Mike's Movie Tips

1.5/4 Starring: Kanto Shimokura, Debo Akibe Not Rated (probable PG-13 for A Disturbing Ritual) Can the old ways survive into modernity?  I mean, can the traditions that bind a community and a culture survive against the influence of the current world?  Certainly globalization has its perks, and the exchange of ideas has led to an increase in wealth, the rise of technology and critical thinking.  But no one claim that with an increasingly homogenized society, much is being lost.  Is it possible for the ancient traditions to be relevant in our world? Debo (Akibe) thinks so.  Despite the tourists greatly outnumbering the actual members of the Ainu community, he insists on keeping the culture alive.  Kanto (Shimokura) isn't so sure.  His small town is stifling him and he longs to get out.  He and his friends are more interested in sports and music than the rituals that the members of his community perform for the tourists.  It appears to be a losing battle; Kanto and his friends could

 3/4 Starring: Josh Hamilton, Ayesha Dharker, Asif Basra Rated PG-13 for Some Sexual Content What "Outsourced" lacks in skill, it makes up for in charm.  Co-writer/director John Jeffcoat turned down offers for his screenplay so he could direct it himself, and it shows in the amateurish nature of the direction.  But it's hard to deny the fact that this film will inspire a few good laughs and a lot of silly grins. Todd Anderson (Hamilton) is having a very bad day.  His boss (Matt Smith) calls him into the office for a deal that he literally cannot refuse.  The call center job he has is being outsourced, and if he wants to stay employed, he has to go to India to train his replacement.  So off he goes, and immediately finds himself in over his head in a place where being left-handed is considered bad form and a cow that wanders into the office is thought of as odd to no one but him.  His task of getting calls down to six minutes seems hopeless, but he makes friends fast with

 2.5/4 Starring: Eddie Murphy, Mike Epps, Craig Robinson, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Keegan-Michael Key Rated R for Pervasive Language, Crude Sexual Content and Graphic Nudity Bringing the story of Rudy Ray Moore, a blaxploitation pioneer and comic whose profane prose eventually evolved into rap (Moore was later dubbed "The Godfather of Rap"), to the screen has been a dream project for Eddie Murphy.  It's not hard to see why.  Both are charismatic and profane showmen who are most at home with raunchy, anti-PC material.  A biopic of Moore never materialized until Netflix offered Murphy his chance.  The result is a film that features Murphy in top dramatic form but feels overlong. Rudy Ray Moore (Murphy) knows he was made for bigger things.  That's why he moved to LA to hit it big.  But success of any kind in showbiz remains elusive.  Genius strikes him when he realizes that there is money to be made making jokes that are considered improper or indecent.  Although his fo

 2/4 Starring: Keanu Reeves, Chris Evans, Forest Whitaker, Cedric the Entertainer, Hugh Laurie, Terry Crews, Naomie Harris Rated R for Strong Violence and Pervasive Language "Street Kings" is one of those movies you start forgetting as soon as the end credits roll.  It's too good to be bad and too bad to be good.  It moves, is somewhat involving and contains enough action to keep viewers from going to sleep, but I'll be very impressed with myself if I can remember much of it in a week's time. Detective Tom Ludlow (Reeves) is a bad cop.  He throws back vodka shooters in the car, he is as profane as a cop can be, and willingly murders anyone he considers a "bad guy."  The only reason he still has a badge and is not in jail is because his superior, Captain Jack Wander (Whittaker) is on hand to clean up his messes.  Now, Lud has something new to worry about: an internal affairs officer named Briggs (Laurie) is itching to put him away, and his ex-partner Wash

 3/4 Starring: Radha Blank, Peter Kim, Oswin Benjamin, Reed Birney Rated R for Pervasive Language, Sexual Content, Some Drug Use and Brief Nudity In the heart of every artist is a need for self-expression.  It is overpowering even in the face of logic and common sense.  It is something they must do, regardless of whether or not they have any talent.  I speak from experience.  I wrote stories throughout high school (none of which were any good) and run a film review site that no one reads.  I pay money to sit through shit like " The Grudge ," copy-and-paste MCU movies and Seth Rogen's latest ego trip just so I can say what I think about them.  It doesn't get me anything and costs me a great deal of money, but you know what?  It's mine.  It's my site, and I'm putting my thoughts and feelings out there.  It doesn't get me money or a boyfriend, but it is validating. Like me, Radha is a writer.  Unlike me, she has talent.  She was listed as one of the &quo

 2/4 Starring: Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Joan Fontaine, Lucile Watson, Phyllis Povah, Paulette Godard, Mary Boland Not Rated (Probable PG for Sexual Material) It's all about the women...And their men! Okay, fine.  That's the tagline for "All About Eve," another movie about deceit, backstabbing and all other sorts of treachery.  Unfortunately, despite a cast to die for and a well-respected director, "The Women" is a bit of a mess.  Actually, it's a big mess. "The Women" details the comings-and-goings of New York City's high society women.  They spend money as fast as their husbands can make it and gossip about the love lives of the people they know.  Mary Haines (Shearer) is the center of this milieu.  She is happily married to Stephen, has a beautiful daughter, and enough money to ensure that all her material needs are provided for her.  Then her friend Sylvia Fowler (Russell) gets a bombshell: Stephen is having an aff

 2/4 Starring: Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Pena, Kris Kristofferson, Ron Canada, Joe Morton, Miriam Colon, Matthew McConaughey Rated R for Brief Language, Sex and Violence John Sayles's "Lone Star" seeks to be more than a murder mystery.  So while the quest to solve the mystery of a long ago murder is ostensibly what the film is about, it's just the starting point.  Sayles is really interested in the people who, in one way or another, are touched by the murder and the buried secrets that are unearthed. Charlie Wade (Kristofferson) was once the sheriff of Rio County.  He was a corrupt monster and a murderer.  Anyone who disobeyed him or got in his way was lucky to escape from his sight alive.  So when he disappeared, the town breathed a sigh of relief.  The only one to stand up to him was his underling, Buddy Deeds (McConaughey), who famously threatened to expose him (or kill him) if he didn't leave town.  Wade vanished without a trace soon after that.  Now, Buddy'

