Mike's Movie Tips

2.5/4 Starring: Edward James Olmos, Evalina Fernandez, William Forsythe, Daniel Villarreal, Danny De La Paz Rated R for Strong Violence and Sensuality, Language and Drug Content I'll give Edward James Olmos credit for one thing: he chose a difficult project for his directorial debut (aside from one episode of "Miami Vice").  The story of the rise and fall of a Chicano gang leader is a complex and deep story, one that would try the talents of many actors, writers and directors.  Unfortunately, Olmos doesn't have the directorial prowess that Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorcese have (they, of course, directed "The Godfather" trilogy and " Goodfellas ," two films that Olmos is clearly trying to emulate here). Olmos tells the story of Santana (played by Panchito Gomez as a teenager, and Olmos himself as an adult).  As a kid, he and two friends, JD (Steve Wilcox) and Mundo (Richard Coca), started a gang in order to get respect.  After taking...

4/4 Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Conrad Veidt, Dooley Wilson, S. Z. Sakall, Peter Lorre Rated PG for Mild Violence What can I say about "Casablanca" that has not already been said?  One of the most famous, if not the most famous movies of all time (" Gone with the Wind " and "The Godfather" give it a run for its money), there is little that an amateur film critic like me can add to the multitude of myths (such as the one where Ronald Regan, Ann Sheridan and Dennis Morgan were the original choices for the leads...this was planted in the news to keep the actors' names in the press) that stemmed from the film. It's probably best to start with how modern the movie is.  Putting it simply, the movie has aged tremendously well.  Director Michael Curtiz and cinematographer Arthur Edeson made a visually dynamic movie that captures the eye as well as a Michael Bay film (although this is co...

2/4 Starring: Emile Hirsch, Kieran Culkin, Jodie Foster, Jena Malone, Vincent D'Onofrio, Jake Richardson, Tyler Long Rated R for Language, Sexual Content, and Youth Substance Abuse There are some elements of "The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys" that work, and there are some that don't.  The minuses of the film more than outweigh the positives, but at least it's not a complete disaster, thanks to some effective performances. This is a coming-of-age story, and those are a dime-a-dozen.  Done well, such as " The Way Way Back " or " Black Irish ," they can be rich, rewarding experiences.  Done on autopilot, the best they can hope to be is watchable.  Sadly, it's the latter route that director Peter Care (making his first, and thus far only, narrative film) chooses to tell the story based on the novel by Chris Fuhrman. Four friends are the troublemakers at Saint Agatha's, a private Catholic school in Savannah, Georgia (only iMDb ide...

0.5/4 Starring: Guy Pearce, Robert Pattinson Rated R for Language and Some Bloody Violence "The Rover" is one of those movies that gives independent movies a bad name.  There's no plot, no character development, not much action, and plenty of characters spouting senseless profundities and staring off into space.  Yep, that's entertainment! The film takes place ten years after society collapsed, although so little is done with this idea that it could have been set in the Australian outback and only one or two lines of dialogue would change.  A drifter named Eric (Pearce) has wandered into a gas station/bar/dollar store/whatever else it needs to be.  Right outside, a group of criminals (thieves?) are racing down the road.  One, named Henry (Scoot McNairy), has been shot in the hand and is whining about leaving his brother behind, even though everyone else thinks he was shot dead.  They fight, and the car flips over.  This leads to the only entert...

2.5/4 Starring: Brenton Thwaites, Laurence Fishburne, Olivia Cooke, Beau Knapp Rated PG-13 for Some Thematic Elements, Violence and Language "The Signal" almost works.  I can't in good conscience recommend it outright, but it is compelling and strongly acted.  It will appeal most to those who love the "mindfuck" genre.  This is one of those movies that screws with your head. Three friends, Nic (Thwaites), Hayley (Cooke) and Jonah (Knapp) are on their way to California.  Their main purpose is to take Hayley to California (for reasons that are never identified), but Nic and Jonah have an additional purpose.  A hacker named Nomad hacked into MIT's networks, including their own, and pinned the blame on them.  They want to find him, but in order to do so, they're forced to play a creepy game of cat and mouse.  He leads them to an out of the way house where something happens.  The next thing Nic knows is that he's woken up in a hospital and is b...

