Ho-lee crap. Mickey 17, wtf was that?
Once again, we see that the Hollywood marketing machine is on point. Anyone who saw the trailers for Mickey 17 were intrigued. We thought we were going to be treated to a futuristic dark comedy. What we got was…well, I’m not really sure WHAT we got.
O Coens, where art thou?
Creating good dark comedy is hard. It may be the hardest kind of movie to make. Mostly they’re a kind of niche that you either get or don’t get. Example: I don’t think my mom and dad would ever be able to appreciate most of the Coen brothers dark work*. They might like a gag or two from Raising Arizona or Big Lebowski or Bad Santa. But some of the more nuanced elements of the Coen brother’s work will escape them. They may laugh at ‘Gimme back mah baby, you warthog from hell’ and totally miss the irony that the baby was stolen to begin with.
I bring up the Coen Brother’s work because there are times when Mickey 17 seemed to channel its inner Fargo. Those times are few and far between, unfortunately. And in total honesty, there are as many times it channels its inner Drive Away Dolls.** Truly polar opposites.
You’ll always be Glen to us
Mickey 17 stars Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes. Mickey and his business partner Timo (Steven Yeun – Glen from The Walking Dead) are on the run from a small-time loan shark and decide their best course of action is to flee off-world to a cult-like space colony on a snow-bound planet.*** Leading this pilgrimage is TV Evangelist and failed politician Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) and his back-stage controlling wife Ylfa (Toni Collette). It’s all very over-the-top farcical in the same vein as the Coen Brothers work.
Timing is everything
I don’t think I’m overstating things by saying that Mark Ruffalo has a particular political leaning. He’s been very vocal about it over the years. His portrayal of Kenneth Marshall is a very thinly veiled commentary on who he sees as a political adversary. And Ruffalo plays it with utter commitment. In a time when the national sentiment is weighted against that leaning, it casts a shadow over his performance, making it somewhat polarizing. In short, it’s too on the nose. Now, if the part had been given to Mel Gibson? The juxtaposition would be comedy gold.
Kind of like Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys
I’ve never been a big fan of Robert Pattinson’s work. Admittedly, I steered clear of anything Twilight related. His small part in Harry Potter was a non-factor and his take on Batman was infuriating (though I don’t necessarily put that on him. I blame the writing). Regardless, I am happy to admit that his portrayal of Mickey 17 was eye-opening. Dude showed a bit of range and I won’t be so dismissive of him going forward.
So, what went wrong?
Mickey 17 seems to be suffering from a complete lack of identity. Is it a dark comedy? Is it a space adventure? Is it a socio/political commentary? Is the message about technology run amok? Mickey 17 touches on all of those but never really commits to any of them, giving us a disjointed movie full of unresolved strings and uneven, inconsistent behaviors. Its all over the place, which is frustrating. And what the heck was that ending about? I still don’t understand wtf that was about. Sigh…
I’m very sorry to say that I was utterly disappointed with Mickey 17 and can only muster a weak-@$$ rating of 2.2 out of 5. Feel free to watch it on streaming. I’m sure it will be there soon. So far, this year, the stuff coming out of Hollywood has been really, really pitiful, like the studios are cleaning out their cinematic junk drawer. I kind of wish I had stayed home and cleaned out my own junk drawer.
*I may be beating a dead warthog with this, but I am on record as saying that the Coen brother (singular) movie **Drive Away Dolls is the WORST movie I’ve ever seen and absolutely taints any desire to see Coen work in the future.
***And lest I forget, Mickey and Timo owe their loan shark a whopping 35k, for which he sends a thug into space to ‘collect’. That’s couch cushion change in a futuristic world, I would imagine. Coen-esqur or just crappy writing? If you can’t tell, it’s the latter.
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