Mike's Movie Tips

3.5/4 Starring: Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto Rated R for Sci-Fi Violence/Gore and Language In space, no one can hear you scream. It's an ominous tagline to be sure.  One of the better ones, in my opinion (the only one I can think of that comes close is "Let he who is without sin try to survive," which adorned movie posters for "Seven").  Although marketing and trailers have a tendency to overestimate the value of the film they are advertising (there are way too many of these to count), that's not the case with Ridley Scott's monster movie, "Alien."  This is a truly frightening and atmospheric horror film. A crew of seven people are coming back from a mining mission in deep space.  They are: Captain Dallas (Skerrit), Executive Officer Kane (Hurt), Warrant Officer Ripley (Weaver), Navigation Officer Lambert (Cartwright), Science Officer Ash (Holm), and grunts...

3/4 Starring: Christian Bale, Taye Diggs, Angus MacFayden, Sean Pertwee, Sean Bean, Emma Watson Rated R for Violence The theme of the dystopian future will always compel because it reminds us how much art and expression mean to us (despite the fact that it is the least respected field of study these days) and how much of a myth the utopia is.  While no one is going to give Kurt Wimmer's debut film "Equilibrium" marks for originality, it is well acted, compelling and features some truly eye-popping action scenes. After the third world war, humanity realized that human emotion was the cause of all the violence and pain.  Therefore, a new society was made that, with the help of a medication called Prozium, has completely done away with human emotion and all its sources.  Art, music, expressive clothing (even so much as a hair ribbon) is considered contraband, and those with it are arrested and usually killed (if they don't die fighting for the arts to begin with)...

4/4 Starring: Frances McDormand, Steve Buscemi, William H. Macy, Peter Stormare, Harve Presnell Rated R for Strong Violence, Language and Sexuality Like most of the Coen Brothers' movies, "Fargo" is a twisted and bizarrely funny affair.  Sure, it's a crime story, but offbeat doesn't even begin to describe it.  It's really a comedy punctuated by sudden violence and plot twists.  Or is it a crime thriller that's punctuated by offbeat humor?  I can't decide.  It doesn't matter, though.  The end result is just as entertaining. Jerry Lundegaard (Macy) is a car salesman with a plan: he's hiring two men to kidnap his wife (Kristin Rudrud) and use the ransom money from her father Wade Gustafson (Presnell) to pay for a patch of land to build a new lot.  Of course, absolutely nothing goes as planned, and three people end up dead.  Perky and pregnant police cheif Marge Gunderson (McDormand) is on the case, and she stumbles onto it almost by accide...

3/4 Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Max Theriot, Elisabeth Shue, Gil Bellows, Nolan Gerard Funk Rated PG-13 for Intense Sequences of Violence and Terror, Thematic Elements, Some Teen Partying and Brief Drug Material At first glance, "House at the End of the Street" looks to be another generic teen ghost story.  You know, lots of cheese CGI monsters and loud jumps every 10 seconds (without any true terror), no gore or nudity, acting challenged yet photogenic teen stars and usually remakes of horror flicks from across the Pacific. But looks can be deceiving.  For starters, there's no ghost to be found.  Second, there isn't a haunted house.  Finally, it's not a remake.  It's an original story by Jonathan Mostow (who co-wrote and directed " U-571 ") and a script by David Loucka.  Most importantly, it contains some effectively tense scenes. Elissa (Lawrence) has just moved to a new town with her mother Sarah (Shue).  They're living in a gorgeou...

3/4 Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Pena, Anna Kendrick, Natalie Martinez, David Harbour, Frank Grillo, America Ferrera Rated R for Strong Violence, Some Disturbing Images, Pervasive Language including Sexual References and Some Drug Use "End of Watch" is a wildly uneven but always interesting cop thriller from David Ayer, who wrote and directed "Street Kings," and wrote "Training Day."  To tell his story, he uses the "first hand camera" approach that is popular with horror films, although this creates more problems than successes. Brian Taylor (Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (Pena) are partners in the LAPD.  They're very close, and well, a little cocky.  This gets them into trouble with their superiors, and more importantly, a drug cartel. The plot doesn't kick into high gear until the final act.  For most of the film, it's just following Brian and Mike as they go about their days.  This stuff works; it's rare that we s...

