Mike's Movie Tips

3.5/4 Starring: Josh Hartnett, Eric Bana, Sam Shepard, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Jason Isaacs Rated R for Intense, Realistic, Graphic War Violence, and for Language At some point, everything is going to go south on you...everything is going to go south and you're going to say, this is it.  This is how I end.  Now you can either accept that, or you can get to work.  That's all it is.  You just begin.  You do the math.  You solve one problem...and you solve the next one...and then the next.  And if you solve enough problems, you get to come home.  All right, questions? --Mark Watney Watching this movie again, I thought of Matt Damon's speech at the end of " The Martian " (which was ironically also directed by Ridley Scott).  I thought about it in the sense of what it means to be a hero.  Sure, we love it when Aragorn leads his army to attack the forces of Mordor in " The Lord of the Rings ," but of course, that's a fantasy.  Doing the right

2.5/4 Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne Rated PG-13 for Sequences of Violence, Action and Destruction, Brief Strong Language and Some Suggestive Images The appeal of the X-Men is easy to figure out.  There are so many of them and their powers are so creative that you can't help but wonder what powers you'd like to have and what you'd do with them.  Action movies have always been, to an extent, a wish-fulfillment fantasy, and none more so than superhero movies.  And there's no better franchise that stirs that part of the mind than the X-Men.  Sadly, superhero fatigue has set in, and this new installment, despite some impressive special effects, can't manage to overcome it. After the events in " X-Men: Days of Future Past ," Eric Lensherr aka Magneto (Fassbender) has been in hiding.  He's married with a young daughter and doing his best to make sure that his past stays behind hi

2.5/4 Starring: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johannson, Sebastian Stan, Daniel Bruhl, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Chadwick Boseman, William Hurt Rated PG-13 for Extended Sequences of Violence, Action and Mayhem Will this superhero obsession ever end?  I get that geekdom is cool now and they're easy to market, but must Hollywood keep churning out one after another?  I wouldn't be so hard on them if they were any good, which admittedly some of them are (Nolan's "Batman" franchise is one such example).  But save for a few exceptions, these movies seem less interested in telling a compelling story than satisfying every fan in the world and making a quick and easy buck. The Avengers are known around the world as saviors, but people are getting concerned with all the death and destruction.  That's when a politician named Thaddeus Ross (Hurt) tells them that the governments of the world want them to si

2.5/4 Starring (voices): Jason Sudekis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph, Peter Dinklage, Keegan-Michael Key, Sean Penn Rated PG for Rude Humor and Action Hollywood loves "brand names."  Witness the popularity of the " Transformers " franchise.  Or Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Or the umpteenth installment of a horror franchise (take your pick).  They have a built-in audience, which means a big payload with little financial risk.  Although it's marketing at its most blatant and obvious, it doesn't automatically mean that it's a bad movie.  Take the " Pirates of the Carribean " franchise for example (the fourth one doesn't count).  It's based on a theme park ride (an overrated one), but the movies were a lot of fun.  Like everything, it's all in the effort. "Angry Birds," based on the incredibly addicting mobile app, is neither really good nor epically awful.  It's undoing is that it proves unable

3.5/4 Narrated by Nicole Kidman Sometimes the things that cause us the most pain are the things that we should never forget.  No one understood that better than Simon Wiesenthal.  It would be too easy for the world to forget the deaths of between 11 and 17 million people, but a man named Simon Wiesenthal refused to let the past fade into memory. Like many heroes, Simon Wiesenthal didn't set out to become one.  He did because he felt he had to.  Trained as an architect, Simon Wiesenthal found his calling after he was freed from the Mauthausen concentration camp.  The U.S. Army asked him to gather statements about the atrocities committed there so they could punish the guilty.  Eventually they turned their attention to the Soviet Union, but Wiesenthal wasn't done.  He wanted to track down and punish those responsible for the Holocaust.  Thus began a pursuit that lasted the rest of his life. Watching this movie, I kept wondering why Hollywood hasn't made a movie of Sim

