150 Word Review: 'Mickey 17' (2025)
Two for one
It's been six years since writer/director Bong Joon Ho's Oscar-winning dark comedy about class and capitalism, Parasite, but it feels like it's been longer. His follow-up, Mickey 17, is a macabre slapstick sci-fi satire that gets lost in space. Robert Pattinson is Mickey, a loser who agrees to do all the dangerous work on a starship. Here's the deal: every time he dies, a clone with his memory is "printed" and he clocks back in. Hey, it's a living.
In Bong's future, humanity has conquered death but not suffering. Pattinson is desperate to star in a comedy but Bong is more interested in tortured and broad social commentary backed up by over-the-top—and tedious—performances from Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette as Trump-y villains. The special effects pop but the punchlines don't.
Pattinson gifts Boon’s conceptually messy, emotionally confused blockbuster a human heart—two hearts since he is both Mickey 17 and 18.
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5. 'The Man In The Iron Mask' (1998)
4. 'The Social Network' (2010)
3. 'Dead Ringers' (1988)
2. 'Adaptation' (2002)
1. 'The Parent Trap' (1961)
Your reviews and recommendations are great and "watch this, not that" is clever and enjoyable. I have to ask, is there a missing link to the review of "Presence" or is it my laptop being glitchy? Everything else opens. Meanwhile, I've got to watch "They Cloned Tyrone," which I never would've heard of if not for your reviews!
Mickey 7 did not really work for me on the page: the conceit was thin and ran out of steam in the second installment; plus the on-planet sci-fi (the sentient centipedes) was eyeroll-inducing. I did not finish, which is rare for me. I was hoping it would work better on the screen, if only because of Pattinson.