Mike's Movie Tips

2017 was not a good year for movies.  Sure, there were some great ones and a few surprises, but overall it was a year of shovelware.  Most of the movies that came out were cash grabs made with so little creative desire that even their fanbases thought they sucked.  Hollywood is facing some fierce competition in the movie-making business by online providers like Netflix and Amazon, and TV shows.  If Hollywood wants to get movies back on top and fill in theater seats, they have to give audiences a compelling reason to go.  That means dumping the old models, like superhero movies which consist of only special effects, fan service, and setting up the next film, and fully improvised "comedies."  Taking the easy way out may give you cash up front, but it will cost you in the long run.  The time when making movies consisted of checking off all your market bases is over. Now that that's out of the way, let's get to the fun stuff: getting revenge on the 10 mo...

1.5/4 Starring: Robert Duvall, John Beasley, Marie Richardson, Walton Goggins, Farrah Fawcett, June Carter Cash Rated PG-13 for Thematic Elements and a Related Scene of Violence For Robert Duvall, bringing "The Apostle" to the screen was a labor of love, if not an obsession.  He wrote the screenplay, directed the film and, obviously, starred as the lead character.  If that doesn't make plain enough his determination to put this story to film, he ended up funding the entire project (budgeted at $5 million) himself, although he was reimbursed by the distributors when it became a success.  Unfortunately, Duvall doesn't find a way to successfully translate his passion into reality.  The movie has some compelling characters and scenes of high energy, but overall it's a bore. Sonny (Duvall) is an evangelist living in the Deep South.  His love for God and gift for preaching has amassed him a sizable following of loyal parishioners.  But his personal life i...

1.5/4 Starring: Ed Helms, Owen Wilson, Glenn Close, Terry Bradshaw, J.K. Simmons, Christopher Walken, Harry Shearer Rated R for Language and Sexual References Throughout "Father Figures" is a one-joke movie, and it's a joke that sounds better in concept than it plays out on the big screen.  I mean, repeated riffs on a quest for two losers trying to find their birth father can make a great trailer, but it would take much more talent and invention than newbie director Lawrence Sher or screenwriter Justin Malen have to keep things fresh for 90 minutes.  There are a few cheap laughs and some of the sentimental scenes work, but beyond that is a lifeless comedy that is more calculated than creative. Tightly wound cynic Peter (Helms) is on his way back to Ohio to celebrate his mother Helen's (Close) wedding to a Barry Madoff look-alike named Gene (Shearer).  Also at the wedding is Kyle (Wilson), his charismatic layabout of a brother who has had everything come easy (...

3.5/4 Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Karen Gillan, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Nick Jonas, Bobby Cannevale, Alex Wolff, Morgan Turner, Ser'Darius Blain, Madison Iseman Rated PG-13 for Adventure Action, Suggestive Content and Some Language Oh God...another sequel/reboot/reimagining/whatever they're calling it now of a hit from 20 years ago with a brand name and a significant uptick in action and special effects to appeal to the world audience and what not.  That's what I was thinking, so it was not a movie I was eager to see.  However, I do occasionally get surprised on this job when a movie turns out to be better than I expected.  This is one of those occasions. For various reasons, Spencer (Wolff), Fridge (Blain), Bethany (Iseman) and Martha (Turner) have found themselves in detention tearing out staples in magazines so they can be recycled.  There, they find a mysterious game console with a game titled "Jumanji" in it.  Bored, they all decide to play it.  ...

2/4 Starring: Andy Garcia, Richard Gere, Laurie Metcalf, Nancy Travis, William Baldwin, Michael Beach Rated R for Strong Sexuality, Nudity, Language and Some Violence "Internal Affairs" has a promising idea at its core: a psychological mano-a-mano between a corrupt cop and the Internal Affairs officer intent on bringing him down.  What's interesting about this movie is that this is about the mind games they play with each other.  Or more specifically, the corrupt cop plays on the man tailing him.  The line between predator and prey quickly becomes blurred. Raymond Avila (Garcia) has just started his job at Internal Affairs at the LAPD.  His first assignment is to investigate a beat cop named Van Stretch (Baldwin), whom Avila knows from the police academy.  Stretch is your typical nightmare cop: he's a cokehead with a habit of excessive force and beating up his girlfriend.  But just as he and his partner Amy Wallace (Metcalf) make headway, Avila soon...

