Mike's Movie Tips

2/4 Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Yancy Butler, Lance Henrickson, Arnold Vosloo, Wilford Brimley, Kasi Lemmons Rated R for A Great Amount of Strong Violence, and for Language "Hard Target" opens with a man being relentlessly pursued by a group of men.  They're heavily armed, he is defenseless.  Slowly but surely, they run him down.  They savor every shot, every look of terror and desperation on his face, before they finally put him out of his misery.  As sick as this scene is, it's a solid way to start the movie.  If only the film had stayed on that level. Nat Binder (Butler) has just arrived in New Orleans looking for her father.  She hasn't seen him in years, but they kept in touch.  When the letters stopped coming, she came looking.  The police are no help, so she enlists the help of Chance Boudreaux (Van Damme), the man with the ugly mullet who came to her rescue when she was mugged.  The body of Nat's father is found soon after, and while the p

3.5/4 Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Matt O'Leary, Jeremy Sumpter, Powers Boothe Rated R for Violence and Some Language One of my hobbies is to go on the American Family Association's Facebook page and get into spirited debates about certain issues.  Usually regarding Target's policy of allowing transpeople use the bathroom that they identify with, although they support any right-wing cause.  As hilarious as the banter sometimes gets, it's sometimes very scary.  The blind faith of some of these individuals in the face of logic or the realities of our legal system, or even the hypocrisy that they are unable to see.  Traits like that from religion can take people down a very dark path.  "Frailty" is about one such individual. A man named Fenton Meiks (McConaughey) has arrived at the office of FBI Agent Wesley Doyle (Boothe).  Doyle is heading the investigation into the notorious God's Hand serial killer, and Fenton claims that the killer

3/4 Starring: Tom Hanks, Audrey Tatou, Ian McKellan, Paul Bettany, Alfred Molina, Jean Reno, Jurgen Prochnow Rated PG-13 for Disturbing Images, Violence, Some Nudity, Thematic Material, Brief Drug References and Sexual Content I recall reading "The Da Vinci Code" in my room during the time when its popularity, and its ensuing controversy, was at its heyday.  It was a breathless thriller; smartly written, frantically paced and fascinating to ponder.  I saw the film with my dad, who was also a fan of the book.  There was no possible way for the film to replicate the breakneck speed with which I flipped those pages.  It wasn't until after I saw it a second time that I appreciated it more.  I guess this is an example of the situation that many critics talk about when they claim that some books or stories aren't inherently cinematic and either can't be filmed or must be substantially altered to do so.  Still, Ron Howard's interpretation of the novel, which co

1.5/4 Starring: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Oded Fehr, Iain Glen, Jason O'Mara, Mike Epps Rated R for Strong Horror Violence Throughout and Some Nudity Suspension of disbelief is a common necessity for many movies to work.  For example, when watching " The Lord of the Rings ," we have to accept that Middle Earth is real.  When watching " The Peacemaker ," we have to be willing to believe that two people can play a life-and-death game of bumper cars on the streets of Vienna and survive with no serious injury (or any significant coverage by the news).  For a zombie movie to work, we have to believe that it is possible for the dead to come back to life and have an insatiable desire for human flesh.  I'll accept that.  I'll even go so far as to accept that it's possible to have secret research labs the size of skyscrapers located underground.  But when you have characters who suddenly develop telekinesis in a zombie movie, it becomes too much. It

3/4 Starring: Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Holliday Granger, Kyle Gallner, John Magaro, Eric Bana Rated PG-13 for Intense Sequences of Peril "The Finest Hours" does exactly what it sets out to do, which is to provide almost two hours of forearm gripping adrenaline and entertainment.  It's tense, exciting, well-acted and splendidly photographed.  While it doesn't achieve the terror of " The Perfect Storm " or the emotional complexity of " In the Heart of the Sea ," remember that those films set the bar pretty high.  Even a film of significantly less quality is a sure bet for a night's entertainment. Bernie Webber (Pine) is a shy young man working for the Coast Guard.  He meets a lovely young woman named Miriam (Granger), with whom he becomes engaged.  But trouble is brewing off the coast.  Two ships have split apart out at sea during a terrible gale, and with the majority of the Coast Guard at the first wreck, it's up to Be

