Mike's Movie Tips

1.5/4 Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Jillian Bell, Zoe Kravitz, Illana Glazer, Kate McKinnon, Paul W. Downs Rated R for Crude Sexual Content, Language Throughout, Drug Use and Brief Bloody Images My brother's bachelor party last year went off without a hitch, thank you very much.  We and a few of his friends went to Nashville for some partying, go karts and good food.  I suppose I should be grateful for that.  I could have been as unfortunate as Scarlett Johansson: trapped in a bad SNL skit that won't end with four irritating shrews and a dead body. Jess (Johansson) is stressed out.  She's running behind in the polls for a Senate seat (despite the fact that her competitor has taken the Anthony Wiener method of getting himself on the front page) and her bachelorette party is this weekend.  Nevertheless, she decides to go to Miami with her college friends: the awkward and in-your-face Alice (Bell), the rich bitch Blair (Kravitz), the lesbo activist Frankie (Glazer) and

3.5/4 Starring: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright, Richard Ney, Dame Mae Whitty, Henry Travers Not Rated (probable PG for War Scenes) War movies are usually about the battles.  Movies like " Saving Private Ryan ," " Black Hawk Down ," " Fury " and others dominate the genre.  There are others, such " Schindler's List ," which studied two men on opposite sides of the morality spectrum, or " Black Book ," which used war as a setting for a psychological thriller.  But these movies are rare.  "Mrs. Miniver" is different in the sense that it looks at war from the perspective of average citizens.  It views war as a reality; something that didn't have a beginning, middle or end.  Air raids, destruction and death had become common place.  There really isn't anything quite like it.  The closest film I can think of is " Grave of the Fireflies ," although that's a bit of a stretch. The film open

3/4 Starring: Lewis MacDougall, Felicity Jones, Sigourney Weaver, Toby Kebbell, and the voice of Liam Neeson Rated PG-13 for Thematic Content and Some Scary Images One can make many claims about "A Monster Calls."  Weird, bizarre, depressing, hard to understand.  All true.  One cannot claim that this movie plays is safe.  "A Monster Calls" is not an easy film to experience or even conceive of.  It relies heavily on metaphor, intuition and subtext.  The elements don't always gel, but the end result is worth experiencing.  Perhaps more than once. Conor (MacDougall) is not a happy child.  His mother Lizzie (Jones) is dying, his father (Kebbell) is lives halfway around the world, and the prospect of living with his grandmother (Weaver) is not a pleasant one.  One night at 12:07 a.m., the yew tree in the nearby graveyard comes to life as a monster.  The Monster (Neeson) tells Conor that he will return to tell him three stories and then Conor must then tell hi

2/4 Starring (voices): Owen Wilson, Cristela Alonzo, Larry the Cable Guy, Nathan Fillon, Chris Cooper, Armie Hammer Rated G My relationship with Pixar's "Cars" franchise is not strong.  I started watching the original on pay-per-view but fell asleep (and was unimpressed with what I saw).  I never saw "Cars 2."  I was wary of approaching this movie with so little familiarity with it's respective franchise.  But then I remembered that Pixar's target audience is little kids, and therefore unlikely that their films demand fanboy obsessiveness like the Marvel Cinematic Universe does. That said, "Cars 3" is a pretty lame movie.  It follows the Pixar formula of telling a story to convey a certain theme (in this case, it's that time never stops), peppering it with humor, action and heart.  The thing is, it doesn't do any of that well.  The humor is hit-and-miss with the misses being the most prominent (although there is a hilarious sequ

1.5/4 Not Rated (Probable PG for Some Animated Violent and Sexual Images) Roger Ebert once said that he thought the spoof genre was the hardest to review.  Which makes sense, since acting, storytelling and so on are beside the point.  I disagree.  My review of " Scary Movie " was fairly easy to write, if memory serves.  True, it's a futile endeavor to discuss the performances of Anna Faris or Jon Abrahams in a pure parody, but there is fertile ground for a film critic to discuss. No, I find that documentaries are the hardest to review because none of the traditional talking points apply.  They don't have actors, dialogue or directorial style.  Reviewing a documentary is like reviewing a college lecture or a newspaper article.  The only thing worth noting is what the film contains.  And unless they're unbelievable good or horrifically bad, there isn't a lot to say more than that. Which brings us to "Video Games: The Movie."  A terribly uncreat