1/4 Starring: Michael Pena, Alexander Skarsgaard, Tessa Thompson, Theo James, Caleb Landry Jones, Paul Reiser, David Wilmot, Malcolm Barrett Rated R for Violence, Sexuality/Nudity, Drug Use and Pervasive Language "War on Everyone" is bad in ways few movies are.  In addition to being tedious and unfunny, its attempts at being quirky and offbeat just make it surreal.  That doesn't make the film any better, but there you have it.  It's like bad Quentin Tarantino mixed with bad David Lynch.  Oh, and it's also pretentious and nonsensical, too.  The movie is nothing but inclusive when it comes to adjectives that describe its poor quality. This movie has virtually no plot.  It's a dead zone.  If you are paying attention (and don't cause your brain to spontaneously combust in the process), there's something about two gleefully corrupt cops named Terry Monroe (Skarsgaard) and Bob Bolano (Pena) investigating a robbery involving a British businessman name...

2/4 Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Abbie Cornish, Colin Farrell Rated R for Violence and Bloody Images Throughout, Sexuality, Nudity and Language When it comes to "Solace," I'll give credit where credit is due: it seeks to be more than just your average run-of-the-mill serial killer movie.  It has a few ideas that put it above the pack.  The problem is that it uses an underwritten screenplay, flat performances and directorial flourishes that give new meaning to the term "self-indulgent" to explore them. FBI agent Joe Merriwether (Morgan) and his partner Katherine Cowles (Cornish) are on the trail of a brutal serial killer.  With no evidence and no leads, Joe is forced to enlist the help of his old friend, John Clancy (Hopkins), a psychic.  Unlike Theresa Capruto or any other snake oil peddler, John doesn't just practice cold reading: he really is psychic.  The three of them must team up to stop the killer. Taking the use of psychic...

3/4 Starring: Naomi Watts, Sean Penn, David Andrews, Michael Kelly, Noah Emmerich, Bruce McGill, Sam Shepard, Liraz Charhi Rated PG-13 for Some Language Not to be confused with the 1995 film starring William Baldwin and Cindy Crawford At least in general terms, everyone knows the story of the Valerie Plame affair.  It goes like this: the Bush administration wanted a war with Iraq and tried to find evidence to justify it.  When they couldn't find any, they made it up and we went to war.  Ex-Ambassador Joe Wilson called them out on it, and to discredit him (and perhaps for revenge), Chief of Staff to then-VP Dick Cheney leaked the information that his wife Valerie Plame was an undercover spy.  That's when all hell broke loose. Like many biopics of famous events or people, "Fair Game" seeks to tell the story behind the story.  In other words, fill us in on the juicy details that weren't available in the papers or from talk show pundits.  On tha...

1.5/4 Starring: Morgan Freeman, Tommy Lee Jones, Rene Russo, Joe Pantoliano, Jane Seymour Rated PG-13 for Language, Suggestive Material and Brief Violence "Just Getting Started" is one of the most inane, brain-dead comedies of the year.  There were worse comedies to come out this year ("These Little Hours" comes to mind), but they actually inflamed me with passion.  This stinker is simply dull.  I wish I had fallen asleep. Duke (Freeman) is a freewheeling charmer who runs a senior community in Arizona.  He's the boss but acts like one of the residents.  Which is to say, he gets drunk, sleeps around, and generally acts like he's on Spring Break for senior citizens.  One day, Leo (Jones) comes to town and soon he's wooing the attention of the girls, especially Suzie (Russo), who is making sure that Duke is doing his job.  Soon its a turf war between Duke and Leo, with Suzie as the prize.  But there's something in Duke's past that neither Su...

2.5/4 Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryu, Mieko Harada, Pita Rated R (probably for Graphic Violence) There comes a time in everyone's life where they have to decide whether to be safe and go with popular opinion or open yourself to criticism by going against the grain.  For a film critic, it's difficult to be honest when you didn't like a movie that is universally considered a classic.  I mean, would anyone take me seriously if I said that " Casablanca " is an overblown bore?  It's not, but you get my point.  Such is the case with "Ran."  Directed by the legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, it's a beloved war epic.  While there are parts of the film that are excellent, bordering on brilliant, the film as a whole isn't all that its reputation suggests. Lord Hidetora (Nakadai) is growing older.  Sensing that his time in this earthly realm is drawing to a close (his energy and vitality are decreasi...

