Mike's Movie Tips

2/4 Starring: Michael Beck, James Remar, Deborah Van Valkenburgh, David Patrick Kelly, Dorsey Wright, Brian Tyler, David Harris, Tom McKitterick, Marcelino Sanchez, Terry Michos, Lynne Thigpen Rated R for Violence and Language On the basis of style and visual flair, "The Warriors" is a flat-out triumph.  The film looks fantastic .  It is so rare to find a movie that looks great without being ostentatious, and Walter Hill manages to do this.  But when it comes to other areas, like plot and characterization, it comes up short.  Simply put, this is not a well-written motion picture. The film takes place in the near future from when the film was released (1979).  Gangs rule the city, and there are a lot of them.  All combined, they outnumber the police three to one.  That's why Cyrus (Roger Hill), the leader of the most powerful gang in the city, makes a play for this gangs to join forces so they can rule the city.  It's going well until he is...

1.5/4 Starring: Paul Walker, David Belle, RZA, Catalina Denis, Ayisha Denis, Bruce Ramsay Rated PG-13 for Frenetic Gunplay, Violence and Action Throughout, Language, Sexual Menace and Drug Material I almost didn't see this movie.  Paul Walker was favorite screen star, and I had a huge crush on him.  So when I heard of his death last year, I was devastated.  I feared that it would be too painful.  But I saw it anyway, and unfortunately, it's pretty lame. Few things are worse than bad action movies, and "Brick Mansions" is one of them.  The film is constantly moving, but there's no point to it all.  I didn't care about the plot (which is very lame), and it takes itself far too seriously. In 2018, Detroit is a war zone.  The worst part of town is Brick Mansions, a housing project that is a cross between Cabrini-Green and Estonia as portrayed in " Lilya-4-Ever ."  The mayor wants to tear it all down and rebuild, but the question remains abou...

2.5/4 Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Anna Paquin, Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Gabriel Mann Rated R for Violence, Drug Content, Strong Language, and Some Sexuality "Buffalo Soldiers" was as much a victim of timing as it was anything else.  It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on September 9, 2001.  Naturally, after the horrors that occurred two days later, the market for a black comedy about soldiers running a drug ring dried up almost instantaneously.  The film would be slammed as being "unpatriotic," and two years later a woman in the audience threw a plastic water bottle at the filmmakers during a Q&A session in an outrage over the film's presentation of American soldiers. While I can see that point of view, it's a little misguided and unfair.  It's not so much that these guys are bad people, it's that they're stuck with nothing to do.  Selling stuff on the black market simply fills up time. Elwood (Phoenix) loves three things about ...

3.5/4 Starring: Adam Butcher, Campbell Scott, Gordon Pinsent, Jennifer Tilly, Michael Kanev, Tamara Hope Rated PG-13 for Some Sexual Content and Brief Nudity Inspirational stories are a dime a dozen.  Few are as enthusiastic or entertaining as "Saint Ralph." Ralph (Butcher) is a gawky, socially awkward freshman at a Catholic high school in Canada.  His hormones are just starting to act up, which runs him afoul of the headmaster, a stern man named Father Fitzpatrick (Pinsent).  In other words, he's your average teenager.  His father died in the war and his mother is in the hospital, Ralph is also living on his own.  When his mother falls into a coma, a sympathetic nurse named Alice (Tilly) tells him that it will take a miracle to wake her up.  After a cutting remark from his cross country coach, Father Hibbert (Scott), Ralph decides that he'll perform a miracle by winning the Boston marathon.  Reluctantly coached by Father Hibbert, Ralph sets ou...

3/4 Starring: Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence, Sean Chapman, Andrew Robinson, Doug Bradley Rated R (probably for Extreme Horror Violence and Gore and for Some Language) "Hellraiser" is a frightening little horror film with some nice performances and impressive special effects.  On that level, I recommend the film.  However it must be said that this is a very disturbing and extremely graphic film that will turn off many who try to watch it. Julia (Higgins) is not particularly enthused about moving from the city into the house that once belonged to her husband Larry's (Robinson) parents.  It was also lived in by his brother, Frank (Chapman), and judging by appearances, he was still living there before he disappeared (I think that's how it went...the film isn't too clear about this).  Actually, Julia's coldness isn't so much the move, but the fact that she's living with Larry when she was really in love with Jack.  Jack had an affinity for t...

2.5/4 Starring: Billy Zane, Kristy Swanson, Treat Williams, James Remar, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Bill Smitrovich, Patrick McGoohan Rated PG for Action/Adventure Violence and Some Mild Language Superheroes were much more interesting when they kept things simple.  Good guy wears costume, fights evil.  The trend towards Shakespearean tragedy or being bigger and more extravagant than the last one has made the comics and their film counterparts lose sight of why we go these movies in the first place: to see the likable hero kick ass, defeat the villain, and of course get the girl.  " The Dark Knight " is a great movie, but sometimes we want something more innocent and fun. "The Phantom," based on the comic by Lee Falk, remembers this.  It's got all the hallmarks of the simple adventure yarns that everyone loves to romanticize but no one wants to make anymore.  The tough but sensitive hero who holds a torch for the rich girl, the villain bent on obtaining a MacG...

1/4 Starring: Wesley Snipes, Marie Matiko, Anne Archer, Maury Chaykin, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Donald Sutherland, Michael Biehn, James Hong Rated R for Strong Violence, Some Sexuality, Language and Brief Drug Content "The Art of War" was a military treatise that was written nearly 2500 years ago by Sun Tzu, and its ideas have been used ever since.  But that is incidental to the film that takes its name from Tzu's work.  For the most part, Tzu's philosophies have little to do with the film itself; they're barely mentioned a few times at the end.  The real story is a complete bore. Alex Shaw (Snipes) is an operative for the United Nations whose assignments are always on the shady side of the law.  Now, shortly before the signing of a trade agreement between China and the West, which was facilitated by the Secretary-General (Sutherland), a Chinese Ambassador (Wong) is assassinated.  Shaw is fingered for the crime, and he and a pretty translator named Julia Fa...