0.5/4 Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Mark Wahlberg, Ric Young, Byron Mann, Brian Cox, Kim Chan Rated R for Strong Violence, Language and Sexuality I feel really bad for Chow Yun-Fat.  Although he became famous for his action movies with John Woo, he's also an excellent actor (he should have gotten an Oscar nomination for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"), but his attempts to follow Jackie Chan and Jet Li into Hollywood have been met with abysmal failure (after "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," he starred in the "Bulletproof Monk" with Sean William Scott.  I think that says enough.).  Ironically, he's a better actor than either of them. Chow Yun-Fat plays Nick Chen, a detective in New York City's Chinatown.  He works in the Asian Gang Unit, which essentially is the job of the peacekeeper.  While Nick is a good cop, he's also on the payroll of the Triads, led by Uncle Benny (Chan) and his right hand man, Henry Lee (Young).  A brutal gang ...

1.5/4 Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Anthony LaPaglia Rated PG for Thematic Elements and Brief Language When deciding whether or not to recommend a movie, I have to ask myself two questions: What am I getting from this experience, and is it worth sitting through the running time?  We all take away something from every movie we see.  Often it's a few good laughs from a movie like " Ted ," or two hours of suspense from a movie like " Speed ."  In the case of "The Guys," however, it's a void.  The characters talk and talk, but they barely say anything at all. The film takes place in the days following the September 11th attacks.  Joan (Weaver) is a journalist living in New York City.  Like everyone at the time, she's still reeling from the shock.  A few days after the attacks, Joan receives a phone call from a friend.  A fireman has lost 8 of his men, and he has no idea how to write the eulogies.  She agrees to help the poor man, whose name...

3.5/4 Starring: Ivana Baquero, Sergei Lopez, Maribel Verdu, Doug Jones, Ariadna Gil Rated R for Graphic Violence and Some Language To me, Guillermo del Toro is more noteworthy for his vivid imagination and spectacularly inventive creature design.  You don't see creatures as bizarre or beautiful as you do in a movie by the Mexican director.  The creaky, shuttering movements, the wildly imaginative creatures...both are hallmarks of del Toro.  As a storyteller, however, he's lacking.  "Cronos," the film that brought him to the attention of Hollywood, was grossly overrated (not even worth seeing, in my opinion), and the Hellboy movies are cool, but superficial.  I wasn't the world's biggest fan of "Pan's Labyrinth" the first time I saw it, or the second.  I thought it was good, but not great.  But after the third time watching it, I realize now how truly special it is.  Third time's the charm? The film starts at the end of the Spanish Civ...

1/4 Starring: Henry Cavill, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Echegui, Bruce Willis Rated PG-13 for Intense Sequences of Violence and Action and Language Despite the fact that it had nothing to do with this monstrosity, Warner Brothers is no doubt extremely nervous about the piss-poor quality and reception of "The Cold Light of Day."  The reason is that its star, Henry Cavill, is the lead in their new Superman movie, "Man of Steel."  The utter disaster that the movie is, I don't think "Man of Steel" is in much danger.  It's got too many big names behind it (Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder), and Superman is an iconic character.  That, and Cavill has proven that he can act ("Immortals," anyone?).  The best thing for all involved is to forget about this piece of garbage, and for everyone in the audience to just ignore it. Will Shaw (Cavill) is an American joining his family on vacation in Spain.  He doesn't get along very well with hi...