3/4 Starring: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Lucas Hedges, Abbie Cornish, Caleb Landry Jones, John Hawkes, Peter Dinklage Rated R for Violence, Language Throughout, and Some Sexual References Perhaps the best word to describe Martin McDonagh's new film, which has the unwieldy title "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," is ambitious.  This film attempts to: create a dozen or so multi-dimensional characters with their own strengths and weaknesses, solve a brutal murder, show a few romances, two mother-son relationships, straddle the line between comedy and tragedy, and teach a lesson about those left behind after death.  It's a lot to do, especially considering the fact that the running time clocks in at a hair under two hours.  While imperfect, McDonagh does achieve a lot of his aims. Mildred Hayes (McDormand) is frustrated.  Her daughter was raped and murdered, and her body was set on fire.  Almost a year later, no arrests have ...

3/4 Starring: Tom Hardy, Emily Browning, David Thewlis, Christopher Eccelston Rated R for Strong Violence, Language Throughout, Some Sexual and Drug Material With "Legend," it isn't a case of having a dearth of material.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  This movie is jam-packed with intriguing characters, plot elements, and violence.  It's just that Brian Helgeland doesn't know what to do with them all.  "Legend" has a lot of stuff going on, but no real drive.  Despite all this, it's never boring. Twin brothers Reggie (Hardy) and Ronnie Kray (Hardy) have it all: they're rich, connected, and well-liked.  Nightclub owners in London's West End, the pair is famous for hanging out with the rich and famous, and for their spread into other areas of London.  But there is a darker undercurrent to their public personas, much more than the "bad boy" image that gets them a lot of fame and fortune.  They're vicious gangsters, and while...

3.5/4 Rated R for Disturbing Violent Content and Some Language The case of the West Memphis Three is one of the worst miscarriages of justice in history.  Anyone who knows what happened to them is certain that that statement is not a mere opinion.  It is fact.  Three teenage boys were convicted of savagely murdering three eight-year-old boys despite the fact that the evidence pointed to the fact that none of them had anything to do with it.  Religious zeal, felonious police and prosecutorial misconduct, and the need for closure sent Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley to prison for eighteen years simply for being easy scapegoats. I wish I could tell you that this was the work of a great screenwriter, but alas, I cannot.  This is absolutely true.  It's an event so shameful that the Founding Fathers were surely turning in their graves for the better part of two decades.  Fortunately, a few people with pluck and determination started...

4/4 Starring (voices): Anthony Gonzalez, Gael Garcia Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Alanna Ubach Rated PG for Thematic Elements Pixar Animation has been in a bit of a slump lately.  Their last great movie was " Brave ," although I realize that many people liked " Inside Out "a lot more than I did.  Lately, they've been putting out sequels with little inspiration (plus the misfire, " The Good Dinosaur ").  That may make executives and shareholders happy, but Pixar has always been at its best when its blazing new trails and trying new things.  Only when they're telling a story that they actually care about do they shine.  While none of their recent films was awful, the team's heart wasn't in them.  That's changed with their new film "Coco," which is easily their best film since "Brave." Miguel (Gonzalez) is a young boy with the heart of a musician.  Unfortunately, his family frowns on music, as his great grandmother I...

2/4 Starring: John Cusack, Jennifer Carpenter, Dallas Roberts, Mae Whitman, Gary Anthony Williams Rated R for Strong Violence including Disturbing Images, Language Throughout and Some Sexual Material Despite starring A-lister John Cusack and "Dexter" co-star Jennifer Carpenter, "The Factory" was released four years after it was shot and bypassed theaters altogether.  Not a good sign.  A movie as troubled as this usually signals a disaster, but that's not the case here.  Like " Shanghai ," which suffered a similar fate (and coincidentally, also starred John Cusack), "The Factory" is simply mediocre. A number of prostitutes have gone missing in Montreal over the past few years.  Detective Mike Fletcher (Cusack) is convinced that there's a serial killer at work.  It's not a popular theory since there have been no bodies of the missing women have not been found.  The only one who believes him is his energetic partner, Kelsey Walke...

2.5/4 Starring: Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher, Jason Momoa, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Diane Lane, Ciaran Hinds Rated PG-13 for Sequences of Sci-Fi Violence and Action Everyone is trying to mimic Marvel Cinematic Universe: an unending series of interconnected films built on fan loyalty and the build-up to a final smackdown.  Legendary Pictures has MonsterVerse, where all the cinematic monsters will duke it out.  Universal tried to get the so-called Dark Universe going with this year's "The Mummy," but considering how badly that movie was received, it's doubtful it's going anywhere (despite best attempts to set the stage for a zillion characters).  Warner Bros. has DC, and while fans of Batman, Superman and the rest of the DC ensemble rival that of Marvel, the studio has yet to capture even a fraction of the MCU magic.  Considering that the critical and audience reception to this movie has been tepid, and it was DOA at the box office, I doubt ...

