My Grown-Up Christmas List

 My Grown-Up Christmas List (2022)

Starring Kayla Wallace, Kevin McGarry, Lindsay Merrithew, Susan Hamann, and James M. Jenkinson

Directed by Andrew Cymek

Written by Bryar Freed and Shawn Riopelle

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C

Respect

 Respect (2021)

Starring Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans, Audra McDonald, Marc Maron, Tituss Burgess, Tate Donovan, and Mary J. Blige

Directed by Leisl Thomas

Written by Tracey Scott Wilson

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B-

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

Click here for my (current) Letterboxd review

Click here for my previous RyMickey Review

The (current) RyMickey Rating: B-

Downton Abbey: A New Era

 Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022)

Starring Hugh Bonneville, Elisabeth McGovern, Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael, Maggie Smith, Jim Carter, Raquel Cassidy, Brendan Coyle, Kevin Doyle, Michael Fox, Joanne Froggatt, Harry Hadden-Paton, Robert James-Collier, Allen Leech, Phyllis Logan, Sophie McShera, Tuppence Middleton, Lesley Nicol, Imelda Staunton, Penelope Wilton, Laura Haddock, Dominic West, Nathalie Baye, Jonathan Zaccaï, and Hugh Dancy

Directed by Simon Curtis

Written by Julian Fellowes

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B

The Muppet Movie

 The Muppet Movie (1979)

Starring Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie, and all the Muppets

with Puppeteers Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, and Dave Goelz

Also Starring Charles Durning and Austin Pendleton

Directed by James Frawley

Written by Jerry Juhl and Jack Burns

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B

A Goofy Movie

 A Goofy Movie (1995)

Featuring the vocal talents of Bill Farmer, Jason Marsden, Jim Cummings, Kellie Martin, Rob Paulson, Tevin Campbell, and Pauly Shore

Directed by Kevin Lima

Written by Jymn Magon, Chris Matheson, and Brian Pimental

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B

10

 10 (1979)

Starring Dudley Moore, Julie Andrews, Robert Webber, and Bo Derek

Directed by Blake Edwards

Written by Blake Edwards

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  D

The Personal History of David Copperfield

The Personal History of David Copperfield (2020)

Starring Dev Patel, Hugh Laurie, Tilda Swinton, Peter Capaldi, Aneurin Barnard, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Rosalind Eleazer, Morfydd Clark, Darren Boyd, Daisy May Cooper, Paul Whitehouse, Ranveer Jaiswell, Gwendoline Christie, and Ben Whishaw

Directed by Armando Iannucci

Written by Simon Blackwell and Armando Iannucci

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B+

Turning Red

Turning Red (2022)

Featuring the vocal talents of Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh, Ava Morse, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Hyein Park, Orion Lee, and Wai Ching Ho

Directed by Domee Shi

Written by Julia Cho and Domee Shi

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B-

The Pentaverate

The Pentaverate (2022) 

Starring Mike Myers, Lydia West, Ken Jeong, Keegan Michael-Key, Richard McCabe, Jennifer Saunders, and Debi Mazar

Directed by Tim Kirkby

Created by Mike Myers 

Click here for my Letterbox review

The RyMickey Rating:  D-

Father of the Bride

 Father of the Bride (2022)

Starring Andy Garcia, Gloria Estefan, Adria Arjona, Isabela Merced, Diego Boneta, Pedro Damián, and Chloe Fineman

Directed by Gary Alazarki

Written by Matt Lopez

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C

Camelot

Camelot (1967)

Starring Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave, and Franco Nero

Directed by Joshua Logan 

Written by Alan Jay Lerner

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: D+

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020)

Starring Will Ferrell, Rachel McAdams, Dan Stevens, Melissanthi Mahut, Demi Lovato, and Pierce Brosnan

Directed by David Dobkin

Written by Will Ferrell and Andrew Steele 

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B-

Marry Me

 Marry Me (2022)

Starring Jennifer Lope, Owen Wilson, Maluma, John Bradley, Sarah Silverman, Chloe Coleman, and Michelle Buteau

