Mickey 17 (2025)

Mickey 17 is the first film from Bong Joon Ho since the amazing Parasite and is based on the novel Mickey 7. The story sees Mickey Barnes who joins a program that will clone him to do the grunt work and when he dies there will be another one but when he survives and the company think that he has died they create a new one and there is a rule about duplicates and the film then becomes a battle between the two Mickeys and the company.

I went into this film not thinking that this film would be as good as Parasite. Parasite is a perfect film and this at best was going to be a close second. There are things to like about this film including Robert Pattinson. Pattinson is very likeable in this film and it's hard to believe how far he has come since the Twilight days. Here he has to play two different versions of himself and make them work. The horrible version of him is likeable enough so that when he ends up dying it does feel like a sad moment. His nicer version is the one that we want to see make it to the end and get the life he deserves. There is a nice aspect of the plot that his life is a result of a bad decision when he pressed a red button that led to his mother’s death. Naomi Ackie is also very good in this as the only person that seems to care about Mickey. Last time I saw Ackie was in Blink Twice which she was good in and here she continues to show what a good actress she is. 

The film isn't perfect as they do waste Steve Yeun who pops up every so often and does contribute to the story but I would have liked to see more of him. The biggest problem with the film is Mark Ruffalo. I can remember how impressed I was with his performance in Poor Things and yet it seems like he has gone backwards with this. It’s undeniable that he is doing what I think he thinks is a Trump performance and it's just boring now when people do a parody of Trump, even if he hadn't won the election in 2024, it would have been an eye rolling performance. There was potential to make him a decent villain but either the director or Ruffalo himself thought this was ok. Even Toni Collette is a bit of a let down as she is just there to be the one that is pushing Marshall to do certain things but she is never presented as being the main villain but she gets overshadowed by Ruffalo’s performance.

Despite these few issues, the film is as good as I hoped it would be. There are things that are very Bong Joon ho and these add to the quality of the film. The effects of the creepers is very good and the fact that they are portrayed as not being terrorising monsters works very well. The film has hints of Starship Troopers and Moon which are good films to include in this film and overall the film works because of the central performances from Pattinson and Ackie. I think the way that the film is pitched might put some people off but I think that it deserves people’s time as it's a fun two hour film and shows that Bong Joon ho is a very good director.

Parasite (2019)

I went in to the screening of Parasite wanting to dislike it because I thought that 1917 should have won the best Picture Oscar and also because it felt like people were hyping it way too much and I thought that all it was going to do was disappoint. What I felt 2 hours and 12 minutes later was pretty much the exact opposite. I don’t think I have seen a film that bonkers for a very long time. I knew that I loved this film but it took me a while to figure out why.

The set-up of the film is that a family that are fairly poor and they integrate themselves into a wealthy family and each family member has a role. The film has a lot of comedic moments in the first two thirds of the movie. In the screening that I was in, there was several moments where people were laughing and its not hard to see why and I was chuckling with them. All the actors playing them are perfect. They are treated as quite smart and they have to come up with a plausible plan to get rid of people who they are working for them. 

The final 15-20 minutes is bonkers because it just comes out of nowhere. People are getting stabbed and skewed and bashed over the head with rocks and the reality of what becomes of the father is quite sad and it shows how much they have fallen is quite remarkable. It ended in a perfect way and as the credits played, I sat there for a few moments to try and take in what I saw. This is a film that didn’t drag at any point from the very beginning to the very end. The humour is well placed and when it turns, its does so in such as way that you don’t really notice it until its happened and by then the film is moving along towards the end.

If I had to nit-pick then I would say that there were a couple of moments when I was worried that the characters were going to be too unlikable but Bong Joon Ho managed to pull it back. I hear there is a black and white version and I hope to see that film because I think that this will only enhance my enjoyment. Parasite thoroughly deserved its Oscar. I love 1917 but I think that I love this film more. A film that is as close to perfection as its possible to get.