Mike McGranaghan Movie Reviews & Previews

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geocities.com/gamut_mag/aisle.htm

Mike McGranaghan

Agrees with the Tomatometer 76% of the time.

Biography:: I started doing movie reviews in 1986, when I joined the staff of my high school newspaper and won several Keystone awards (the Keystone award is the highest honor given to high school journalists in Pennsylvania). That was all the encouragement I needed to continue. While still in college, I became the film critic for two central Pennsylvania newspapers: The Selinsgrove Times-Tribune and The Middleburg Post. I stayed with those papers for five years. In 1995, I became film critic of Gamut! - an online magazine devoted to entertainment. My website (www.aisleseat.com) is an off-shoot of that magazine. Additionally, I am the on-air film critic for Sunbury Broadcasting Corporation, which operates three central PA radio stations. My reviews run weekly.
Favorites:: Favorite Films - The Brothers McMullen, JFK, Fletch, Do the Right Thing, Chasing Amy, Fargo, The Blair Witch ProjectFavorite Directors - Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Edward Burns, Kevin Smith, Steven Soderbergh, the Farrelly Brothers, the Coen Brothers, John Waters, Edward D. Wood, Jr.Best of All Time: Schindler's ListWorst of All Time: Caligula
Publications:: Aisle Seat , Film Racket
Critics' Group:: Online Film Critics Society

