Mike's Movie Tips

1.5/4 Starring: Ricardo Darin, Soledad Villamil, Ricardo Darin, Pablo Rago, Guillermo Francella Rated R for a Rape Scene, Violent Images, Some Graphic Nudity and Language There are two reasons why "The Secret in their Eyes" doesn't work: one, it's far too long, and two, director Juan Jose Campanella goes for understatement when this kind of story demands grand melodrama. Benjamin Esposito (Darin) is a retired police investigator trying his hand at writing a novel.  One case from the past, the brutal rape and murder of a schoolteacher named Liliana Coloto (Carla Quevedo), has hung over him for the past thirty years.  Now that he's no longer working, he sees an opportunity to tackle the mystery again.  This brings him into contact with his old boss, Irene (Villamil), whom he has loved for decades. A story like this has to pump up the nostalgia and longing.  That's why we watch movies like this.  We have to feel it intensely because those emotions feel ...

3/4 Starring: George Pistereanu, Ana Condeescu, Clara Voda, Mihai Constantin Not Rated (Probable R for A Violent Situation, an Implied Sexual Assault and Some Language) "If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle" is the kind of movie that people think of when they hear the term "art house" movie: low-key performances, lots of dramatic pauses, no soundtrack, no artificial lighting, etc.  It's very Dogma 95.  I've been known to criticize some of these movies as pretentious (" The Snowtown Murders " comes to mind...much as I would like to forget it), but this Romanian film is actually very good.  It does not have mainstream appeal, but I was engaged by it. Silviu (Pistereanu) is slightly more than two weeks from being released from a youth penitentiary.  His younger brother comes to visit him and tells him that his mother wants to take him to Italy with her, and when he gets out, Silviu can join them.  For reasons as yet unknown, Silviu doesn't like...

2/4 Starring (voices): Evan Rachel Wood, Alan Cumming, Meredith Ann Bull, Elijah Kelly, Kristen Chenoweth, Sam Palladio Rated PG for Some Action and Scary Images "Strange Magic," an animated fantasy loosely inspired by William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," is overstuffed to the max.  There is so much going on (which varies in quality) that I got the sense that the filmmakers threw everything they could into this film without thinking about whether or not it worked.  The result isn't a complete disaster, and while I'm fairly certain it won't end up on my Bottom 10 list this year (it's still January), but parents who are looking for a movie they can take their kids to will have to wait a little longer. Marianne (Wood) is the princess of the fairies.  It's her wedding day, and she's going to be married to the handsome and dashing Roland (Palladio)...that is until she spies him locking lips with another girl.  Depress...

3/4 Starring (voices): Alan Young, Russi Taylor, Rip Taylor, Richard Libertini, Christopher Lloyd Rated G Boy, this takes me back.  I remember popping this movie in the VCR (yes, I was alive when everyone used VCRs) and sitting back to watch this longer adventure of Scrooge McDuck and his newphews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and his niece Webby.  I also devoured the TV series (the episodes that my mom would buy for me).  So, the question is, does the movie still hold up now after 20 years? Sort of.  It doesn't enchant like it did when I was a grade schooler, but it does still entertain.  There's some good humor here, and high spirited adventure.  Kids will like it more, but at least the adults won't be bored out of their minds. Scrooge McDuck (Young), the miserly, greedy duck who apparently has more money than the GDP of the entire planet, is on another adventure with his family.  He's spent 40 years looking for the treasure of Collie Baba, and t...

3/4 Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Ryan Guzman, John Corbett, Ian Nelson, Kristen Chenoweth Rated R for Violence, Sexual Content/Nudity and Language "The Boy Next Door" is what a film critic calls a "guilty pleasure."  Meaning, that while the movie is extremely stupid and cheesy as hell, I'm recommending it because despite all my expectations, I enjoyed myself. Claire Peterson (Lopez) is a Classics teacher at a local high school.  She recently split up with her husband Garrett (Corbett) after he cheated on her with his secretary, but much to the irritation of her best friend Vicky (Chenoweth), she's not yet ready to serve him with divorce papers.  So she and her teenage son Kevin (Nelson) live at home when one day they meet Noah Sandborn (Guzman), a hot young stud who is moving in next door to help his grandfather (Jack Wallace) out when he has a bone marrow transplant.  Noah hits it off with the bullied Kevin, and has an open invitation to have dinner at...