Directed by Kat Coiro

Written by John Rogers, Tami Sagher, and Harper Dill

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: C

It Should Happen to You

 It Should Happen to You (1954)

Starring Judy Holliday, Peter Lawford, and Jack Lemmon

Directed by George Cukor

Written by Garson Kanin

Click here for my Lettervoxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C+

Just One Kiss

Just One Kiss (2022)

Starring Krysta Rodriguez, Santino Fontana, Aida Turturro, and Illeana Douglas

Directed by Jeff Beesley

Written by Nina Weinman

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  B- 

Captain America: The First Avenger

 Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Starring Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hayley Atwell, Hugo Weaving, Dominic Cooper, and Stanley Tucci

Directed by Joe Johnston

Written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely

Click here for my (current) Letterboxd review

Click here for my prior RyMickey Ramblings review

The (current) RyMickey Rating:  B

Netflix Marvel Series Mini-Reviews, Part I

As part of my Marvel re-watch, I'm watching all the Marvel Netflix series in order for the first time.  Here are some thoughts on the seasons as they progressed.

Daredevil - Season One - April 2015

Expected things to be gritty, but didn't expect it to be totally as violent as it was.  Not complaining about that aspect, but I was admittedly a little surprised.  The series has some high points -- Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk and his burgeoning relationship with art dealer Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer), Deborah Ann Woll's Karen and her connection with Vondie Curtis-Hall's newspaper reporter Ben (complete with a shocking conclusion to that relationship that I was NOT expecting in the slightest.  But there are also some low points as well -- Charlie Cox is one-note as the titular character, the need for every episode to have a big fight grows weary and tiresome.  As I'd soon discover is typical in all of these series, thirteen episodes feels too long and too drawn out.  Disney gets is right with their Disney+ series going shorter in their episode counts.  Nonetheless, a decent start.

Jessica Jones - Season One - November 2015

I'd heard very good things about Jessica Jones and it never lived up to my expectations.  I think the crux of the problem was Krysten Ritter as the titular character -- I don't say this often in my reviews, but something about her acting just felt awkward and forced, making it quite difficult to initially make my way through this.  As her character got fleshed out a bit more, the series got a little more interesting.  Rachael Taylor as Jessica's adopted sister and David Tennant as the evil Kilgrave were standouts, but even the latter fell victim to the thirteen episode length and the repetitive nature of things.  The finale was also hugely anti-climactic to me for some reason.  This is considered by some to be the top season of all of the Netflix Marvel series, but this just didn't work for me.

Daredevil - Season Two - March 2016

This one just delved too much into the supernatural for me to really get into it as much as I wanted.  The subplot with an Asian group attempting to create some all-powerful being was too over-the-top for my tastes.  That said, the addition of Jon Bernthal's Punisher and Élodie Yung's Elektra both added oomph to a second season that could've felt like a retread of the first.  Again, too many episodes draw this out and cause it to be a struggle.  In the end, I think it's maybe not as good as Season One, but it would be a close race in large part because of Bernthal and Yung who add some flavor to this that season one didn't feel like it had.  On the other hand, the lack of a central villain hurts this.

Luke Cage - Season One - September 2016

This one was a huge surprise.  I started off not thinking I could get into this one because, once again, we have a central character who is a bit of a bore on the acting front.  However, everything else about this season was fantastic.  A mid-season surprise in relation to Mahershala Ali was a game-changing shocker.  Rosario Dawson gets a chance to finally shine, Simone Missick is strong as cop Misty Knight, and Alfre Woodard is a gas as she slowly becomes Lady Macbeth.  Add in some strong cultural notes regarding Harlem (and the most realistic villain) and this was excitingly fun to watch -- the first one of these that didn't feel like a struggle to get through thirteen episodes.

Death on the Nile

 Death on the Nile (2021)

Starring Kenneth Branagh, Tom Bateman, Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Ali Fazal, Dawn French, Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Rose Leslie, Emma Mackey, Sophie Okonedo, Jennifer Saunders, and Letitia Wright

Directed by Kenneth Branagh

Written by Michael Green

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  C

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

Click here for my Letterboxd review

My Previous RyMickey Review

The current RyMickey Rating:  B