Mike's Movie Tips

3/4 Starring: Al Pacino, Cameron Diaz, Jamie Foxx, Dennis Quaid, LL Cool J, James Woods, Aaron Eckhart, Matthew Moden, Jim Brown, Lawrence Taylor, Lela Rochon Rated R for Language, Sexuality/Nudity and Drug Content Most sports movies are about personal redemption, team spirit, winning the big game or a combination of those familiar tropes.  But "Any Given Sunday" is directed by Oliver Stone, who does not make conventional movies.  This is a vicious attack on the game of football and pro sports in general.  Stone's targets are varied and he never misses a chance to skewer them without mercy.  It's so bruising that it leaves you shaken.  This feels like a sports movie from someone who hates sports. The NFL has been rocked by scandal after scandal over the past decade, and as such the film gains new relevance and energy.  After the revelation of CTE in football players (including football player-turned-murderer Aaron Hernandez), "Any Given Sunday" seems less l...

 3.5/4 Starring: Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Dave England, Jason "Wee-Man" Acuna, Ehren McGhehey, Preston Lacy, Sean McInery, Rachel Wolfson, Davon Wilson Rated R for Strong Crude Material and Dangerous Stunts, Graphic Nudity and Language Throughout I once said that of all the film genres, documentaries were the hardest to write about.  At least the mediocre once. With movies as insightful and dramatic as "They Shall Not Grow Old" or "Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport," it's fairly easy to describe how they are made, what knowledge they share and the emotional impact that watching them has on a viewer. So then what am I to make of "Jackass Forever?"  If few of the normal rules of film criticism apply to documentaries, then none of them apply here.  There's no plot.  No insight into any topic or point of view. It's just a continuing escapade of insane, painful, crude, disgusting and masochistic st...

 3/4 Starring: Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Sophia Ali, Tati Gabrielle, Antonio Banderas Rated PG-13 for Violence/Action and Language I have the same fond memories of playing the "Uncharted" games that anyone else who has played that franchise does.  Sure, it's nothing more than a rip-off of "Indiana Jones," but that doesn't make them any less of a blast to play.  Even today, they hold up extremely well.  What took them to the next level was two things: great stories and great characters.  The combat was fun and the puzzles were cool, but hanging out with Nate, Sully, Elena and everyone else was just as appealing. For thirty years, Hollywood has been trying, and largely failing, to replicate the experience of playing a great game on the big screen.  The problem is not that they don't have good material (video games are getting more cinematic with each new release), but they don't have a substitute for the interactivity.  Something is obviously lost wh...

 3/4 Starring: Jessica Chastain, Andrew Garfield, Cherry Jones, Vincent D'Onofrio, Mark Wystrach Rated PG-13 for Sexual Content and Drug Abuse What you see is what you get. Maybe that was Tammy Faye's appeal.  As over-the-top and garish as she looked, she owned it.  No one could bring her down.  No matter the odds, she remained indomitably herself.  At least on the outside (she wore waterproof makeup to hide her pain), but as the film by Michael Showalter shows us, she was just as human as the rest of us.  Then again, she had a number of other quirks that made her so endearing: her singing, her bubbly personality, her childish giggle, her utter lack of guile.  Come to think of it, there were plenty of reasons to love Tammy Faye. The film begins when Tammy Faye (played as a child by Chandler Head), who fell in love with Christianity and music at more or less the same time.  From the moment she got saved, she lived her life for Christ.  That le...

 3/4 Starring: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna, Awkwafina, Helena Bonham Carter, Richard Armitage Rated PG-13 for Language, Drug Use, and Some Suggestive Content "Ocean's 8" is chill entertainment.  It's not great art and things don't always make a lot of sense, but it is fun.  And really, how could it not be with a cast like this? The movie is almost entirely driven by its plot.  Character development is next to nil and what personality these women have comes from the charisma of the actresses who play them. The con: Debbie Ocean (Bullock) has just been released from prison and, despite promises to behave herself, she sets in motion a legendary heist she has been planning for more than five years. The mark: Actress Daphne Kluger (Hathaway), a young starlet who is the chairwoman for the next Met Gala. The prize: a diamond necklace she will be wearing that is worth $150 million in cold, hard cash. Debbie, together...

 3.5/4 Starring: Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Ann Dowd, Reed Birney Rated PG-13 for Thematic Content and Brief Strong Language There is something that no one but those who have experienced tragedy firsthand will be able to understand: you don't "get over it."  You're never able to put it behind you.  Therapy and time help, but only in the sense that you learn how to manage the pain.  It never goes away. "Mass" is one of the most painful movies I've seen in a long, long time.  It's so difficult to watch that most people will not be able to endure it.  It is painful because it understands that some wounds never heal.  No matter what you do or how long time passes, the scars remain.  Everyone has their own defenses to help them cope: reframing the trauma in some sense, denial, willful ignorance.  Or turning the perpetrator, or those close to them, into monsters. Six years ago, Hayden murdered ten of his fellow students and a teacher before wal...

 1/4 Starring: David Harbour, Sasha Lane, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Daniel Dae Kim Rated R for Strong Bloody Violence and Gore Throughout, and Language Watching the pathetic 2019 reboot of "Hellboy" is a depressing experience.  There's a lot of special effects and gore (especially the gore) on display, but this is a hollow, cheerless bore.  There's not much life or energy to be found here, and that makes it impossible to care about what's going on.  Even if it is standard comic book stuff. Hellboy (Harbour) is the worst kept secret of the United States government.  Officially he's a secret weapon against fairies, giants and other ne'er-do-wells in fantasy lore, but everyone knows about him.  Kinda hard to go incognito when you look like you've been on the beach for a week with no sunscreen and have sheared horns and a stone arm.  A hoodie isn't going to hide you too well (even in Tijuana).  Anyway, he's been called to Britain for a special m...

 3.5/4 Starring: Sharlto Copley Rated R for Bloody Violence and Pervasive Language In general, science fiction comes in two flavors: space opera and allegory.  Neill Blomkamp's stunning debut film falls strictly in the latter category.  Although there are aliens and gizmos and such, this is as grounded as any science fiction story that features such things can be.  They are used to serve the filmmaker's thesis, which is to show that in times of crisis and change, the darker sides of human nature come out.  Even the best of intentions cannot hide the damage that xenophobia and fear can cause. Twenty years ago, a space ship settled over Johannesburg, South Africa.  Inside, humans discovered about a million aliens starving and weak.  There was no other choice but to bring them down to the surface for care.  And that's when trouble began.  Suspicion and fear turned them into impoverished, second-class citizens forced to live in slums and deal wit...