4/4 Starring: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Jake McDorman, Luke Grimes Rated R for Strong and Disturbing War Violence, and for Language Throughout including Some Sexual References I'm sitting here at the computer, trying to find the words to open a review of Clint Eastwood's "American Sniper," the biopic of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, "the most lethal sniper in U.S. History."  I am at a loss.  How can I adequately describe the emotional effect of watching this film?  I cannot.  What I will say is that this movie is bravura filmmaking by a man at the top of his game, and it's anchored by a brilliant lead performance by Bradley Cooper. Chris Kyle (Cooper) was a relatively simple man with simple ambitions.  He was a Texas farmboy until he was affected strongly enough by the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Nairobi to join the Navy.  He eventually became a SEAL, and married a girl named Taya (Miller) that he saved from being hit on at a bar by a married guy....

1/4 Starring: Tommy Davidson, Jamie Foxx, Tamala Jones, Vivica A. Fox Rated R for Non-Stop Sexuality including Sex-Related Dialogue and Crude Humor, and for Strong Language Sometimes the best sex in the world...just isn't worth it.--tagline for "Love Stinks" There is a reason why sitcoms are only 30 minutes long (including commercials).  It's because their plots and characters can't sustain themselves for much longer than that.  For a comedy to be able to last 90 minutes (which is typically as long as any comedy can last), it has to have an idea that can grow and change direction.  The idea, following two guys who are trying to get lucky, has promise to be a raunchy, madcap screwball comedy like "The Three Stooges" meets "There's Something About Mary."  The execution, on the other hand, does not. Rushon (Davidson) has been dating the lovely Nikki (Jones) for seven weeks.  Much to his irritation, she has not given him entrance to h...

2.5/4 Starring: Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard, Bernard Lee, Orson Welles Not Rated (contains Some Brief Violence) Never before has a good movie so obviously shot itself in the foot.  While there are definitely movies that have contained questionable material that damages the goodwill that they have built up (" Hollow Man " comes to mind, although I have to admit that the film has grown on me to become a guilty pleasure), none are as blatant and damaging as the soundtrack for "The Third Man."  Without the music, it's an easy 3/4, possibly even a 3.5/4.  But with it, the film isn't worth your time. So what is so bad about the film's soundtrack (an essential, albeit undervalued, part of a film)?  It uses a zither.  It's a stringed instrument that sounds like a ukelele, which would be fine for a romantic comedy set in, say, Hawai'i.  But "The Third Man" is a post-World War II thriller set in Austria.  If you can imagine ...

3/4 Starring: Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Joan Allen, Christine Baranski, Tom Skeritt Rated PG for Some Mild Language and Innuendo "Bonneville" will probably work best for relatively conservative, middle-aged women.  That's who the film is about, after all.  The film's comedy is decidedly low-key and content not to push the boundaries.  In fact, it's so lacking in edge that it is only the talent of the three actresses that wrings any humor from it (I was thinking of Ned Flanders line: "It's just the kind of surprise I like...mild!" Only Flanders could make that line funny). Joe Holden has just died.  His widow, Arvilla (Lange), is naturally devastated, all the more so when her step-daughter Francine (Baranski) forces her to make an impossible choice: deliver the ashes of the travel-loving Joe to be laid next to his first wife in Santa Barbara, CA, or face the loss of the house that he shared with Arvilla for the past 20 years.  Arvilla can...

1/4 Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Wei Tang, Leehom Wang, Viola Davis Rated R for Violence and Some Language Ah, January...the time of year when all of the Oscar hopefuls have been released and the theaters are empty of people wanting a break from their holiday shopping, hyperactive kids or squabbling relatives (and if they're really unlucky, all three).  It's the perfect time to release a movie like "Blackhat," a movie that had potential, but turned out to be more rotten than week old stinky cheese. What's really strange is that this comes from director Michael Mann.  Mann is no hack director, having been behind two very good movies ("The Insider" and "Collateral") and a certified masterpiece (" Heat ").  Mann has been in a bit of a slump lately, not having done anything memorable since the Tom Cruise/Jamie Foxx thriller.  "Blackhat," his first film since "Public Enemies" in 2009, does nothing to change that. ...

