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 movies that were t

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 is a mes

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.  The tro

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 realizes t

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 that level

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 been m