Mike's Movie Tips

3/4 Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Josh Hartnett, Michelle Williams, Adam Arkin, Jodi-Lynn O'Keefe, Adam Hann-Byrd, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Janet Leigh Rated R for Terror Violence/Gore and Language "Halloween H20" was the brainchild of star Jamie Lee Curtis.  She thought it would be a good idea to finish the franchise once and for all, bringing back not only her character, Laurie Strode but John Carpenter as well.  Carpenter ultimately declined to return, so in his place we have Steve Miner, a director-for-hire (he did direct the first two "Friday the 13th" sequels, though).  All things considered, this is a lot of fun.  For a horror movie. Laurie Strode (Curtis) has spent the last 20 years living in fear that her brother, Michael Myers (Chris Durand), will come back to kill her.  She's not handling it very well.  She faked her death, changed her name, moved to Northern California to become the headmaster of a private prep school, and in the words of her...

2/4 Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Lance Guest, Dick Warlock, Gloria Gifford Rated R (probably for Strong Violence/Gore, Some Language, Sexuality/Nudity and Brief Drug Use) The success of " Halloween " took everyone by surprise.  Initially written off as a generic horror flick, a short article in "The Village Voice" saved it from a future covered in dust and lint.  Soon, critics began to see that there was more to this movie than meets the eye.  Audiences did too, and the film ended up becoming the most successful independent film of all time for a long while. So it was inevitable that a sequel would be made.  Directed by Rick Rosenthal, who was hand-picked by John Carpenter himself, "Halloween II" entered into theaters four years after the original.  Unfortunately, slasher movies had evolved (or should that be "de-volved"?) into cheap, schlocky gorefests at that time.  Rosenthal wanted to keep it bloodless like the origina...

3.5/4 Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Nancy Loomis, P.J. Soles, Charles Cyphers, Tony Moran Rated R (probably for Strong Violence, Pervasive Terror, Sexuality/Nudity and Brief Drug Use) "Halloween" might be just another low-budget horror flick gathering dust on the shelves of discount video stores (if it survived the next 40 years at all) had it not been for a complimentary review in "The Village Voice" by critic Tom Allen (for anyone who is curious, the review can be found here ).  His writing caused critics and audiences to see this low-budget chiller for what it is: a terrifying horror film. On Halloween night, Judith Myers (Sandy Johnson) is getting ready for bed after her date when she is brutally stabbed to death.  It is only when the killer is unmasked that we realize that the killer is her six-year old brother Michael (Will Sandin). Fifteen years later, the Myers house has fallen into disrepair, and according to the local children, is...

3/4 Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, Charlie Hunnam, Jim Beaver Rated R for Bloody Violence, Some Sexual Content and Brief Strong Language "Crimson Peak" is Gothic horror in overdrive.  No one does this sort of thing better than Guillermo del Toro, who does not understand the meaning of the word "subtlety," which in this case is a good thing.  This is a grand, spooky tale with dilapidated mansions, buried secrets, and of course, ghosts. Edythe Cushing (Wasikowska) is would-be novelist living in New York at around the turn of the century.  She lives with her father, Carter (Beaver), a wealthy business mogul, and a handsome young man named Alan (Hunnam), who has long held a torch for Edythe, has returned to town a wealthy doctor.  Also in town are Thomas Sharpe (Hiddleston) and his sister Lucille (Chastain).  He's working on an invention that will bring up oil-rich clay and is hoping that Carter will put up money to invest....

3/4 Starring: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Scott Shepard, Austin Stowell, Mikhail Gorevoy, Amy Ryan, Alan Alda, Sebastian Koch, Will Rogers Rated PG-13 for Some Violence and Brief Strong Language Even to people who aren't encyclopedias of movie knowledge, Steven Spielberg is a known name.  That's because he's been the man behind some of cinemas finest (and most bankable) achievements.  The list of beloved films he has directed is incredible: " Schindler's List ," " Saving Private Ryan ," " Jurassic Park ," " Minority Report," " Munich ," "E.T.," " Raiders of the Lost Ark ," "Jaws" (not one of his better films, in my opinion).  But he hasn't made anything truly memorable for the better part of a decade (while there are those who believe that "Lincoln" was a return to form, I'm not one of them).  So the question is whether or not his newest film, the Cold War dramatic thrill...