Total Reviews:: 1851
Total QuickRatings:: 384

Location:: Central Pennsylvania

Listing Of All Reviews & Articles

Showing 1 - 50 of 1851

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Rating	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Add Date
3/4	——	Skull World ()	" An enjoyable, frequently funny documentary. You'll never look at cardboard the same way again!" — Film Racket Posted May 7, 2013
2.5/4	——	And Now A Word From Our Sponsor (2013)	" And Now a Word From Our Sponsor may not be good to the last drop, but parts of it are finger lickin' good. " — Aisle Seat Posted May 6, 2013
3.5/4	78%	Iron Man 3 (2013)	" Iron Man 3 is a spectacularly fun ride. A superhero movie that is, indeed, super. " — Aisle Seat Posted May 6, 2013
3.5/4	——	Running America (2011)	" I found myself riveted by Running America. It has plenty of drama, but also a deeply inspirational quality." — Aisle Seat Posted May 2, 2013
1/4	8%	The Big Wedding (2013)	" It simply takes all the things you've seen in other wedding movies and recycles them, all while pretending you're dumb enough not to notice." — Aisle Seat Posted May 1, 2013
2/4	46%	Pain & Gain (2013)	" Watching Pain & Gain is like having a stand-up comedian scream his entire act right into your year. After a while, it just becomes obnoxious and oppressive." — Film Racket Posted Apr 26, 2013
2.5/4	33%	The Numbers Station (2013)	" The Numbers Station is watchable for the things it gets right, yet it is impossible not to think that a lot of pieces to this puzzle are missing." — Aisle Seat Posted Apr 25, 2013
3.5/4	81%	The Place Beyond The Pines (2013)	" It allows you to really observe its characters and to ponder the themes that fuel the plot. For that reason, it is a film that makes a deeply emotional impact." — Aisle Seat Posted Apr 24, 2013
2.5/4	56%	Oblivion (2013)	" Oblivion would have been better titled Thelma & Louise because, like the characters in that 1991 drama, it drives itself over a cliff." — Aisle Seat Posted Apr 19, 2013
1/4	4%	Scary Movie 5 (2013)	" Scary Movie 5 is so bad, it makes A Haunted House look like a Seltzer/Friedberg comedy. " — Aisle Seat Posted Apr 12, 2013
3/4	87%	Upstream Color (2013)	" A reminder that cinema can still challenge you, rather than just placate you. " — Aisle Seat Posted Apr 11, 2013
3/4	——	Kinderblock 66: Return To Buchenwald ()	" Kinderblock 66 offers a piece of history I didn't know about, but which I'm so glad to understand now. Compelling and emotional." — Aisle Seat Posted Apr 9, 2013
3.5/4	62%	Evil Dead (2013)	" An uncompromising, hardcore, balls-to-the-wall fright flick." — Aisle Seat Posted Apr 5, 2013
4/4	92%	Jurassic Park: An IMAX 3D Experience (2013)	" Only time can tell which movies become classics. No matter how many Ds you see it in, it's safe to say that this one has earned the label. " — Aisle Seat Posted Apr 4, 2013
2/4	9%	The Host (2013)	" There's a compelling idea in here somewhere, one that sadly gets bogged down in Stephenie Meyer's ongoing desire to focus intently on all the least interesting things in her own stories. " — Aisle Seat Posted Apr 2, 2013
1/4	28%	G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)	" This is the second awful G.I. Joe movie. It is even worse than the first one. Perhaps there is not a good film to be made from this material." — Aisle Seat Posted Mar 29, 2013
3.5/4	94%	Room 237 (2013)	" For film buffs who love to debate cinematic subtext, the documentary is both exciting and riveting. It's also just plain fun." — Aisle Seat Posted Mar 28, 2013
2.5/4	59%	Detour (2013)	" In spite of a few significant flaws, Detour builds to a conclusion that sends you out the door shaken and thankful to see light. " — Aisle Seat Posted Mar 27, 2013
2.5/4	48%	Olympus Has Fallen (2013)	" A movie that drudges up the painful feelings associated with 9/11 just to make its routine, by-the-numbers action seem more relevant than it really is? Thanks, but no thanks." — Aisle Seat Posted Mar 26, 2013
4/4	66%	Spring Breakers (2013)	" Spring Breakers is a scathing indictment of a generation led to believe that being a bad-ass and having a screw-it attitude is admirable. It's an all-around stunner." — Aisle Seat Posted Mar 22, 2013
3/4	39%	The Call (2013)	" Two-thirds terrific and one-third routine. " — Aisle Seat Posted Mar 20, 2013
1.5/4	45%	On the Road (2012)	" The movie makes you feel as though you've just woken up from an all-time bender: disoriented, confused, and wondering why you just put yourself through it." — Aisle Seat Posted Mar 19, 2013
3/4	38%	The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013)	" If Siegfried dumped Roy and then launched a vendetta against Criss Angel, you'd have The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. It's a funny movie that is also more thoughtful than it initially appears." — Aisle Seat Posted Mar 15, 2013
3/4	60%	Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)	" It may needlessly complicate exquisitely crafted source material, yet it's visually stunning, has enthusiastic performances, and is often quite funny. " — Aisle Seat Posted Mar 8, 2013
3/4	65%	The We and the I (2013)	" Often raucously funny and occasionally touching, with real insight into the behavior patterns of adolescents. " — Aisle Seat Posted Mar 4, 2013
