Mike's Movie Tips

1/4 Starring: Larry Bishop, Michael Madsen, Eric Balfour, Vinnie Jones, Leonor Varela, Dennis Hopper, David Carradine Rated R for Strong Violence, Sexual Content including Graphic Nudity and Dialogue, Language and Drug Use Five reasons why "Hell Ride" sucks... 1.  It is completely incoherent.  "Hell Ride" took about two minutes to lose me, and it had so little value at that point that I didn't bother trying to figure out what was going on.  Or even who was who.  Both the plot and the characters seemed to change on a whim.  As far as I could tell, this is a revenge story between two biker gangs regarding a decades old murder, but there's also a treasure hunt and interpersonal squabbling.  Alliances seem to shift with the needs of the plot. 2.  The acting is awful.  Larry Bishop tries to do an exploitation flick version of Jack Sparrow , but the only thing interesting about him is his eyes.  Michael Madsen looks like he'd rather be an...

3.5/4 Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Rob Morrow, John Turturro, David Paymer, Paul Scofield, Hank Azaria, Christopher McDonald Rated PG-13 for Some Strong Language It's easy to be cynical about reality TV and game shows.  Many are rigged and more than a few don't even bother to hide it.  However, in the 1950's when television was relatively new, it was a more innocent time.  People had not yet begun to understand how ratings were king and manipulating anything was fair game in an attempt to make them climb higher. Herbert Stempel (Turturro) is the king of the game show "Twenty One."  Week after week, the trivia savant dominates the game and wins big money.  However, ratings have started to plateau so one of the producers, Dan Enright (Paymer), asks Herb to get a question wrong so that he can be replaced with Charles Van Doren (Fiennes), a handsome WASPy intellectual with an impeccable family reputation.  Herb agrees, but when he's thrown out to the street...

1.5/4 Starring: Christopher Reid, Christopher Martin, Martin Laurence, Tisha Campbell-Martin, A.J. Johnson, Paul Anthony, Robin Harris Rated R (probably for Language and Sexual Humor) Genre flicks carry the weight of expectations of the audience.  For example, a slasher film is, almost by definition, full of blood, gore and gratuitous sex and nudity.  An audience member for a slasher movie demands them, and no good entry would even think to skip out on them.  Which brings us to "House Party."  By definition, it should contain as much off-color humor, raunchiness and general insanity as the running time will allow.  So when I tell you that the bawdiest element of this movie is a clogged toilet, you'll understand why I felt cheated. Play (Martin) is going to be alone tonight as his parents are out of town.  What's a high schooler to do?  Throw a party, of course.  Everyone is showing up, come hell or high water.  His best friend Kid (Re...

3/4 Starring: Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh, Gemma Chan, Awkwafina, Ken Jeong Rated PG-13 for Some Suggestive Content and Language "Crazy Rich Asians" is a charming, if slightly overlong romantic comedy.  Part wish fulfillment fantasy, part culture clash, part David-against-Goliath, this is a movie that will have you leaving the theater with a smile on your face and a swing in your step.  It's too vanilla to be anything substantial, but so what?  Just because it's one of the few big budget movies where the characters aren't perfectly put together models with no acting ability, does it have to be " Casablanca ?" Brainy economics whiz Rachel Chu (Wu) is the youngest professor at NYU.  Her relationship with the charming Nick (Golding) is slowly reaching the next level: he's invited her to his cousin's wedding.  But he's been keeping a secret from Rachel.  He's a member of the Young family, who are all but Singapore royal...

3/4 Starring: Vin Diesel, Peter Dinklage, Linus Roache, Ron Silver, Alex Rocco, Annabella Sciorra Rated R for Strong Language and Some Violence Truth, as they say, is stranger than fiction... That certainly applies here.  A mobster turned the largest criminal trial in US history into a farce when he acted as his own attorney and played the part like a stand-up comic.  Equally hard to believe is that the man who is the focus of the film, Jackie DiNoscio, is played by Vin Diesel, the Arnold Schwarzenegger of the 2000's.  Stranger still, is that he does an excellent job. Jackie DiNorscio (Diesel) is a low-level mobster for the Lucchese crime family.  He is shot one day by his cousin, Tony Compagna (Raul Esparza), but refuses to press charges.  Tony doesn't know this, so he runs to the FBI and spills the beans on the entire family.  They're all hauled into court for a massive trial.  Jackie, who under a 30 year prison sentence for an unrelated ch...

3/4 Starring: Sigourney Weaver, John Omirah Miluwi, Brian Brown, Constantin Alexandrov, Waigwa Wachira, Iain Cuthbertson Rated PG-13 (probably for Intense Violent Images, Language and Some Sexuality) It could be argued that no one has done more for the mountain gorillas than Dian Fossey.  The mountain gorillas were doomed to extinction, but her hard work saved them from vanishing forever.  However, her anti-poaching crusade became more extreme and undoubtedly led to her murder in 1985. I actually took a course on the great apes my sophomore year of college, and one of the people I studied was Dian Fossey.  She was one of the so-called Trimates, a group of primate researchers sent by famed paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey to study the great apes (the other two being Birute Galdikas, who studies orangutans, and of course Jane Goodall who studies common chimpanzees).  That was eleven years ago, so my memory of the class is foggy.  The only parts of that cla...

