What’s your level of interest here? It’s been 15 years and 30-plus features—not to mention TV and streaming series—since Iron Man kicked open the doors to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), arguably the most significant, if not financially successful, franchise … Continue reading THE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3
Burt and Harold have been accused of murder. Not in the legal sense, mind you, with arrests and affidavits, attorneys and judges, but in the old-fashioned way of finger-pointing and yelling louder than everyone else. You see, Burt Berendsen (Christian … Continue reading AMSTERDAM
Where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves … And where we had thought to be alone, we will be with all the world. Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces 2008’s Iron Man may have been a small … Continue reading AVENGERS: END GAME
Every studio should be allowed a dud now and then. Trouble is: money is involved, and those holding the purse strings rarely have patience when a flop falls into their hands. Laika, the stop-motion animation studio known for Coraline (2009), ParaNorman (2012), The Boxtrolls (2014), and Kubo … Continue reading MISSING LINK
Our fathers were our models for God. If our fathers bailed, what does that tell you about God? —Tyler Durden, Fight Club When journalist Bill Moyers interviewed narratologist Joseph Campbell in 1988, he asked why hero stories could be found … Continue reading GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2
Adapted from the 2012 novel by Dennis Lehane, Live By Night is a great American epic stuck inside a misguided movie. Written for the screen, produced, and directed by Ben Affleck, who also stars, Live by Night starts overseas in the trenches of World … Continue reading LIVE BY NIGHT
Star Trek Into Darkness begins with an action set piece, dropping the audience right in the middle of chaos. Reminiscent of a James Bond or an Indiana Jones pre-credit sequence, Spock is trying to diffuse an erupting volcano while Captain Kirk … Continue reading STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS
Michael J. Cinema 