Mike's Movie Tips

 2.5/4 Starring: Josh Hartnett, Diane Kruger, Rose Byrne, Matthew Lillard Rated PG-13 for Sexuality and Language My opinion for "Wicker Park" is mixed.  I am delighted that the film blindsided me with some of its twists and turns, but was disheartened at what it all amounted to.  I desperately wanted a happy ending, but was disappointed at what it all boiled down to.  The film has such an intriguing premise but the follow through doesn't live up to its promise. Two years ago, Matt (Hartnett) fell in love with the beautiful Lisa (Kruger).  When he asked her to come with him to New York, she was so taken aback that she said she needed time to think about it...and disappeared.  Now, Matt saw Lisa, or thinks he did, and is determined to find her.  And to find an answer to the greatest question of all: what happened two years ago. "Wicker Park" is an uneasy fusion of a psychological thriller and a bad soap opera.  On the one hand, it's devilish fun to ...

 1.5/4 Starring: Penelope Cruz, Yohana Cobo, Lola Duenas, Blanca Portillo, Carmen Maura, Antonio de la Torre, Chus Lampreave Rated R for Some Sexual Content and Language A thought continued to run through my mind as I watched "Volver," the 2006 film from acclaimed director Pedro Almodovar: who cares? I didn't.  This is a melodrama about people who meant nothing to me.  It could have been a story of some dramatic charge if I gave a damn about the people in it, but despite some fine acting, I didn't.  I'm not sure why I cared so little.  Maybe the characters are half-developed.  Maybe the film is so convoluted that there needs to be an evolving chart of who knows what at what time.  And how they relate to each other.  Maybe it's because the film never effectively straddles the line between hard-hitting drama and farce. Raimunda (Cruz) is a young woman trying to make ends meet for her teenage daughter Paula (Cobo) and loutish husband Pack (de la Torr...

 3.5/4 Starring: Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank, Nicky Katt, Paul Dooley, Martin Donovan Rated R for Language, Some Violence and Brief Nudity "Insomnia" is a psychological thriller.  It's about people and why they do what they do.  There isn't much in the way of conventional action like chases (there is one, but it's short and not especially important).  This is about a cop in a situation with no good solutions, and a killer who knows this all too well. Legendary detective Will Dormer (Pacino) has been flown to Alaska with his partner Hap (Donovan) to solve a murder.  Seventeen-year-old Kay Connell was found murdered, and it's their job to find out who killed her.  Helping them in their efforts are the ambitious Ellie Burr (Swank) and the cocky Fred Duggar (Katt).  Will and Hap are debating how to move forward on an Internal Affairs investigation back home.  They, especially Will, have a habit of skirting the law to nab their suspects. ...

 1/4 Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Benoit Magimel, Annie Girardot Rated R for Aberrant Sexuality including Violence, and for Language For most people, when they hear "art film," their radar goes up.  They think of emotionally sterile movies with incomprehensible dialogue, lots of long takes of actors staring off into space, and so on.  It's largely untrue.  There are plenty of "art house" movies that can be enjoyed by the multiplex crowd if distributors took a chance (" Brotherhood of the Wolf ," my favorite movie of all time, is an excellent example).  There are, of course, movies where the stereotype of the movie applies.  Such as "The Piano Teacher." Any stereotype of arthouse movies that you can think of applies to "The Piano Teacher."  It is dry.  It is dense.  It is without any sort of action or humor.  It is also so emotionally inert that watching it is an endurance test.  There are some things worthy of praise to be found here...

 2.5/4 Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock, Nigel Hawthorne Rated R for Non-Stop Action Violence, and for Strong Language Despite the sky high testosterone levels of Stallone and Snipes, "Demolition Man" works better as a comedy.  Oh there's a lot of action, all right.  It's just that everything is played tongue-in-cheek.    In fact, in many ways it's a satire of the movies that the two burly stars made in their heyday. John Spartan (Stallone) is a man on a mission.  He's out to get his nemesis, a psychopathic lunatic named Simon Phoenix (Snipes), and there ain't no one who's gonna stop him.  Not his superiors, not the law, nothing.  Of course, believing that you are above the law sends you careening towards a cold reality check.  Spartan ends up cryogenically frozen alongside Phoenix with a sentence of 70 years.  At his parole hearing, the madman escapes and finds that the world of 2032 to be a very different pla...

 4/4 Starring (voices): Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi Not Rated (probable R for Images of War) Note: this is a rewrite of my original review of this film.  For the record, the original review can be found here . "Grave of the Fireflies" is absolutely devastating.  It's so emotionally wrenching that, yes, I would compare it to films such as " Saving Private Ryan " and " Schindler's List ."  That the film is animated does not lessen the brutal impact of watching this movie.  In fact, it's exactly why this film has such power. "September 21, 1945...that was the night I died."  Seita (Tatsumi) utters those words as he watches the life ebb out of his body.  He then rejoins his sister Setsuko (Shiraishi) as they journey to the next life. The film then turns the clock back about six months.  Seita is caring for his ailing mother and Setsuko as they fight to survive in the waning days of WWII.  A bombing raid kills their mother, forcing t...