3/4 Starring: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, John Rhys-Davies, Ronald Lacey Rated PG for Action Violence (I guess) "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is one of the most beloved and famous adventure movies of all time, appearing on many respectable "Best of" lists.  Such high regard befuddles me.  While this is undeniably a fun wind-up toy of a serial and displays Steven Spielberg's true craftsmanship, the film as a whole isn't nearly worth the praise it has received.  It's not even the best in the Indiana Jones series (I found the second installment, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" to be a lot more inventive and exciting). This is the first adventure of famed archaeologist/adventurer Indiana Jones (Ford).  He's asked by the government to track down the Ark of the Covenant, a powerful chest that contains the broken tablets on which God inscribed the Ten Commandments.  The US government wants Jones to find it before t...

1/4 Starring: David Spade, Sophie Marceau, Patrick Bruel, Artie Lange Rated PG-13 for Crude and Sex-Related Humor, Brief Nudity and Language Unless you're building your film around blacker than black humor, it's necessary to create characters that your audience will sympathize with instead of actively wishing for them to die horrible deaths.  That's what happens with "Lost & Found," a would-be romantic comedy that's rotten to the core. Dylan (Spade) is a restaurateur who has just dumped his stripper girlfriend.  Or at least that was the plan, but she beat him to the punch.  His business is down in the toilet because they are awaiting a desperately needed loan to expand into the next building, as if his new-found bachelorhood weren't enough.  Luck changes for Dylan when a pretty new neighbor moves in downstairs.  Her name is Lila DuBois (Marceau), and she's a cellist who has come from France after her fiancee, Rene (Bruel) cheated ...

3/4 Starring: Macaulay Culkin, Seth Green, Dylan McDermott, Wilmer Valderrama, Chole Sevigny, Mia Kirshner, Natasha Lyonne The version being reviewed is the unrated version.  For the record, the theatrical cut is rated R for Pervasive Drug Use, Language and Some Violence When it comes to movies, I have a high tolerance for what a movie will show.  I deeply admire "The War Zone," my favorite movie of all time shows a corpse with a huge chunk of her side missing, and I own both "Once Were Warriors" and "Boys Don't Cry."  When it comes to content, I'll watch anything provided the offending scenes are earned. It's a rare movie that makes me feel like taking a shower after watching it.  The only movie off the top of my head that I can think of that made me feel dirty is "The Believer" with Ryan Gosling.  In many cases, that should be seen as a criticism.  Not with "Party Monster."  If anyone identifies with any of these c...

1/4 Starring: Dax Shepard, Kristen Bell, Tom Arnold, Michael Rosenbaum, Bradley Cooper, Jess Rowland, Carly Hatter, Joy Bryant, Kristen Chenoweth Rated R for Pervasive Language including Sexual References, Graphic Nudity, Some Violence and Drug Content Now here is a movie that is bad in a way that you don't see very often.  It's not just badly acted (which it is), poorly told (which it also is) and completely boring (which, again, it is).  "Hit and Run" is so innocuous that a few hours after seeing it, I forgot about 90% of what happened during the unending 100 minutes between the beginning and the end. Professional slacker, who in an example of the film's "humor," is named Charles Bronson (Shepard) is living in a small, out of the way California town.  His girlfriend, Annie (Bell), is a professor who specializes in non-violent conflict resolution.  Her boss, Debbie Kreeger (Chenoweth) knows of a job opportunity in Los Angeles where she could be ...

2/4 Starring: Angelina Jolie, Irrfan Khan, Archie Panjabi, Will Patton, Dan Futterman Rated R for Language Despite what the major studios and wannabe "hip" filmmakers (like Paul McGuigan, whose "style" ruined films like "The Reckoning" and "Lucky Number Slevin") would have you think, the most important part of a movie is the script.  Without a good script, your movie is sunk.  A powerful story can be rendered inert by a poor script, and that's what happens here.  True, Michael Winterbottom's style does little to help the film, but the main flaws are with the script. The film details the experiences of Mariane Pearl (Jolie), the wife of Daniel Pearl (Futterman), the journalist who was kidnapped and brutally murdered by terrorists while working in Pakistan.  Shortly after the September 11th attacks, Danny and Mariane (who works as a journalist for French Public Radio) went to Pakistan.  The day before they were to leave, Dan...