2.5/4 Starring: John Goodman, Simon Fenton, Omri Katz, Kellie Martin, Cathy Moriarty, Lisa Jakub, Jesse Lee Soffer, Lucinda Jenny Rated PG for Language, and for Mild Violence and Sensuality I'll give points to Joe Dante for ambition.  He's combined a William Castle-type director premiering his new movie, two teen romances and the Cuban Missile Crisis into one movie.  I can't recommend it, but there are definitely some great things about this movie.  I'm certainly not mad that I sat through it. Gene Loomis (Fenton) moves around a lot because his father is in the Navy.  He and his family have recently settled into Key West, Florida, where he is having difficulty making friends.  He's a monster movie fan, and, much to his delight, horror-meister Lawrence Woolsey (Goodman) is premiering his next monster opus, dubbed "Mant!", in his hometown.  Trouble is brewing, however.  His father has suddenly been called away and the Cuban Missile Crisis is soon und

3/4 Starring: Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan. David Morse, Doug Hutchison, Barry Pepper, Bonnie Hunt, Sam Rockwell, Michael Jeter, James Cromwell, Patricia Clarkson Rated R for Violence, Language, and Some Sex-Related Material "The Green Mile" is a standard order melodrama that is built on nostalgia and faith in something greater than ourselves.  It is very manipulative and never subtle, but in this case that's a good thing. Paul Edgecomb (Hanks) is a guard on death row at a prison in Louisiana.  E-Block, or The Green Mile, as it's known, is where he works with his fellow guards.  Most of them he likes, but then there's Percy (Hutchison), a sadistic creep that Paul can't wait to get rid of but who is staying around long enough to see a live execution.  One day he gets a new prisoner.  John Coffey (Duncan) is a mountain of a man convicted of raping and murdering two little girls.  But when Paul introduces John to the reality of life on The Green Mile,

2/4 Starring: Nastassja Kinski, John Heard, Annette O'Toole. Malcolm McDowell, Ruby Dee, Ed Begley Jr. Rated R (probably for Creature Violence/Gore and for Pervasive Sexual Content including Aberrant Sexuality and Graphic Nudity) When you think of sex, what animal comes to mind? A totally weird question, I know, but it's at the heart of the movie "Cat People," a remake of a 1942 film.  Believe it or not.  So what's your answer?  I bet it wasn't panthers. Sure, sex kitten is a term used to describe a playfully sexy young woman, but panthers and sex don't really go together in my mind.  Still, I'm open to just about anything when it comes to movie premises.  I'll accept anything on its own level.  But "Cat People" doesn't work.  It starts out strong, but it devolves into an incoherent mess at the halfway mark and never finds its way back. Irena Galler (Kinski) has just come to New Orleans to meet her long lost brother Paul (

1.5/4 Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Colin Farrell, Dan Fogler, Allison Sudol, Carmen Ejogo, Samantha Morton, Ezra Miller, Jon Voight Rated PG-13 for Some Fantasy Action Violence The success of the "Harry Potter" film franchise took everyone by surprise.  The idea was to make a few bucks off the movies and milk it for as long as they could.  No one expected to film the entire franchise.  But that's what happened, and Warner Bros. was drowning in cash.  The problem is that There were only seven books in the franchise.  Dividing the final chapter into two parts (a wise move, all things considered) stretched things out for a bit longer, but there was no getting around the fact that the story ended.  So what's a studio to do when their cash cow runs out of gas?  Why, do a spin-off. J.K. Rowling penned a few small "reference" books for the world she created, most notably, "Quidditch Through the Ages," "The Three Tales of Bee

2/4 Starring: Ray Winstone, Guy Pearce, Danny Huston, Emily Watson, David Wenham, John Hurt, Richard Wilson Rated R for Strong Grisly Violence, and for Language "The Proposition" is one long exercise in revisionist Western clichés.  The hero is conflicted and morose, the violence is graphic and bloody, and everyone is in desperate need of a bath and a day at the salon.  This could have been hilarious satire, but director John Hillcoat treats the material as if it's the most important movie ever made.  Apparently he thinks that if these characters brood enough we won't notice that they're stuck in a plot that would have been old when the Western was actually relevant. The entire Hopkins family has just been brutally murdered, including the mother Eliza who was with child at the time of her death.  The Burns gang, consisting in part of the three Burns brothers, is found to be responsible.  The two younger siblings, Charlie (Pearce) and Mike (Wilson) are caug

2.5/4 Starring: Hailee Stanfield, Woody Harrelson, Haley Lu Richardson, Blake Jenner, Kyra Sedgewick, Hayden Szeto Rated R for Sexual Content, Language and Some Drinking-All Involving Teens If country singers ever sung songs about suburbia, there could be a great one about Nadine (Stanfield).  For her, life is suffering through an unending series of indignities.  She has only one friend, Krista (Richardson), the boy she likes doesn't know she exists, her brother Darian (Jenner) is super popular and super good looking, and her mother (Sedgwick) just doesn't get her.  The only one who cares about her is her father, but he's been dead for five years.  Making matters infinitely worse is when she finds Krista in bed with Darian, who then has the gall to start dating her. Adolescence sucks.  Despite being occasionally romanticized in TV shows like "The Wonder Years" or any generic teeny-bopper movie, we all know how miserable it is.  Writer/director Kelly Fremon

