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Mike Sage

Mike Sage

"Exercise gives you endorphines, endorphines make you happy; happy people just don't shoot their husbands! (Legally Blonde)"

Agrees with the Tomatometer 63% of the time.

Biography:
Freelance writer and film critic in Toronto, writing for Peterborough This Week, PopMatters.com and BlogTO.com, also a budding filmmaker, with first short: "Decoding Aleil" having debuted on Canada's Space: the Imagination Station
Favorites:
Death Becomes Her, Contact, Braveheart, Gladiator, The Ring, Dawn of the Dead (remake), Mulan, The Descent, The Departed, Children of Men, 300
Publications:
Peterborough This Week
Total Reviews:
205
Total QuickRatings:
205
Location:
Downtown Toronto.

Movie Reviews Only

Showing 1 - 50 of 205
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Rating T-Meter Title | Year Add Date
2/5 64% Watchmen (2009) " Watchmen isn't a superhero movie, it's a pretentious turkey that thinks it's better than the genre." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Mar 12, 2009
3.5/5 25% Friday the 13th (2009) " The acting is always good, but when it's not, you can always expect that character to flash her boobs, so who's complaining?" — Peterborough This Week
Posted Feb 18, 2009
3/5 78% Doubt (2008) " More tailored for the Oscars than a Clint Eastwood war epic, Doubt features some of the best performances we've seen all year but it falls short in other departments." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Dec 23, 2008
5/5 94% Slumdog Millionaire (2008) " I don't think Boyle could film paint drying and make it dull." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Dec 23, 2008
1.5/5 27% Seven Pounds (2008) " Smith and Dawson both look like death, so watching their romance-on-life-support is painfully dreary and tragically unsexy" — Peterborough This Week
Posted Dec 23, 2008
2/5 64% Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008) " Barring direct-to-DVD Disney sequels, the first Madagascar was one of the worst animated flicks of all time. The bad news is Escape 2 Africa reunites the same cast and directors that made the first DreamWorks flick such a turkey." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Dec 2, 2008
2.5/5 64% Quantum of Solace (2008) " Quantum makes us understand the importance of a good director, which is sadly absent here." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Dec 2, 2008
2.5/5 55% Australia (2008) " Had the team abandoned the tediously tidy final third of the film and all the awful World War II shenanigans we obviously don't care about, Australia would be a wild romp." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Dec 2, 2008
3.5/5 68% Pineapple Express (2008) " Another winner from the Apatow factory, this is a stoner comedy that soars." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Sep 9, 2008
1.5/5 54% Mamma Mia! (2008) " Unfortunately, Streep and her ancient co-stars create pure torture whenever on screen together. This is the Catwoman of movie musicals" — Peterborough This Week
Posted Sep 9, 2008
3/5 41% The House Bunny (2008) " Fans of comedies like Legally Blonde and Mean Girls should get a kick out of Anna Faris' amusing starring vehicle, even if this one isn't quite as sly or slickly produced." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Sep 9, 2008
5/5 94% The Dark Knight (2008) " a riveting piece of work that will have us all mourning Ledger's loss but smacking our lips for a third entry" — Peterborough This Week
Posted Sep 9, 2008
3.5/5 78% Burn After Reading (2008) " Burn After Reading is a welcome escape from September's usual crop of inane thrillers starring Nicolas Cage or Julianne Moore." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Sep 9, 2008
3.5/5 77% Cloverfield (2008) " Mixing the immediacy of documentary observation and the slam-bang pace of the modern disaster epic, Cloverfield is economic and engaging." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Apr 15, 2008
4/5 83% Atonement (2007) " Director Joe Wright is quickly establishing himself as a powerhouse adapter of period romance tomes." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Apr 15, 2008
3/5 37% Rambo (Rambo IV) (2008) " Luckily, Rambo's years away from war haven't dulled his ability to rip out a man's throat with his bare hands." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Apr 15, 2008
2/5 91% There Will Be Blood (2007) " And the winner of the overrated Oscar front-runner award goes to..." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Apr 15, 2008
2.5/5 22% Never Back Down (2008) " The acting is hammy, Djimon Hounsou shows up to give the flick a corny air of Karate Kid and there's nothing particularly original about the whole premise but somehow it works. It must be those abs. Or the kicks to them." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Apr 15, 2008
3/5 42% The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) " With plenty of betrayal, attempted incest and beheadings crammed into this period episode of The Young and the Restless, The Other Boleyn Sister has appeal in an otherwise stiff genre." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Apr 15, 2008
1.5/5 11% Fool's Gold (2008) " Never do we believe that these two might actually be capable of hooking up off-screen, and this romantic flatness kills your appetite to keep watching." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Apr 15, 2008
3/5 35% Vantage Point (2008) " If you thought 24's perspective on terrorism was, well, limited, get ready to groan. The meat and potatoes of Vantage Point -- the suicide bomb explosions, the bloody fisticuffs and blaring car chases -- are indeed awesome, and that's what truly matters f" — Peterborough This Week
Posted Apr 15, 2008
1/5 8% 10,000 B.C. (2008) " The actors speak in fluent anachronistic English. The dialogue is prehistoric but not in the way Emmerich intended." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Apr 15, 2008
3.5/5 48% The Ruins (2008) " Gore hounds will definitely be pleased as The Ruins boasts some of the most sickening blood and guts this side of snuff films." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Apr 15, 2008
