Mike's Movie Tips

 3.5/4 Starring: Russell Crowe, Mary McCormack, Hank Azaria, Colm Meaney, Ron Eldard, Burt Reynolds, Lolita Davidovich, Maury Chaykin Rated R for Language and Sexuality "Mystery, Alaska" does what every sports movie should do, and then a little more.  Of course it all comes down to a big game with the final score determined in the last few seconds.  That's no secret.  But what surprised me about this movie is its portrait of a town.  This tiny Alaska town begins to feel like a real place, and one that I wouldn't hesitate to visit in a second. For Mystery, hockey is more than a religion.  It's a way of life.  If people aren't playing it, they're watching it or talking about it.  Nothing is more important than the Saturday match, where the best players play a scrimmage match on a local pond for the rest of the town.  This is where men like Sheriff John Biebe (Crowe) become legends on the ice.  The recent gossip revolves around the article ...

 2/4 Starring: Riz Ahmed, Paul Raci, Olivia Cooke Rated R for Language Throughout and Brief Nude Images The problem with "Sound of Metal" is that it has an interesting central character and not much else.  Ruben Stone, played with tremendous skill and focus by Riz Ahmed, is a compelling individual.  Unfortunately, he's stuck in a movie that doesn't go anywhere and doesn't have anything interesting to say. Deafness struck Ruben almost instantaneously.  At first it seemed like some mild tinnitus.  But then his hearing left almost completely and never came back.  The heavy metal drummer was a normal individual the day before, but now he has suddenly lost 75% of his hearing in both ears.  His girlfriend and lead singer Lou (Cooke), believes, perhaps correctly, that the ex-junkie Ruben is destined for a relapse into heroin use.  So they check him into a sober living house for the deaf, run by a kindly Vietnam vet named Joe (Raci).  Joe's policy me...

 1.5/4 Starring: Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow, Geoffrey Rush, Tom Wilkinson, Colin Firth, Ben Affleck, Judi Dench Rated R for Sexuality "Shakespeare in Love" feels like one giant in-joke about Shakespeare and the theater.  Like the MCU, it's jam-packed with references, Easter eggs, and meta-humor.  Also like the MCU, such details can't camouflage the lack of a compelling plot and boring characters.  Unless you're a member of the target audience (Shakespeare scholars, not Comic-Con devotees, as it were), in which case it will set off enough moments of recognition that you won't care.  Apparently that was the thinking of the Academy when this otherwise lame period piece took home seven Oscars.  None of which it deserved. Will Shakespeare (Fiennes) is desperately trying to get past his writer's block.  He's delaying his ever-in-debt patron, a man named Winslow (Rush) with the fiction that he has a play called "Romeo and Ethel: The Pirate's Dau...

 2.5/4 Starring (voices): Kellie Marie Tran, Awkwafina, Gemma Chan, Isaac Wang, Daniel Dae Kim, Benedict Wong, Sandra Oh Rated PG for Some Violence, Action and Thematic Elements I get the impression that "Raya and the Last Dragon" started out with a strong screenplay and then it was diluted by the studio executives to increase merchandising, feeling that kids would be lost, or to appeal to a world audience.  In other words, what always happens when too many people get their hands on a single movie.  "Raya and the Last Dragon" is by no means a bad movie, but it feels feeble when it should soar. A thousand years ago, the land of Kumadra was a prosperous land.  Everyone lived together in piece with the dragons as their caretakers.  Then the Druun showed up; evil entities that turned people to stone and then split themselves in two.  The dragons did what they could, but it was a losing battle.  They used the last of their magic to create an orb that wards ...

 1.5/4 Starring: Gong Li, Bo Huang, Gang Wu Not Rated (probable PG for Brief Language) Consider now Gong Li.  She and Zhang Yimou essentially turned the Chinese film industry into an international powerhouse in the 90s, before their personal and artistic relationship imploded 1995, although they did collaborate again on the clunky but visually striking " Curse of the Golden Flower " and the affecting " Coming Home ."  She is widely considered to be one of China's most esteemed actresses with her performances earning raves around the world.  And even at 55, she is one of the most glamorous women in the world. So the question is: why would she choose such a godawful project to be a part of?  Li is notoriously choosy about which films she appears to be in, taking a role once every couple of years.  Having starred in some of China's most well-regarded films, such as " Farewell, My Concubine " and "Raise the Red Lantern," she should have known...

 2/4 Starring: Jodie Foster, Tahar Rahim, Shailene Woodley, Benedict Cumberbatch, Zachary Levi Rated R for Violence including a Sexual Assault, and Language The longer "The Mauritanian" goes on, the less it has to offer.  It starts off as an intelligent a true life miscarriage of justice, but its non-judgmental approach gives way to outrage and grandstanding, that while justified, feel phony.  Passion and personal emotion should never give way to good storytelling.  That's what separates movies like " Schindler's List " and " Only the Brave " from "The Mauritanian." Renowned lawyer Nancy Hollander (Foster) gets asked a favor: there is a man suspected of terrorism named Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Rahim) who has been held at Guantanamo Bay for years without trial, and she is asked to look into it.  She does as her personal pro bono case, despite it being only a few years after 9/11.  Her reasoning is that everyone deserves a fair trial, no matte...

