Mike's Movie Tips

3.5/4 Starring: Nat Wolff, Alexander Skarsgard, Adam Long, Jonathan Whitesell, Rob Morrow, Brian Marc Rated R for Language Throughout, Violent Content and Drug Use We all love our jerk heroes.  You know who I mean: the badass who "gets shit done" regardless of the consequences, doesn't take prisoners, ignores the weak fuddie duddies who are too cautious, the guy who ignores political correctness and "tells it like it is."  They're a signature of American culture, particularly in film.  The examples are numerous: Tony Stark, any traditional Arnold Schwarzenegger movie or any generic action movie hero.  Hell, Tommy Lee Jones has essentially made a career out of playing these types of characters (even winning an Osca r for it).  The appeal is easy to identify: we all feel at times like we know best and those who oppose our ideas are idiots.  It's nice to find someone who cuts through the bull and does what needs to be done, even if we only experience

3.5/4 Starring: James Nesbitt, Liam Neeson, Anamaria Marinca Rated R for Language and Some Violence If you could meet your nemesis, would you do it? It's a fair question.  We all have people that have wronged us in some way.  It's part of life.  But for Joe Griffen, all the wrongs in his life stem from one night: when Alistair Little murdered his brother. In 1975, Irish Protestant Alistair Little (Mark Ryder) was young and ambitious, wanting to fight the good fight and be exalted as a hero.  To do this, he and his friends take the task of assassinating a Catholic man.  Alistair shoots him in cold blood through the window.  In doing so, he locks eyes with the man's younger brother, Joe.  There, their pasts diverged (Alistair spent 13 years in prison and is making peace with his past by trying to prevent other young men from following in his footsteps while Joe lost his other family members in the remaining years).  Now, a talk show has brought these two men togethe

2.5/4 Starring: Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty, Frank Vincent, Nicholas Colasanto Rated R (probably for Graphic Brutal Violence, Strong Language and Sexuality) At the end of the film when Jake La Motta is in jail and pounding the cement walls with his bare fists, he breaks down, sobbing, "I'm not an animal."  Funny.  That's the exact word I'd use to describe him.  A vicious, almost rabid animal.  When the real La Motta watched this film, he asked the real Vicky La Motta, "Was I really like that?" Her reply: "You were worse." That alone should tell you a lot of what you need to know about the man. "Raging Bull" is less about narrative and more a kaleidoscope of intimate moments that paint a complete picture of the infamous boxer Jake La Motta (De Niro).  Done right, this can work, but it isn't.  Which is surprising considering that it was directed by Martin Scorcese.  Too much of the background happens off scree

1.5/4 Starring: Sam Neill, Julie Carmen, David Warner, Charlton Heston, Jurgen Prochnow Rated R for Images of Horror, and Language John Carpenter's "In the Mouth of Madness" doesn't work.  In fact, it starts to fall apart almost as soon as it starts.  Which is a shame since this is a good idea for a movie.  To be fair, pulling off a story like this takes a deft hand in the writing and directing categories, but it can be done.  Watching this movie, I kept thinking of how much better Wes Craven did something similar with " New Nightmare ." When the film opens, a man is being dragged into an asylum by two orderlies. A physician named Dr. Wrenn (Warner) wants to help him.  To do that, the man has to tell him everything that happened to get him to where he is now. The man's name is John Trent (Neill).  He's an insurance investigator who can sniff out a con better than anyone.  But he works alone and on his own terms, much to the displeasure of h

3.5/4 Starring: Folker Bohnet, Fritz Wepper, Michael Hinz, Frank Glaubrecht, Karl Michael Balzer, Volker Lechtenbrink, Gunter Hoffmann, Cordula Trantow, Wolfgang Stumpf, Gunter Pfitzmann Not Rated (probable R for A Scene of Graphic War Violence) "The Bridge" hits you in the gut.  That it, in broadest strokes, doesn't do anything new or that we haven't seen before does little to diminish its effectiveness.  Then again, the film was made in 1959, when the horrors of WWII were still fresh in the minds of the world.  Not least of all Germany.  So. maybe I'm jaded in some sense.  Either way, this film is a harrowing experience. The film follows 7 boys in a small Bavarian town: Hans (Bohnet), Albert (Weooer), Walter (Hinz), Jurgen (Glaubrecht), Karl (Balzer), Klaus (Lechtenbrink), and Sigi (Hoffman).  The war is nearing its end, although no one will admit this in public.  They are all in school, but are eager to join the fight to varying degrees.  That evening t

