Mike's Movie Tips

3/4 Starring: Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, Renee Zellwegger, Kathy Baker, Ray Winstone, Brendan Gleeson, Donald Sutherland Rated R for Violence and Sexuality War tends to bring out the nastiest parts of human nature.  In desperation for success or survival, the normal trappings of society and human behavior no longer exist, and people do things that, in a sane world, they would never consider doing.  Movies like have understood this for as long as there have been movies.  "Platoon," " Saving Private Ryan ," " Beasts of No Nation ," " Blood Diamond ."  The titles that show humanity at its worst are too numerous to count. Typically ignored is that life on the home front is no picnic either.  Even if your house isn't bombarded with armored shells or gunfire on a daily basis, war brings uncertainty and fear.  " The Messenger " shows the pain that casualties bring to the ones left behind (and to the ones handing out the terrible news...

0/4 Starring (voices): Scott Menville, Khary Payton, Tara Strong, Hynden Walch, Greg Cipes, Will Arnett, Kristen Bell, Nicolas Cage Rated PG for Action and Rude Humor This movie is awful.  It's so bad that in a perfect world, it would spell doom for the entire superhero genre.  But that won't happen.  For starters, the only people aware of this movie (much less be willing to see it) are fans of the show, which I'm sure is primarily made up of kids who spend their days eating paste and those unfortunate souls who have undergone complete lobotomies.  This movie is aggressive in its stupidity but is too inept to achieve it.  It is far too obnoxious to be labeled as annoying.  And it is so pointless that calling it inane would be a compliment.  Plus, Hollywood and nerd culture have an addiction to superheroes.  The movie acknowledges this, but not in a way that is smart or funny. Every superhero and their butler is getting a superhero movie fr...

Variable Ratings Rated R for Strong Disturbing Violent Content, Some involving Abortion and Torture, and for Sexuality and Language "Three...Extremes" is aptly titled.  An anthology of three Asian horror films from famed directors Miike Takeshi, Fruit Chan and Park Chan-Wook, they are designed to push all sorts of buttons.  And they do.  Asian horror has a reputation for being insane.  One need look no further than "Three...Extremes" to see why.  This is a movie designed for those with a love of the genre, an appreciation for the offbeat, and an affinity for the macabre. "Dumplings" 3/4 Starring: Miriam Yeung, Bai Ling, Tony Leung Ka-fai Some people will do anything to stay young.  That includes Mrs. Li (Yeung), a former actress who is desperate to ward off aging.  Any sign of sagging skin or wrinkles, and she freaks.  She has turned to a woman named Mei (Ling), whose expensive dumplings can stop the aging process.  As for what's ...

2.5/4 Starring: Zoey Deutch, Glen Howard, Lucy Liu, Taye Diggs Not Rated (Probable PG-13 for Language including Sexual Dialogue) "Set it Up" is a wildly uneven but at times charming romantic comedy.  The chemistry between the two leads sparkles, but they're stuck in a story that feels more tired than it should.  This is one of those movies that might have been better without a plot. The plot, such as it is, is like "Cyrano de Bergerac" times two, although in this case, it doesn't mean twice the fun.  Harper (Deutch) is an assistant to the tough-as-nails Kirsten (Liu), who is so demanding that Harper no longer has a life.  Upstairs is Charlie (Howard), the assistant to Rick (Diggs), who is also unbelievably demanding.  Both Harper and Charlie are desperate for some sanity in their lives, so they conspire to set Kirsten and Rick up.  What they didn't count on was falling for each other. Zoey Deutch and Glen Howard are ideally cast as the leads, s...

3/4 Starring: Chishu Ryu, Chieko Higashiyama, Setsuko Hara, Haruko Sugimura, So Yamamura, Kyoko Kagawa Not Rated (contains nothing offensive) Time. It is the one constant in the universe.  No matter how much we would like to, we cannot control it.  Time moves on regardless of whether or not we are ready for it.  Some people change, some do not.  Cultures evolve, relationships shift, but the one thing that everyone can count on is that time moves forward. One of the main themes of Yasujiro Ozu's classic 1953 film "Tokyo Story" is that it illustrates how the passage of time can be so destructive.  Of course, people age, your hometown isn't the same as it was when you grew up, and so on.  Ozu acknowledges this, but he also shows how painful a mistake it can be to take time for granted.  You never know what you have until it's gone. Elderly couple Shukichi (Ryu) and Tomi (Higashyama) are making the long journey from their hometown of Onomichi t...