The big conversation in Hollywood these days is the decision that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made to hold a new category for "Best Blockbuster."  Most think it's a joke, or a pathetic attempt to stay relevant.  It makes sense.  Viewership is down, the Academy has never been free of scandal, and more than anything, it's a popularity contest rather than an award for excellence.  When the winner is decided by who ran the best campaign or whether they've been passed over enough times rather than the skill of the performance, its significance is going to be hard to take seriously.  Plus, there's a disconnect between the multiplex audience and the art houses.  The former prefers special effects and expressive storytelling while the latter prefers acting, character development and so on.  All of these are broad generalizations, mind you, but you get my point. Creating a new Oscar category for "Best Blockbuster" is a terrible idea....

3/4 Starring: Tony Jaa, Mum Jokemok, Pumwaree Yodkamol, Wannakit Siriput, Suchao Pongvilai Rated R for Sequences of Strong Violence, Language, Some Drug Use and Sexuality "Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior" is what it is.  It's a martial arts extravaganza filled with insane stunts and bone-crunching action.  Anyone looking for plot, character development or deep thematic material should look elsewhere.  This is like one of Jackie Chan's early movies, where the story is just a clothesline to hang the action sequences.  That's fine since the fight scenes are jaw-dropping enough to be worth sitting through the few scenes that try to explain the plot. As I've said, the plot is extremely thin and of relatively little consequence.  The village of Ban Nong Pradu is getting ready for an important religious festival.  Days before the festivities are going to begin in earnest, a gangster named Don (Siriput) steals the head of Ong-Bak, the village Buddha.  Believ...

3.5/4 Starring: Jason Statham, Bingbing Li, Rainn Wilson, Cliff Curtis, Winston Chao, Sophia Cai, Ruby Rose, Robert Taylor, Jessica McNamee Rated PG-13 for Action/Peril, Bloody Images and Some Language "The Meg" is what all summer action movies should aspire to be.  It's loud, action-packed and full of excitement from beginning to end.  If it's a bit dumb, well so what?  The sheer amount of visceral thrills that this movie contains is astonishing to behold, and more than enough to camouflage the occasional brain cramp.  I mean, who actually believed the bridge jump in " Speed " was even conceivable? Dr. Zhang (Chao) believes that there is life under the Mariana trench.  To prove it, he's willing to send a submersible under and explore.  It turns out he's right, but joy turns to horror when something attacks the sub and leaves it stranded.  To rescue them, the head of the expedition, a man named Mac (Curtis), hires his old friend Jonas Taylor ...

3/4 Starring: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Alec Baldwin, Sean Harris, Angela Bassett, Vanessa Kirby Rated PG-13 for Violence and Intense Sequences of Action, and for Brief Strong Language In 1966, Bruce Gellar created the "Mission: Impossible" series about an elite team of spies who ran missions without a safety net.  If they screwed up, no one would bail them out.  The show ran for 7 seasons.  Thirty years later, Brian DePalma rebooted the series in film form with megastar Tom Cruise in the starring role.  That was 22 years ago.  Now it's a hamster wheel for Paramount.  A way to cash in on a brand name (and whatever star power Tom Cruise still has...his age and his off-screen antics have diminished it considerably) with no risk and high rewards.  However, Cruise has one crucial leg up on the MCU (which ran the superhero genre into the ground a decade ago): the movies are still fun. Ethan Hunt (Cruise) an...

3.5/4 Starring: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Christian Berkel, Birgit Minichmayr, Juliane Kohler, Ulrich Matthes Rated R for Strong Violence, Disturbing Images and Some Nudity " Boyhood ." " Saving Private Ryan ." "The War Zone." " Once Were Warriors ." " Schindler's List ." Those are films that, while not "entertainment," are important enough that everyone should see them at least once in their lives.  They are not easy or fun to watch, but they essential because they shed light on the human condition and our history in a way that a person should not miss.  Oliver Hirschbiegel's dramatization of the final days of Adolph Hitler belongs on that list.  This is not an easy film to watch by any means.  Nor is it one that a person would pop in on impulse to watch on a Friday evening.  However, it is exceptional filmmaking and reveals new information on a piece of history that should never be forgotten. By mid...

2/4 Starring: Amandla Stenberg, Harris Dickinson, Skylan Brooks, Miya Cech, Mandy Moore, Gwendolyn Christie, Patrick Gibson Rated PG-13 for Violence including Disturbing Images, and Thematic Elements There are some things to like about the newest young adult book series that hopes to follow " The Hunger Games " formula for box office success.  There are some nice performances, and the romantic chemistry between the two leads is nicely developed.  And while the "big twist" is easy to see coming a half hour before it actually happens, the villain doesn't disappoint and the final fight is well-staged.  However, there are some things about this movie that are difficult to overlook.  These include a premise that's difficult to take seriously, a plot that requires characters and the audience to undergo temporary frontal lobotomies, and some truly unpleasant scenes of violence and cruelty perpetrated by and to children.  A mixed bag indeed. A mysterious pla...

3.5/4 Starring: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, Tate Ellington, Callie Hernandez Not Rated (probable PG-13 for Language, Drug Content and Brief Violent Images) "The Endless" belongs firmly in the mindfuck genre.  This is a movie that will get stuck in your head and under your skin.  It's maddening, scary, and thought provoking.  It is also one of the best films of the year. Ten years ago, brothers Justin (Benson) and Aaron (Moorhead) escaped from a UFO death cult.  Now they're working as cleaning guys.  Justin has left the cult behind him and is coping well enough.  Aaron isn't as successful.  He misses the positivity and sense of community.  He also believes that it would be better to live at the commune than be in the crappy life of a cleaner with no money and in constant debt.  To appease him and show him that life in the cult isn't as rosy as he remembers, Justin agrees to take him back to the commune for a day.  The results a...