Mike's Movie Tips

1/4 Starring: Matthias Schoenaerts, Jason Mitchell, Bruce Dern, Connie Britton, Gideon Adlon Rated R for Language, Some Violence and Drug Content "The Mustang" is a movie you watch in stupefied silence.  It is so bad, so boring and so banal that I am having a hard time finding the words to describe it.  This is one of those movies where you keep pressing the pause button to make sure that it's still moving forward. Roman Coleman (Schoenaerts) is one tough cookie.  He barely speaks, doesn't look anyone in the eye, and quick to anger.  A prison officer (Britton) unwisely offers him a chance for an outdoor program, where he quickly and without much reason warms up to Myles (Dern).  Myles runs a rehabilitation program that involves the training of wild horses.  It does not get off to a good start.  Roman is too hot tempered and impulsive to be successful.  At one point he gets so angry that he delivers gut punches to the wild animal.  But...

2/4 Starring: Gabrielle Anwar, Billy Wirth, Terry Kinney, Meg Tilly, Reilly Murphy Rated R for Violence, Nudity and Language "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is one of those movies that gets remade on a fairly regular basis.  Whether or not it credits the novel by Jack Finney, the idea remains the same: a group of people is terrified to learn that aliens have killed everyone around them and replaced them with emotionless doppelgangers.  It's a good idea, if a bizarre one, but knowing the story makes it less frightening.  Abel Ferrara doesn't find a way around this problem (or use it to his advantage).  He compounds the issue by using a dreadful screenplay. Marti Malone (Anwar) is being forced to live on an Army base for a month.  Not exactly what she had in mind for her summer.  Her father Steve (Kinney) is doing some environmental tests there for the EPA, and she's being dragged there alongside her stepmother Carol (Tilly) and stepbrother Andy (Mur...

4/4 Starring: Sasha Lane, Shia LaBeouf, Riley Keough Rated R for Strong Sexual Content, Graphic Nudity, Language Throughout, Drug/Alcohol Abuse-All Involving Teens There is a voyeuristic quality to "American Honey" that gives the film its charge.  For most of the running time I didn't feel like I was watching a film.  I felt like I was there.  Nothing extraordinary happens during this film, but that doesn't lessen the impact.  In fact, that's why the film has such power. Star (Lane) is an ordinary young woman living in Oklahoma.  She is in an unhappy relationship and stuck watching her friend's kids.  One day at Walmart she sees a way out.  A group of young men and women are partying through the store and one of them catches her eye.  His name is Jake (LaBeouf), and he impulsively asks her if she wants a job.  She declines, but he insists that she meet him and his crew the next morning.  Star reconsiders, escapes from her deadbe...

1.5/4 Starring: Kerr Smith, Brendan Fehr, Izabella Miko, Jonathan Schaech, Phina Oruche, Simon Rex, Carrie Snodgress, Alexis Thorpe Rated R for Strong Violence/Gore, Language and Sexuality "The Forsaken" is one of those movies where the actors spend more time preening for the camera than acting and the director spends more time assaulting the senses than telling an involving story.  It's as if the filmmakers thought that the characters looked hot enough and the special effects were cool enough we wouldn't realize just how dumb this movie is.  I like beauty and cool stuff to look at as much as the next guy, but I think there's more to movies than just looking at models trying to act (not successfully).  Maybe my standards are just too high... Sean (Smith) is a young guy working up his way in Hollywood.  But since he's too poor to fly from California to Miami to attend his sister's wedding, he pays for the trip by driving someone's car all the wa...

3.5/4 Starring: Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito, James Cromwell, David Strathairn Rated R for Strong Violence, Language and Sexuality Who doesn't love a good mystery? "L.A. Confidential" is a throwback to the film noirs of yesteryear.  The shocking crime, the femme fatale, the mysterious villains, and the dogged detective (or detectives in this case) who slowly figures everything out.  Director Curtis Hanson respects the genre, but he colors outside the lines enough to keep things interesting. The film tells the story of three cops in the LAPD: the ambitious straight arrow Ed Exley (Pearce), the hotshot veteran Jack Vincennes (Spacey) and the dumb brute Bud White (Crowe).  Each of them is devoted to their job, but they have their own way of going about it.  Exley is strictly by the book and will obey the rules at all costs.  Bud has no problem getting his hands dirty, and often does so.  And Vincennes skirts the...

3/4 Starring (voices): Donald Glover, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Beyoncé, James Earl Jones, Alfre Woodard, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, Florence Kasumba, JD McCrary, Shahadi Wright Joseph Rated PG for Sequences of Violence and Peril, and Some Thematic Elements For anyone who grew up in the 1990's, " The Lion King " is a cultural touchstone.  Everyone knew it and loved it.  It's not the best in the Disney canon (" Beauty and the Beast " takes that honor), but it's definitely the most beloved and popular.  Ironically, during production it struggled with disagreements over the story and people dropping in and out of the production.  "Pocahantas" was the film to be a part of, as people involved had more faith in it.  It turned out to be a cinematic titan. So the decision to remake the film was greeted with justifiable skepticism.  Its predecessors like " Beauty and the Beast " and " Aladdin " were profitable, they left something to...

