Mary-Louise Parker

Red Sparrow

First Hit:  Although long at 2h 19min, it had enough twists, turns, and detail to keep me fully engaged.

Jennifer Lawrence (here as Dominika Egorova) is a strong actress and is able to project anger, sadness, and determination with only her eyes. It is this skill that sets her apart from many actresses.

As a Russian ballet dancer Dominika is revered more for her beauty than her dancing. However, she is good enough for the ballet company to give her an apartment and provide medical help for her sick mother. Her uncle Vanya Egorov (Matthias Schoenaerts) is part of Russian Intelligence and occasionally looks in on Dominika and her mom Nini (Joely Richardson).

When Dominika breaks her leg, Vanya recruits her to work for Russian Intelligence. He wants her because of her steely determination. He promises here that if she joins him, he’ll make arrangements for her mom to keep the apartment and her medical assistance.

Her first job is to seduce Dimitry Ustinov (Kristof Konrad). When he tries to rape Dominika, Russian Intelligence kills him while he’s on top of her. Because of her success she’s recruited to become a Sparrow. Sparrows use seduction and sex to get what they want from the people they seduce. They are trained in passionless seduction, hand to hand combat and how to use guns.

The Headmistress (Charlotte Rampling) of the Sparrow school is referred to as “Matron.” And it is her goal to make sure they become passionless seducers and combat ready spies.

Dominika is sent on a mission to Budapest to seduce American spy Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton). The goal is to find out the Russian Intelligence mole he was working with so that this mole can be destroyed.

Throughout the film, we see Dominika developing a path and plan to survive and persevere while keeping her mom’s health, safety, and welfare on her mind. However, as an audience member, we don’t always know what her plan is and how it will work out. That's the best part of this film. The unknowing, underscored with believing that Dominika will, in the end, get revenge, makes this story work.

Lawrence was excellent as the cold-hearted Sparrow who had a soul. I didn’t fully buy her being a premiere ballerina (jumps were barely 6 inches high), but this was completely overshadowed by her ability to embody the role as a spy. Rampling was perfect as the cold-hearted Matron of the Sparrow school. Edgerton was strong as the American spy who risked his life to keep his mole secret. Richardson was good as Dominika’s mom. Mary-Louise Parker (as Stephanie Boucher) was strong in her role as a US Senator’s Chief of Staff. Jeremy Irons (as General Vladimir Andreievich Korchnoi) was perfect. His cold intimidating voice and manner worked well. Justin Haythe wrote a good complicated screenplay. Director Francis Lawrence did a good of not tipping the story’s hand.

Overall:  I enjoyed the film’s puzzle and it was the acting that made it work.

R.I.P.D.

First Hit:  Just didn’t work.

Nick (Ryan Reynolds) is in love with his wife.

He’s a Boston Police Detective and gets tempted to steal some gold they find on a drug bust. He confronts his partner Hayes (Kevin Bacon) about the “rightness” of this. Hayes doesn’t want Nick to turn in the gold so he shoots his partner. Nick dies but ends up with other dead law enforcement officers who are living in this “other sort of world”.

In charge of this group of these dead officers is Proctor (Mary-Louise Parker). Why does this group of R.I.P.D. officers exist? To fight crime of people who really haven’t died and who attempt to make havoc on the world as it is.

Nick gets assigned to a new partner named Roy (Jeff Bridges) who has such a forced accent that it is nauseating. He was wronged just like Nick so there are here to work together to fight the undead. What makes it even worse is that people in the real world see Nick as a old Asian man and Roy as a voluptuous blond.

This story is such a reach and then to add that Hayes is one of these characters who are collecting enough gold to reign havoc on the world is simply an out-of-bounds reach. It is a stupid story although amusing at times.

Bridges is mediocre in this role and his accent is horrible. Bacon is the most amusing and interesting character in the film – his darkness prevails. Reynolds is stuck between a rock and hard place in this role and my guess he wishes he never took it. Parker is the best part of the film; her tongue in cheek approach was fun. Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi wrote this mindless script and Robert Schwentke directed it, and I’m not sure why.

Overall:  A couple of laughs but overall a real waste of talented actors.

Red 2

First Hit:  Tongue in cheek fun, watchable and entertaining.

During the cold war Bailey (Anthony Hopkins) created a nuclear device, which was hidden in the Kremlin. He is also the only one alive that may know where the device was hidden.

The issue is that he's been lock up in a semi-insane asylum/prison. A team of retired black-ops people is reunited get him released and track down this bomb and return it to the US. This team, led by Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), is cobbled together and includes an aging Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich) and Victoria (Helen Mirren).

In a tangential way the team also includes Han Cho Bai (Byung-hun Lee) and Frank’s wife Sarah Ross (Mary-Louise Parker). Frank is in love with Sarah and spends a lot of film time trying to protect her. However, Sarah is up for adventure, and is quirky enough in character to make her role very fun.

Trying to subvert the team is Katja (Catherine Zeta-Jones) who wants the bomb as well. What everyone doesn’t know is that Baily is not crazy, just a man on a mission to make right a wrong he thought was done to him.

The actors here appear to have had fun in their roles and there is always a sense that there was a slight wink and an nod as they did their scenes together.