2/4 Starring: David Oyelowo, Tom Wilkinson, Andre Holland, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Ralph Abernathy, Tim Roth, Cameron Ejogo Rated PG-13 for Disturbing Thematic Material including Violence, a Suggestive Moment, and Brief Strong Language Has it really taken until 2015 that we have seen a biopic of Martin Luther King, Jr.?  Yes, it is, in fact.  Strange, isn't it, since biopics are all the rage these days in Hollywood (they're the only Oscar-bait movies not based on books), and we've seen everyone from an Olympic athlete turned prisoner of war (Louis Zamperini in " Unbroken ") to Bob Kearns, the guy who invented the intermittent windshield wiper ("Flash of Genius").  Surely Hollywood would race to bring Dr. King to the screen as fast as possible, seeing as he's a known name and has a great life story?  Apparently not.  What's worse is that the film isn't very good. "Selma" does not strive to provide a comprehensive look at King...

3/4 Starring: Emily Watson, Stellan Skarsgard, Katrin Cartlidge, Adrian Rawlins Rated R for Strong Graphic Sexuality, Nudity, Language and Some Violence "Breaking the Waves" is challenging viewing.  It demands an investment on a mental and philosophical level that most films do not.  That's not to say that it's oblique or particularly difficult to digest.  Just that it's different. Bess McNeill (Watson) is marrying oil rig worker Jan Nyman (Skarsgard).  Her simple nature and child-like outlook make it difficult for those in her rigid, deeply religious community to accept her, but she has earned the love of Jan and her dead brother's widow, Dodo (Cartlidge).  But when Jan is paralyzed in an accident on the rig, he makes a strange request of her: he wants her to find other lovers and then tell him about it.  She doesn't want to because she loves him, but he tells her that it's the only way they can be intimate.  Bess agrees. Thematically, there...

The freedom to express one's self without fear of government oppression is essential to our way of life.  It allows us to grow not only as people, but as a civilization and a culture.  We learn just as much about ourselves, other people and the world we live in by talking to people, watching a movie, listening to music or reading a book than we do sitting in a classroom.  In fact, we may learn more. The slaughter of 12 people working at the satirical newspaper "Charlie Hebdo" is an assault on humanity itself.  It is a tragedy that inspired outrage from all corners of the world, and deservedly so. This Mike's Musing's is not a discourse on politics or terrorism.  Rather, it is a response to Bill Donahue's comments about the attack, which are as disturbing as they are reprehensible. But first, a little history...Bill Donahue is the CEO of the Catholic League in the United States, and has been since 1993.  He's become infamous for his protests of a numb...

1/4 Starring: Wesley Snipes, Ice-T, Allen Payne, Judd Nelson, Mario Van Peebles, Chris Rock, Russell Wong Rated R for Strong Violence, Drug Content, Sensuality and Language I'm sure there are many who wonder why we, as a society, are so obsessed with gangster films.  Sure, some of them ("The Godfather," " Goodfellas ," "Scarface") have been amazing films in and of themselves, but movies about the mob or crime bosses in general have dotted the landscape for as long as there have been movies.  Perhaps it is because of our fascination with the lurid, or being able to vicariously live a life without morality and the law. It's an interesting question, but such philosophical discourse is best-suited for a more deserving film.  Just as there are good comedies (" Ted ") and bad ones (" The Royal Tenenbaums "), there are good crime films (" Hoodlum ") and bad ones (" Belly ").  Take a look at the rating and gu...

2.5/4 Starring: Marie Feret, Marc Barbe, Delphine Chuillot, David Moreau, Clovis Fouin, Lisa Feret Not Rated (Probably PG-13 for Some Sexuality) "Mozart's Sister," a fictionalized story about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's sister (hence the title), Maria Anna, or "Nannerl," as she is called, has it's good aspects and not-so-good aspects.  Where the film shines is in the acting department; all of the cast members are quite good.  Where it doesn't shine is the film's tone, which is so serious and threadbare that instead of being realistic, it's lifeless.  The actors do all they can, but ultimately it's not enough. The Mozart family, father Leopold (Barbe), wife Anna Maria (Chuillot), and the two surviving children Wolfgang (Moreau) and Nannerl (Marie Feret), are touring through Europe.  Their next stop is Paris, where they will play for the Dauphin (Fouin), who is in grieving for his wife, who died in childbirth.  On the way there, the c...