 3/4 Starring: Yifei Liu, Gong Li, Tzi Ma, Donnie Yen, Yonson An, Jason Scott Lee Rated PG-13 for Sequences of Violence It goes without saying that the live action remakes of the Disney classics are entirely pointless.  The animated films still hold up well, so the decision to remake them with flesh and blood actors can only be understood as a financial decision.  Like the umpteenth entry into the MCU, these movies are less about telling stories and more about rewarding shareholders and appealing to nostalgia and name recognition.  Of them, "Mulan" is the best, but that's not saying much considering how lame the rest of them are (don't get me started on that cinematic turd that was " Aladdin "). "Mulan" works because it at least tries to be somewhat different.  Ultimately what holds it back is that it spends too much time cramming in as many moments from the original .  A good remake should take this same concept and take it into a new direction.  ...

 3.5/4 Starring: Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Caine, Amelia Warner, Stephen Moyer Rated R for Strong Sexual Content including Dialogue, Violence and Language That "Quills" is a biopic of the Marquis de Sade should alone tell you that this movie is not for everyone.  Or so you might think.  Actually, "Quills," based on the play by Doug Wright is less interested in sex than in exploring the need for freedom of expression and a battle of wills that results.  Don't get me wrong, the movie is plenty naughty.  It's just that anyone looking for something erotic won't find it here. Once again, the Marquis de Sade has gotten himself into trouble.  Now a permanent resident at the asylum of Charenton, he has taken to writing his explicit stories as a form of healing.  Unbeknownst to the Abbe (Phoenix), who believes that doing so will purge him of such filth, he is smuggling them out of the asylum with the help of a chambermaid named Madel...

 2/4 Starring: Sam Rockwell, Paul Walter Hauser, Jon Hamm, Kathy Bates, Olivia Wilde Rated R for Language including Some Sexual References, and Brief Bloody Images I suppose that it is ironic that the main problem with a biopic is that I could scarcely believe a second of it.  This isn't a matter of massaging the facts to "make a better story."  All non-documentaries are guilty of that to one degree or another.  It's a matter of the film not getting me to the point where I could take any of it seriously.  Although the film boasts several strong performances, the weak writing and directing make this an eye-roller rather than an eye-opener. Richard Jewell (Hauser) is a failed cop turned security guard who takes his job so seriously that it has cost him numerous jobs.  Now he is working as a security guard at the 1996 Olympic Games.  After telling off some drunk kids misbehaving, he spies a suspicious backpack underneath a bench.  He "does the right ...

 As horrible as 2020 was in every respect, there were some positives on the film front.  Theater closings meant that blockbusters had to be delayed or put in development hell.  Without the MCU and other franchises taking up all the oxygen, smaller films were given a chance to shine.  The difficulty is that, with so many streaming services and the film industry experiencing cinema innteruptus, it was a big challenge for such movies to stake their claim and be seen by the right audience.  But they were there. 10.   The Kill Team .  Not all war movies have to be of the conventional sort with gun battles and explosions.  In fact, many of the best ones are far removed from such things.  " Casablanca " is a romance.  " Lust, Caution " is an erotic thriller.  "Kelly's Heroes" is a comedy."  "The Kill Team" is a psychological game of cat and mouse between a man who rationalizes the murders he commits and the scared kid trying to do the...

 2020 threw everyone for a lurch.  In one way or another, the COVID-19 epidemic touched everything and everyone.  It brought the world to a standstill and contributed to more poisonous politics and infighting.  The movie industry was hit hard with theaters closing early in the year and leaving the fate of blockbusters in doubt.  It caused a huge paradigm shift for Hollywood, and may have accelerated the inevitable shift to streaming services.  Whether this shift is permanent or if there is more life to be squeezed out of theaters remains to be seen once the pandemic passes. Still, there was one comforting thought: there were movies coming out.  And that inevitably means that some are really good and some are absolutely terrible.  There were 12 candidates for my Bottom 10 list this year (probably more if I was being as ruthless as I should have been with some that squeaked by with a 2/4).  So here they are: the worst of 2020. 10.   The Bi...

 1/4 Starring: Tim Roth Rated R for Pervasive Strong Language, Sexuality and Some Drug Use "Four Rooms" is a movie you stare at in stupefied boredom.  Rather than laughing like I was supposed to, I was wondering how so much talent could end up producing a film so worthless. The concept sounds promising.  Four Miramax wunderkinds, Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, each write and direct four interconnected short films.  They all take place on New Year's Eve at the Mon Signor Hotel and have Ted (Roth) the new bellhop front and center.  Unfortunately all four shorts are junk. The first short is 'The Missing Ingredient," which was directed by Allison Anders.  In it, Ted squares off against a coven of witches trying to resurrect a dead witch placed under a curse for forty years.  The twist is that one of the witches (Ione Skye) failed to get the required man juice for the ritual, and has to get what she needs from th...