Mike's Movie Tips

This was a tough year for reviewing movies.  At one point, I nearly thought about quitting.  Watching " Last Tango in Paris ," " You Won't Be Alone " and the loathsome " Bros " within a span of a month or two made me wonder if the joy I got from watching movies was somehow gone.  It was only when I told myself not to watch movies as "assignments" but to watch them because I "wanted" to.  Sure, they may not have been 2022 movies, or I may have already reviewed them.  But you know what?  Who cares?  If it helped me regain my love of film, then it was worth it. There were actually quite a lot of good movies.  Eleven made the cut-off, with "T he Banshees of Inisherin " just missing the top 10.  I can take some solace in the realization that it will be a heavy hitter at Oscar time.  How well it does depends on how much money Focus Features is willing to pony up for campaigning.  It isn't a mainstream film, but Oscar attenti

Every year has its shitty movies.  That has been the case since the birth of moving pictures in the 1920s, and it will likely be the case in the 2120s.  Despite what Hollywood would like to believe, not every movie works for every person.  There is a reason why Rotten Tomatoes is the bane of every filmmaker's existence.  That's the way it goes.  As much as I hated "Bros," I know of a few people who liked it. Still, that's really irrelevant.  This is my list.  These reviews are my thoughts and feelings about the movies that I sat through.  It's not the job of a critic to review someone else's opinion of a film.  Only their own.  Guessing who might like a movie is fair game, but ultimately their review is their opinion and no one else's. I actually like making this list.  My dad is dubious about its importance ("Always be positive," he reminds me), but every other film critic does it.  Why shouldn't I?  More importantly, it allows me to get

Before Covid hit, Hollywood was was long overdue for a change.  Ever risk averse, it avoided doing so for as long as it could.  Studios preferred to squeeze fan boys for every dime they had and milk once beloved franchises like " Star Wars " and the MCU for all that they were worth.  That was all well and good for the die hards, but it bored everyone else.  Most viewers saw them for what they were: cash cows preying on nostalgia and giving audiences nothing in return.  One of my friends does like the MCU movies, although if I came to realize that he was one of the toxic bunch who blitzed Twitter with the hashtag "Release the Snyderverse!" I would be shocked beyond all recognition.  His defense of the MCU is, "Well, if you grew up with them..."  And that's the point.  Most people didn't and don't have the same memories of them that millennial have for, say, Harry Potter.  The magic and nostalgia aren't there.  They see them for what they are

 1.5/4 Starring: John Cusack, Jennifer Tilly, Dianne Wiest, Chazz Palmentieri, Jack Warden, Mary Louise Parker, Jim Broadbent, Rob Reiner, Joe Vitelli Rated R for Some Language "Bullets over Broadway" should have been a lot funnier than it is.  It grapples with a lot of questions, but the energy is slack.  There is very little zing.  It grapples with some thoughtful and perplexing issues, but it feels like a screwball comedy with too little tension. David Shayne (Cusack) is a playwright who is universally regarded as brilliant, but not commercial.  "If the common people don't understand your work, you're a genius," someone claims.  Then a miracle happens: his devoted but broke producer Julian Marx (Warden) has found funding for his new play.  "A single backer going for the whole show!" he exclaims.  But there is a catch.  Funding comes from a nasty gangster named Nicky (Vitelli) and Shayne has to cast Nicky's air headed, monumentally untalented

 2/4 Starring: Catherine McCormack, Rufus Sewell, Oliver Platt, Fred Ward, Naomi Watts, Jacqueline Bisset, Moira Kelly, Jeroen Krabbe, Joanna Cassidy, Jake Weber, Peter Eyre Rated R for Some Scenes of Strong Sexuality, and for Nudity and Language Of course courtesans were not prostitutes.  They were prized for far more than their bodies.  Using their wits as well as their sexuality, they earned their place in history with the powerful influence they gathered while moving in the circles of the rich, famous and connected.  Unfortunately, that's not the story that you'd find in "Dangerous Beauty," which favors romantic soap opera instead of the minds and skills of the women it seeks to celebrate.  I don't doubt for a moment that some, if not many, courtesans fell in love or sought such an occupation when no alternative was provided for them.  I just don't believe any of them played out like a low-rent Nicholas Sparks novel. Veronica Franco (McCormack) is a young