3.5/5 79% Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! (2008) " after the overcooked live action Grinch and nauseating Cat In The Hat, Hollywood has finally served up a tasty adaptation of Dr. Seuss." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Apr 15, 2008
2.5/5 36% 21 (2008) " Too bad most of the performers can't seem to pull off the insane IQs they clearly do not have." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Apr 15, 2008
2/5 51% Nim's Island (2008) " here is in fact no actual villain or conflict or tension or fun, and let's face it: we all know Jack will make it back safe and sound (sorry kids, but Wendy Or doesn't have JK Rowling's narrative cahoonas)" — Peterborough This Week
Posted Apr 15, 2008
4/5 51% 30 Days of Night (2007) " no amount of desensitization can prepare you for David Slade's chilling vampiric bloodbath. 30 Days of Night is relentlessly brutal horror with nary a comedic wisecracker in sight." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Oct 9, 2007
3.5/5 35% Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) " Period films, even sequels, are limited by budget, and Kapur does a marvellous job with the money he has." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Sep 11, 2007
4/5 91% Hairspray (2007) " Unlike Eddie Murphy's exploitively unfunny attempts at fat and female, John Travolta makes his character absolutely endearing and charming by playing it relatively low-key." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Aug 29, 2007
2/5 90% The Simpsons Movie (2007) " Doh! What a colossal disappointment. The Simpsons Movie has its funny bits but so does the average Marge-centric episode. But this is a highly anticipated 90-minute episode for which audiences have to pay." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Aug 29, 2007
3.5/5 76% Stardust (2007) " The cast is dynamite and funny%u2014particularly the cute hero Charlie Cox, the vain witch Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro playing further against type then ever before." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Aug 29, 2007
2/5 20% The Invasion (2007) " The Invasion is Nicole Kidman's latest unsuccessful summer attempt to prove she's a versatile actress." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Aug 29, 2007
3.5/5 23% Balls of Fury (2007) " the insanely corny plot should appeal heavily, especially to audiences who grew up on awful late 80s, early 90s action movies starring Jean-Claude Van Damme" — Peterborough This Week
Posted Aug 29, 2007
3/5 81% Live Free or Die Hard (2007) " the dialogue and one-liners of Die Hard 4 are cheeky and clever, and it proves Bruce Willis still has his game against younger, faster kung-fu maniacs like Maggie Q" — Peterborough This Week
Posted Jul 4, 2007
4.5/5 57% Transformers (2007) " Transformers is in a stellar class of seamless FX films populated by genre classics like Jurassic Park, Twister and Titanic" — Peterborough This Week
Posted Jul 4, 2007
4/5 91% Knocked Up (2007) " Like many films of late, Knocked Up is a little too long, but it's worth it in the end. Stone is so pathetic, we need extra time for Apatow to convince us that Alison shouldn't have an abortion" — Peterborough This Week
Posted Jun 27, 2007
2/5 37% Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) " somehow Jessica Alba's acting has taken a turn for the worse, and Chris Evans has the audacity to only take his shirt off for three seconds" — Peterborough This Week
Posted Jun 27, 2007
3/5 78% Surf's Up (2007) " basically Riding Giants meets Happy Feet: an animated penguin flick with the goofy structure of a mockumentary" — Peterborough This Week
Posted Jun 27, 2007
2/5 70% Ocean's Thirteen (2007) " somewhere between the locker room ass-slapping, the bland heist plot develops, as if it really matters" — Peterborough This Week
Posted Jun 27, 2007
5/5 96% Ratatouille (2007) " Don't be surprised if people start called Brad Bird the Spielberg of animation" — Peterborough This Week
Posted Jun 27, 2007
3.5/5 40% Shrek the Third (2007) " Justin Timberlake as the voice of the wiumpy Artie is certainly the best new addition to the Far Far Away Kingdom" — Peterborough This Week
Posted Jun 4, 2007
2.5/5 88% Waitress (2007) " we're left with a moral message that it's OK to cheat on your partner as long as they're boring, brainless or vegetative" — Peterborough This Week
Posted Jun 4, 2007
4/5 44% Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End (2007) " Needless to say, it all looks and sounds absolutely fabulous, and the return of Geoffrey Rush is simply AAHRResting" — Peterborough This Week
Posted Jun 4, 2007
3.5/5 63% Spider-Man 3 (2007) " If you ever wondered what the Power Rangers could do with a $250 Million budget, just wait for the silly climax" — Peterborough This Week
Posted May 1, 2007
4/5 56% Vacancy (2007) " For a terror tale about snuff torture porn, Vacancy is actually rather subtle." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Apr 20, 2007
1.5/5 8% Premonition (2007) " I had a premonition this might be a forgettable mediocrity, but I was wrong. It's actually a laughable turd." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Mar 19, 2007
3.5/5 90% Zodiac (2007) " the performances are dang-on across the board, and even though the formal protagonist shifts around a bit, the major characters played by Gyllenhaal, Downey Jr and Ruffalo have fascinating arcs." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Mar 7, 2007
4.5/5 60% 300 (2007) " 300 is an erotic spectacle for men (straight and gay apparently) and this demographic should bask in the bombastic grandeur of discourse, domination and decapitations." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Mar 7, 2007
3/5 34% Reno 911!: Miami (2007) " as long as you can appreciate a good fart joke, Reno 911! Miami is worth your admission" — Peterborough This Week
Posted Feb 28, 2007
2/5 26% Ghost Rider (2007) " Outside of maybe X-men's Jubilee, I can't think of a comic character less deserving of the big-screen treatment than Ghost Rider. But what do I know? Maybe the idea of Nic Cage in unyielding biker leather sounded good on paper." — Peterborough This Week
Posted Feb 16, 2007
Showing 1 - 50 of 205
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