3/4	52%	Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)	" Jack the Giant Slayer delivers some primo giant-y goodness. I can now say I've seen a giant pick a booger out of his nose and eat it in 3D. So I've got that going for me." — Aisle Seat Posted Mar 1, 2013
3/4	58%	Snitch (2013)	" Snitch is not your typical Dwayne Johnson action movie. For starters, there's hardly any action in it. It also has more going on inside its head than you would expect. The movie turns out to be a very pleasant surprise." — Aisle Seat Posted Feb 22, 2013
2.5/4	——	The 904: Shadow On The Sunshine State ()	" The film is rather unfocused, so eager is it to touch on every facet of the problem, but there's no denying that it raises some provocative issues" — Aisle Seat Posted Feb 21, 2013
1/4	15%	A Good Day To Die Hard (2013)	" A Good Day to Die Hard is the Superman IV: The Quest for Peace of the Die Hard series. It is Jaws: The Revenge, The Next Karate Kid, and that movie where Jason Voorhees kills people in a spaceship." — Aisle Seat Posted Feb 15, 2013
3.5/4	27%	The Sorcerer and the White Snake (2013)	" A masterpiece of imagination. Offers wall-to-wall goofy fun for fans of martial arts flicks, fantasies, or just good old-fashioned cinematic nuttiness. " — Aisle Seat Posted Feb 10, 2013
3.5/4	97%	Cabaret (1972)	" Cabaret is in some respects a typical feel-good musical, yet it's also so much deeper than that." — Aisle Seat Posted Feb 8, 2013
3/4	85%	Side Effects (2013)	" While it may not be the scathing indictment of the "business" of selling meds that it could - and probably should - be, Side Effects still gets credit for asking some of the right questions and delivering a few intelligent thrills. " — Aisle Seat Posted Feb 8, 2013
3/4	80%	Warm Bodies (2013)	" I never thought I'd use the word "sweet" to describe a zombie flick, but that's exactly what Warm Bodies is." — Aisle Seat Posted Feb 1, 2013
0.5/4	4%	Movie 43 (2013)	" Painfully unfunny, inordinately stupid, and about as entertaining as a colonoscopy. If there's a worse film in 2013, I'll be very, very surprised." — Aisle Seat Posted Jan 25, 2013
3.5/4	——	Standing Silent ()	" Powerful and shocking. " — Aisle Seat Posted Jan 25, 2013
3.5/4	92%	Silver Linings Playbook (2012)	" Consistently engaging, funny, and touching. This is the kind of picture in which two hours of running time whiz by in a flash." — Aisle Seat Posted Jan 18, 2013
4/4	93%	Zero Dark Thirty (2013)	" Powerful and gripping, the movie is not only a fine document of the hunt for Public Enemy #1, but also a testament to the dedication of those in every corner of the military, government, and intelligence community who refused to give up the search." — Aisle Seat Posted Jan 11, 2013
1.5/4	0%	TerrorVision (1986)	" I know that I, for one, will never look at my satellite dish the same way again. On second thought, yes I will. " — Aisle Seat Posted Jan 5, 2013
2/4	19%	Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)	" Forget Texas Chainsaw 3D. For $11.75, I'll hold a chainsaw three inches from your face for an hour and a half. I'll even make you popcorn." — Aisle Seat Posted Jan 4, 2013
4/4	88%	Django Unchained (2012)	" Django Unchained is everything you want from a Quentin Tarantino movie, with a few new things added in. Powerful, dazzling, and insanely entertaining." — Aisle Seat Posted Dec 28, 2012
3.5/4	61%	Jack Reacher (2012)	" The combination of strong mystery, eccentric characterization, off-kilter humor, and sporadic, yet effective, action makes Jack Reacher feel different from the garden variety tough-guy-solving-a-crime thriller." — Aisle Seat Posted Dec 22, 2012
4/4	81%	The Impossible (2012)	" This is one of the most gut-wrenching and emotional pictures I've ever seen. I walked away from it physically exhausted. " — Aisle Seat Posted Dec 19, 2012
3.5/4	70%	Les Misérables (2012)	" A lush, engaging take on the tale, filled with strong performances of both the musical and the dramatic variety." — Aisle Seat Posted Dec 19, 2012
3/4	52%	This is 40 (2012)	" Like most of Apatow's movies, it's a half-hour too long and filled with too many side characters. Also like most of his movies, it's often very funny." — Aisle Seat Posted Dec 19, 2012
3/4	66%	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)	" The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is like 90 minutes of flirting, an hour of foreplay, and no sex. In other words, it's fun, but not entirely satisfying." — Aisle Seat Posted Dec 14, 2012
3/4	63%	Hitchcock (2012)	" While undeniably flawed, Hitchcock remains a breezy, entertaining show-biz tale. " — Aisle Seat Posted Dec 8, 2012
2/4	48%	The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (2012)	" Hopelessly dumb and often unintentionally funny. As with everything about this nutty series, I couldn't shake the feeling that Stephenie Meyer's creation is just kooky in all the wrong ways. " — Aisle Seat Posted Dec 7, 2012
3.5/4	74%	Rise of the Guardians (2012)	" Rise of the Guardians is kind of like The Avengers, except that instead of superheroes, the characters are people your parents lied to you about when you were a kid. It could become a perennial family favorite." — Aisle Seat Posted Dec 3, 2012
3/4	64%	The Fitzgerald Family Christmas (2012)	" A terrific holiday movie. Edward Burns' most invigorating, heartfelt picture in years." — Aisle Seat Posted Nov 23, 2012

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