3/4 Starring: Rob Schneider, Eddie Griffin, Arija Bareikis, Oded Fehr Rated R for Sexual Content, Language and Crude Humor The bottom line for comedy is whether or not it makes the audience laugh.  There are other factors that go into making one and reviewing one, but ultimately that is what comes down to.  And I did laugh while watching "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo."  I wasn't always proud of myself (this is not the most well-directed or well-written movie comedy), but I laughed a lot during this movie.  Sometimes quite hard.  Even better, there's a core of sweetness to the story that makes it work even better. Deuce Bigalow (Schneider) is the kind of loser that makes other losers look good.  He has a job as an aquarium cleaner that only pays enough for a broom closet of an apartment.  He's so bad at picking up women that after saving his customer's fish, he asks her if she wants him to stay and be a fatherly influence.  That's when he meets mega-s

2.5/4 Starring: Sean Penn, Christopher Walken, Mary Stuart Masterson, Chris Penn Rated R (probably for Graphic Violence, Language, Drug Use and Brief Nudity) What is it about crime that appeals to us?  The lure of quick cash, certainly.  The adrenaline, the power rush.  There is definitely something seductive about it.  At least from a distance.  But when you get up close, it's not a place you want to be.  Brad Whitewood Jr. finds this out the hard way. Like everyone in his small Pennsylvania town, Brad Jr. (Penn) has nothing to do but drink and smoke.  Jobs are not plentiful and none of them pay well.  Not that Brad has any ambitions.  He only worked long enough to buy his truck, then settled down for a life of drinking and dope.  After he's thrown out of the trailer by his mother's loutish boyfriend, he pays a visit to his estranged dad, Brad Sr. (Walken).  His father has a notorious reputation as thief, which he initially downplays.  But his son and his friends a

4/4 Starring: Javier Gutierrez, Mario Casas, Bruna Cusi, Ruth Diaz, Iris Valles Not Rated (Probable R for Some Violence and Language) See this movie. No, seriously.  I really wish that I could just write those three words and leave it at that.  I knew nothing about this movie before I turned it on, and that is the ideal way to be when turning on this movie for the first time.  Having no idea of where this movie is going will make the experience all the more potent. Actually, that's a bit of a lie.  The film has a set trajectory that becomes apparent before the first act is over.  The question is whether or not the pieces will fall into play the way we anticipate.  Some of what happens is inevitable.  Other times it takes you by surprise. Javier Munoz (Gutierrez) is a man who has lost everything.  Once a legend in the ad world, he finds himself out of a job and too experienced to get another for what he is worth.  He is forced to sell his car, his son's private schoo

3/4 Starring: Nick Nolte, Barbra Streisand, Blythe Danner, Kate Nelligan Rated R for A Scene of Sex-Related Violence and for Strong Language I suppose it is ironic that some people can crack jokes as a way of avoiding their pain.  I've never been good at that sort of coping mechanism, so I wouldn't know.  But that's how Tom Wingo manages to deal with a lifetime of pain.  He survived, sure, but hasn't coped much better than his suicidal sister.  Try telling him that, though. Tom (Nolte) is an ex-football coach whose life has stalled.  His wife Sally (Danner) is so fed up with his emotional walls that she's about to leave him.  He no longer has a job.  And he can't stand his parents, Lila (Nelligan) and Henry (Brad Sullivan).  Just when things couldn't get any worse, they do: his sister Savannah (Melinda Dillon) has tried to kill herself again.  Tom goes to New York to care for her.  There, he meets her psychiatrist, Susan Lowenstein (Streisand), who d

2/4 Starring: Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Eddie Bracken, Lynne Overman, Clarence Kolb Not Rated Whenever I complain about how many terrible movies come out these days or how sick I am of the umpteenth superhero movie that just came out, my parents remind me that there were just as many terrible movies in the past as there were classics.  For every movie like " Casablanca ," there were a dozen like "Caught in the Draft."  Okay, fine.  "Caught in the Draft" is not a terrible movie.  But it's no surprise to me that it has been largely forgotten. Pampered movie star Don Bolton (Hope) is terrified of loud noises like gunshots, which is why the rumored draft terrifies him.  Unfortunately, his attempts to woo the pretty Tony Fairbanks (Lamour) end up with him and his friends Bert (Bracken) and Steve (Overman) in the army.  Now, to prove that he isn't a coward to Tony and her army commander father (Kolb), he's going to have to overcome his fears