Mike's Movie Tips

2/4 Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Yancy Butler, Lance Henrickson, Arnold Vosloo, Wilford Brimley, Kasi Lemmons Rated R for A Great Amount of Strong Violence, and for Language "Hard Target" opens with a man being relentlessly pursued by a group of men.  They're heavily armed, he is defenseless.  Slowly but surely, they run him down.  They savor every shot, every look of terror and desperation on his face, before they finally put him out of his misery.  As sick as this scene is, it's a solid way to start the movie.  If only the film had stayed on that level. Nat Binder (Butler) has just arrived in New Orleans looking for her father.  She hasn't seen him in years, but they kept in touch.  When the letters stopped coming, she came looking.  The police are no help, so she enlists the help of Chance Boudreaux (Van Damme), the man with the ugly mullet who came to her rescue when she was mugged.  The body of Nat's father is found soon...

3.5/4 Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Matt O'Leary, Jeremy Sumpter, Powers Boothe Rated R for Violence and Some Language One of my hobbies is to go on the American Family Association's Facebook page and get into spirited debates about certain issues.  Usually regarding Target's policy of allowing transpeople use the bathroom that they identify with, although they support any right-wing cause.  As hilarious as the banter sometimes gets, it's sometimes very scary.  The blind faith of some of these individuals in the face of logic or the realities of our legal system, or even the hypocrisy that they are unable to see.  Traits like that from religion can take people down a very dark path.  "Frailty" is about one such individual. A man named Fenton Meiks (McConaughey) has arrived at the office of FBI Agent Wesley Doyle (Boothe).  Doyle is heading the investigation into the notorious God's Hand serial killer, and Fenton claims that the killer...

3/4 Starring: Tom Hanks, Audrey Tatou, Ian McKellan, Paul Bettany, Alfred Molina, Jean Reno, Jurgen Prochnow Rated PG-13 for Disturbing Images, Violence, Some Nudity, Thematic Material, Brief Drug References and Sexual Content I recall reading "The Da Vinci Code" in my room during the time when its popularity, and its ensuing controversy, was at its heyday.  It was a breathless thriller; smartly written, frantically paced and fascinating to ponder.  I saw the film with my dad, who was also a fan of the book.  There was no possible way for the film to replicate the breakneck speed with which I flipped those pages.  It wasn't until after I saw it a second time that I appreciated it more.  I guess this is an example of the situation that many critics talk about when they claim that some books or stories aren't inherently cinematic and either can't be filmed or must be substantially altered to do so.  Still, Ron Howard's interpretation of the novel, which...

1.5/4 Starring: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Oded Fehr, Iain Glen, Jason O'Mara, Mike Epps Rated R for Strong Horror Violence Throughout and Some Nudity Suspension of disbelief is a common necessity for many movies to work.  For example, when watching " The Lord of the Rings ," we have to accept that Middle Earth is real.  When watching " The Peacemaker ," we have to be willing to believe that two people can play a life-and-death game of bumper cars on the streets of Vienna and survive with no serious injury (or any significant coverage by the news).  For a zombie movie to work, we have to believe that it is possible for the dead to come back to life and have an insatiable desire for human flesh.  I'll accept that.  I'll even go so far as to accept that it's possible to have secret research labs the size of skyscrapers located underground.  But when you have characters who suddenly develop telekinesis in a zombie movie, it becomes too much. It...

3/4 Starring: Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Holliday Granger, Kyle Gallner, John Magaro, Eric Bana Rated PG-13 for Intense Sequences of Peril "The Finest Hours" does exactly what it sets out to do, which is to provide almost two hours of forearm gripping adrenaline and entertainment.  It's tense, exciting, well-acted and splendidly photographed.  While it doesn't achieve the terror of " The Perfect Storm " or the emotional complexity of " In the Heart of the Sea ," remember that those films set the bar pretty high.  Even a film of significantly less quality is a sure bet for a night's entertainment. Bernie Webber (Pine) is a shy young man working for the Coast Guard.  He meets a lovely young woman named Miriam (Granger), with whom he becomes engaged.  But trouble is brewing off the coast.  Two ships have split apart out at sea during a terrible gale, and with the majority of the Coast Guard at the first wreck, it's up to Be...

2.5/4 Starring: John Goodman, Simon Fenton, Omri Katz, Kellie Martin, Cathy Moriarty, Lisa Jakub, Jesse Lee Soffer, Lucinda Jenny Rated PG for Language, and for Mild Violence and Sensuality I'll give points to Joe Dante for ambition.  He's combined a William Castle-type director premiering his new movie, two teen romances and the Cuban Missile Crisis into one movie.  I can't recommend it, but there are definitely some great things about this movie.  I'm certainly not mad that I sat through it. Gene Loomis (Fenton) moves around a lot because his father is in the Navy.  He and his family have recently settled into Key West, Florida, where he is having difficulty making friends.  He's a monster movie fan, and, much to his delight, horror-meister Lawrence Woolsey (Goodman) is premiering his next monster opus, dubbed "Mant!", in his hometown.  Trouble is brewing, however.  His father has suddenly been called away and the Cuban Missile Crisis is soon...

3/4 Starring: Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan. David Morse, Doug Hutchison, Barry Pepper, Bonnie Hunt, Sam Rockwell, Michael Jeter, James Cromwell, Patricia Clarkson Rated R for Violence, Language, and Some Sex-Related Material "The Green Mile" is a standard order melodrama that is built on nostalgia and faith in something greater than ourselves.  It is very manipulative and never subtle, but in this case that's a good thing. Paul Edgecomb (Hanks) is a guard on death row at a prison in Louisiana.  E-Block, or The Green Mile, as it's known, is where he works with his fellow guards.  Most of them he likes, but then there's Percy (Hutchison), a sadistic creep that Paul can't wait to get rid of but who is staying around long enough to see a live execution.  One day he gets a new prisoner.  John Coffey (Duncan) is a mountain of a man convicted of raping and murdering two little girls.  But when Paul introduces John to the reality of life on The Green Mi...