3/4 Starring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Wyatt Russell, Amber Stevens, Jimmy Tatro, Jillian Bell, Peter Stormare Rated R for Language Throughout, Sexual Content, Drug Material, Brief Nudity and Some Violence "22 Jump Street" is a comedown from the first installment , which made my Top 10 list two years ago.  The first one made me laugh so hard that my sides hurt.  Despite having a sharp satirical edge, this one produced more smiles and knowing grins rather than full-bellied laughs, although there are more than a few of those. After the events of the first film, Jenko (Tatum) and Schmidt (Hill) are normal cops again.  They've just gone after a drug lord named The Ghost (Stormare), although he slipped away.  Captain Dickson (Ice Cube) has once again pulled them back into the old unit (now called 22 Jump Street after the Koreans bought back their church).  With a bigger budget, he's sending them to college in to find who is making and supplying a...

3/4 Starring: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson, Noah Taylor Rated PG-13 for Intense Sequences of Sci-Fi Action and Violence, Language and Brief Suggestive Material "Edge of Tomorrow" requires that the viewer pay attention to what is going on in the film.  It's not as dense as say " Inception ," but those who spend their time texting during the movie (shame on you!) will get lost.  It is, after all, a time travel story, albeit an unorthodox one. Earth has been invaded by aliens known as mimics.  They're like the sentinels from "The Matrix" trilogy, only much faster and more aggressive.  They're also almost impossible to stop, and have overtaken most of Europe.  There is one ray of hope, and her name is Rita Vrataski (Blunt), a woman who led the humans to victory in Verdun. A general by the name of Brigham (Gleeson) intends to send an army reporter to sell an invasion into France, one that will cost many lives.  Tha...

1/4 Starring: Clint Howard, Justin Isfeld, Anndi McAfee, JoJo Adams, Mikey LeBeau, Olivia Hussey Rated R for Strong Horror/Terror and Gore, and for a Brief View of a Sexual Image What do you get when you have a porn director making a narrative film starring B-movie actor Clint Howard?  Pretty much what you'd expect. This movie is pretty bad, although I'd be lying if I said that there aren't worse movies out there (" Identity Thief ," " Ben & Arthur ," etc.).  Just about everything in this movie is lousy, from the acting, to the pacing, to the incessant and repetitive musical score that sounds either like the music from an ice cream truck or a really bad porno.  This isn't a movie I recommend seeing. Gregory (Howard) is the Ice Cream Man in a small town that only exists in " American Beauty ."  It would be idyllic if the adults weren't self-centered imbeciles who were only concerned with who was sleeping with who.  Anyway, ...

3.5/4 Starring: Jon Favreau, John Leguizamo, Emjay Anthony, Sofia Vergara, Oliver Platt, Scarlett Johannsen, Bobby Cannavale, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Downy Jr. Rated R for Language, including Some Suggestive References It is a rare thing for a filmmaker's personal project to see the light of day.  Movies are expensive to make, even if the stars are willing to forgo their usual huge salaries to appear in it.  "Chef" is one such case, and it deserves to be seen.  Despite the star power, it doesn't have a lot of money to get its name out there, so I'll gladly fill the role of cheerleader for this wonderful film. Carl Casper (Favreau) is a devoted cook in a Los Angeles restaurant.  An important food critic (Platt) is coming to review the restaurant.  Carl wants to cook him a new meal to die for, but his boss (Hoffman) wants him to stick with the usual because it sells (the fact that this material rings true means it has to be based on personal experience for ...

2.5/4 Starring (voices): Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, Andy Garcia, Jemaine Clement, George Lopez, Miguel Ferrer, Leslie Mann, Rodrigo Santoro, Kristen Chenoweth Rated G I went in to "Rio 2" expecting a train wreck.  I hated the first one , so I guess I was biased.  But I was surprised.  This sequel is not a perfect movie, and I can't recommend it, but it contains some moments of effective comedy (one of which, involving a hungry panther, caused me to howl with laughter). After the events of the first film, the last two blue macaws on Earth, Blu (Eisenberg) and Jewel (Hathaway) have settled in Rio exotic bird sanctuary together to raise a family.  They have three kids: Carla (Rachel Crow), Bia (Amandla Stenberg) and Tiago (Pierce Gagnon).  But Linda (Mann), Blu's former owner, and Tulio (Santoro), her ornithologist husband, think they have found more members of Blu and Jewel's kind, and if so, the area will be protected.  Inspired by this news, Je...

2.5/4 Starring: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, Sam Riley, Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, Kenneth Cranham Rated PG for Sequences of Fantasy Action and Violence, including Frightening Images Let me state up front that "Maleficent" is not a bad movie.  There are parts of the movie that work and Angelina Jolie gives a better performance than the script deserves.  It takes chances and while not all of them work, it's still interesting. As is obvious, the film is " Sleeping Beauty " from the other side of the fence.  Instead of having Aurora be the heroine, it's the villain, the witch Maleficent.  It's an interesting concept, and screenwriter Linda Woolverton sidesteps the pitfall of merely telling the same story.  Although it keeps the main thrust of the well-known fairy tale, much is different. The film starts out with the land divided in two.  The Moors is an idyllic land where the fantasy creatures live, and is next...