2/4 Starring: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Veronica Cartwright, Jeff Goldblum, Leonard Nimoy Rated PG (for Some Violence/Gore and Nudity) Why is it so hard to make a truly good doppleganger movie?  I mean, the concept almost writes itself!  Is there anything creepier than to live in a place where everyone has been secretly replaced with an alien intelligence?  Apparently so, since the list of failures is long (John Carpenter's " They Live ," "Abel Ferrara's own take on the story, "Body Snatchers," and let's not forget the fourth iteration of the story, "The Invasion" with Nicole Kidman and Stephanie Meyer's "The Host").  The only good worth seeing is " The Thing ," which while effective in its own right, leaves room for improvement. To be fair, paranoia is hard to make cinematic.  It takes a truly innovative director, like Alfred Hitchcock, to do it.  Sadly, Philip Kaufman isn't it.  While he has mad...

3/4 Starring: Levi Miller, Hugh Jackman, Garrett Hedlund, Rooney Mara, Adeel Akhtar, Nonzo Alonzie, Kathy Burke, Amanda Seyfried Rated PG for Fantasy Action Violence, Language, and Some Thematic Material "Pan" is closer to a misfire than an outright success.  The prequel to "Peter Pan" is already notorious for being a box office bomb, and while it has some serious problems, overall I came out of the theater with a smile on my face and a skip in my step.  Not many movies can make that claim. Peter (Miller) is a young orphan living in London during World War II.  At night, some of his fellow orphans disappear.  It isn't long before he figures out what happened to them.  Sky pirates have kidnapped them and taken them to Neverland.  There, they're forced to work in a mine for a nasty villain named Blackbeard (Jackman).  Blackbeard takes a special interest in Peter because he believes that this young boy is the prophecy that can destroy him.  B...

3/4 Starring: Patrick Brice, Mark Duplass Rated R for Brief Violence and Language There's no better marketing tool than positive word of mouth.  Big budget movies used to use it a lot, but now they've turned to brand names and franchises.  Little films like "Creep" depend on it.  So I'm doing everything that I can to say that this is a good movie. Aaron (Brice) is a videographer answering an ad he found on Craigslist.  A wealthy man named Josef (Duplass) is dying of cancer and wants Aaron to film a memento to his unborn child.  Josef is a bit of an odd duck, such as having an affinity for disappearing then jumping out at Aaron to scare him.  But he's amiable enough.  However, Aaron soon realizes that Josef is not who he seems, and he is totally unaware of what he has walked into. I love movies that only slowly reveal themselves.  "Creep" continuously evolves into something other than it starts out as, with no obvious foreshadowing or sto...

3/4 Starring: Andrew Garfield, Michael Shannon, Laura Dern, Noah Lomax, Tim Guinee Rated R for Language Throughout including Some Sexual References, and for a Brief Violent Image Andrew Garfield first came to my attention when I watched "Boy A" years ago.  There, he played a reformed criminal struggling to start a new life.  Apparently, I wasn't the only one taken with him, since that started opening doors in Hollywood.  He got nominated for a Golden Globe for "The Social Network," although he was a little flat there, in my opinion.  After playing Spidey twice, he's appeared in this dramatic thriller, "99 Homes."  It contains his best performance. Dennis Nash (Garfield) lives in a modest home with his mother Lynn (Dern) and son Connor (Lomax).  He was born there and so was his son.  So when he can't make ends meet and the threat of foreclosure looms over his head, he's very stressed out.  Eventually, the police come to tell him to m...

3.5/4 Starring: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Sean Bean, Michael Pena, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Aksel Hennie, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan Rated PG-13 for Some Strong Language, Injury Images, and Brief Nudity "The Martian," like " Interstellar " last year, is science-based science fiction.  There are no aliens, space battles or interstellar travel (no pun intended).  This is about how one man could survive on Mars, and how a rescue could be attempted.  Of course, neither story is without its setbacks. The Ares 3 mission to the Red Planet has gone off without a hitch.  It consists of a crew of six: Captain Melissa Lewis (Chastain), pilot Rick Martinez (Pena), chemist Aksel Vogel (Hennie), specialists Chris Beck (Stan) and Beth Johannsen (Mara, and botanist Mark Watney (Damon).  While outside, a severe storm hit earlier than anticipated, and the crew is forced to abandon the mission.  On the way to the ship, Mark is hit by a dish and presumed dead...

3/4 Starring: Kathryn Isabelle, Robin Dunne, Peter DaCunha Rated R for Horror Violence, Terror and Brief Sexuality "Torment" is what it is.  It's a low-budget chiller about a group of psychos who terrorize an innocent family in the middle of nowhere.  In fact, it's almost a note by note example of the kind of film Michael Haneke argued against in his controversial "Funny Games." Newlyweds Cory (Dunne) and Sarah (Isabelle) Morgan are taking an excursion to their cabin with Cory's son, Liam (DaCunha).  Sarah does her best to fill the shoes left by Liam's mother, but he regards her with disdain.  When they get there, they find it has been broken into and trashed.  Sarah is worried, but after Cory returns with the business card of the local cop, she's put more at ease.  Later that night, Sarah wakes up and finds that Liam is missing, and a quartet of masked psychopaths have something sinister in mind. It would be an injustice to the film to...

