Mike's Movie Tips

3/4 Starring: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Rafe Spall Rated PG for Emotional Thematic Content Throughout, and Some Scary Action Sequences and Peril Watching "Life of Pi," I was reminded of Paulo Cohelo's bestseller "The Alchemist."  Both are novels, yes, but rather than be about characters and plot, they're really about philosophy (or in this case, religion).  Frankly, I'm surprised that Fox 2000 put up so much money to make this film.  I haven't read the book by Yann Martel (although it was a bestseller), but based on the film, this doesn't seem to be a movie that lends itself well to the screen.  Particularly in multiplexes. Pi (Gautam Belur, Ayush Tandon and Sharma) is a young boy curious about religion.  He explores and experiments, taking in pieces of each one into his own.  One day, his parents are forced to move from India to Canada, and in order to start a new life, they are taking the animal inhabitants of their zoo with them to se...

4/4 Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Ian McDiarmid, and the voices of James Earl Jones and Frank Oz Rated PG for Sci-Fi Action Violence In 1977, 20th Century Fox released " Star Wars ."  Thinking it would flop, they released it against "The Other Side of Midnight," which was the anticipated blockbuster of that summer.  No one could have anticipated what happened next.  The film was released slowly, but it quickly built to a fandom that has lasted for the better part of 40 years.  Three years later, Lucas released its sequel, " The Empire Strikes Back ," and three years after that, he released the final film in the trilogy, "The Return of the Jedi." Taken as a whole, each film stands on its own, but taken together, they form a more complete story (Episodes I , II , and III  do the same).  Lucas' space opera has everything it should: larger than life heroes, wickedly evil villains, emotional highs...

3/4 Starring: Melissa George, Ed Speelers, Holly Boyd, Alec Newman, Kate Magowan, Garry Sweeney, Sean Harris, Stephen McCole, Karel Roden Rated R for Language and Some Strong Violence The film that comes to mind when describing "A Lonely Place to Die" is " The Descent ."  While it doesn't have any monsters nor does it come close to matching the latter's scare factor, they bear a similar feel.  Both have bleak cinematography, man-against-nature suspense which turns into a fight to the death scenario.  It's not the movie that those who criticized Neil Marshall for turning his film into a monster movie are looking for, but it's still a wild ride. Expert mountain climbers Alison (George) and Rob (Newman) are climbing a mountain in the Scottish Highlands with their friend, the less experienced Ed (Speelers).  They're meeting two of their other friends, Jenny (Magowan) and Alex (Sweeney) at the top to go on a climb.  While hiking to the mountai...

1.5/4 Starring: Brad Pitt, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, James Gandolfini, Richard Jenkins, Ray Liotta, Vincent Curatola Rated R for Violence, Sexual References, Pervasive Language, and Some Drug Use Wow.  This movie is unbelievable. It is rare that a movie with this distinguished of a cast turns out to be a total dud ("The Proposition" and " Rampart " come to mind).  Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, Richard Jenkins, Ray Liotta...and up and coming actors Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn.  How could this go wrong? But it does go wrong.  Very wrong.  This movie sucks.  The story is not only dumb and uninteresting, it is non-existent.  Ditto for character development.  The direction by Andrew Dominik is self-indulgent and his script is empty.  The characters talk.  And talk.  And talk.  Occasionally someone gets shot.  But they say nothing of any real interest. The story, such as it is, has two low-level criminals Fr...

0/4 Starring: Nicholas Tse, Wu Bai, Candy Lo, Cathy Tsui, Anthony Wong Chau-Sang Rated R for Pervasive Strong Violence and Some Drug Use Note to self: if Tsui Hark is listed as a director, turn around and run.  This is the second epic disaster by the "legendary" director that I have seen (the other being his 2010 film, "Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame").  Both films suffer from the inability to make their stupid plots make any sense, and the tendency to ruin every action scene through incompetent handling.  At least "Detective Dee" had the appeal of looking good.  "Time and Tide" looks as if it were filmed on a camcorder. Tyler (Tse) is a young guy with a problem: after getting obscenely drunk, he ends up sleeping with a lesbian and knocking her up.  Wanting to get out of dodge, he joins his Uncle Ji's (Wong Chau-Sang) bodyguard business, which operates on the shady side of the law. That's when things descend ...

2.5/4 Starring: Chrisitan Bale, Chloe Sevigny, Willem Dafoe, Josh Lucas, Reese Witherspoon, Justin Theroux, Matt Ross, Samantha Mathis, Cara Seymour, Bill Sage The version of the film being reviewed is the unrated one.  For the record, the theatrical cut was rated R for Strong Violence, Sexuality, Drug Use, and Language For about half the film, "American Psycho" has all the elements of a evilly funny black comedy: biting satire, vicious humor, despicable characters and a director who pulls no punches.  Of course, this isn't really enough for a 90 minute movie, so director Mary Harron shifts gears and turns the film into a psychological thriller (albeit a somewhat unorthodox one).  But for that to happen, we have to have some sympathy for the central character.  But since he's Patrick Bateman, that's not possible. Patrick Bateman (Bale) is one of the great psychos in film history.  He's a narcissist to the extreme, shockingly superficial, and kills p...

1.5/4 Starring: Carrie-Anne Moss, Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Simon Baker, Benjamin Bratt, Terrence Stamp Rated PG-13 for Sci-Fi Violence, Brief Nudity and Brief Language It's always obvious when a movie makes up the story as it goes along.  Never has it been more painfully obvious than with "Red Planet," a dull, shallow and dreadfully boring science-fiction "thriller."  Not only is it filled with stupid cliches, but they're partially baked cliches.  The characters are so undeveloped that calling them stick figures would be grossly overstating their depth, the plot has ADD, and director Antony Hoffman is completely incapable of handling a $70 million project like this. "Red Planet's" release date was pushed back twice, and it's not hard to see why.  It has the potential to be a intense science-fiction thriller along the lines of "Alien" mixed with "2001: A Space Odyssey" (or so I assume, since I haven't seen th...