Hopkins is the most brilliant in his role as he switches from off his rocker to singularly focused to right a personal wrong. Willis is always a bit tongue in cheek and here he’s in his swim lane. Malkovich is great as the sidekick that is always one hair away from being off his rocker. Mirren is fabulous as the unsuspecting older refined woman that has a "take no prisoners attitude". Parker is sublime as the quirky wife looking for adventure in her life and marriage. Zeta-Jones hams it up and is in her glory. Lee is really good as the guy who switches sides for just a moment to gets what he wants. Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber wrote a fun and entertaining script. Dean Parisot married the actors and script in a way that made all this work well. 

Overall:  This is a fun film but don’t look for everything to hold together, it wasn’t meant to.

RED

First Hit: A silly fun film which showed off the quirkiness of some great actors.

I like films like RED which are a farce but reasonably put together enough to make it fun. I like when the implausible is made plausible enough so that I can sit back and just go for the ride. RED is one such film.

Is any of it plausible? No, but that isn’t the point. The point is to create enough of a plot with some writing which fit the actors range, yet move them enough outside their norm to make it enjoyable.

Frank Moses (played by Bruce Willis) is a retired CIA spook who, years ago, happened to be on a mission in Guatemala where the current Vice President got himself skewed by giving favors to a corporate executive named Alexander Dunning (played by Richard Dreyfuss).

The story begins to leak and a reporter is killed as are others who were on the mission. Moses was on the mission and is now being hunted. He innocently gets hooked up with a Social Security Claims associate named Sarah Ross (played by Mary-Louise Parker) because he likes the sound of her voice over the phone but meeting Moses means she is hunted as well.

To get out of this mess Moses finds others who were on the same mission in Guatemala to warm them that a CIA operative is out to kill them because they know the Vice President’s past. There is Joe Matheson (played by Morgan Freeman) who is dying of cancer, has nothing else to live for and thinks stopping these useless deaths is important.

Then there is Marvin Boggs (played by John Malkovich) who is paranoid, thinks the government is always after him and may mistakenly think a particular person is out to kill him but is often times right. These people are joined by Victoria (played by Helen Mirren) who is steely eyed and ready to kill someone at the drop of a hat (just to keep her finger in the pie).

All these older CIA covert operations people (RED Retired Extremely Dangerous) are out to expose the truth because if they don’t the current CIA will kill them.

Willis is great with his typical sarcastic wit conjuring up a way to resolve the crisis he finds himself. Dreyfuss is fine as the man behind the scenes with money and the stings which are pulling on the VP and soon to be President. Parker is a perfect fit as the girl living in Kansas City who’s never seen or done anything in her life as she gets pulled into the espionage mess and enjoys the change of life. Freeman is perfect as the sound thinker and always ready to do the right thing for the team even if it means pulling a trigger or being on the other end of the bullet. Malkovich is perfect as the right on the edge guy who spent many of his early years in the Army’s LSD program. Mirren was funny in her out of character role firing machine guns and wasting other’s lives. For fun Ernest Borgnine the CIA deep dark records keeper is a joy to see again. Jon and Eric Hoeber wrote this in a funny tongue-in-cheek sort of way while Robert Schwentke made the best of his actors and a tight script that moved things along in a silly funny sort of way.

Overall: It was a romp, easy to watch, predictable and engaging.

Solitary Man

First Hit: Michael Douglas is perfect in this role and does carry the premise all the way to the end.

The basic premise of this film is about some men and their drive, desire and lust to conquer women by bedding them.

Douglas plays Ben Kalmen, a divorced former car dealer who got caught scheming and was convicted of fraud. He has no job, no friends but he’d like to get back into business. He also has a reputation of hitting on many young women and bedding them. He’s dating and living with Jordan (played by Mary-Louise Parker) and Allyson (played by Imogen Poots) Karsch a mother and daughter who have their own wealth.

Although he is living with Jordan, he is still picking up other women and taking them to hotels. He’s tasked with taking Allyson to her college for a meeting with the Chancellor. Doing this puts himself in good graces with Jordan who can pull strings to get him endorsements and support to build a new auto dealership.

However, he hits on Allyson thinking she won’t tell her mother. His former wife Nancy (played by Susan Sarandon) still lives in their old apartment and still has their furniture. There is nostalgia and comforts being with her but as you learn at the end of the film, he became this other person because he felt invisible.

There are numerous men like Ben and this film can serve as a view of how their lives could go. I did like that the ending of the film was left up in the air, but I’m pretty sure of the way he went.

Douglas fills the bill of this character with panache. Whether it is true or not; if you believe gossip magazines, he makes the role come alive with realism. His dialogue is spoken with experienced ease. Parker effectively carries off the role of a rich affected wealthy woman who is hurt but wanting to move on. Poots as Allyson is strong by being both angry at and complacent with her mom. Jenna Fischer plays Kalmen’s daughter and given the odd dialogue with her father about his exploits, I was both taken aback and intrigued. Sarandon has a small but effective part by grounding the the film. Danny DeVito plays a old friend who runs a deli near his alma mater and here DeVito is on course and on track.

Overall: I liked this film as it fairly portrayed the sadness of someone continuing to find their strength through seduction.

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