MOVIE REVIEW: RICKY STANICKY

 

Twenty years after creating the imaginary Ricky Stanicky, three childhood friends still use the nonexistent pal as a handy alibi for their immature behavior. When their spouses and partners get suspicious and demand to finally meet him, the guilty trio decides to hire washed-up actor Rod to bring him to life. However, when Rod takes his role of a lifetime a little too far, they begin to wish they never invented Ricky in the first place.

Director: Peter Farrelly

Cast: Zac Efron, Jermaine Fowler, Andrew Santino, Lex Scott Davis, Anja Savcic, Jeff Ross, William H. Macy, John Cena

Release Date: March 8, 2024

Genre: Comedy

Rated R for sexual material, language throughout and some drug content.

Runtime: 1h 53m

Review:

Ricky Stanicky's silly setup should be perfectly suited for Peter Farrelly's talents especially with game cast but its never as consistently funny as it should be.  Farrelly's film feels familiar from the start with its goofy, over the top comedy and occasional gross outs paired with some choppy sentimentality.  The best Farrelly brother’s film's worked because the comedy bits tended to make it easier to overlook some of the film's shortcomings.  Peter's solo films have never reached the heights of his collaborations with his brother from the late 90's and early 2000's, a trend that continues here.  There are bits that work mostly thanks to a game cast highlighted by John Cena who does the majority of the heavy lifting.  The biggest issue is the film can never maintain the comedic energy since there are a handful of moments that fall flat which makes the whole thing feel longer than it actually is.  Zac Efron, Jermaine Fowler, Andrew Santino and Cena all do their best, but the comedic dead spots highlight how thinly scripted the whole thing is.  The cast seems to be begging for better material to work with Efron making for a great straight man to the assorted zaniness happening around him.  Likewise, Fowler and Santino's comedic talents feel underutilized throughout which is a shame.  The result is a passable but easily forgettable comedy that feels like it could have been much better.    

C-

MOVIE REVIEW: THE IRON CLAW

 

The true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who make history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s. Through tragedy and triumph, under the shadow of their domineering father and coach, the brothers seek larger-than-life immortality on the biggest stage in sports.

Director: Sean Durkin

Cast: Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, Maura Tierney, Holt McCallany, Lily James

Release Date: December 22, 2023

Genre: Biography, Drama, Sport

Rated R for language, suicide, some sexuality and drug use.

Runtime: 2h 12m

The Iron Claw, the tragic true-life tale of the Von Erich family, is the kind of sports movie that doesn't require you to be a fan of the sport to be moved and affected by its painful story.  Sean Durkin directs the film with a nuanced hand giving it a sweaty, gritty feel which gives the story an air of authenticity.  He makes you feel every bit of flesh hitting the mat during the wrestling sequences but adds an overreach sense of dread and sadness throughout the entire film.  Thematically, it covers well worn concepts about masculinity and overbearing fathers trying to live vicariously through their sons but does so with a surprisingly level of effectiveness thanks to its cast.  Holt McCallany is the kind of actor that can bring a certain level of intimidation, intensity without overt physicality which works incredibly well here as the family patriarch.  There's an emotional frigidity to his character that's reflected in his treatment of his sons as mere vessels to correct his list of grievances and shortcomings.  The character is cold, emotionally distant, and aloof even as tragedy continues to befall his children due in large part to his constant pushing and playing them against each other.  Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson and Stanley Simons all deliver authentic, engaging performances, each reflecting the sons burning desire to please their father at any cost.  Efron though carries the emotional weight of the film as he makes you feel the pain of his perceived failures and shortcomings early on in the story before he’s burdened by loss of his siblings along with the realization of the root cause.  It’s an excellent showcase for Efron as he emotes all the internalized pain and trauma with a level of nuance and depth that I honestly didn't think he was capable of.  His psychical transformation almost becomes an afterthought due to his committed performance which elevates the entire film and makes it easier to overlook a few pacing issues and underwritten female characters.

 

A-

MOVIE REVIEW: FIRESTARTER

 

A couple desperately try to hide their daughter, Charlie, from a shadowy federal agency that wants to harness her unprecedented gift for turning fire into a weapon of mass destruction. Her father taught her how to defuse her power, but as Charlie turns 11, the fire becomes harder and harder to control. When a mysterious operative finally finds the family, he tries to seize Charlie once and for all -- but she has other plans.

