Mike's Movie Tips

2.5/4 Starring: Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Manish Dayal, Charlotte Le Bon Rated PG for Thematic Elements, Some Violence, Language and Brief Sensuality There a few really good "food" movies out there: movies that create such wonderful images of food and cooking that you wish you could touch the screen and dive into the feast.  Some examples include the indie hit "Big Night," and the early Ang Lee masterpiece "Eat Drink Man Woman."  The highly talented Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom has tried to create another entry in the genre, and while it certainly has its pleasures, it doesn't have enough juice to succeed.  Pun intended. The Kadam clan is a family of culinary geniuses.  They owned a very successful restaurant in India until an act of political violence cost them the restaurant and the life of the matriarch.  Papa (Puri) has decided to pack up everything and head to Europe.  He eventually decides to buy a restaurant in a small French province, ...

2/4 Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Sean Bean, Carice Van Houten, Kimberley Nixon Rated R for Strong Brutal Violence and Some Language A good movie needs one of two things to succeed (or preferably both): an engaging story and strong characters.  Without them the movie will tank.  That's what happens here with "Black Death."  The story is thin and trite and the characters aren't very interesting. The film takes place in the year 1349.  The Black Death, or "pestilence," as it's called here, is in full swing.  A young monk named Edmund (Redmayne) is debating whether or not to leave the monastery he calls home to flee the city with his lover, Averill (Nixon).  He gets his answer when a man named Ulric (Bean) comes to the monastery looking for a guide.  He's going to the same place to hunt a necromancer, and Edmund thinks that this means that God is telling him that he should meet up with Averill.  Of course, nothing turns out like he expects. The...

1/4 Starring: Brenton Thwaites, Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Odeya Rush, Katie Holmes, Alexander Skarsgard, Cameron Monaghan, Taylor Swift Rated PG-13 for a Mature Thematic Image and Some Action/Violence When I heard that Lois Lowry's powerful and haunting novel was being adapted for the screen, I thought, "It's about time."  The novel was published 1993, with three sequels that followed in the years since (which surprised me, since I've never heard of them).  Given Hollywood's obsession with special effects and toning down everything to appeal to those with the lowest IQs, I was nervous.  Still, the novel is still widely read in middle schools, so I was hopeful that the filmmakers would realize that the majority of the audience would be able to grasp its complexities and rich thematic material.  No such luck. Philip Noyce's film version, which Jeff Bridges has been trying to make for the past 20 years, is exactly what I feared the film would be.  I...

3.5/4 Starring (voices): Barrie Ingham, Vincent Price, Val Bettin, Susanne Pollatschek Rated G Somehow, if he had lived to see it, I don't think that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would have imagined his most famous character, Sherlock Holmes, to be brought to the screen quite like this.  Not only is it an animated movie featuring mice as the lead characters, it features three song and dance numbers and ends with a fight on Big Ben.  Still, I'd like to think that he'd be at least entertained if nothing else. Actually, "The Great Mouse Detective" is not directly based off of the most frequently adapted character in cinema.  It's comes from a book series called "Basil of Baker Street," although the similarities are so numerous that the filmmakers do little to hide them.  Basil Rathbone's (who is widely considered to have given the definitive portrayal of the famous detective) archived voice is even used in one brief scene.  Everything is there, fr...

2.5/4 Starring: Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mickey Rourke, Eva Green, Powers Boothe, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Bruce Willis Rated R for Strong Brutal Stylized Violence Throughout, Sexual Content, Nudity, and Brief Drug Use " Sin City " was a breath of fresh air.  It was a dark, brutal and ultra-violent film noir that packed a knockout punch.  It used the panels from Frank Miller's graphic novels as storyboards for the film, giving it a unique look and personality.  The long-awaited follow up, "Sin City: A Dame to Kill For," attempts to replicate its success, but there's something missing. As was the case in the first film, there are three interlocking stories that are (mostly) told consecutively.  First up is "Just Another Saturday Night," where the heavily scarred hulk Marv (Rourke) hunts down a bunch of violent frat boys.  "The Long Bad Night" has Johnny (Gordon-Levitt) in a poker battle with the vicious Senator Roark...

3/4 Starring: Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell, Donald Sutherland, Mark Strong, Tahar Rahim The version being reviewed is unrated.  For the record, the theatrical version is rated PG-13 for Battle Sequences and Some Disturbing Images The mystery of the Ninth Legion (correctly labeled as Legio IX Hispana) has fascinated students of history for decades (it was also the focus of Neil Marshall's underrated adventure, " Centurion ").  It went to North Britannia and was never seen again.  While there are theories about what happened to it, no definitive archaeological evidence exists, and it is unlikely that we will ever know conclusively what happened to the 5,000 soldiers in the legion. Kevin MacDonald's film, "The Eagle" doesn't attempt to provide the answer.  It's based on a work of fiction by Rosemary Sutcliff.  Instead, it uses the incident as a jumping off point for an adventure with a roman soldier and his slave. Marcus Flavius Aquila (Tatum) h...

3/4 Starring: John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy, Moon Bloodgood, Adam Arkin Rated R for Strong Sexuality including Graphic Nudity and Frank Dialogue Sex is so volatile and controversial in American culture that even the most open-minded person feels like they are in a pretzel of moral and social conundrums.  It's a shame, really, since it's universally agreed that it's one of the best things about life.  So it's rare to find a movie like "The Sessions," which strips it of all its controversy and treats it exactly like a sex surrogate would: professionally. Mark O'Brien (Hawkes) has been crippled by polio since the age of 6.  He is required to sit in an iron lung for most of the day and requires constant care.  But after he becomes attracted to Amanda (Annika Marks), his new nurse, he realizes that he's never had sex with a woman, and with the urging of his priest, Father Brendan (Macy), he seeks to do the deed.  He hires a sex therapist ...