Mike's Movie Tips

2/4 Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Wuhl Rated R for Strong Language, and for Scenes of Nudity and Violence Behavior We love heroes.  We love the idea of someone accomplishing greatness, doing things we only dream of doing.  But what we see on the screen or on the field is usually only a fraction of the reality.  Take Bill Cosby for instance.  But how would you react if you found out that if one of your heroes turned out to be one of the world's most vile creatures? Let's get one thing straight.  "Cobb" is based on writings by Al Stump, most of which was utter nonsense.  Stump's work on Ty Cobb has been largely discredited.  So while "Cobb" is a biopic in the sense that Ty Cobb and Al Stump were real people and writer/director Ron Shelton follows the rules of the biopic genre, this is historical fiction. So does seeing it in the correct light alter the film's success?  Not really.  "Cobb" is a mediocre film, and little of that h...

2/4 Starring: Christopher Reeve, Linda Kozlowski, Kirstie Alley, Lindsey Haun, Thomas Dekker, Mark Hamill Rated R for Sci-Fi Terror and Violence It's hard to imagine that John Carpenter, the man behind two of the most famous horror films of the past 50 years (" Halloween " and " The Thing ") could come up with something this goofy.  Whatever gifts he had for creating shocks and terror he had when helming those movies have not made it into this movie.  Then again, Carpenter made " They Live " and " Prince of Darkness ," so maybe he just stopped trying.  His remake of the 1960 film starring George Sanders (which in turn was adapted from a novel by John Wyndham) is too campy to be truly awful, but there's no denying that this one's a dud. It seems to be just any ordinary day in the town of Midwich.  The local doctor (Reeve) gets a morning kiss and flirt from his wife.  A teacher (Kozlowski) is worried that her husband forgot some...

2.5/4 Starring: Erica Leerhsen, Texas Battle, Henry Rollins, Aleksa Palladino, Matthew Currie Holmes, Daneilla Alonso, Steve Braun, Crystal Lowe, Kimberly Caldwell The version being reviewed is unrated.  For the record, the theatrical cut is rated R for Strong Horror Violence and Gore, Language and Some Sexual Content I wouldn't go so far as to call " Wrong Turn " a great horror film, but it did what it set out to do and had the good sense to leave it at that.  It was taut, tense and brutal; it delivered the goods.  The sequel, isn't as slickly made or well-acted.  But it has some of the same visceral pleasure. M (Holmes) is shooting a new "post-apocalyptic" reality-TV show in the backwoods of Appalachia.   For his "cast," he has chosen the bitchy vegan Nina (Leerhsen), never-was football star Jake (Battle), sexpot Elena (Lowe), buff Amber (Alonso), vulgar Jonesy (Braun) and his producer/girlfriend Mara (Palladino) to replace a now-missing ...

I've said it before and I'll say it again: 2018 was a terrible year for movies.  I mean, it was downright awful.  With so many remakes, reboots and an unending plethora of superhero movies, there was little that was original.  That's not different than any other year, but it was more so in 2018.  Or at least it felt like it.  The pickings were so thin that even I preferred to stay home and watch something of my choice more often than not. If anyone has noticed, my reviews have been coming out in trickles over the past few months.  Even ones of older movies.  It's not because I'm worn out or disillusioned by my favorite pastime (although both are true to an extent).  It's that I've been taking a coding boot camp these past few months.  Working full time and taking a coding class 12 hours a week doesn't leave a lot of time for movie reviews.  I meant to post links on Facebook and Reddit to old reviews that not many had read, but that nev...

3/4 Starring: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez, Tuva Novotny, Oscar Isaac Rated R for Violence, Bloody Images, Language and Some Sexuality "Annihilation" is ambitious.  That's the first descriptor that comes to mind when discussing this trippy adventure/horror film.  It never takes the easy way out and isn't afraid of dealing with intellectually challenging material.  It's also a bit of a mess, but not so much that it becomes a big deal.  Another rewrite on the script and more confident direction would have helped the film have a bigger punch, but it's certainly worth seeing for those who have interest. Because "Annihilation" is one of those movies where it's best to go in blind, I say as little as possible about the plot.  Lena (Portman) is a biologist who has given up the life of a soldier to become a professor to medical students.  Her husband Kane (Isaac) went missing during his last mission a year...

3.5/4 Starring: Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie, Ben Foster Rated PG for Thematic Elements Throughout "Leave No Trace" might be the saddest movie I've seen in a long time.  This is a movie about loss, isolation and a tremendous amount of pain. Will (Foster) has been living off the grid with his daughter Tom (McKenzie).  How long is anyone's guess, but they've been doing it long enough to live undetected and disappear when needed.  But one day Tom slips, and they're caught.  Now the two are forced to re-enter society.  But Will harbors deep wounds that make such an adjustment difficult, and Tom has to decide whether or not to follow. Co-writer/director Debra Granik avoids the fatal mistake of a story like this: turning Will into some sort of rebellious anti-hero.  There is never a doubt that Will suffers from severe psychological and emotional problems.  PTSD is mentioned, but a case could be made for schizophrenia.  And while he is Tom's fath...

2018 was a terrible year for movies.  It wasn't just bad, it was godawful.  Yeah, there were some big winners, like "Black Panther" and "The Avengers: Infinity War," both of which made bank (and put life back into the bloated superhero genre).  But that's it.  Just about everything else disappointed ("Solo: A Star Wars Story," for example), or misfired.  Just about any way you look at it, it was ugly.  Even I could barely be bothered to see some of the stuff that came out.  Many times it took a huge effort to go to the theaters because the pickings were so slim. Something has to change.  With more consumer choices and on-demand becoming a major powerhouse, Hollywood needs to rethink the way it does movies.  The old ways are not working anymore.  Nepotism and connections need to give way to a merit-based system of getting roles and jobs.  The "event movie" template simply isn't working anymore.  Consolidating into just a few m...