Mike Ryan is currently the senior editor at ScreenCrush. Mike most recently served as Senior Entertainment Writer for The Huffington Post. Previously, Mr. Ryan was a frequent contributor at Vanity Fair and Wired magazine and wrote for Time, GQ, ELLE-UK, and New York magazine.
Mike Ryan
The Only Fourth Of July Televison Episode You Ever Need To Watch
The only Fourth of July episode of anything worth mentioning is the series finale of ‘The Wonder Years.’ Airing on May 12, 1993, an epilogue set during a Fourth of July parade became one of the most memorable television moments of the last 25 years.
The 10 Best Movies of 2014 (So Far)
Here are the best movies of 2014 so far! (Note: These movies have all been released in theaters and I am not including movies that I saw at film festivals that have not been yet released to the public.)
Is ‘Tammy’ Secretly a Drama? (And 24 Other Urgent Questions)
Melissa McCarthy (‘White Oleander’) stars in this holiday weekend’s new release, ‘Tammy,’ opening on Wednesday. Who is this Tammy we speak of? Is ‘Tammy’ more of a drama than it is a comedy? As a service to all of humankind, we answer every question that you could possibly have about Tammy (the character) and ‘Tammy’ (the movie).
How In The World Is ‘Snowpiercer’ An Art House Movie?
It’s a strange time we live in where two of the non-‘Transformers’ movies released this weekend are considered small indie films, yet one is a romantic comedy (sort of) staring Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler and the other - 'Snowpiercer' - is an action movie starring the guy who plays Captain America.
‘Transformers’ Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura On Film Critics, ‘Transformers 5′ and ‘G.I. Joe 3′
Lorenzo di Bonaventura gives us a peek at what 'Transformers 5' may look like, and addresses if we may see Unicron in the next film. Di Bonaventura is also the producer of the just-announced third 'G.I. Joe' movie and reveals just how close that movie came to not happening.
Does ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’ Make Any Sense Whatsoever? (And 25 Other Urgent Questions)
So, a fourth ‘Transformers’ movie is coming out this week. It will make a ton of money. This ‘Transformers’ movie, titled ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction,’ stars Mark Wahlberg (‘The Big Hit’) as an inventor… You know what, it doesn’t matter! But we still answered every question that you could possibly have about ‘Transformers: Age of Extinction.’
Remembering the Phenomena of 1989’s ‘Batman’ 25 Years Later
‘Batman’ was a big enough moment in popular culture that, at one time, a perfectly reasonable sophomore in high school wanted to permanently attach a logo from a movie onto his only mode of transportation. And no other seemingly reasonable classmates of his were going to publicly disagree with this idea.
Who Ya Gonna Call? The Inside Story Of The ‘Ghostbusters’ Music Video
In early 1984, the team behind ‘Ghostbusters’ was fairly confident that they had a hit. Test screenings had gone well, but for director Ivan Reitman, something was missing. What Reitman wanted was a song, only 20 seconds or so in length, near the opening of the film as the then soon-to-be Ghostbusters -- Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) and Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) –- enter the New York Public Library.
Is ’22 Jump Street’ As Good As ’21 Jump Street’? (And 24 Other Urgent Questions)
Jonah Hill (‘Evan Almighty’) and Channing Tatum (‘G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra’) are back as Schmidt and Jenko in the sequel to '21 Jump Street,' titled '22 Jump Street.' Is '22 Jump Street' as funny as the first movie? As a service to you – yes, you – we answer every question that you could possibly have about '22 Jump Street.'
‘A Million Ways To Die In The West’ Review: The Most Important Movie Ever Made
It’s interesting that Universal is promoting ‘A Million Ways to Die in the West,’ a film that is not funny, as a comedy. I suspect it has a lot to do with the human carnage we witness on screen being unbearable to watch, so the only way to desensitize an audience’s eyes to what they're about to witness is to somehow convince the viewer that what their about to see is a comedy – even though there is not one laugh to be had.
‘X-Men: Days Of Future Past’ Review: A Time Travel Movie That Somehow Makes Sense
Even though the story behind ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ has been around for 33 years now, the idea of a superhero movie meshed with a movie about time travel seems, let’s say … daunting. Especially for a superhero franchise like X-Men, which is known for having a lot of superheroes.
It’s just that it’s hard enough to make a big-budget superhero movie make sense (as the so very recent ‘The Amazin
‘Fantastic Four’ Writer-Producer Simon Kinberg on Shared Universes and the Challenges of an Origin Story
Now that screenwriter and producer Simon Kinberg's (a name you will be hearing a lot more of in the future) duties are complete with the upcoming 'X-Men: Days of Future Past,' his attention now drifts to yet another group of superheroes, and this time it's the 'Fantastic Four.'