gunn

***This film is currently streaming via HBO***

Summary (in 500 words or less):  When they are locked inside the Belko Corporation's high-rise building, the trapped workers are forced to take part in a horrible social experiment where they must kill each other in order to survive.

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C

Movie Review - Divergent

Divergent (2014)

Starring Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Ashley Judd, Jai Courtney, Ray Stevenson, Zoë Kravitz, Miles Teller, Tony Goldwyn, Ansel Elgort, Maggie Q, Mekhi Phifer, and Kate Winslet

Directed by Neil Burger

I feel like it's wrong that I didn't hate Divergent.  In reality, it's a bit of a carbon copy of The Hunger Games franchise -- dystopian society in a ravaged United States, different segments of the population broken off into distinct groups, girl savior tries to take down the evil governmental figurehead.  Much to my surprise, however, I found Divergent an interesting enough start of a series of films.  Unfortunately, I'm not quite sure from this point forward how the films progress into something worth watching, but the first flick is at least moderately appealing.

As mentioned, the overarching premise of Divergent is that the residents of the United States -- or at least the residents in the walled city of Chicago -- are broken up into five groups.  Each group represents one of the following qualities -- smart, kind, honest, selfless, brave -- and when teens reach the age of sixteen they must choose which quality they will follow for the rest of their lives after taking a specially designed test that helps them hone in on where they most likely belong.  Teen sister and brother Beatrice (Shailene Woodley) and Caleb (Ansel Elgort) have grown up with parents (Ashley Judd and Tony Goldwyn) who belong to the community of Abnegation which controls the government, but at the Choosing Ceremony, Caleb joins Erudite (the "smart" clique which desires to run the government) and Beatrice joins Dauntless (the "brave" group which is essentially the law enforcement aspect of the society).  Upon joining Dauntless, Beatrice shortens her name to Tris and soon discovers that she may not be cut out for this new life.  However, once you've chosen your community, you're stuck there and if you don't fit, you'll be forced to become homeless out on the streets.

Tris is also faced with the notion that her initial test to determine which group she belonged in came back showing that she was "divergent" -- meaning that she doesn't belong to any one group.  Divergents are not looked upon in a positive light by Erudite leader Jeanine (Kate Winslet) who sees Divergents as too independently-minded and unwilling to kowtow to her wishes.  While Jeanine seemingly has everyone's best wishes at heart, her only goal is to push Erudite to the forefront of the community and she'll stop at nothing to see that happen.

Admittedly, it's all a bit ridiculous.  And it's all a bit of a rehash of The Hunger Games.  However, I did find myself intrigued by the plot.  Yes, Tris's training goes on for a bit too long and a romance with one of her fellow Dauntless colleagues seems forced and unnecessary (at least this early in the game), but I can't really say I was ever bored.  The acting is more than acceptable for a film like this -- meaning a film appealing to a youthful audience who may not care about such things -- and it elevates the flick to a higher level.

As I mentioned above, however, I can't quite see how this storyline carries on for three more films.  Quite honestly, the film concludes in a way that the story could've just ended and I'd have been fine with not discovering anything else about the community.  How they craft a tale that holds my interest in the future will be difficult and seemingly not possible.  I hope I'm proven wrong.  While Divergent isn't quite The Hunger Games in quality, it's certainly head over heels better than the Twilight saga.

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Movie Review - The Mechanic

The Mechanic (2011)

Starring Jason Statham, Ben Foster, Tony Goldwyn, and Donald Sutherland

Directed by Simon West

No one's ever going to say that The Mechanic is original (heck...it's a remake of a 1970s Charles Brosnan movie for starters), but I've got to say that this little flick is a solid one that, at under 90 minutes, doesn't overstay its welcome, moves along at an incredibly brisk pace, and has some intense action sequences. 

The biggest problem with director Simon West's action flick is that he doesn't have much to work with from the screenplay.  We've essentially got the tale of hit man Arthur (Jason Statham playing the same tough guy role he always plays but somehow manages to not bore you regardless) who is told to murder his mentor Harry (Donald Sutherland) by his employer (Tony Goldwyn).  Although I won't spoil anything, you'd be crazy to not know what's going on here in terms of who the bad guy really is and, unfortunately, the screenplay doesn't do a good job of creating red herrings.  Needless to say (and this is perhaps a moderate spoiler, although it's revealed in the trailer), Arthur's mentor ends up dead and the tough guy finds himself becoming the teacher to Harry's son Steve (Ben Foster) who finds himself wanting to latch on to his father's line of work.  Together the duo continue to go from hit to hit eventually uncovering the truth behind Harry's murder, attempting to seek revenge on those who ordered it.

While the dry Jason Statham and the kooky Ben Foster and both fine and play quite well off of each other, the fact of the matter is that despite the short running time, there's very little story to latch onto in The Mechanic.  It's just hit after hit, target after target, and when you look at the grand scheme of things, none of it really matters.  These assassinations are just set-ups for some admittedly really great and exciting action scenes.  Still, despite the lack of story, somehow I was kind of blind to that in the midst of the film.  Only looking back on it now do I realize that the middle forty-five minutes of The Mechanic don't really matter in the slightest.  I guess that's a credit to the filmmakers and actors in that they really managed to dupe me into enjoying something I'm not sure I should have.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-