3.5/4 Starring: Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, James Franco, Emile Hirsch, Alison Pill, Diego Luna, Denis O'Hare, Victor Garber Rated R for Language, Some Sexual Content and Brief Violence What's really striking about Harvey Milk is that, unlike in most biopics, it's not a sudden event or tragedy that spurs him into action.  He kind of just falls into it.  At first, he runs for office so he can keep his business open without facing discrimination.  But the more he finds success, he realizes that with just a little more effort, he can do more.  Before he knows it, he's swooped into a storm of social change that he started without even realizing it. The film is guided along with narration by Harvey (Penn) himself.  He begins his story in New York City, where he meets a man named Scott Smith (Franco), who would become his longtime lover.  The two hit it off beautifully, and end up moving to San Francisco together, which is starting to become a mecca fo...

3/4 Starring: Stephen Dorff, Natasha McElhone, Stephen Rea, Jeffrey Combs Rated R for Violence including Grisly Images of Torture, Nudity and Language While it would be unfair to lay the blame for the film's problems solely on the feet of editor Alan Strachan (the script by Josephine Coyle has some serious problems as well), it's safe to say that had this film been something other than a superb looking piece of Swiss cheese, people probably would have responded to it better.  For the longest time, it was sitting on iMDb's Bottom 100 list (near the bottom of it, but still), and as the case is with " Phat Girlz ," I'm kind of puzzled as to why. Detective Mike Reilly (Dorff) is called to a bizarre crime scene.  A man (Udo Kier in a cameo) has been found dead in a subway tunnel next to the tracks.  The look on his face is of sheer terror, and his eyes are bleeding.  It's a bizarre crime to be sure, and the detective calls in Terry Huston (McElh...

1/4 Starring: Madeleine Stowe, Mischa Barton, Bijou Phillips, Norman Reedus, Jonathan Rhys Meyers Rated R for Strong Violence, Language, Some Drug and Sexual Content Not to be confused with the 2001 Japanese horror flick or its 2006 remake "Pulse," is a void.  There is nothing here.  And when I say nothing, I mean nothing.  Quite frankly, the only reason why I didn't give this film a lesser rating (which I probably should) is because it couldn't even get me to feel hatred towards it.  Certainly not in the way that " Ben & Arthur " did. Senga (Stowe...gee, what a name!) is in hot water with her daughter, Nat (Barton).  Senga won't allow her daughter to go to a music festival with her friends.  As all teenagers do, Nat pitches a fit and whines.  She decides to get revenge by offering a hitchhiker (Phillips) a ride.  That's when things start to get weird, and Nat ends up taking a ride with the hitchhiker and a few of her friends. The ...

2/4 Starring: Emile Hirsch, Matthew McConaughey, Juno Temple, Thomas Haden Church, Gina Gershon Rated NC-17 for Graphic Disturbing Content involving Violence and Sexuality, and a Scene of Brutality NC-17 movies are exceedingly rare.  Major studios have always cut them to get an R rating if they don't win an appeal after "Showgirls" bombed at the box office.  There are only five theatrically released movies with the rating (other than this one) that I can think of: "Shame," the Michael Fassbender film that was released last year, "Henry & June" (originally an X, but re-rated as an NC-17), "Showgirls" (the only widely released movie with the rating), "The Dreamers," and "Lust, Caution."  When "Killer Joe" was slammed by the MPAA with the same rating, LD Entertainment appealed the rating, but lost.  In the end, it allowed the film to be released with the NC-17 instead of without one at all (which is what u...