1/4 Starring: Anne Parillaud, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Tcheky Karyo Rated R for Graphic Violence and Profanity Action movies should get the adrenaline up, not put the viewer to sleep.  Deep and complex plots are not mandatory (but provided they're well told, always appreciated), but ones that make use of their premise are.  Despite giving Luc Besson the reputation of being France's answer to Jerry Bruckheimer, "La Femme Nikita" fails on both counts. Nikita (Parillaud) is a junkie who is the sole survivor of an attempt to score drugs at a convenience store robbery.  She's sentenced to life in prison for her role in the crime (in addition to her friends, three police officers were killed), but fate has something else in store for her.  The French government offers her the opportunity to live as a free woman, but at the price of being an assassin for them.  She agrees, and with the help of her handler (Karyo), she goes from out of control menace to being a sexy k

2.5/4 Starring: Ben Affleck, Joanna Going, Rose McGowan, Peter O'Toole, Live Schrieber Rated R for Sci-Fi Violence/Gore and Language The trouble with making a scary movie is that once you get started, you have to keep it up.  "Phantoms," the 1998 thriller based on the novel by Dean Koontz (arguably the most famous horror author after Stephen King), starts off great.  It's when it gets around to explaining what's going on that things fall apart. Jennifer (Going) is taking her sister Lisa (McGowan) from LA to the small Colorado town of Snowfield to get her away from the evils of the big city ("I like pollution.  I like gunfire," Lisa whines).  When they get there, they find the town completely deserted save for a few weird looking corpses (I liked how Lisa asked if there was a nuclear power plant or a military base nearby).  Now they, the local sheriff (Affleck) and his two deputies (Schrieber and Nicky Katt) have to survive the night.  Meanwhile,

3/4 Starring: Winston Chao, Mitchell Lichtenstein, May Chin, Ya-Lei Kuei, Sihung Lung Rated R for Language You are cordially invited to a wedding where everyone wants to kiss the bride...except the groom I've been known to take notice of a good movie tagline, such as in " Hollow Man " (Think you're alone?  Think again), " Seven " (Let he who is without sin try to survive) or " A Fish Called Wanda " (A tale of murder, lust, greed, revenge, and seafood).  Not only is the tagline for "The Wedding Banquet" witty and enticing, it sets the tone for the movie.  This is a cheery dramedy that also deals with some rather weighty material. Wai-Tung (Chao) is a young gay man living in New York City working as a landlord.  His partner is Simon (Lichtenstein), a physical therapist.  His parents (Kuei and Lung) think he's a bachelor, and since his ailing father's wish is to hold his grandson, they're on his case to get married and

2.5/4 Starring: Stephanie Leonidas, Jason Barry, Gina McKee, Rob Brydon Rated PG for Some Mild Thematic Elements and Scary Images "Mirrormask," from the minds of Neil Gaiman and artist Dave McKean, is like a cross between Hayao Miyazaki's " Spirited Away " and Tarsem's " The Cell ."  It has the story and approach of the former and the surreal nightmare visions of the latter.  Unfortunately, comparing it to those two movies makes it come up short.  While it would be unfair to expect every movie to replicate the sheer mastery of "Spirited Away" or the complexity of "The Cell" (especially in a kid's movie), there's no reason that this story couldn't have worked.  Alas, the screenplay is a mess, and all we are left with is some fantastic eye candy. And what eye candy it is!  This is like a fantasy artist's scrapbook come to life (literally...the opening credits are designed as such).  Animated cats with human

3/4 Starring: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O'Connell, Caitriona Balfe, Dominic West Rated R for Language Throughout, Some Sexuality and Brief Violence There are times when "Money Monster" seems almost like wish-fulfillment.  With Wall Street bankers and CEOs of multi-national conglomerates gambling our money away with impunity, looking for every legal loophole to take every last penny out of our paychecks that they can (while paying nothing in taxes themselves) and using the wretched Citizens United decision to keep doing it, it's hard not to feel impotent at the hands of Big Business and the 1%.  So when a guy decides to do something about it, it's hard not to feel a vicarious sense of justice.  Even if what he's doing is illegal. Four weeks ago, finance whiz and TV host Lee Gates (Clooney) encouraged his viewers that buying stock in the recently public IBIS Global Capital was a sure thing.  Yesterday, a glitch caused the company to lose $800 m

