Mike's Movie Tips

3/4 Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Josh Hartnett, Michelle Williams, Adam Arkin, Jodi-Lynn O'Keefe, Adam Hann-Byrd, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Janet Leigh Rated R for Terror Violence/Gore and Language "Halloween H20" was the brainchild of star Jamie Lee Curtis.  She thought it would be a good idea to finish the franchise once and for all, bringing back not only her character, Laurie Strode but John Carpenter as well.  Carpenter ultimately declined to return, so in his place we have Steve Miner, a director-for-hire (he did direct the first two "Friday the 13th" sequels, though).  All things considered, this is a lot of fun.  For a horror movie. Laurie Strode (Curtis) has spent the last 20 years living in fear that her brother, Michael Myers (Chris Durand), will come back to kill her.  She's not handling it very well.  She faked her death, changed her name, moved to Northern California to become the headmaster of a private prep school, and in the words of her...

2/4 Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Lance Guest, Dick Warlock, Gloria Gifford Rated R (probably for Strong Violence/Gore, Some Language, Sexuality/Nudity and Brief Drug Use) The success of " Halloween " took everyone by surprise.  Initially written off as a generic horror flick, a short article in "The Village Voice" saved it from a future covered in dust and lint.  Soon, critics began to see that there was more to this movie than meets the eye.  Audiences did too, and the film ended up becoming the most successful independent film of all time for a long while. So it was inevitable that a sequel would be made.  Directed by Rick Rosenthal, who was hand-picked by John Carpenter himself, "Halloween II" entered into theaters four years after the original.  Unfortunately, slasher movies had evolved (or should that be "de-volved"?) into cheap, schlocky gorefests at that time.  Rosenthal wanted to keep it bloodless like the origina...

3.5/4 Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Nancy Loomis, P.J. Soles, Charles Cyphers, Tony Moran Rated R (probably for Strong Violence, Pervasive Terror, Sexuality/Nudity and Brief Drug Use) "Halloween" might be just another low-budget horror flick gathering dust on the shelves of discount video stores (if it survived the next 40 years at all) had it not been for a complimentary review in "The Village Voice" by critic Tom Allen (for anyone who is curious, the review can be found here ).  His writing caused critics and audiences to see this low-budget chiller for what it is: a terrifying horror film. On Halloween night, Judith Myers (Sandy Johnson) is getting ready for bed after her date when she is brutally stabbed to death.  It is only when the killer is unmasked that we realize that the killer is her six-year old brother Michael (Will Sandin). Fifteen years later, the Myers house has fallen into disrepair, and according to the local children, is...

3/4 Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, Charlie Hunnam, Jim Beaver Rated R for Bloody Violence, Some Sexual Content and Brief Strong Language "Crimson Peak" is Gothic horror in overdrive.  No one does this sort of thing better than Guillermo del Toro, who does not understand the meaning of the word "subtlety," which in this case is a good thing.  This is a grand, spooky tale with dilapidated mansions, buried secrets, and of course, ghosts. Edythe Cushing (Wasikowska) is would-be novelist living in New York at around the turn of the century.  She lives with her father, Carter (Beaver), a wealthy business mogul, and a handsome young man named Alan (Hunnam), who has long held a torch for Edythe, has returned to town a wealthy doctor.  Also in town are Thomas Sharpe (Hiddleston) and his sister Lucille (Chastain).  He's working on an invention that will bring up oil-rich clay and is hoping that Carter will put up money to invest....

3/4 Starring: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Scott Shepard, Austin Stowell, Mikhail Gorevoy, Amy Ryan, Alan Alda, Sebastian Koch, Will Rogers Rated PG-13 for Some Violence and Brief Strong Language Even to people who aren't encyclopedias of movie knowledge, Steven Spielberg is a known name.  That's because he's been the man behind some of cinemas finest (and most bankable) achievements.  The list of beloved films he has directed is incredible: " Schindler's List ," " Saving Private Ryan ," " Jurassic Park ," " Minority Report," " Munich ," "E.T.," " Raiders of the Lost Ark ," "Jaws" (not one of his better films, in my opinion).  But he hasn't made anything truly memorable for the better part of a decade (while there are those who believe that "Lincoln" was a return to form, I'm not one of them).  So the question is whether or not his newest film, the Cold War dramatic thrill...

2/4 Starring: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Veronica Cartwright, Jeff Goldblum, Leonard Nimoy Rated PG (for Some Violence/Gore and Nudity) Why is it so hard to make a truly good doppleganger movie?  I mean, the concept almost writes itself!  Is there anything creepier than to live in a place where everyone has been secretly replaced with an alien intelligence?  Apparently so, since the list of failures is long (John Carpenter's " They Live ," "Abel Ferrara's own take on the story, "Body Snatchers," and let's not forget the fourth iteration of the story, "The Invasion" with Nicole Kidman and Stephanie Meyer's "The Host").  The only good worth seeing is " The Thing ," which while effective in its own right, leaves room for improvement. To be fair, paranoia is hard to make cinematic.  It takes a truly innovative director, like Alfred Hitchcock, to do it.  Sadly, Philip Kaufman isn't it.  While he has mad...

3/4 Starring: Levi Miller, Hugh Jackman, Garrett Hedlund, Rooney Mara, Adeel Akhtar, Nonzo Alonzie, Kathy Burke, Amanda Seyfried Rated PG for Fantasy Action Violence, Language, and Some Thematic Material "Pan" is closer to a misfire than an outright success.  The prequel to "Peter Pan" is already notorious for being a box office bomb, and while it has some serious problems, overall I came out of the theater with a smile on my face and a skip in my step.  Not many movies can make that claim. Peter (Miller) is a young orphan living in London during World War II.  At night, some of his fellow orphans disappear.  It isn't long before he figures out what happened to them.  Sky pirates have kidnapped them and taken them to Neverland.  There, they're forced to work in a mine for a nasty villain named Blackbeard (Jackman).  Blackbeard takes a special interest in Peter because he believes that this young boy is the prophecy that can destroy him.  B...