3/4 Rated PG-13 for A Brief Sexual Reference Although technically a documentary, "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters" is closer to an underdog sports movie than something like " West of Memphis ," " Citizen Koch ," or even " Video Games: The Movie ."  It does feature real people and the events really did happen (more or less), but it has a strong narrative structure. Steve Wiebe is your average put upon sad sack.  He's been laid off from his dream job at Boeing, he excelled at sports but froze up during competition, and so on.  One day Steve hears of a competition for getting the high score in the "Donkey Kong" arcade game, so he decides to get a machine and see if he can beat it.  That puts him in conflict with Billy Mitchell, who has held the record since 1982. When I say that this is a sports movie, I mean exactly that.  It has the upstart hero who is impossible not to like, a cruel and villainous veteran defending h...

3/4 Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Neve Campbell, Roland Moller, Chin Han, Hannah Quinlivan, Pablo Schreiber Rated PG-13 for Sequences of Gun Violence and Action, and for Brief Strong Language Dwayne Johnson must have a thing for retro action movies.  With appearances in movies like "The Other Guys," " Pain & Gain ," and " San Andreas ," he appears to like films that hearken back to an era before the sequel/reboot addiction and the superhero obsession.  Movies where the charisma of the star and the requisite visceral thrills meant more than plot originality or character development.  Or intelligence.  In that sense, "Skyscraper" works.  It's loud, dumb and utter nonsense, but it's fun. Zhao Long Ji (han) has just done the impossible: he has built "The Pearl."  A building four times the size of the Empire State Building and functioning as its own independent city, The Pearl is already open to commercial enterprises on the ...

1/4 Starring: James Rolleston, Lawrence Makoare, Te Kohe Tuhaka, George Henare Rated R for Brutal Bloody Violence The action is breathtaking, the performances compelling.  Don't miss it!" -Peter Jackson Far more than just a great action movie--It's great cinema." -James Cameron Peter Jackson and James Cameron are two smart guys.  They've each got a trio of Oscars and have helmed some of the most successful films in the history of the medium.  They know what they're talking about.  Still, it makes me wonder why they would lend their names to advertise a movie as banal and boring as "The Dead Lands."  The movie has no real plot and less adrenaline than a Teletubbies episode. Tane (Henare) is a tribal chief seeks to put a long ago war in the past.  To do this, he allows representatives of a rival tribe, led by Wirepa (Tuhaka), to visit the remains of their fallen ancestors.  But as his son Hongi (Rolleston) discovers, they have come under fa...

3/4 Not Rated (probable R for Graphic Descriptions of Child Sexual Abuse and Related Violence) Behind the face of good...  Hides the soul of evil I can't remember where I heard that quote.  Maybe it was a movie tagline.  I don't know, but it certainly applies here.  "The Keepers" is the horrifying story about how spiritual and sexual abuse at a prestigious Catholic high school in Baltimore was covered up, and how that led to destroyed lives, years of pain, and perhaps even murder. On November 7, 1969, Sister Cathy Cesnik disappeared on her way to celebrating her younger sister's engagement.  On January 3, 1970, her body was found.  Now, two of her former students, Gemma Hoskins and Abbie Fitzgerald Schaub, are determined to find out the truth.  What they uncover is a truth too terrible to imagine, and a cover up that may have involved Sister Cathy's murder. The stories of sexual abuse by religious officials are nothing new.  In one way ...

2/4 Starring: Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin, Isabela Moner, Elijah Rodriguez, Catherine Keener, Matthew Modine Rated R for Strong Violence, Bloody Images, and Language I wasn't the biggest fan of " Sicario ," the 2015 thriller from Denis Villeneuve.  Like all his films, it was more style than substance and had a self-importance that it didn't earn.  But it certainly wasn't a terrible movie by any means and earned enough money to warrant a sequel.  Here we are three years later witnessing the return of the tough as nails Matt Graver and his mysterious attack dog, Alejandro. A series of terrorist attacks have shocked the US.  Upon realizing that terrorists are using the drug cartels' human smugglers to enter the states, the president has redefined them as "terrorists."  The secretary of defense (Modine) and his underling (Keener) want Graver to cause chaos at the borders by starting a war between the cartels.  To do this, he unleashes Alejandro...