1/4 Starring: Stanley Tucci, Oliver Platt, Lili Taylor, Alfred Molina, Matt McGrath, Campbell Scott Rated R for Some Language Few things are more painful to sit through than comedies that don't work.  Especially if it's obvious that the actors and filmmakers are trying their best.  With a movie like " Anchorman 2 ," it was at least clear that no one cared about the movie, least of all director Adam McKay.  Here, everyone gives it their all, but it's all for naught.  "The Imposters" simply doesn't work. For Arthur (Tucci) and Maurice (Platt), acting is a way of life.  They act to earn food and money any way they can, and watch jealously as their hated rival Jeremy Burtom (Molina) flounders his way through "Hamlet" and becomes famous nonetheless.  After insulting him while not realizing he was in the room, Burtom chases Arthur and Maurice down to the docks, where they hide in a box...and are suddenly on a cruise ship!  Now they have t

2/4 Starring: Laurence Fishburne, Stephen Baldwin, Will Patton, Robert John Burke, Salma Hayek Rated R for Strong Violence and Language, and for Some Nudity "Fled" is as brainless as they come, even for an action movie.  It's so dumb that I thought of " The Stone Merchant ," and that's saying something. Dodge (Baldwin) is a computer hacker spending time on the chain gang for stealing $25 million from a sleazy corporation.  He gets into a fight with a Cro-Magnon and ends up chained up next to Parker (Fishburne), who tried to stop it.  Eventually, things devolve into the first of many shoot-outs in this film, and Parker and Dodge seize the opportunity to make a run for it.  However, things aren't what they seem, as a yokel cop named Gibson (Patton) finds out.  Apparently the company Dodge stole from is a front for the Cuban mafia, and the disk that was used to convict him has enough evidence to nail a mob boss for life.  Now the two of them have to

3/4 Starring: Andy Garcia, Vincent Kartheiser, Linda Cardellini, Teri Polo, Trevor Blumas, Chelsea Field Rated R for Violence, Nudity/Sexual Content, Language and Some Drug Material "The Unsaid" defies easy description.  It somehow manages to navigate the line between thriller and psychological drama in a way that continuously surprised me.  The ambiguity of the film's most elusive character is a strong selling point, but not the only by any means. Brilliant psychologist Michael Hunter (Garcia) has it all: a nice home, a loving wife (Field) and two children that he adores named Shelly (Cardellini) and Kyle (Blumas).  Kyle is battling depression, and on the night where his parents are away watching Shelly perform on stage, he takes his own life. Now a virtual shut-in, Michael has all but given up on life.  His wife divorced him and Shelly moved in with her.  One of his former students, Barbara Lonigan (Polo), asks him to take a look at a curious case she's in

3.5/4 Starring (voices): Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, Patrick Stewart, Jeff Goldblum, Helen Mirren, Steve Martin, Martin Short, Danny Glover Rated PG for Intense Depiction of Thematic Material Movies like "The Prince of Egypt" prove what dreck like " God's Not Dead " and " War Room " could not (and didn't even bother to try, it seems): it is entirely possible to make a religious-oriented film without resorting to preaching or evangelizing.  That's because it lets the story speak for itself.  While certain changes have been made to make it more cinematic, they're mostly cosmetic or filling in the blanks.  The filmmakers understand that the story of Exodus is powerful enough that preaching is unnecessary. The film gets off to a haunting beginning.  Pharoah (Stewart) has ordered the deaths of every newborn son of the Hebrew people.  With the help of her children, a woman named Yocheved (Ofra Haza) puts