3/4 Starring: Jonathan Cherry, Ona Grauer, Jurgen Prochnow, Tyron Leitso, Enuka Okuma, Ellie Cornell, Will Sanderson, Sonja Salomaa Rated R for Pervasive Strong Violence/Gore, Language and Some Nudity Uwe Boll does not have a good reputation as a filmmaker.  In fact, that's probably the understatement of the century.  No filmmaker has been hated more than Boll.  The German government changed a law that encouraged investing in films simply because of how much the public hated his movies.  I've seen two of his movies now, and while I'm not going to claim he's the next Spielberg, the vicious outrage against him by film lovers is way overzealous.  " Postal " at least tried to do something different, and it managed a very funny sequence about halfway through.  "House of the Dead" on the other hand, is widely considered to be one of the worst movies of all time period.  Every critic seems to trash it, and it's at #49 on iMDb's Bottom 100 list...

1.5/4 Starring: Jordin Sparks, Derek Luke, Carmen Ejogo, Mike Epps, Whitney Houston, Tika Sumpter, Omari Hardwick Rated PG-13 for Mature Thematic Content involving Domestic Abuse and Drug Material, and for Some Violence, Language and Smoking Showbiz dramas will never cease to compel for many reasons, mainly because they allow a character the audience sympathizes with to achieve fame and fortune, and because they appeal to our creative nature.  Unfortunately, Salim Akil's remake of the 1976 film is not only completely generic, it's also a tedious mess. Sparkle (Sparks) is a talented singer and songwriter.  She's constantly writing and performing music, and hopes to one day become a star.  In order to make that happen, she enlists her two sisters, Sister (Ejogo) and Dee (Sumpter) to form a girl group.  They find some success, and while on their way to the top, circumstances cause their close relationship to fray, and their shot at getting a record deal may fizz...

3/4 Starring: Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller, Christine Taylor, Justin Long, Stephen Root, Joel David Moore, Rip Torn Rated PG-13 for Rude and Sexual Humor and Language "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story" is a satire of sports movies and underdog stories.  Writer/director Rawson Marshall Thurber enjoys sending up the cliches of these formulas in surprising ways.  Sometimes subtle (although not often), every beat and plot idea gets its due. Peter La Fleur (Vaughn) is the owner of Average Joe's Gym, a neighborhood gym that's deeply in debt.  $50,000 to be exact.  Peter's rival, GloboGym owner White Goodman (Stiller) wants to buy Average Joe's and expand his own gym.  In a last ditch effort to save their hangout, Peter and a few of his friends enter a dodgeball tournament that could net them the fifty g's.  Naturally, once White finds out about this, he and a few of his employees form their own team to take him down. The comedy is uneven.  So...

3/4 Starring: Ann Dowd, Dreama Walker, Pat Healy, Bill Camp, Philip Ettinger, Ashlie Atkinson Rated R for Language and Sexual Content/Nudity The events that occur in this film are a matter of factual record (apart from names and locations, that is).  That's a good thing, because no screenwriter could dream this stuff up. The story begins at a fast food restaurant called ChickenWich.  The store manager, Sandra (Dowd), is in a bit of trouble because someone didn't lock the freezer right and over $14,000 worth of food went bad.  Even worse, a person who works at corporate might be coming to the restaurant posing as a customer to see if things are running right.  That's when Sandra gets a call from an Officer Daniels (Healy) who says that a young blonde woman working for her has stolen money from a customer.  Sandra thinks that the person the officer is talking about is Becky (Walker), a woman working up front who, as it happens is young and blonde.  Be...

1.5/4 Starring: Shia LeBeouf, Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Dane DeHaan, Gary Oldman Rated R for Strong Bloody Violence, Language, and Some Sexuality/Nudity Memo to John Hillcoat: making your actors growl their dialogue, slapping mud and dirt on them, and filling your movie with lots of brutality does not automatically make your gritty movie good.  It may make it gritty, but you need solid performances, characterizations and a comprehensible story to make spending two hours watching your film worth someone's time. I was not a fan of John Hillcoat's debut film, "The Proposition" (which, incidentally, also starred Guy Pearce and Noah Taylor).  To me, it was ruined by its sense of self-importance.  Hillcoat, and his screenwriter Nick Cave (who also wrote the script for this film), were convinced that they were making an important and groundbreaking "classic" film when in fact they were merely regurgitatin...