1.5/4 Starring: Tyrese Gibson, Meagan Good, Game, Larenz Tate, Henry Hunter Hall Rated R for Strong Violence and Pervasive Language When did action movies stop being fun?  When I was growing up,  I would watch movies like " Speed ," " True Lies ," and " The Rock ."  They were just as violent as "Waist Deep," if not more so, but they were fun.  There was joy in their construction.  They were entertaining.  "Waist Deep" wants to be an action movie with a social ax to grind, which is fine by me.  It's difficult, but it can be done (see " Set it Off " for an example).  But this movie has a flat screenplay, lousy performances and a director that tries in vain to salvage what cannot be saved.  This movie is a waste of time and money. O2 (Gibson) is an ex-con trying to get his life back on track.  He's been out on parole for a month, and is determined to make a better life for himself and his son Junior (Hall).  Howev

2/4 Starring: Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell, Rachel True, Skeet Ulrich, Assumpta Serna Rated R for Some Violence and Terror, and for Brief Language "The Craft" is your standard order 90's girl power movie.  Nothing more, nothing less.  Even with those unambitious goals, it's still not a very good movie.  With pedestrian direction, a bland screenplay and an hour of no real conflict, it's hard to imagine that this became a cult hit. Sarah Bailey (Tunney) is a high school student moving from Los Angeles to San Francisco with her parents.  After being humiliated by Chris Hooker (Ulrich), the school stud, she falls in with Nancy (Balk), Bonnie (Campbell) and Rochelle (True), the school outcasts.  Actually, it's the other way around.  You see, the three girls are witches.  Like, real ones.  They sense that Sarah is a witch too and conspire for her to join them so they can be a quartet and become more powerful.  Initially, the lonely Sarah enjoys

2.5/4 Starring: Demetrius Shipp Jr., Danai Guirira, Hill Harper, Dominic L. Santana, Annie Illonzeh, Keith Robinson, Kat Graham Rated R for Language and Drug Use Throughout, Violence, Some Nudity and Sexuality Tupac Shakur is too fascinating a man and too important a figure not to be the subject of a biopic.  Few can deny the impact he had on American culture, almost singlehandedly inventing the gangsta rap genre and giving voice to an entire community.  This should have been made with A-list talent and be an awards contender.  But for whatever reason, the powers that be decided to use a pedestrian screenplay and a director-for-hire.  This would have been a perfect vehicle for The Hughes Brothers, who directed " Menace II Society " (a film in which, ironically, Shakur was given a role but left after getting into a physical altercation with one of the directors). The difference between a good biopic like " Schindler's List " and a mediocre one like this i

3/4 Starring: Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, Jeffrey Combs, Dee Wallace Stone, Troy Evans, Chi McBride, Jim Fyle, John Astin, Jake Busey The version being reviewed is unrated.  For the record, the theatrical cut is rated R for Terror/Violence Peter Jackson's ghost story "The Frighteners" is so full of ideas, genre twists and weirdo characters that I stand back in awe.  Let's see.  You've got: a paranormal con man, a trio of ghosts (each with their own personality), the Grim Reaper, a serial killer, a sniveling reporter, a creepy FBI agent, a grieving widow, a woman with a secret, and a hero with a personal tragedy.  And that's just the start.  While Jackson doesn't exactly know what to do with all of these characters, trying to do too much is always preferable to the alternative. Frank Bannister (Fox) is a paranormal con man.  Oh, he can see ghosts (a side effect of the car accident that killed his wife), it's just that the ghost

2/4 Starring: Kelvin Harrison Jr., Joel Edgerton, Carmen Ejogo, Christopher Abbott, Riley Keough, Griffin Robert Faulkner Rated R for Violence, Disturbing Images and Language "It Comes At Night" is a psychological horror film, and it has all the qualities of an A-list entry.  It's drenched in atmosphere, the performances are strong, and writer/director Trey Edward Shults knows how to generate a palpable sense of dread (dissonant musical score, long takes, careful lighting, etc.).  The problem is that the movie has no plot.  The set-up is strong, aside from a fuzzy foundation, but it doesn't take long to realize that the story is going nowhere.  Shults plays all his cards by the end of the first reel, and he struggles to keep things going before the violent and nonsensical conclusion. A plague has ravaged the area.  Whether it is local or worldwide is not made clear, but it's dangerous enough that Paul (Edgerton) has gathered up his wife Sarah (Ejogo) and s

3/4 Starring (voices): Kevin Hart, Thomas Middleditch, Ed Helms, Nick Kroll, Jordan Peele, Kristen Schaal Rated PG for Mild Rude Humor Throughout I read the first few books of the "Captain Underpants" franchise.  They were silly, lighthearted and fun.  The movie has those same qualities.  It's not deep or sophisticated, nor is it intended to be.  I mean, come on, with a title like "Captain Underpants," were you really expecting a movie by Lars Von Trier? George Beard (Hart) and Harold Hutchins (Middleditch) are two best friends who have bonded over pranks and comics.  Their greatest creation is an incredibly dim-witted superhero named Captain Underpants, who, not coincidentally, looks like their nemesis, Mr. Krupp (Helms).  He's the school principal, who rules the school with an iron fist and cracks down on anything resembling fun or joy in school.  When he finally catches the two performing a prank on Melvin (Peele), the school's obnoxious dork,