3/4 Starring: Jay Hernandez, Kirsten Dunst, Bruce Davison, Taryn Manning, Lucinda Jenney Rated PG-13 for Mature Thematic Material involving Teens, Drug/Alcohol Content, Sexuality, and Language "crazy/beautiful" has to be the tensest teen romance I've ever seen.  Check that, the tensest romance I've seen period .  While there have been plenty of movie romances with high stakes (" Titanic " and " Casablanca " come to mind), few are as real as "crazy/beautiful." Carlos Nunez (Hernandez) is a straight-arrow student from a poor part of town looking to better himself.  He gets up before six a.m. to take the bus to school the ritzy Pacific High School, works on the weekends and studies hard.  He wants to get into Annapolis and become a pilot, despite the fact that he's never been on a plane before.  One day at the beach with friends, he spies Nicole Oakley (Dunst) doing community service.  There's a spark of attraction, and when ...

4/4 Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Ziyi Zhang, Chen Chang, Cheng Pei-Pei, Sihung Lung Rated PG-13 for Martial Arts Violence and Some Sexuality It could be reasonably argued that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" fits better into the romance genre than martial arts extravaganza.  Oh sure, there are plenty of truly sensational action sequences, but, at its heart, this is a love story. Legendary warrior Li Mu Bai (Yun-Fat) wishes to leave his fighting days behind him.  To bring closure to his past life, he has decided to give his legendary sword, the Green Destiny, to his benefactor, Sir Te (Lung).  Meanwhile, the woman he loves (but has never admitted it), Shu Lien (Yeoh), has developed a friendship with Jiao Long (Zhang), a governor's daughter who is set to be married into wealthy family.  When the Green Destiny is stolen, these three people will find their futures tied together as they confront their pasts. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is li...

3.5/4 Starring: Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn, Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines, Susan Sarandon, Jay Hernandez, Peter Gallagher, Justin Hartley Rated R for Crude Sexual Content and Language Throughout, and Some Drug Use Last year's " Bad Moms " was a breath of fresh comic air.  In an age where comedy is apparently watching a bunch of stand-up comedians riff incessantly on the same non-existent joke while trying to be as gross and offensive as possible, watching "Bad Moms" was like finding a lake of crystal clear water in the middle of the Sahara.  Unlike " Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates " or the pair of Seth Rogen monstrosities, the tone-deaf " Sausage Party " and the horror that was " Neighbors 2 ," "Bad Moms" had an actual script.  It was about actual characters and situations, and it had a comic point of view.  It was a big hit for those reasons, but mainly because it was absolutely hilarious.  Thus, a ...

4/4 Starring: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino da Hora, Phellipe Haagensen, Seu Jorge, Alice Braga Rated R for Strong Brutal Violence, Sexuality, Drug Content and Language In what some may view as the height of arrogance or naivite, I once proclaimed "City of God" to be the best film ever made.  Now that I'm older and hopefully a bit wiser, I realize that such a claim is probably impossible to make about a single film.  That being said, Fernando Meirelles' 2002 masterpiece is definitely up there.  This is a fascinating thriller that is as disturbing as it is illuminating. The protagonist of this story, which is based on true events, is Rocket (Rodrigues).  He is our guide through this hell on Earth, introducing us to its inhabitants and clearly informing us how they relate to each other.  Unlike many other citizens of the slum known as the City of God, Rocket isn't a hood (his attempts to rob people end up with him getting advice from a friendly man,...

2/4 Starring: Keisha Castle-Hughes, Rawiri Paratene, Vicky Haughton, Grant Roa, Cliff Curtis, Rachel House Rated PG-13 for Brief Language and a Momentary Drug Reference "Whale Rider" is a good little indie coming-of-age story provided you've never seen a little indie coming-of-age story.  Readers of my reviews are well aware that I have zero problem for formula pictures, provided that they are done well.  Unfortunately, that's not the case here.  With a poorly explained cultural foundation, a badly written lead character and a clunky story, it's a wonder why this movie became such a hit back in 2002.  I can think of a half dozen foreign and/or indie films that impressed me more.  By several orders of magnitude. In Maori tradition, it's the first born grandson of the leader who inherits the title, back to the original whale rider who arrived from Hawaiki.  But tragedy has struck: the grandson of the current leader, Koro (Paratene) has died along with...