 4/4 Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver, Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Jamie Flatters, Britain Dalton, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, Jack Champion, Edie Falco Rated PG-13 for Sequences of Strong Violence and Intense Action, Partial Nudity and Some Strong Language It's been 13 years since " Avatar " debuted at the box office, toppling his previous film " Titanic " to become the all-time box office king (it was temporarily ousted by " Avengers: Endgame ," but a re-release put it back on the number one spot).  Of course it wasn't supposed to take this long for the inevitable sequel to be released, but due to James Cameron's perfectionism, development of new technology and the Covid-19 pandemic, its initial release date was pushed back from 2015 until today.  The dramatic changes in the film industry have made Disney executives very nervous.  After all, thirteen years is a long time to wait, and it will take a miracle to re

 1/4 Starring (voices): Gregory Mann, David Bradley, Ewan McGregor, Christoph Waltz, Ron Perlman, Finn Wolfhard, Tilda Swinton, Cate Blanchett, Jon Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson Rated PG for Dark Thematic Material, Violence, Peril, Some Rude Humor and Brief Smoking I was astonished to find that "Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio" didn't work for me.  del Toro is no hack director, having been behind some of the most daring and brilliant films of the past thirty years.  " The Devil's Backbone " and " Pan's Labyrinth " are excellent examples of his creative talents.  But he isn't immune to duds (" Pacific Rim ," anyone?).  Still, the reviews were excellent, and this darker version of the classic story seemed to be right up his alley.  So what happened? The story isn't the problem.  Like all the best revisions of classic stories, del Toro keeps the essence of the story and ditches the rest.  Aside from a few details, del Toro's

 1.5/4 Starring: Sosie Bacon, Kyle Gallner, Jessie T. Usher, Robin Weigert, Caitlin Stasey, Kal Penn Rated R for Strong Violent Content and Grisly Images, and Language "Smile" has four great scenes and a whole lot of crappy ones.  On a technical level, writer/director Parker Finn knows what he is doing.  He can build a sense of dread and terror almost out of thin air.  Which he has to do because the majority of his film sucks. Rose Cotter (Bacon) is an overworked doctor at an emergency psychiatric facility.  One day, a traumatized young woman enters her hospital and is put under the good doctor's care.  Her name is Laura Weaver (Stasey), and she is in hysterics.  Ever since she saw her professor bludgeon himself to death with a hammer a few days prior, she's been seeing people invisible to everyone else, and they have the most menacing smiles on their faces.  After having a screaming fit, Laura suddenly kills herself, wearing an unsettling smile.  That's when Rose

 2/4 Starring: Mason Thames, Madeline McGraw, Ethan Hawke, Jeremy Davies, James Ransone Rated R for Violence, Bloody Images, Language and Some Drug Use Most horror movies have a gimmick.  Whether it's a slasher that uses an ax instead of a butcher knife, a different costume, or what have you.  "The Black Phone" is no different, but because co-writer/director Scott Derrickson doesn't exploit it, it makes the plot reek of artifice. Finney (Thames) is your average Colorado teenager living in the 1970s.  He's nerdy and insecure, tries to do his best against the bullies who beat the crap out of him for sport, and shares the caregiving duties for their alcoholic father (Davies) with his sister Gwen (McGraw).  If those were his only problems... His small Colorado town is under the grip of The Grabber (Hawke), a serial killer who snatches young boys.  Soon, Finney himself becomes the latest victim.  However, he has some allies on his side.  One, Gwen has (inconsistent) dr

 3.5/4 Starring: Michael Keaton, Marisa Tomei, Glenn Close, Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid, Spalding Gray, Jason Alexander, Lynne Thigpen, Catherine O'Hara Rated R for Strong Language What's great about "The Paper" is that it is so delightfully old-fashioned.  The way the film is fashioned makes you think of those 40s style comedies that starred Katharine Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart (save for the plentiful profanity, which would never have gotten past the Hays Code).  Nearly everyone with more than token screen time gets their own storyline.  And it has plenty of good cheer; it takes place in the version of New York City that people imagine in their dreams. It would be dishonest to say that "The Paper" doesn't have a plot, but it's not the sole focus.  The story that Henry Hackett (Keaton) is trying to write is simply the story he is covering.  Yesterday it was something else, and tomorrow it will be another.  Today, he's covering a recent double murde

 I love animation.  In some circles they are unfairly dismissed as "cartoons," but in the right hands they can be so much more than that.  A true artist knows that animation is simply another tool to tell stories.  It is not a genre with its own "rules."  In many cases, animation is key to making a story work.  Just compare the Disney animated classics to their live action counterparts.  Granted, " Mulan " and " The Lion King " weren't bad, but there is no denying that they paled in comparison to their animated predecessors. What I love about animation is that perspective, color and emotion can be highlighted and toyed with in ways that are just not possible with live action.  Consider the scene in " Beauty and the Beast " where Belle first sees the monster.  In the animated classic, it was bold, dramatic and even scary.  But because of the limitations of live action, the remake's version of the same scene came and went with a w