Mike's Movie Tips

3/4 Starring: Andy Garcia, Julianna Margulies, Ezra Miller, Steven Strait, Emily Mortimer, Dominik Garcia-Lorido Rated PG-13 for Sexual Content, Smoking and Language The first time I watched "City Island," I didn't like it.  I said in my review (in general), "the characters in this film do three things: smoke, lie and talk in low gravelly voices."  But a number of the scenes and characters got stuck in my head, and after seeing the trailer again and reading reviews, I decided to give it another shot. I'm glad I did.  "City Island" is a lot of fun. The Rizzos are a dysfunctional family living in the Bronx.  Vince (Garcia) is a blue-collar prison guard who is so ashamed of his love for acting that he lies about taking an acting class to his wife and says that he's going to a poker game.  Naturally, his wife Joyce (Margulies), doesn't believe this for a second, and thinks he's having an affair.  His daughter Vivian (Garcia-Lorido) ...

2.5/4 Starring: Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy, Simon McBurney, David Oyelowo, Gillian Anderson, Kerry Washington Rated R for Some Strong Violence and Gruesome Images, Sexual Content and Language In a world where media is free (or at least the rumor mill is), everyone in the news has to be a showman.  Idi Amin understood that.  He was a charismatic leader; he had the presence to draw one's attention simply by standing there. and the deep dramatic voice helped a lot too.  He also had a sense of humor and loved to have fun.  Of course, that doesn't mean much once people realize that you're killing everyone who speaks against you. Nicholas Garrigan (McAvoy) is a young Scotsman who has just graduated from medical school.  Eager to escape the shadow of his father, he spins a globe and decides to go the first place his finger lands on (after Canada).  In no short order, he has found himself in Uganda working at a clinic.  That's when he first sees the...

3/4 Starring: Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, Jeanne Tripplehorn, George Dzundza The version being reviewed is the unrated one.  For the record, the theatrical cut was rated R for Strong Violence and Sexuality, and for Drug Use and Language "See, the problem is that God gives men a brain and a penis, but only enough blood to run one at a time."-Robin Williams That's Detective Nick Curran's problem.  He's so infatuated with Catherine Tramell that thinks that he can outsmart a killer who has always been one step ahead. The film opens with a gruesome murder.  A man is having a night of rough sex with a beautiful blonde woman.  Things get kinkier when she ties his hands up against the bedposts.  That's when she grabs an icepick and stabs him in a frenzy.  Curran (Douglas) is on the case, and the woman who was with him last night is Catherine Tramell (Stone), a wealthy inheritor and author.  Incidentally, she wrote a book about the crime that she i...

1.5/4 Starring: Mariel Hemingway, Michael Pare, Mason Gamble, Primo Rated R for Horror Violence and Gore, Brief Language, and a Scene of Sexuality More so than Roger Ebert, James Berardinelli is my favorite film critic.  I first recall reading his review of "L.A. Confidential" (a movie I didn't like) and found him to be one of those wannabe hoitey toitey critics than only loves the popular movies.  But the more I read, the more I respected his opinion, and am now a devoted reader of Reelviews.net.  It is thanks to him that I've seen some truly good movies, like " Once Were Warriors ," "The War Zone," and " Before Sunrise " (I've also seen some movies I didn't like even though he gave them positive reviews, although none were awful).  But his strong writing capabilities sometimes, in what I wholeheartedly would be his honest opinion, backfire.  What really turned me onto his site is his vicious tearing into of a number of bad...

2.5/4 Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Sung Kang, Jason Momoa, Sarah Shahi, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Christian Slater, Jon Seda Rated R for Strong Violence, Bloody Images, Language, Some Nudity and Brief Drug Use When we go see a movie, we expect to be told a story.  Lots of action is fine (in fact, it's encouraged), but the audience expects more than a series of shootouts.  Sadly, that's what happens with "Bullet to the Head."  As the great critic Dustin Putman pointed out, "Bullet to the Head" is aptly titled: nearly every scene where a gun is pulled, someone gets put down with a...bullet to the head. James Bonomo, aka Jimmy Bobo (Stallone), has just finished a hit with his partner Louis (Seda), and they're waiting at a bar to get payment from the man who hired them.  Little do they know that they're about to be had.  Another killer, the nastier than nasty Keegan (Momoa), is there waiting for them.  He expertly dispatches Louis, leaving Jimmy...

2.5/4 Starring: Jude Law, Rooney Mara, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Channing Tatum Rated R for Sexuality, Nudity, Violence and Language "Side Effects" is what happens when the screenwriter and director are not on the same page (ironically, this is the third collaboration between writer Scott Z. Burns and director Steven Sodebergh...the other two being "The Informant!" and " Contagion ," respectively).  Burns's script is a cross between "Primal Fear" and "Basic Instinct," while Sodebergh thinks the film is more cerebral and an examination of guilt and responsibility.  The result is a film that, while never uninteresting, doesn't really work. Emily Taylor (Mara) is feeling a mixture of happiness and anxiety.  Her husband Martin (Tatum) is about to be released from a 3 year prison term for insider trading.  Both love each other very much, and are determined to work together to get back on their feet.  That's when Emily's c...

3.5/4 Starring: Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke, Rosario Dawson, Powers Boothe, Nick Stahl, Jessica Alba, Devin Aoki, Elijah Wood, Carla Gugino, Benicio Del Toro, Michael Madsen, Alexis Bledel Rated R for Sustained Strong Stylized Violence, Nudity and Sexual Content including Dialogue More than anything else, "Sin City" is a comic book brought to life.  Oh sure, comic books are slapped onto film as fast as Hollywood can buy the rights.  But never before, or since, has there been a comic book movie like this.  Directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller (who authored the comics upon which the film is based) used the comic panels as storyboards. The film tells three stories: two in the middle that are squeezed in the middle of a third.  The first (and last) involves Hartigan (Willis), a cop with a bad heart on the verge of retirement.  Before he turns in his badge at the end of his shift, he wants to close one last case: the son of a powerful senat...