Mike's Movie Tips

 3/4 Starring: Mekhi Phifer, Josh Hartnett, Julia Stiles, Martin Sheen, Andrew Keegan, Rain Phoenix, Elden Henson, John Heard Rated R for Violence, a Scene of Strong Sexuality, Language and Drug Use When it comes to William Shakespeare, everyone has their favorite.  "Hamlet" is undoubtedly his most popular and enduring play, but others will stump for "Macbeth," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," or "Much Ado About Nothing."  Not me, though.  My favorite Shakespeare play is "Othello."  The idea of a man being manipulated into bringing his own tragic downfall by a psychopath posing as his friend sticks in my mind.  The level of malice and psychological violence is such that I can't forget it or turn away. It's strange, then, that we don't see more versions of it.  After all, the sad, violent arc of Othello hasn't become irrelevant in the years since The Bard first put the play to paper.  Maybe people are too afraid of the ra...

 1/4 Starring: Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, Whitney Peak, Belissa Escobedo, Lila Buckingham, Sam Richardson, Doug Jones Rated PG for Action, Macabre/Suggestive Humor and Some Language It's rather astonishing that anyone remembers " Hocus Pocus " after all these years.  It's really not a good movie (I gave it a very weak 3/4, mostly out of nostalgia).  But it nevertheless found a niche as a sleepover favorite for millennials.  It isn't the first movie that has an undeserved spot in American pop culture (can anyone objectively say that "Dirty Dancing" and " The Mighty Ducks " are quality movies while keeping a straight face?), and it won't be the last. Which brings us to 2022.  The follow up, after 29 years, was the brain child of Bette Midler, who recognized that the original struck a nerve in audiences and has been chomping at the bit for another outing as Winifred Sanderson.  "Hocus Pocus" appeared to be too ...

 4/4 Starring: Jessica Chastain, Eddie Redmayne, Noah Emmerich, Nnamdi Asomugha, Kim Dickens, Devin McDowell, Alex West Lefler Rated R for Language It was an uncanny move for Netflix to release "The Good Nurse" in October.  Although it's not a horror film, there is no denying that it's genuinely chilling and unsettling.  It's going to be a long time before I can walk into a hospital and feel completely safe. Amy Loughren (Chastain) is a hardworking nurse at Parkfield Memorial Hospital.  Actually, Amy shouldn't be working; she has a heart condition and in desperate need of a transplant, but she has two kids and hasn't worked at Parkfield long enough to receive health insurance.  This is also why she keeps her condition a secret lest the hospital find out and fire her.  Help comes her way when a new nurse arrives in the ICU ward where she works.  His name is Charlie Cullen (Redmayne) and he meshes with Amy almost immediately.  He's smart enough to p...

 2.5/4 Starring: Emily Bergl, Jason London, Dylan Bruno, Amy Irving, Zachary Ty Bryan Rated R for Strong Graphic Horror Violence and Gore, Brief Strong Sexuality and Language "The Rage: Carrie 2" might be the only sequel that renders its predecessor unnecessary.  It's actually a sequel to the inexplicably popular 1976 film, but the further this one distances itself from the original, the better it looks.  In fact, if you ignore the original, it will probably work better. Rachel Lang (Bergl) is a loner.  It's no wonder; her mother (J. Smith-Cameron) was locked up in an insane asylum when Rachel was a little girl (in-joke: the asylum is named Arkham) and her foster parents are louts.  Her only companions are her Bassett Hound Walt and her classmate Lisa (Mean Suvari in a cameo).  Her life takes a turn when Lisa jumps off the school roof.  Rachel finds out that Lisa gave her virginity to Eric (Bryan), one of the thuggish football players who sleeps with ...

 2.5/4 Starring: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, Vilhelm Blomgren, William Jackson Harper, Will Poulter Rated R for Disturbing Ritualistic Violence and Grisly Images, Strong Sexual Content, Graphic Nudity, Drug Use and Language I was not a fan of Ari Aster's debut film, " Hereditary ."  Rather than eerie or disturbing, I found it to be a lot of smoke and mirrors, and an attempt to generate fear about things that are not scary.  I realize that I am in the minority of art house horror fans, but there you have it.  With his sophomore effort, Aster has grown more ambitious.  The director's vision exceeds his grasp, but there are some genuinely unsettling scenes to be found here.  Fans of existential horror won't be disappointed.  At least not too much. Christian (Reynor) has once again put off the inevitable.  Although in the minds of his friends, his relationship with his girlfriend Dani (Pugh) has long since been over, he has decided to postpone the bre...

 2/4 Starring: Cate Blanchett, Noemie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Sophie Kauer, Julian Glover, Allen Corudner, Mark Strong Rated R for Some Language and Brief Nudity When it comes to "Tar," there's Cate and then there's everyone else.  Cate Blanchett is like Meryl Streep: she's a filmmaker's ace in the hole.  She may not be able to save a subpar film like "Tar," but she'll damn well try. Lydia Tar (Blanchett) is one of the symphony's most celebrated conductors.  Through hard work and raw talent, she has found herself at her dream job: conducting the Berlin Philharmonic with her wife Sharon (Hoss) at her side.  But Lydia has her dark side, and once you're at the top, the only way to go is down.  Lydia is about to find this out the hard way. "Tar" is in many ways a traditional biopic, albeit of a fictional individual.  Could've fooled me.  I fully expected to be able to go to Wikipedia and find Tar's page.  The film is so grounded...

 2/4 Starring: Jenna Kannell, Samantha Scaffidi, David Howard Thornton, Catherine Corcoran Not Rated (probable NC-17 for Strong Violence and Gore, and for Nudity) To a large extent, the slasher genre was a continuous game of one-upmanship.  A contest between filmmakers to come up with gorier and more gruesome ways of killing people off.  Stabbings, mailings, impalements, you name it.  Blood was the currency for an entire film genre. "Terrifier" is a love letter (or should that be "blood letter") to the z-grade slashers that dominated midnight drive-ins during the slasher craze.  It wears its low budget with pride, looks like a film made with income generated by the director's paper route, and dares the audience to make it to the end credits without throwing up.  The problem is that in crafting this bloody homage, writer/director Damien Leone has either forgotten or intentionally left out any reason to care about what is going on. Tara (Kannell) and her frie...