Director: Keith Thomas

Cast: Zac Efron, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Sydney Lemmon, Kurtwood Smith, John Beasley, Michael Greyeyes, Gloria Reuben

Release Date: May 13, 2022

Genre: Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Rated R for violent content

Runtime: 1h 34m

Review:

Firestarter is the kind of remake that never makes it clear why it exist or is even necessary.  Keith Thomas directs the film with a blasé inertness that drains the entire proceedings of any sort of engaging energy or drama much less anything that resembles actual horror.  There's nary a trace of tension or visceral excitement for the film's mercifully short runtime as the cast goes through the motions with a uninspired script that's as generic as they come.  Zac Efron seems disinterested from the moment he shows up on screen, as if he'd be anywhere else but there.  Ryan Kiera Armstrong tries her best to exude a unnatural menace in her role as the titular Firestarter only occasionally succeeding.  Michael Greyeyes and Gloria Reuben play the primary villains with neither coming off as scary or threatening due to a silly script that doesn't give them anything to work with.  The lone bright spot in the entire affair is the film's distinctive score which was done by horror legend John Carpenter.  The score makes you think of far better 80s films and leaves you wishing Carpenter had come out of retirement and just directed this remake himself. 

D-

Cindy Prascik's Reviews of I’m Not Here & Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile

 

 

My frustration with the cinema experience ever-growing and the week's offerings being less than impressive, this weekend I again threw myself on the mercy of streaming services.

 

First up was 2017's I'm Not Here, a dull tale of a sickly older man reflecting on his past.

 

I'm Not Here is blessed with a couple of extraordinary leads in J.K. Simmons and Sebastian Stan, playing older and younger versions of the sad-sack main character, and it doesn't really seem to know what to do with either of them. Simmons speaks not one word of dialogue and spends most of the film staring sadly at himself in the mirror and blankly at everything else, an artistic choice that serves only to make his scenes--the bulk of the movie--seem interminable. Playing the man in his younger days, Stan at least gets to work a few different acting muscles, but the character is so broadly-drawn that there isn't much he can do with it. Both actors deserve better.

 

To say this picture is slow would be the understatement of the decade. In more deft hands the story might be moving, the lead character sympathetic. Under director Michelle Schumacher, it's a bad film school project, its emotional heft seemingly outside her ability to wrangle and its every turn so obvious you'll see it coming a mile away. While the tale is unquestionably sad, the telling lacks any ability to make the viewer sympathize.

 

I'm Not Here clocks in at an impossibly long 81 minutes and is unrated. It contains adult themes, drinking, and brief nudity.

 

I'm Not Here is a pitiful waste of two exceptionally gifted actors. 

 

Of a possible nine Weasleys, I'm Not Here gets three.

 

I'm Not Here is available for streaming and digital download via various platforms.

 

Fangirl points: Of *course* I only watched it because Sebastian Stan is in it!

 

Next up, Netflix' Ted Bundy biopic, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile.

 

This most recent version of the oft-recounted tale of terror is based on a book by Bundy's longtime girlfriend Elizabeth Kendall. Its wordy name is lifted directly from court transcripts from the day Bundy's death sentence was handed down.

 

While lately Netflix is keeping pace (and sometimes outpacing) so-called "proper" cinema, this offering feels more like a Lifetime movie than anything you'd enjoy on a fifty-foot screen with a ten-dollar bucket of popcorn. Zac Efron, always better than I expect, is spot-on as Bundy, but the performance and the movie itself are somehow less chilling than they should be; there's just no grit. The supporting cast is filled with familiar faces, all of whom have proved more than competent, but--perhaps because the story and its outcome are so well known--it's difficult to invest in the proceedings. Well before the film's halfway point, my attention had wandered far from Ted Bundy, and the only reason I didn't turn it off was in hopes of more "Officer James Hetfield!"

 

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile runs 110 minutes and is rated R for "disturbing/violent content, some sexuality, nudity, and language."

 

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile is a lukewarm take on a story that's already been told too often. 

 

Of a possible nine Weasleys, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile gets two.

 

Fangirl points:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

M-hmm. Until next time...

Cindy Prascik's Reviews of All the Money in the World & The Greatest Showman

Dearest Blog: Yesterday it was off to Marquee Cinemas to close out the busy movie week with All the Money in the World and The Greatest Showman.

Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the trailers.

First up: All the Money in the World.

Inspired-by-true-events tale of the kidnapping of JP Getty, III, and his mother's desperate attempts to secure his release.

