Mike's Movie Tips

2/4 Starring: Dougray Scott, Kate Winslet, Jeremy Northam, Saffron Burrows, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Tom Hollander, Matthew MacFayden Rated R for A Sex Scene and Language There is something intrinsically exciting about a World War II movie.  The deadliest and most complex conflict in human history, the number of stories that can be told about that conflict (real and fictitious) are limitless.  "Enigma," based on the novel by Robert Harris, is one such story, but after watching it I would have rather spent my time and money watching something else. With a pedigree like this, it's rare that a movie turns out to be this bad.  It was directed by Michael Apted, acclaimed for his documentary franchise "The Up Series" and the James Bond flick "The World is Not Enough."  The screenplay was written by playwright Tom Stoppard, who wrote the grossly overrated "Shakespeare in Love" and Terry Gilliam's cult classic "Brazil."  It was pr...

3.5/4 Starring: Dennis Weaver, Carey Loftin Rated PG (probably for Terror/Violence) Everyone has those times where there's some driver who seems to be actively trying to make their lives miserable.  I recall one terrifying experience where I had to play a game of chicken on the highway with a meathead in a Hummer.  Of course, stories like that are the exception rather than the rule.  Most times, the driver who becomes your mortal enemy for two minutes straight is simply distracted or not very skilled.  Unfortunately for David Mann (Weaver), he's going to run into an exception of the worst kind. David Mann is a salesman driving from one unspecified destination to another.  His wife (Jacqueline Scott) wants him home on time, and David assures her he will be.  On the way to meet with a client, he gets stuck behind a gas truck so rusted that you could get tetanus just by looking at it.  It's belches out oily smoke that makes him cough, so naturally...

1.5/4 Starring: Billy Crystal, Danny DeVito, Anne Ramsey, Kim Greist, Kate Mulgrew Rated PG-13 (probably for Violence and Some Language) Anyone who knows me knows that I have a dark sense of humor.  The blacker and more twisted, the better.  Witness my glowing admiration for " Burke and Hare ," for example.  Or " Santa's Slay ."  So with Billy Crystal and Danny DeVito in the film, and DeVito (who is a master at this sort of thing) directing, I thought I would love this.  A twisted take on "Strangers on a Train?"  Sign me up.  The difference between the two comedies I mentioned is that they were actually funny.  This isn't. Larry Donner (Crystal) is steaming mad.  His ex-wife Margaret (Mulgrew) took credit for his book, which became a bestseller.  While she's living it up in Maui, he's stuck teaching creative writing at a local community college to a bunch of freaks and weirdos.  One of those is a pudgy man named Owen (DeVito...

3.5/4 Starring: Ian Holm, Sarah Polley, Bruce Greenwood, Gabrielle Rose, Alberta Watson Rated R for Sexuality and Some Language The word "sweet" in this film's title, "The Sweet Hereafter," is tragically ironic.  There is nothing sweet about this film, or at least nothing that doesn't have a cloud of tragedy hanging over it because we know what the future holds.  This is a sad story.  The characters are sad, the plot is sad, even the weather seems to project an air of sadness. "The Sweet Hereafter" is ostensibly about a bus accident that took the lives of many schoolchildren, although the crash itself is but a minor detail.  Rather, the film examines how the tragedy has fundamentally altered the small, close-knit town in which it had occurred.  Atom Egoyan's approach to the story, where he shows a scene and comes back later to show how that scene came to be, ensures that the aftermath is the focus of the film as opposed to the accident ...

2.5/4 Starring: Liam Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, Jessie T. Usher, Maika Monroe, William Fitchner, Nicolas Wright, Charlotte Gainsbourg Rated PG-13 for Sequences of Sci-Fi Action and Destruction, and for Some Language " Independence Day " was a surprise hit, becoming the highest grossing movie and, for a while, the #2 all-time box office champ.  It also catapulted Will Smith into the Hollywood stratosphere, establishing that black men could headline movies (although Hollywood still doesn't get it, despite the fact that audiences want it).  The two men behind the project, Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, were paid to create sequels, but returned the money when they couldn't find a good story.  Although "Independence Day: Resurgence" is not a bad movie, I think they should have waited a bit longer to make it. In the 20 years since the War of '96, Earth, realizing the potential if they set aside petty differences for a common goal, is at peace.  They h...

3/4 Starring: Mickey Rourke, Lisa Bonet, Robert DeNiro, Charlotte Rampling Rated R (probably for Disturbing Violent and Sexual Content including Graphic Bloody Images, Language and a Drug Reference) "Angel Heart" is a fusion of film-noir and gothic horror.  It makes sense; both genres deal with the darker side of human nature and tend to be violent and scary.  "Angel Heart" combines the sensibilities and style of a Humphrey Bogart movie and mixes it with Christianity and voodoo, explicit sex and bloody violence, and a fear of chickens.  Surprisingly, it works. New York City, 1955.  Harry Angel (Rourke) is a small-time private dick who has received a new case.  A mysterious man named Louis Cyphre (DeNiro) wants him to track down a crooner by the name of Johnny Favorite.  Apparently, Favorite has a debt to Cyphre, and the man wants to collect.  The case takes Harry from Harlem to Louisiana, with bodies piling up, he soon realizes that he got more...

3.5/4 Not Rated (probable PG-13 for Violent and Disturbing Images) I was born in 1988, so my memory of the disaster in Waco, Texas is next to nil.  My knowledge of what happened to the Branch Davidians was that it was a similar incident to Jim Jones and the People's Temple: a charismatic fruitcake brainwashed many people into worshiping him as a prophet and when they became violent, the government intervened and they committed mass suicide.  According to the documentary "Waco: The Rules of Engagement," nothing from that statement is true in any way, shape or form. The Branch Davidians were classified as a cult, but as the documentary informs us, this movement, an off-shoot of the widely recognized Seventh Day Adventist part of Christianity, actually started in the 1930's.  And while David Koresh did consider himself a prophet, he wasn't the only one to do so.  Nor did any of the surviving Branch Davidians act in ways that are consistent with cult behavior. ...