Mike's Movie Tips

3/4 Starring: Kevin Costner, Rene Russo, Cheech Marin, Ben Johnson Rated R for Language and Brief Nudity I'm not a golfer.  Like half the people who play golf, it seems, I can't swing a golf club to save my life.  I did try, actually.  I was on the golf team for two years in high school, and on the one day where I got to compete in a match, I broke my driver on the first swing.  Yeah, I'm that bad. Anyway, "Tin Cup" is said to be a romantic comedy, and while those elements are definitely there, it works better as a sports movie (the same is true of another romantic comedy/sports movie, "The Cutting Edge," although that one didn't really work because the director thought it was a rom-com when it was really a sports movie).  Its stars, Kevin Costner and Rene Russo, have chemistry, but their interaction is shortchanged for the underdog story.  Doesn't matter, though.  The movie is still fun. Roy "Tin Cup" McAvoy (Costner) is an e...

3/4 Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jaimie Alexander, Eduardo Noriega, Rodrigo Santoro, Luis Guzman, Zach Gilford, Johnny Knoxville, Forest Whitaker Rated R for Strong Bloody Violence Throughout, and Language During the 1980's and 1990's, there was no bigger action star than Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Sure, Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone gave him a run for his money, but Arnold reigned king.  He debuted on the screen in 1969 with "Hercules in New York," but his real fame came thirteen years later when he starred in "Conan the Barbarian."  Two years after that, his superstardom was assured, when he stepped in front of the camera for James Cameron and played the iconic role of the Terminator.  His star faded a little by the end of the nineties, and when he entered politics in 2003, he all but vanished from the screen (he did appear in a few cameos over the next 8 years).  But when you're as big as Arnold Schwarzenegger, you can never really fade a...

2.5/4 Starring: Wallace Shawn, Andre Gregory How does one begin to review "My Dinner with Andre"?  For one thing, by clearly stating that it is not a normal film.  The 1981 arthouse smash has little of what we expect from a traditional movie.  Save for two extremely short book-ending sequences, the film takes place entirely at a restaurant and almost always between two characters, Wally Shawn and Andre Gregory. Wally Shawn (Shawn) is a struggling playwright and actor who is meeting an old friend: his mentor, Andre Gregory (Gregory).  They were very close, but a few years ago, Andre fell off the radar and no one heard from him for years.  Now he's returned, and an unnamed friend insists that the slightly burned Wally have dinner with him. In terms of plot, that's all there is.  It's really just two hours of these two men (mostly Andre) talking.  One might assume that watching two men eat and talk would be boring, and they would be righ...

2/4 Starring: Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Emma Stone, Giovanni Ribisi, Robert Patrick, Michael Pena Rated R for Strong Violence and Language "Gangster Squad" acquired a certain degree of infamy after the Aurora tragedy because the trailer, which featured a shooting at a movie theater, was pulled and the film reshot to omit the scene.  Frankly, that's the only thing worth mentioning about this film because, like many January releases, there's not much else to say about it. Los Angeles, 1949.  The City of Angels is ruled with an iron fist by Jewish gangster Mickey Cohen (Penn), who believes that ruling the city is his destiny.  He has a judge who, for a fee, will free any of his cohorts, so he's essentially untouchable.  The Chief of Police (Nolte) decides to fight fire with fire.  He tells one of the few police officers with the guts to save a girl from being raped by one of Cohen's underlings, a man named Sgt. John O'Mara (Bro...

2.5/4 Starring: Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton, Famke Janssen, Pihla Viitala, Thomas Mann, Peter Stormare Rated R for Strong Fantasy Horror Violence and Gore, Brief Sexuality/Nudity and Language "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters" would be a guilty pleasure if it had more little pleasures.  The plot is thinner than one-ply toilet paper and the performances are lazy all around.  Still, the fight scenes are pretty cool. As young children, Hansel and Gretel were abandoned by their father in the middle of the woods.  They find their way to a house that, as we all know, is made of candy.  Inside, they find an ugly witch who wants to cook them alive.  But she is defeated by her two captives and roasted herself.  Now, these two orphans have grown up to become Hansel (Renner) and Gretel (Arterton): Witch Hunters.  But with more and more kids being snatched by evil witches, it becomes clear that the Grand High Witch, a nasty piece of work named Muriel (...

1.5/4 Starring: Jessica Chastain, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Megan Charpentier, Isabelle Nelisse, Daniel Kash Rated PG-13 for Violence and Terror, Some Disturbing Images and Thematic Elements Generally speaking, January isn't the best time to release a horror movie.  People are catching up on the Oscar bait movies, trying to stick to their New Years resolutions of eating less and exercising more, and staying out of the bitter cold as much as possible.  So when a major studio releases a movie that's intended to scare the living hell out of people in January, it's usually (although not always) a bad sign.  Unfortunately, that's the case here. Shortly after the financial meltdown, Jeffrey (Coster-Waldau) shoots his wife and flees with his two daughters.  After the car runs off the road, Jeffrey takes them to a remote cabin, intending to kill them and himself.  But something stops them. Jeffrey's hipster brother Lucas (also Coster-Waldau) hasn't given up searc...

2/4 Starring: Jeremy Renner, Artel Kayaru, Matt Newton, Bruce Davison, Kate Williamson, Dion Basco Rated R for Aberrant Violence, Sexuality, Language and Some Drug Use Surely a figure as notorious and horrifying as Jeffrey Dahmer, convicted cannibalistic serial killer, deserves a more compelling biopic than this.  Strictly speaking, this is less of a biopic than a character study, but despite the best efforts of its star, "Dahmer" fails to develop Jeffrey into a three dimensional figure. "Dahmer" doesn't really have much of a plot.  Instead, it's mostly a series of interactions between Jeffrey (Renner) and three men: a gay man named Rodney (Kayaru), a straight teen named Lance (Newton), and his father, Lionel (Davison).  Interspersed with it are montages and clips of Jeffrey. What saves this film from being a complete and utter waste of time are the performances.  All four leads are excellent.  Renner can always be counted on for a performance that...