Spider-Man: Homecoming review

15 Saturday Jul 2017

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Tom Holland > Andrew Garfield > Tobey Maguire

by Thom Yee

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Spider-Man: Homecoming images courtesy of Sony Pictures

How do you feel about Spider-Man?  And I don’t mean “Spider-Man”, the series of movies that’s already gone through three reboots in less than 15 years because Sony, who bought the movie rights to the character from Marvel in 1999, has to rush a Spider-Man movie into production every few years or else the movie rights revert back to Marvel Studios, I mean the character — Spider-Man.  If you listened to J. Jonah Jameson, publisher/editor of New York’s most infamous newspaper, The Daily Bugle, you might think he’s a public menace.  If you were familiar with the comicbook lore, you’d most likely find him to be a misunderstood but friendly, neighbourhood hero, driven by guilt over the death of his uncle to responsibly use his powers for good.  But whenever I hear anyone talk about Spider-Man in real life?  They usually say they don’t like him.  I’ve never really liked him that much either.  And I think it’s all Tobey Maguire’s fault. Continue reading →

Baby Driver review

08 Saturday Jul 2017

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And it’s a half past four and I’m shiftin’ gear

by Thom Yee

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Baby Driver images courtesy of TriStar Pictures

So I drive stick.  I know it’s not a big deal and that it doesn’t really prove anything about me as a person, I know that paddle shifters are actually faster at shifting, and I know that, year over year, there are only going to be fewer cars with manual transmissions as an option, but still, there’s something about driving a stick that separates people like me from… well, from most of you.  Something important.  Call it a greater connection between man (or woman) and machine, call it the need for precision driving, call it a weird, overblown fixation that only the kinds of people you’d rather avoid in conversations would have, but there is a difference between driving a car and choosing when to shift and driving a car that automatically shifts for you (often at questionable times that never let you feel your car’s real power).  It’s not quite the difference between men and boys that motor (or “petrol”) heads would have you believe, but it is a point of distinction.  And if we’re being totally honest?  I’m usually just a little bit more attracted to a girl who drives stick. Continue reading →

The Mummy (2017) review

17 Saturday Jun 2017

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Shouldn’t somebody be saying “There’s a storm coming”?

by Thom Yee

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The Mummy (2017) images courtesy of Universal Pictures

The odds are you’re never going to talk to Tom Cruise.  I mean, that’s pretty obvious from the perspective of logic and reason and cosmological significance — the odds are you’re never going to talk to a lot of people, important or otherwise.  Even you and I are probably never going to meet or have a conversation (and you come here to read our reviews all the time, don’t you?). What I mean when I say you’re never going to talk to Tom Cruise is that you’re never going to get to know Tom Cruise.  You’re never really going to meet him.  Maybe you’ll be allowed to ask him a question if you’re lucky and get chosen out of a crowd at a press junket, maybe you’ll hear what seems like a personal anecdote about him from someone you know who works in Hollywood, but Tom Cruise, a world-famous actor, a franchise unto himself and an icon who’s likely to spend the rest of his life in the public eye and leave a body of movie work behind that will be watched, loved, and even studied for generations after?  That’s not someone you’ll ever have a personal conversation with or learn a lot about even if you do somehow find yourself in a position to say something to him. Continue reading →