Mike Goes To Movies

Aladdin (2019) Ugh... I think the most succinct review I could give to this film is to put in one of those frowny-face emojis... Here is yet again one more uninspired live-action remake of a beloved Disney classic. This one had an uphill battle right from the get-go knowing it would have to compete with the late Robin William's tour de force performance as the Genie. However, truth be told, Will Smith's go at the role is not the worst part of this film. In fact, though Smith is no Williams, he does an adequate job at the role and tries his best to put his own spin on it (though it is difficult not to see Genie as simply being a blue-Will Smith). Aladdin is a strange beast as it is a mixture of recreating the original film verbatim and then also adding in some new plot points for Jasmine and the Genie.  The depth of these two characters are noticeably upgraded while the title character's arc remains quite unremarkable and relatively uninteresting.  Jasmine contends wit...

Chef (2014) You're so money you don't even know how money you are! (...wrong Favreau film). 2014's Chef is a very enjoyable film, and one that will most-definitely have you hungry for some tasty food (especially of the food truck variety). No, this is not necessarily a profound film or one that will have you re-evaluating your life choices and greatest mistakes, but it is a nice feel-good story and its charm will draw you in from the beginning and hold onto you like a big bear-hug through to its end. Chef's abounding charm oozes through in every scene. This film was very clearly a passion project of Jon Favreau's who wrote, directed and starred in this film and you can see the joy he is having in making it throughout the film's entirety. It also seems that others took notice of Favreau's passion as he has a very talented cast along with him for the ride, including John Leguizamo, Sofia Vergara, Oliver Platt, Bobby Cannavale, Dustin Hoffman and two frie...

Rocketman (2019) This film really is what you would want from a musical biography. Not only is it the customary showcase of a vast plethora of Elton John's incredible catalogue of hit songs, but more than that, its retelling of John's story is one that is piercing, fascinating and important to behold - detailing the extreme hardships of his childhood that paved the way for the struggles and addictions he would consistently contend with through much of his adulthood and through the beginning of his uber successful career. The story is quite the dark one, but one that therefore deserves to be told - both as an important character study and also to help understand the human behind the superstar. Rocketman shares more than a few similarities with last year's very-mediocre Bohemian Rhapsody and, by all accounts, Rocketman is what Bohemian should have been. (Interestingly, Rocketman's director, Dexter Fletcher, was a producer of Bohemian - perhaps he took more than a fe...

Pain & Gain (2013) Even imperfect as it is, Pain & Gain is definitely one of Michael Bay's more successful recent endeavours. To be fair, he has really only had one other non-Transformers film that he has directed since 2007 so there's that to consider... Pain & Gain with its effective mix of action and dark humour takes Bay back to the ilk of Bad Boys, one of his more beloved franchises. This film, remarkably based on a true story, is a classic tale of the quest for the American Dream. Well, in a way, at least. This iteration of the classic fable centres on three incompetent and rather repellent gym rats who attempt a kidnapping of a rich client of the gym that they work at. The job is less than a success though, causing the thugs to use their combined intellect and scheming to save the job and their own selves. If not for the darkly black humour underlying the film, this would be quite the despicable and violent story. However, Bay wisely banks in on the ine...

Blade Runner 2049 (2017) In every way, Blade Runner 2049 is an astonishing film. You could watch it with the sound off and visually take it one of the most beautifully shot films of the past twenty years. Or, turn the sound on and you will experience one of the best science-fiction films of all time. No, I am not going to get into debating whether this is better than the original or not. However, 2049 is one of the rare examples of a sequel (35 years after the original no less) that does not exist solely to return to a beloved story to make money, but one that very much has its own story to tell - one that is complete and moving and profound, while also expanding upon (and elevating) the lore and themes of the original. I think credit must firstly be given to the combination of director, Denis Villeneuve, writers, Hampton Fancher (who also wrote the original) and Michael Green, and cinematographer, Roger Deakins. Without any of these individuals the film would very likely not be ...