The term "must-see" is thrown out left and right in the film world, usually by quote whores paid by Hollywood publicists to promote crappy movies.  Critics such as myself use the term to try and persuade viewers to see the distressingly few good movies that come out every year.  This list is different.  This list is for five movies that I think everyone should see at least once.  Either because they're good filmmaking, shine a new light on the human condition, or are an experience that I don't think anyone should miss, these films are movies that I recommend with the highest compliments. A word to the wise.  Some, although not all, of these films are very hard to watch.  They are meant to be.  I'm not a sadist or anything, nor do I recommend them simply because they are powerful.  For example, while "We Need to Talk about Kevin" and "Frailty" are very tough but very powerful films (that I enthusiastically encourage anyone who is interested to

2/4 Starring: Tom Cruise, Annabelle Wallis, Sofia Boutella, Russell Crowe, Jake Johnson Rated PG-13 for Violence, Action and Scary Images, and for Some Suggestive Material and Partial Nudity With the success of the Marvel and DC superhero "universes," Universal is hoping to duplicate its success.  But instead of men and women dressed in leotards and motion capture outfits, Universal has decided to create a movie universe of classic monsters: Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy, the Werewolf, and so on.  With this new iteration of "The Mummy," their so-called "Dark Universe" doesn't get off to a good start. Nick Morton (Cruise) and Chris Vail (Johnson) are two American soldiers who have a nice scam going: they draw out ISIS terrorists to ancient archaeological sites and then loot the area and sell artifacts on the black market.  When the latest site puts up more resistance than usual, a drone strike opens a hole into the ground that appears to hide

1/4 Starring: Pyotor Fyodorov, Vladimir Mashkov, Martin Wuttke, Yuliya Khlynina, Pavel Tabakov Rated R for Strong Violence and Some Sexuality/Nudity Dueling seems like a total waste of time and life.  Even from the point of view of a Southern gentleman before the Civil War, the idea of having a gunfight to the death over the concept of honor reeks of stupidity and hypocrisy.  I mean, what's the point of risking your life, or killing someone, for the sake of your ego?  That's not honor.  That's narcissism. Apparently, the Confederates weren't the only ones who were fond of these sorts of duels.  The Russians loved them too.  Of course, if you were too cowardly, you could have someone go in your place for a hefty fee.  One such person is Yakovlev (Fyodorov), a man with a bad past.  Although he always wins, his behavior is akin to that of someone with a death wish.  What he doesn't know is that someone is using him to ice his enemies, and he is going to have to

3/4 Starring: Michael Caine, Brendan Fraser, Do Thi Hai Yen, Tzi Ma, Rade Serbedzija Rated R for Images of Violence and Some Language "The Quiet American" is really two movies in one, and all the better for it.  The love triangle and the film noir mystery are inextricably linked; they feed off each other and the synergy between them gives the film its power.  This isn't a groundbreaking or "important" film by any means, but it's quite well done. Thomas Fowler (Caine) is a journalist for a London newspaper working in Vietnam.  It is 1952 and the French are battling the communists for control of the country.  Although he is married, he has a lover named Phuong (Yen) who lives with him.  He would very much like to marry her, but his Catholic wife back home refuses to divorce him because she is Catholic.  One day he meets a charming American named Alden Pyle (Fraser) who has just come to Vietnam bringing medical aid.  He and Thomas become fast friends, b

3.5/4 Starring: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Danny Huston, Connie Nielson, Robin Wright, Saiid Taghmaoui, Ewen Bremner, Eugene Brave Rock, David Thewlis, Elena Anaya Rated PG-13 for Sequences of Violence and Action, and Some Suggestive Content It's long past time that we got a big budget action movie with a female in the lead role.  Audiences are craving for more diversity in their movies, and Hollywood is finally answering the call.  So what took so long for a super heroine movie?  Audiences have demanded it, actors want to act in them and filmmakers want to make them.  It's the risk averse studio executives who are terrified of rocking the boat.  But the superhero frenzy in full swing and the need to set up the Justice League movie, there's never been a better time to take the plunge.  And I can scarcely imagine a better movie to kick things off with than Patty Jenkins' "Wonder Woman."  This is the best superhero movie since " The Dark Knight ."