 "Only TRUE Wolverine fans will recognize these Easter eggs?" "Stan Lee confirms a fan theory from beyond the grave that we've all thought since day one!" "Here's what 'The Avengers' directors REALLY had to say about Fat Thor!" Those are headlines I see plastered more or less verbatim every time I open my phone.  CinemaBlend, Den of Geek, Screen Rant...they all do this (and contain no actual insight into any of the "questions" they pose.  Such obvious clickbait is as ubiquitous as it is annoying.  As much of an ear worm and an eye sore as they are, it got me thinking: why do we watch movies anymore? Indulge me for a moment.  Let me take you back to when I saw " Teen Titans GO! To the Movies " in a theater about three years ago.  You may recall, or maybe you don't, that I gave the film a 0/4.  A distinction so bad that only a dozen or so have achieved it.  Watching it was a miserable experience.  It was even more so b...

 3.5/4 Starring: Max Pomeranc, Joe Mantegna, Ben Kingsley, Joan Allen, Laurence Fishburne Rated PG for Thematic Elements I found "Searching for Bobby Fischer" fascinating from frame one.  I'm not a big chess player because I'm terrible at it, but the depth and complexity to the game is grows more incredible the more one thinks about it.  Of course, the problem with chess is two-fold: it's so complex that to even hint at its depth risks the film becoming hopelessly didactic and, more importantly, chess isn't an inherently cinematic sport.  What's great about Steven Zallian's (a legendary screenwriter who made this his directorial debut) film is that it elegantly sidesteps both hurdles, and becomes a mentally and emotionally enriching film. Josh Waitzkin (Pomeranc) is an average 7 year old kid living in New York with his family.  He is fascinated by the street hustlers playing speed chess.  His eyes go left and right as he sees their room.  Josh is an am...

 2/4 Starring: Tom Everett Scott, Julie Delpy, Phil Buckman, Vince Vieluf, Julie Bowen, Pierre Cosso Rated R for Werewolf Violence and Gore, and for Some Sexuality/Nudity I wasn't the greatest fan of John Landis's cult film " An American Werewolf in London ."  I enjoyed its creativity and risk taking, not to mention the charm of lead actor David Naughton.  But I didn't think it was that special.  Then again, the same thing applies to every cult film.  At least to those who aren't charter members of a certain movie's fan club.  So I approached its sequel as someone who is curious, and also someone who is finally seeing a movie he's been intrigued about for 20 years. "An American Werewolf in Paris" starts out like a traditional sex comedy.  Three guys are traveling Europe in search of cheap thrills, partying and, of course, sex.  Andy (Scott), Brad (Vieluf) and Chris (Buckman) are their names, and while they may not be the most intelligent grou...

 2.5/4 Starring: Ibrahima Gueye, Sophia Loren, Renato Carpentieri, Massimiliano Rossi, Abril Zamora, Babak Karimi, Iosif Diego Pirvu Rated PG-13 for Thematic Content, Drug Material involving Minors, Some Sexual Material and Language Despite a cast of strong performers, "The Life Ahead" never really comes together.  The characters never attain the three-dimensionality needed for this tearjerker to pay off.  The people in this movie have closer bonds with each other than I did with them.  Intellectually I knew what the film was going for, but I didn't feel much for them. Momo (Guete) is an orphan in Italy.  He isn't homeless; ostensibly he is being cared for by Dr. Coen (Carpentieri).  But the good doctor is old, and asks Rosa (Loren) to look after the boy.  Rosa is a former streetwalker who has a history of taking in children of other prostitutes.  She doesn't want to take him in; she already has two other boys under her care and Momo made a bad im...

 2.5/4 Starring: Peter Weller, Andrew Lauer, Jennifer Rubin, Roy Dupuis, Charles Edwin Powell Rated R for Sci-Fi Violence and Terror, Some Language and a Brief Moment of Nudity "Screamers" is a frustrating movie to watch.  It comes so close to working that part of me wants to recommend it for what it does right instead of calling it a miss for what it does wrong.  I am tempted.  There are some parts of "Screamers" that are excellent; there really are.  But the movie only gets the details right, and not the important stuff. A civil war has been going on for five years on the planet Sirius 6b.  A mining company known as the New Economic Bloc ("NEB" for short) has discovered rich ore that will solve Earth's energy needs.  Unfortunately, extracting the ore released toxic radiation.  The miners went on strike only to face a violent crackdown by the NEBs.  Together with the science community, they formed the Alliance to fight back.  To do this...