Magnolia (1999) Now THAT is a film that leaves an impression - not only for its bat-shit crazy ending but also for its mesmerizingly operatic entirety. An interwoven epic following the trials and tribulations of an ensemble of characters in the San Fernando Valley, Magnolia is a film that could only have been crafted by the deft hand of Paul Thomas Anderson. Equally amazing, the film boasts powerhouse performances by pretty much every one of its extensive cast making its close to three-hour run-time no challenge to get through.   Magnolia is the type of film that long essays can easily be written about. Though there are some more direct connections between the characters one learns of as the film progresses, it is in the indirect, yet underlying, threads that connect the cast of characters together and the film itself as a whole. These are all individuals who are very much still struggling with their identity in the world. One major theme is the prolonged impact that negative...

Everest (2015) I'm not going to lie, my expectations for Everest sat quite nicely at ground zero (around where I would imagine base camp to be) - I thought this was simply going to be yet another action-packed disaster-esque kind of film. And so, it was that I was pleasantly surprised by the quite-grounded nature of the film that built its action and suspense not through crazy special-effects action set-pieces but through character drama and the realistic threats that one would encounter summiting the highest peak on this planet. It may be that part of my enjoyment of this film stemmed from my own recent experience as a few years ago I hiked up a mountain and got a small taste of the dismantling effect that cold and oxygen deprivation has on a body. No, what I climbed is nowhere close to the feat of Everest, but a lot of what is depicted in this film regarding preparation (both mental and physical) were things that our guides talked to us about on our own climb. As mentioned,...

The Perfection (2019) The Perfection, for all of its minor flaws and plot holes, is still quite an entertaining thriller. It is clear that director, Richard Shepard, and the writers were heavily inspired by suspense/thriller maestros such as Hitchcock and De Palma, with the creative creative shots and compositions littered throughout the film, the twisty-turny, and the exaggerated performances, all of which they mix with a few more contemporary slants such as visceral gore and some gross-out sequences. While not all of it always works, the end result is still an out-the-box thriller that, even with its somewhat gimmicky twists, still plays it rather loose and it is clear that the actors and everyone involved had as much fun making this as you might have watching it. The Netflix film follows Charlotte (Allison Williams) a former classical cellist protege who reunites with her former teachers after being forced to leave the school to care for her mother for a number of years. Upon ...

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum Two thoughts came into my head as I watched the gleeful chaos of John Wick 3: 1. Is there anything John Wick cannot kill a man with? And, 2. Who needs something like ballet when you have this kind of supremely fluid and majestic art / bloody carnage? Interestingly, both these questions were somewhat answered by the film. At this point I don't think this film or the series needs much of an introduction. This chapter continues the trend of expanding upon Wick's world of assassins - thankfully never giving us any stunted explanatory exposition but always just throwing us in the deep-end to let us parse together the pieces of how this society of violence operates (FYI - it does so with a surprisingly high amount of diplomacy and order). In terms of a review, put simply, if you enjoyed the previous installments then you will enjoy this one. It boasts the same level of first-rate action choreography and stunts - much of which was met with lou...

Three Identical Strangers (2018) This utterly fascinating and equally-heartbreaking documentary follows the story of Bobby, David and Eddy - three identical triplets - who were separated at birth, discovered the existence of the others nineteen years later, and thereafter tried to rekindle their lives together for what may have been. Their stories are not being heard here for the first time - but perhaps in greater detail than ever before - as their incredible reunion made international headlines when it occurred in 1980 and turned them into bonafide celebrities for a short while. The story, as told by the brothers, friends and a few others, is a true roller coaster of emotion as we experience the exciting highs of the first meeting of the brothers and their endeavour to make up for lost time and learn everything there is know of each other. However, the happiness of the story does not persist as the documentary uncovers, again, the fascinating, yet horrific, secrets underlying t...