1/4 Starring: Donald Pleasance, Victor Wong, Jameson Parker, Lisa Blount Rated R (Probably for Violence/Gore and Language) John Carpenter's career will be defined by two films: "Halloween," which initiated the slasher movie genre as we know of it today, and " The Thing ," a horror movie set in Antarctica.  Everything else he has made has either become a cult film, or deservedly forgotten.  "Prince of Darkness" is one of the latter. The only pleasure I get out of watching a movie as bad as "Prince of Darkness" is that by eviscerating it in a review, I get some measure of revenge for wasting my time and energy that was stolen from me by a lousy movie.  The 102 minutes I spent watching this piece of crap is something that I will never get back, and could have been spent doing something better.  Like unclogging toilets at a rest stop by hand.  As gross as it sounds, it's the preferable option to watching this movie. Normally I like ...

3/4 Starring: Kurt Russell, Keith David, Wilford Brimley, Richard Dysart, Donald Moffat Rated R (probably for Strong Violence/Gore and for Language) No one does atmosphere like John Carpenter.  Be it his masterpiece, "Halloween," or one of his shittier movies like " They Live ," the one constant is the sense of creepiness flooding throughout.  His ability to get the audience on edge through sound and images is what makes "The Thing" such an unsettling experience. What sets "The Thing," a remake of the 1951 film "The Thing from Another World," apart is the sense of isolation.  These characters are totally cut off in the most unhospitable continent on the planet.  Carpenter uses lots of wide shots with careful lighting in order to convey this. A group of scientists are at a remote research base in Antarctica.  The person who keeps things running smoothly is a guy named MacReady (Russell).  One day they hear gunshots, and after r...

1/4 Starring: Patrick O'Kane, Shayla Beesley, Mihaela Mihut, Richard Brake Rated R for Graphic Bloody Violence, Terror, Language and Some Sexuality A movie like "Perkins' 14" will make you appreciate the craftsmanship and the success of something like " The Descent " or even " Dawn of the Dead ."  Horror movies that are made with skill are thoroughly involving and will send your nerves through the shredder.  Movies like "Perkins' 14," which can't even get on autopilot, are the pits. Dwayne Hopper (O'Kane) is a local cop in the small town of Stone Cove, Maine.  His marriage to Janine (Mihut) is on the rocks, and his daughter Daisy (Beesley) has gone goth.  That's probably due to the fact that 10 years ago today, their son was kidnapped.  He was the last of 14 children to disappear from Stone Cove, and that has him on edge.  Tonight, however, brings in something strange.  A pharmacist named Ronald Perkins (Brake) has...

2/4 Starring: Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro, Daniel Kaluuya Rated R for Strong Violence, Grisly Images, and Language In terms of tone and visual appeal, "Sicario" is a success.  When it comes to weaving a coherent tale with three-dimensional characters, it comes up short.  This is a grim, violent tale about the drug trade, but the narrative is messy and characters are sketchily developed. This is probably to be expected.  The film was directed by Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, whose previous films (" Incendies ," "Prisoners") displayed little more than a consistently brooding tone.  Villeneuve demands intellectual involvement, but not in the usual way.  Rather, he leaves holes in the story and demands that the audience fill them.  That would be all well and good if he had any skill with it.  But in "Incendies" and "Prisoners," the questions had only one answer, which made them seem pretentious (the super-serio...

2.5/4 Starring: Jonah Hill, James Franco, Felicity Jones, Robert John Burke Rated R for Language and Some Disturbing Material "True Story" hints at a far more unsettling story than it ultimately reveals.  Whether it was due to unfortunate choices in the editing room or a script that failed to fully explore the psychological game that forms the meat of this story, what could have been the second coming of " The Silence of the Lambs " ends up being just another disappointing thriller. Mike Finkel (Hill) is a treasured writer at the New York Times.  At least he is until he was caught fudging the facts in one of his stories and fired.  His reputation in ruins, he's all out of options until another reporter asks him about an accused murderer named Christian Longo (Franco).  Longo is accused of murdering his family then fleeing to Cancun and living under Mike's identity.  Curious, Mike contacts Christian in the hopes of finding some sort of redemption.  Bu...