2.5/4 Starring: Rachel Weisz, David Strathairn, Roxana Condurache, Vanessa Redgrave, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Monica Bellucci, Paula Schramm Rated R for Disturbing Violent Content including a Brutal Sexual Assault, Graphic Nudity and Language There is no doubt in my mind that this story needed to be told.  Sex trafficking is a very real threat, and it doesn't take a genius to make the connection between what went on in this film, which is based on a true story, and the horrors perpetrated by companies like Halliburton.  Unfortunately, the treatment isn't worthy of its subject.  A poor job in the cinematography department, a messy script and a director's unwillingness to cut anything take a powerful story and dilute its power considerably.  This is a tragic and disturbing story, but the impact of the film feels muted. Kathryn Bolkovac (Weisz) is a cop in the U.S.  She's just been denied a transfer that would allow her to move closer to her daughter, who primarily lives

2.5/4 Starring: Nick Nolte, Robert DeNiro, Jessica Lange, Juliette Lewis, Joe Don Baker, Illeana Douglas Rated R for Strong Violence, and Language If you recall, I was not a fan of the original "Cape Fear."  I found it to be half-baked and without any bite.  So you would think that a remake directed by Martin Scorcese and starring Robert DeNiro would fix the problem.  Yes and no.  It's not that Scorcese's version plays it safe and soft-pedals the violence and brutality of its central conflict.  It's that Scorcese makes a number of bad choices in doing so and that certain actors aren't able to perform up to expected levels. Sam Bowden (Nolte) is a successful lawyer living in Florida with his wife Leigh (Lange) and troubled teenage daughter Danielle (Lewis).  One day he is stopped on the way to his car by a man who claims to know him.  His name is Max Cady (DeNiro), a nasty piece of work who has just been freed after a 14 year prison sentence.  While Sam

2.5/4 Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton, Rachel McAdams, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mads Mikkelson, Benedict Wong Rated PG-13 for Sci-Fi Violence and Action Throughout, and an Intense Crash Sequence Readers will know full well how tired I am of superhero movies.  I am tired of their sameness, their obsession with fan service, and that their bloated budgets snuff out other, potentially better films.  But I was optimistic about "Doctor Strange," and that's for a few reasons.  First, the cast.  I love Benedict Cumberbatch and Tilda Swinton.  Second, the director.  Scott Derrickson has a pretty good track record.  " The Exorcism of Emily Rose " is a fascinating and at times scary film, and " Sinister " is the most terrifying film of the past 10 years.  But it was not to be.  Simply put, the film is a mess. Dr. Stephen Strange (Cumberbatch) is a New York City surgeon whose ego matches his talent.  That is until he gets into a brutal car accident

1.5/4 Starring: Andie MacDowell, James Spader, Peter Gallagher, Laura San Giacomo Rated R (probably for Explicit Sexual Dialogue and Language) "sex. lies, and videotape" is one of those awful independent films where the characters talk and talk and don't say much, but think they're philosophers uncovering some greater meaning about sex, life and whatever.  I don't know about you, but if I wanted that, I'd spend an hour and a half with a bunch of drunk hipsters.  This movie is pretentious, it's boring, and certainly not worth your time. Ann (MacDowell) is the sexually frigid wife of John (Gallagher), an arrogant lawyer.  He's a real pig; not only did he make her quit her job to become a housewife, he's sleeping with her oversexed sister Cynthia (San Giacomo).  Without her permission, John has invited Graham (Spader), his old college roommate, over to stay.  Graham is impotent, but gets off on interviewing women about their sexual histories. 

3.5/4 Starring: Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington, Luke Bracey, Vince Vaughn, Teresa Palmer, Hugo Weaving, Rachel Griffiths Rated R for Intense Prolonged Realistically Graphic Sequences of War Violence Including Grisly Bloody Images The story of Desmond Doss couldn't be filmed if it wasn't a true story.  It's too extraordinary to be believed.  Yet it is true.  One man, a Conscientious Objector who refused to even hold a weapon, saving the lives of 75 men singlehandedly.  No one would believe it.  But it is true, and for his efforts, Doss received the Medal of Honor. Desmond Doss (Garfield) is a bashful kid living in Virginia at a time when the world had gone to hell.  He developed an interest in medicine at a young age, but with little schooling becoming a doctor was next to impossible.  However, the army presents an opportunity for him to be trained as a medic and he won't have to kill anyone.  At least that's what Desmond was told.  Nevertheless, when he ar