2/4 Starring: Demi Moore, Alec Baldwin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anne Heche, Michael Constantine, Lindsay Crouse Rated R for Violence, Language and Sexuality How could this go wrong?  You have a gripping premise for a psychological thriller being adapted by Ted Tally, who won an Oscar for his " The Silence of the Lambs " script and Demi Moore, one of the most in-demand women at the time as your leading lady. Annie Laird (Moore) is a single mom raising a pre-teen son named Oliver (Gordon-Levitt) in a small town.  She needs a little excitement in her life, so when she's offered to sit on the jury for the murder trial of the notorious mob boss Louie Buffano (Tony Lo Bianco), she accepts.  Right around that time, Annie meets a man (Baldwin) who buys some of her pieces (she's a sculptor) and then takes her out for wining and dining.  That's when he reveals that he's The Teacher, a notorious killer the mob uses on an as-needed basis.  He wants her to get Buffan...

2.5/4 Starring (voices): Cam Clarke, Barbara Goodson, Jan Rabson, Bob Bergen, Melora Harte Rated R for Graphic Violence and Brief Nudity For reasons I don't understand, "Akira" is considered to be a classic.  I don't know how it earned such lofty praise, since it doesn't deserve it.  Don't construe that to mean it's a bad film, which it's not.  It's a trippy, totally off-the-wall sci-fi action movie with some beautiful visuals but a storyline that is occasionally incoherent. The film takes place in Neo Tokyo.  31 years ago, the city of Tokyo was destroyed and World War III begins.  In 2019, the new city of Tokyo has been built on the rubble, but while it looks successful and glossy, the Neo Tokyo that "Akira" shows us is a diseased state riddled with corruption and crime.  The streets are overrun with kids like Kaneda (Clarke) who get their kicks by riding around on their motorcycles (which look way cool, by the way) and beating t...

3/4 Starring: Agnes Bruckner, David Strathairn, Margaret Colin, Regan Arnold Rated R for Sexual Content and Language "Blue Car" is a sad movie about sad people.  They're struggling to make it through each day in one piece, but they have wounds so deep that it will take more than band-aids to fix them.  Each attempts to get out of their situation, but in doing so they inadvertently make things worse (both for themselves and each other). Meg Denning (Bruckner) is a high school student in small town America.  Her dad up and left, leaving her mother Diane (Colin) to care for her and her younger sister, Lily (Arnold).  Diane works full time and is going to school in the evenings, which means that Meg has to babysit Lily.  Lily is extremely troubled; she's clinically depressed and cuts herself, and while Meg knows this, Diane doesn't know or (doesn't want to know).  Meg is in AP English, which is taught by Mr. Auster (Strathairn).  One day, she write...

2.5/4 Starring: John Cusack, Craig Robinson, Rob Corddry, Clark Duke, Sebastian Stan, Chevy Chase, Lizzy Caplan Rated R for Strong Crude and Sexual Content, Nudity, Drug Use and Pervasive Language James Berardinelli described the ambitions of Steve Pink's 2010 film as "The Hangover" meets "Back to the Future."  Or at least he said that that is what the film wanted to be.  I liked the film a smidge more than he did, but he's right.  This could have been a great comedy, but the story is just a flimsy clothesline for the actors to improvise and shoot their mouths off. Three friends have hit rock bottom.  Adam (Cusack) was dumped by his girlfriend, Nick's (Robinson) life is stuck in neutral and his wife is cheating on him, and Lou (Corddry) is a nutjob.  The three used to be best friends, but after Lou nearly dies from carbon monoxide poisoning (he claims it wasn't a suicide attempt, although that's probably a lie), they take him plus Adam...

1/4 Starring: Ethan Hawke, Youki Kudoh, Max von Sydow, Rick Yune, James Rebhorn, James Cromwell, Sam Shepard, Richard Jenkins Rated PG-13 for Disturbing Images, Sensuality, and Brief Strong Language In general, if you're making a somber romantic melodrama, it's best not to imitate Oliver Stone, especially not his controversial film " Natural Born Killers ."  Stone may be a good filmmaker, with "Patton" being a bonafide classic and " JFK " only a notch or two below (I'm not the world's biggest fan of "Wall Street," although I will freely admit that Michael Douglas deserved all the fame he got from playing Gordon Gekko), but "understated" isn't a word in his vocabulary.  This is what happens when you take a Stone's approach to a slow-burn thriller: it's a disaster of epic proportions. The film takes place shortly after WWII in a sleepy Northwestern town with a sizable Japanese population.  Prejudice is ...

