Headed to the theater? Well, I've already been and here are some thoughts on what's out right now.
Mickey 17: Written and directed by Bong Joon Ho, this is the story of what happens when an Expendable named Mickey becomes a Multiple. OK, hold on, I'll have to explain some more, won't I? This movie is set in the future where various groups of humans are striving to colonize other planets. Mickey (Robert Pattinson) is a man who is fleeing all his debt collectors on Earth, so he agrees to sign up for a mission to the planet Niflheim as an Expendable. Humans have developed the technology to print out clones that can contain the memories of the original, so as an Expendable, Mickey is basically a human lab rat who tests out various hostile environments or substances to see how a human would die, and then he gets re-printed out the next day as a new version of himself who still remembers everything that happened to him. As you can imagine, there are many dubious ethical and moral implications to this, and all of that comes to a head when his overlords accidentally print out the 18th version of him, assuming that Mickey 17 died. Only, of course, Mickey 17 is still alive, and now he and Mickey 18 must figure out how they both co-exist as Multiples.
Everything that I've explained is contained in the 2-minute trailer for this movie, which I watched a dozen times while at the movies last year. In the movie, however, all of that backstory takes up almost the entire first half, which is why I accidentally fell asleep for a lot of it. Oops. So, I'm here to tell you that this movie wasn't quite my cup of tea. It's an intriguing premise, but the execution fell flat for me. Pattinson is doing a good job, but the comic tone of the film was often histrionic and too over-the-top for me. Particularly when we get to Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collete as the villains of the piece who are just being way too zany for my liking. I don't think this movie quite nailed its tone, and while it had a solid philosophical quandary at its center, it resolved that quandary in a way that felt a bit too pat and Hollywood. I'm sure there are a lot of people who might get a lot out of this movie. But I was not one of them.
The Monkey: Written and directed by Osgood Perkins, this movie is a very funny horror movie about a cursed toy monkey and the twin boys who unfortunately become enmeshed in its bloody vendetta. Theo James plays identical twin brothers Hal and Bill (Christian Convery plays them as young boys), who have a rather difficult relationship, with Bill constantly bullying Hal. But then the brothers find a creepy monkey toy in their closet, and every time they turn the key in its back, some random person in the vicinity dies a gruesome death. They try to get rid of the monkey after it kills someone very important to them, but then we flash forward to 25 years later where Hal is now a loner who is too terrified of having close relationships lest the Monkey rear its ugly head. Which it does.
This movie is only 98 minutes long, so while it doesn't have much plot, you'll be perfectly entertained for the entire run time. It's based on a short story by Stephen King, and you can tell there isn't much story there to stretch out, but as we are subject to increasingly zany and bloody deaths, you can't help but chuckle and settle in for the ride. It's very silly, but very entertaining, and sometimes that's all you want for a quick diversion at the movies.
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