3/4 Starring (voices): Verna Felton, Barbara Jo Allen, Barbara Luddy, Eleanor Audley, Bill Shirley, Mary Costa Not Rated Snow White.  Sleeping Beauty (aka Princess Aurora).  Cinderella.  You know them all, don't you?  They're the Disney princesses.  I haven't seen "Cinderella" since I was a kid, but neither of the other two has aged well (apart from film enthusiasts, I can't recommend "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves").  "Sleeping Beauty" isn't as good as the films from Disney's Golden Age (i.e. " Beauty and the Beast " or " The Lion King ") but it's still entertaining. In the 14th century, there lived a king and queen.  After many years, they finally had a child they named Aurora.  She will be betrothed to the son of the king's best friend, a young lad named Philip.  Three fairies, Flora (Felton), Fauna (Allen), and Merryweather (Luddy), bestow gifts upon her.  But a witch named Maleficent (Audl...

2.5/4 Starring (voices): David Hayter, Joan Carol O'Connell, Michael McConnohie, David Povall Not Rated (contains violence and language) Perhaps it is because I am not familiar with the TV show or the Monkey Punch comic books upon which the film is based, but I didn't like "Lupin the III: The Castle of Cagliostro" as much as I thought I would.  It's meant to be a fun adventure romp with a likable rogue as the hero who fights the dastardly villain and saves the girl, but it didn't come together for me. Lupin (Hayter) is a career thief who is on the run from Inspector Zenigata (Povall).  While avoiding his would-be captor, he spies a bride fleeing a car full of shady individuals.  He rescues her, albeit temporarily.  Undaunted, he tries again.  Apparently, she's engaged to be married to Count Cagliostro (McConnohie), an evildoer who makes "goat bills" (counterfeit money) in just about every currency.  The girl, whose name is Clarisse (O...

3.5/4 Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Colm Feore, Harry Lennix, Angus Macfayden, Alan Cumming, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Matthew Rhys, Laura Fraser, James Frain Rated R for Strong Violent and Sexual Images Although "Titus Andronicus" was William Shakespeare's most popular play when he was alive, it eventually fell out of favor (to the point where some doubted that it was actually written by The Bard).  It wasn't until Laurence Olivier played the part in a 1955 production that it gained favor again. "Titus," as made by Broadway director Julie Taymor in her film debut, is like "Hamlet" on steroids.  It's a raw, violent and bloody tale of murder and revenge.  In fact, some of what happens is straight out of a horror movie.  For those who think that Shakespeare is dry and dull, you'll change you mind after watching "Titus." Titus Andronicus (Hopkins) is a beloved Roman general back from war with the Goths.  He has thre...

3/4 Starring: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nichoas Hoult, Peter Dinklage, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan Rated PG-13 for Sequences of Intense Sci-Fi Violence and Action, Some Suggestive Material, Nudity and Language The X-Men were interesting because they were so varied.  There were a lot of them, and their powers varied from psychic powers to being able to change form to any person.  The first three were fun, and so was "X-Men: First Class" (from what I remember).  The new "X-Men" movie brings both franchises together, and as far as crossover movies go, it's a lot better than " The Avengers ." That's because this one tells a story instead of remaking a movie that came out a year before (it also helps that Bryan Singer knows what he's doing behind a camera, unlike Joss Whedon).  Unlike movies such as " Man of Steel " or " Pacific Rim ," this movie has a plot with complexity.  It...

3/4 Starring: Seth MacFarlane, Charlize Theron, Amanda Seyfried, Neil Patrick Harris, Liam Neeson, Giovanni Ribisi, Sarah Silverman Rated R for Strong Crude and Sexual Content, Language Throughout, Some Violence and Drug Material After " Ted " became the highest-grossing R-rated comedy of all time and he has three successful TV shows, Seth MacFarlane probably can do whatever he wants (as long as he makes a sequel to "Ted," which he did...it comes out next year).  His newest film, "A Million Ways to Die in the West," is a first for him in a number of respects.  First, it's a Western, a genre that he has occasionally lampooned but never contributed a real entry (even a warped one).  Second, he appears on-screen in the flesh.  While it's not nearly as funny as "Ted," which made my Top 10 list two years ago after it nearly brought me to tears from laughing so hard, it's still funny enough to justify a trip to the theater. Albert (...