0.5/4 Rated PG-13 for Some Drug Material This movie is so bad that one might assume that the directors were trying to kill the aspirations of the Congolese music group, Staff Benda Bilili.  This is documentary filmmaking of such ineptitude that I am in awe.  The only thing that goes right is the music. Filmmaking is storytelling.  Even documentaries have a strong narrative thread propelling the audience from beginning to end.  So while a movie like " Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room " may be factual and exhaustively researched, it still charts the rise and fall of the notorious company.  It contains an arc and shows in detail what happened and why.  You'd think such an idea would be obvious.  Apparently the thought never occurred to Renaud Barret and Florent de La Tullaye, the two nitwits who directed this dreck. Staff Benda Bilili was a band of parapalegic musicians formed on the streets of Kinshasa.  They used materials and instrumen...

2.5/4 Starring: Warwick Davis, Charlie Heath, Sandy Baron, Shevonne Durkin Rated R for Violence, and for Nudity Why can't I recommend "Leprechaun 2" despite experiencing a perverse enjoyment while watching it?  I am tempted.  Maybe because the acting is awful (save for two exceptions).  Maybe because the plot is thin.  Maybe because it's just plain dumb.  I don't know. "Leprechaun 2" is indeed a bad movie, but at least it has the good sense not to take itself seriously.  There's plenty of humor in this movie, although only about half of which is intentional.  Or intentionally unintentional.  I enjoyed myself to an extent, but I'm ashamed to admit it.  This is one of those movies that will get better if alcohol and friends with a sense of humor are involved. Cody (Heath) is a dorky teenager who is dating the lovely Bridget (Durkin).  But he screwed up on date night.  It wasn't his fault, however, since his guardian Morty (B...

2/4 Starring: Kaya Scodelario, Barry Pepper Rated R for Bloody Creature Violence, and Brief Language A b-movie creature feature like "Crawl" depends on two things: a script that piles on unpredictable complications and a director who can keep the tension high.  "Crawl" has neither.  The script is lazy and while Aja can manage a few cheap shocks and some claustrophobia, that's all his limited talents will allow. A category 5 hurricane is about to pound Florida.  Hayley (Scodelario) is away at school and putting the storm out of her mind until her older sister Beth (Morfydd Clark) calls her about their father.  She hasn't heard from him and is worried that he might try to ride out the storm.  Hayley decides to check on him and finds that he's in the crawlspace under the house.  And he's severely injured after a nasty run in with an alligator.  Soon he and Hayley will be in the fight of their lives against the local gator population, all of whom...

1.5/4 Starring: Taylor Schilling, Peter Mooney, Jackson Robert Scott, Colm Feore Rated R for Violence, Disturbing and Bloody Images, A Sexual Reference and Brief Graphic Nudity "The Prodigy" is a lazy movie.  It's by the numbers filmmaking with a lame script, flat characters and a gimmick that isn't as explored as it could be.  Do people in Hollywood have any pride?  If you're going to spend millions on a movie, why do the bare minimum?  Movies like " The Descent " and " Halloween " have lingered because the filmmakers worked tirelessly to create the scariest movie they possibly could.  Here, they all but copied the most used screenplay about a scary kid, changed a few of the details, and got it to theaters as fast as they could.  With this lack of effort I'm surprised they bothered to shoot the thing. Sarah (Schilling) and John Blume (Mooney) have finally gotten what they always wanted: a family.  They are beyond thrilled when thei...

1.5/4 Starring: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Megan Burns, Brendan Gleeson, Christopher Eccleston Rated R for Strong Violence and Gore, Language and Nudity "28 Days Later" changed the face of zombie movies forever (well, mostly).  Before 2002, zombies were slow and lumbering and moaned as they sought their victims.  In Danny Boyle's flick, they're fast, strong and emit bloodcurdling screams as they hunt their prey.  That little tidbit of film history is the only thing that this film has going for it.  But then again, I could be wrong, since I haven't seen every zombie movie ever made. Jim (Murphy) wakes up in a surreal nightmare.  He's naked, wired up in a hospital bed, and everyone is gone.  And I do mean everyone.  It's as if everyone vanished out of thin air.  If that were the case, life would just suck.  But it's about to get a whole lot worse.  People are scarce, and of those that are still alive, most are infected with a v...

3/4 Starring: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jake Gyllenhaal, Samuel L. Jackson, Jacob Batalon, Jon Favreau, Marisa Tomei, Cobie Smulders Rated PG-13 for Sci-Fi Action Violence, Some Language and Brief Suggestive Comments The difference between a good superhero movie and a bad one is its reliance on continuity and Easter eggs.  Of course ties to previous films and setting up future installments is important, but the good ones leave them where they belong: as details.  Telling its own story with a strong focus on the present characters must be paramount.  A strong narrative and characters we identify with will always win out over regular endorphin rushes from recognition of the in-jokes.  It would behoove Kevin Feige to recognize this, as the films that concentrate more on storytelling rather than generating clickbait are the more successful films.  " Black Panther ," " Guardians of the Galaxy ," and " Spider-Man: Homecoming " are remembered more than " C...

3.5/4 Starring (voices): Robbie Daymond, Lexi Cowden, Kristen Sullivan, Graham Halstead, Kira Buckland Not Rated (probably PG-13 for Strong Thematic Material involving Bullying and Emotional Abuse, and for Brief Language) The emotional impact of "A Silent Voice" is at times so strong that it elicits a physical response.  We don't just understand what the characters are going through.  We feel it ourselves.  Few movies achieve that level of success.  Most are too coy or too overboard.  Others simply lack the courage.  That's not the case for Naoko Yamada, whose frank depiction of bullying and the scars it leaves is uncompromising.  There isn't a lot of physical violence in this movie (a couple of the characters get slapped, for example).  But on an emotional level, it hits you in the gut.  This is not a movie that Disney would ever touch. Shoya (Daymond) is preparing to die.  He has spent the last few months settling his affairs a...