Let's see, dear reader(s), where do we start with this one? Well, I was pretty young at the time of the Getty kidnapping, so I remember enough to have known the outcome, but not enough to say how many liberties are taken along the way in this telling of the story. I'm not sure if being aware of the ending contributed to the movie's seeming rather long and slow, but long and slow it certainly does seem. It's never dull, but I was still pretty happy when it finally cruised to its conclusion. The eldest JP Getty appears, at least from this depiction, to be so loathsome an individual that it hardly would have been a disservice to him to have allowed his portrayal by a sexual predator to remain in the film, though of course it would have been a great disservice to everyone else. The movie suffers no ill effects from hasty re-shoots necessitated by the Kevin Spacey controversy; on the contrary, Christopher Plummer's solid turn as as the cantankerous old billionaire is woven seamlessly into the picture. Charlie Plummer (no relation) is also great as the young victim, but it's Michelle Williams who carries this movie with such extraordinary skill that you'll scarcely be able to take your eyes off her. Mark Wahlberg seems miscast as Getty's right-hand man/security expert (spoiler alert: putting glasses on a guy doesn't actually make him seem smart), but he's a likable enough actor that I didn't mind. As mentioned, the movie is deliberately paced and somewhat overlong, but the the kidnapping and surrounding events are nerve-wracking enough that I doubt anyone could be bored with it. There's a bit of up-close and personal violence/gore that may be a little much for some viewers.

Daniel Pemberton's subdued score and cinematography by the brilliant Dariusz Wolski set an appropriately somber tone for this sad and scary story.

All the Money in the World clocks in at 132 minutes and is rated R for "language, some violence, disturbing images, and brief drug content." I can't say it's something I'd ever watch again, but All the Money in the World is a riveting tale bolstered by exceptional performances.

Of a possible nine Weasleys, All the Money in the World gets six.

Next on the agenda: The Greatest Showman.

A heavily-fictionalized musical account of the rise of PT Barnum.

Yet again I found myself with a bit too much time between flicks yesterday, and happened upon a negative article beating up on The Greatest Showman for its rose-colored-glasses version of Barnum.

It was difficult putting it from my mind once the movie started, but movie's sunny demeanor and lively tunes ultimately won the day.

Hugh Jackman is a treasure unmatched in 2017 Hollywood. Top-notch at acting, singing, and dancing, no picture ever has to make allowances for his weaknesses; he doesn't have any. The Greatest Showman is a lightweight film that doesn't remotely tax his skills, but it's thanks to him the movie is elevated from entertaining-but-forgettable to something special. Zac Efron continues to surprise with each new role, a gifted and eminently watchable young talent. If I was dazzled by Michelle Williams in All the Money in the World, The Greatest Showman was quick to remind me why I usually loathe her; her simpering smiles and silly twirling wear thin very quickly. The "circus" players do a fine job and all seem to be having great fun with their limited screen time, and the remaining supporting cast is peppered with familiar faces that are more than up to what little the film asks of them. La La Land composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul have again provided tunes lacking any real flair, but The Greatest Showman's musical numbers make an impact with interesting choreography and eye-popping costumes, hair, and makeup, along with Jackman's irrepressible charisma. The story is hokey at times, as many great old-school musicals are, but if this version of PT Barnum is an upgrade from the real deal, the film itself keeps pace with a positive, inclusive tone that is more than welcome at the end of a divisive, difficult year. The Greatest Showman is pure joy onscreen, the very definition of can't-miss cinema.

The Greatest Showman runs a quick 105 minutes and is rated PG for "thematic elements, including a brawl."

The Greatest Showman’s opening number includes the line, "All that was real is left behind," a perfect setup for the most magical bit of movie humbug I've seen all year.

Of a possible nine Weasleys, The Greatest Showman gets eight and a half.

Fangirl points: Will Swensen! Byron Jennings! Frederic Lehne!

Until next time...

MOVIE REVIEW: NEIGHBORS 2: SORORITY RISING

Two years after feuding with a rowdy frat that moved next door to them, young parents Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly (Rose Byrne) are about to have their second child and move to a new house. Unfortunately, their attempts to sell their current home hit a snag when a sorority led by a rebellious college student (Chloë Grace Moretz) become their new neighbors. Desperate to get rid of the hard-partying gals, the couple forge an alliance with Teddy (Zac Efron), the former fratboy who tormented them the last time around. Directed by Nicholas Stoller. ~ Jack Rodgers, Rovi

Director: Nicholas Stoller

Cast: Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron, Chloe Moretz, Selena Gomez

Release Date: May 20, 2016

Rated: R for crude sexual content including brief graphic nudity, language throughout, drug use and teen partying.