 1/4 Starring: Rosamund Pike, Sam Reilly, Aneurin Barnard, Simon Russell Beale Rated PG-13 for Thematic Elements, Disturbing Images, Brief Nudity and a Scene of Sensuality "Radioactive" is an embarrassment.  I regret having seen it.  It is an insult to Marie and Pierre Curie because it has no respect for them as people or their contributions to the world of science.  What should be a fascinating look at a scientific field they pioneered is instead a hack job by a lousy screenwriter and an incompetent director. I don't know if I've ever seen a biopic that is this incoherent and chaotic.  I can't even begin to tell you what it's about because I'm not sure the movie does either.  Ostensibly it's about Marie Curie (Pike), her husband Pierre (Reilly) and their discovery of radiation.  But this compelling material is largely jettisoned in favor of bad melodrama and an array of half-baked ideas.  Most of what happens is not explained or happens so suddenly th

 3/4 Starring: James Badge Dale, Emily Mortimer, Bruce Greenwood, Max Martini, Cory Hardict, Clayne Crawford Rated PG-13 for Intense Sequences of Sci-Fi Combat Action "Spectral" takes the concept of "suspension of disbelief to heights that far surpass even an Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle would have gone.  It's loud, moves fast and is more than a bit dumb.  But it has a lot of energy and some nifty special effects.  Plus it has James Badge Dale headlining his first action movie and the always welcome Emily Mortimer.  Nuff said. Clyne (Dale) is a genius inventor.  Like Nicola Tesla level of genius.  He has invented a new kind of goggles worn by the military, which is not working to prevent a civil war in Eastern Europe.  A soldier captured something very strange on his feed before dying mysteriously.  The CIA, represented by Fran Madison (Mortimer) and the military, led on the ground by General Orland (Greenwood), want to find out why and how the man died.  What they

 3/4 Starring (voices): Brandon Engman, Ashley Boettcher, Lee Pace, Alison Brie, Riz Ahmed Rated PG-13 for Suggestive Material, Some Violence and Language "Weathering with You" ultimately works because it takes its subject matter and its characters seriously.  It expects that the audience will accept that a girl can change the weather by praying.  If you're willing to accept that, the film is a success. Hodaka (Engman) has run away from home.  He has gone to Tokyo, which is experiencing strange weather phenomena.  It is always raining, or about to rain, and there are puddles of water that float in the sky only to drench unlucky pedestrians passing under them.  At first, it is slow going and without a place to stay and no legal way to obtain a job, Hodaka is resigned to sleeping in the streets.  Salvation comes when he reunites with Keisuke Suga (Pace), a carefree layabout he met on the ferry, offers him a job at his bizarre underground magazine, and Hina (Boettcher), a pr

 2/4 Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Susan Sarandon Not Rated (probable R for Language and Some Sexuality/Nudity) The story of the twilight years of tobacco billionairess Doris Duke and her relationship with her gay butler, to whom she left her entire fortune. - iMDb's plot summary of "Bernard and Doris That sentence alone made me want to watch this movie.  I have a soft spot for nostalgia based buddy pics, or movies that look back in time at a life long past.  " Memoirs of a Geisha ," " For the Boys ," and so on.  Sure, they're manipulative but that's part of the charm.  Someone didn't tell that to Bob Balaban. Doris Duke (Sarandon) is a temperamental heiress with more money than she can spend and is never without a glass of booze (or asking for some).  Early in the film, she fires her butler for bringing her fruit that is too cold.  Talk about your nightmare employers.  Then in walks a soft-spoken man who goes to work before she even interviews him.

 3.5/4 Starring (voices): Jodi Benson, Samuel E. Wright, Pat Carroll, Jason Marin, Buddy Hackett, Kenneth Mars, Christopher Daniel Barnes Rated G The importance of "The Little Mermaid" to the Walt Disney Company cannot be underestimated.  Although the House of Mouse still churned out movies after Walt Disney's death, its animated films were no longer the pinnacle of quality.  Don Bluth and his team left to form their own company, other artists such as John Lasseter (who was fired for pushing investment into computer animation, and later found success in heading Pixar, which was eventually acquired by Disney, making it doubly ironic) and Tim Burton (who was fired for producing the short film "Frankenweenie," which he later turned into a feature film).  Financially, Disney animation was in the toilet.  With the company expanding into other areas, little time and attention was given to their animated films, and Michael Eisner considered shutting it down.  The succe

 2.5/4 Starring: Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis, Lukas Haas, Josef Sommer, Jan Rubes, Danny Glover, Angus MacInnes Rated R (probably for Graphic Violence, Language and Brief Nudity) One of the interesting things that "Witness" does is look at modern culture (well, the 80s, anyway) from the eyes of a deeply conservative culture.  By using an Amish mother and boy, we see the big city as excessive and dangerous.  The film's key scene is actually when the boy wanders through a police station. To us, what he sees is normal behavior or something that can be explained.  But to him, it's strange and threatening. Rachel (McGillis) is a young Amish widow traveling to Philadelphia to visit relatives.  Rachel knows of the modern world, but like her people she has mostly shunned it.  Her son Samuel (Haas) has not and is fascinated by it.  That is until he is in the wrong place at the wrong time and witnesses a brutal murder.  Detective John Book (Ford) needs Samuel to identify the