2/4 Starring: Phoebe Fox, Jeremy Irvine, Oaklee Pendergast, Helen McCrory, Adrian Rawlins Rated PG-13 for Some Disturbing and Frightening Images, and for Thematic Elements Ah yes, January.  The time of year when Hollywood's good movies have all come out (although "Selma" and "American Sniper," the two remaining heavy hitters, have yet to be widely released) and the movies that didn't turn out as expected or were made simply to make a quick and easy buck at the expense of quality (hey, you gotta fill those discount bins at Wal-Mart somehow) are released into theaters for the sake of texting tweens and adults who are looking for any excuse to get a babysitter. Actually, "The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death," a sequel in name only to the 2012 horror flick starring Daniel Radcliffe and Ciaran Hinds, isn't that bad.  That's different from it being "worth seeing," which it isn't, but at least it's not as bad as some ot...

3.5/4 Starring: Jack O'Connell, Domhall Gleeson, Finn Wittrock, Takamasa Ishihara, Garrett Hedlund, C.J. Valleroy, John D'Leo Rated PG-13 for War Violence including Intense Sequences of Brutality, and for Brief Language The story of Louis Zamperini, a troublemaker turned Olympic athlete who flew bombers during WWII, only to have his plane crash and spend a record 47 days in a raft and be captured by the Japanese army where he was brutalized, seems too good to be true.  Had this not been a true story, the script would have been laughed out of the office of every producer in Hollywood. But it is true.  Well, mostly (some details have been changed for dramatic effect, but that's often necessary for a film to work), but still.  Universal actually bought the rights to the story in 1957 in the hopes of making it with Tony Curtis as Zamperini, but the project fell through.  Later, Nicolas Cage expressed interest in making the film.  It took until 2014 for the f...

2.5/4 Starring: Ashley Laurence, Clare Higgins, Kenneth Cranham, Imogen Boorman, William Hope The version being reviewed is the unrated one.  For the record, the theatrical cut is rated R (probably for Strong Violence/Gore, Sexuality, Nudity and Language) To be quite honest, "Hellbound: Hellraiser II" isn't very good.  It has its moments of tension, but can't rise to the level of the first one.  And yet, there are some visuals and special effects that are truly impressive.  About another problematic but effective horror film, " Feardotcom ," the late great Roger Ebert said, "Strange, how good "feardotcom" is, and how bad.  The screenplay is a mess, and yet the visuals are so creative this is one of the rare bad films you might want to actually see."  I could say the same thing about "Hellbound: Hellraiser II." The plot of this film is a mess.  That's definitely true.  The original wasn't the hallmark of originali...

3/4 Narrated by Matt Damon Rated PG-13 for Some Drug and Sex-Related Material Numbers are not my strong suit.  When it comes to stock markets, financial wizardry and complex business deals, it goes in one ear and out the other.  Before watching "Inside Job," the extent of my knowledge of the financial crisis was this: greedy bankers and big business deliberately screwed over the common people, caused a financial crisis, and still pocketed billions. So it was helpful to have a documentary that took my through what happened step by step.  The film is neatly divided into how it was allowed to occur (starting with the de-regulation overseen by the Regan administration), how they did it, what happened when it went belly up, and the aftermath.  It is still perhaps a little too clean or too complex because I think I'll have to watch it a few more times to fully grasp the subtleties of what happened (one of the arguments made by these CEO's was that these schemes are...

3.5/4 Starring (voices): J. Robert Spencer, Corrine Orr Not Rated (probably PG-13 for Disturbing War Images) When it comes to war movies, the best rise to the top.  " Schindler's List ," " Saving Private Ryan ," " Casablanca ..." All are fondly remembered and well-regarded, and for good reason.  "Grave of the Fireflies," isn't typically on that list, although it should be.  Film critics and movie lovers know of Isao Takahata's 1988 film but it hasn't been embraced by the general public.  Perhaps because it is anime, and not made by Disney or Pixar (Hayao Miyazaki, despite winning an Oscar for " Spirited Away ," is still a cult filmmaker).  Or perhaps it is because it is a mature and deeply sad film as opposed to the cute and funny stuff we see in animation.  Unlike most animated films, it's not for kids.  It is simply too sad and disturbing. By the time "Grave of the Fireflies" starts, Seita (Spence...