Runtime: 1 hr. 32 min.

Genres: Comedy

Review:

Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising provides some hefty laughs here and there throughout it’s runtime but never really hits the level of consistency of the original.  There’s a haphazard attempt at feminism throughout the film which is about as subtle as a hammer.  It’s a weird mixture since it could have been an interesting slant if it’d been handled properly.  As is, this sequel is another raunchy ride through a recycled plot with characters which are never really fleshed out.  It’s a shame because Chloe Moretz seems like she would have done well with the comedy.  Rogen and Byrne ease back into their roles easily with their interplay being a highlight of the movie.  Byrne continues to impress in her comedic roles but she feels a little underused.  Sadly, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising is another comedy sequel which will be easily overlooked and forgotten since it never reaches the level of the original.

C

MOVIE REVIEW: DIRTY GRANDPA

Straight-laced lawyer Jason (Zac Efron) goes on a road trip to Daytona Beach with his horndog grandfather Dick (Robert De Niro), who was recently widowed and is eager to party hard on spring break now that he's a single man. Along the way, Dick prods Jason to let loose and have fun, and tries to convince him that he shouldn't get married to his controlling fiancée (Julianne Hough). Aubrey Plaza, Dermot Mulroney, Zoey Deutch, Jason Mantzoukas, and Adam Pally co-star. Directed by Dan Mazer. ~ Jack Rodgers, Rovi

Director: Dan Mazer

Cast: Robert De Niro, Zac Efron, Julianne Hough, Aubrey Plaza, Dermot Mulroney

Release Date: Jan 22, 2016

Rated R for crude sexual content throughout, graphic nudity, and for language and drug use.

Runtime: 1 hr. 42 min.

Genres: Comedy

Review:

If you walk out of Dirty Granpa offended then I’m not sure exactly what you were expecting.  It’s a crude vulgar comedy that always shoots for the lowest common denominator.  It hits its marks a handful of times due to the cast and Dan Mazer’s speedy direction.  Mazer doesn’t let his film linger too long on anything.  As a result, you almost don’t notice the clichéd characters and paper thin story.  It’s easy to forget when you see Robert De Niro and Zac Efron clearly having a blast film the bawdy comedy.  Some have decried the downfall of De Niro with roles like these but he seems to really enjoy them otherwise he wouldn’t make as many of them, it helps that he’s got some comedic chops.  So personally, I don’t fault him too much.  Efron does a solid job of playing the straight man to De Niro’s wild man.  The film is helped along by a strong supporting turn from Aubrey Plaza who deserves more movie roles to take advance of her comedic talents.  All in all, Dirty Grandpa isn’t anymore or less than it says it is.  It won’t be a classic but it’s good for a chuckle.

C+

MOVIE REVIEW: NEIGHBORS

Seth Rogen, Zac Efron and Rose Byrne lead the cast of Neighbors, a comedy about a young couple suffering from arrested development who are forced to live next to a fraternity house after the birth of their newborn baby. Neighbors is directed by Nick Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him to the Greek).

Director: Nicholas Stoller 

Cast: Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Rose Byrne, Dave Franco

Release Date: May 09, 2014

Runtime: 1 hr. 37 min. 

Genres: Comedy 

Review:

Neighbors is a refreshing surprise of a comedy.  Not because it’s hilarious, which it is, but because it’s actually a lot smarter than you’d expect from any of the trailers.  Sharply written, the R rated comedy is just as much about a tit for tat war between a frat house and 30 something neighbors as it is about learning to grow up and become an adult.  This may sound a bit heavier than you’d expect but it’s all handled very subtly but the theme is there and it really elevates it about other raunchy comedies.  As for the comedy itself, it’s nearly perfect.  The laughs come at a fast pace hit a wonderful zenith during various moments of its raucous runtime.  Seth Rogan and Rose Byrne make a surprisingly effective combo even if someone like Byrne ending up with something like Rogan and having a baby requires more suspension of disbelief than most comic book movies.  Zac Efron and his chiseled body, flexed throughout, brings some impressively refined comedic chops to his role.  He could have easily fallen into some tried and true stereotypes but he avoids them thanks to the script.  Neighbors is one of those films that’ll be quoted for years to come and for good reason.

B+