Review: "Spider-Man: Homecoming"

by Chris Feil

It’s another go around the spider’s web again. With Spider-Man: Homecoming, the second reboot in under a decade, Peter Parker cashes in some MCU cache in attempt to regain audience enthusiasm after a string of disappointments. The good news is that director Jon Watts (Cop Car) and team have delivered a distinct revamp that may be far off from the cinematic heights of Sam Raimi’s first films, but is still one of the most entertaining. As we last saw him in Captain America: Civil War this is our youngest Spider-Man yet, and he may not be ready for his crime-fighting responsibilities yet.

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Beauty vs Beast: Weimar Memories

Jason from MNPP here, willkommen and bienvenue, happy to see you! I trust you've all left your troubles outside? Today is the 84th birthday of the Master of Ceremonies himself, Herr Joel Grey, and so we're feeling frisky for some time inside the Kit Kat Club. As an aside, have any of you read Grey's recent autobiography? I highly recommend it if you haven't -- he's lived a hell of a life and doesn't hold back. (I recently shared my favorite tidbit from the book over at my site.)

Grey originated the role of the MC on stage (and won a Tony for it) and was the only person carried over from the cast to the film (much to Bob Fosse's chagrin), which led to him also winning the Oscar for the role. (This came up recently when Patty Duke, who also won both a Tony and an Oscar for the same role,  passed away.) Standing beside him that night and clutching her own statue was of course a little somebody named Liza Minnelli - maybe you've heard of her? But darlings, now we must choose...

PREVIOUSLY The new Captain America movie is out in about three weeks and we gave you guys the chance to make your Civil War wishes known --wellh the titular Captain stomped right over his fellow Avenger Iron Man to the tune of just under 90% of the vote! It's a blow-out for Cappy! Said Sawyer, taking these results to their (logical? harsh?) extreme:

"Cap all the way. I can not abide Tony Stark. I hope he dies in this movie."

Beauty vs Beast: Heroes Divided

Jason from MNPP here, using this week's "Beauty vs Beast" to enthusiastically fire the starting pistol on this year's Civil War. No, not the Republicans vs the Democrats, they're still too busy with in-fighting for that Battle Royale just yet; I speak of the competition that many many Americans care about (don't judge me for pointing that out, I am simply the messenger) - Superhero vs Superhero. And since we're already attempting to forget that Batman V Superman happened, we're swiveling to the next big cage match, Marvel style - Captain America: Civil War, which is out in about a month, and which faces off several beloved characters but first and foremost Cappy himself and his co-Avenger Tony Stark aka Iron Man.

I figure in about a month when the movie's actually coming out we'll all be sick of it already (that's the way these things work now) and so when I saw that today is Robert Downey Jr.'s birthday I knew - the time is now. And it's not like with three Iron Mans, two Captain Americas, and two Avengers movies we don't already know enough going in to this battle to choose our sides. Have at it!

PREVIOUSLY We made like Mia Farrow last week and considered our Hannah and Her Sisters co-stars, and over 70% decided that the Oscars were on point, giving our golden love to Dianne Wiest. Said mareko:

"Weist really is amazing in Hannah and Her Sisters. I didn't care for her character Holly *at all* in the beginning, but man does she have an impressive, if somewhat unbelievable, character arc. To go from bitter and cynical to warm and luminous, without losing her way (or ours), is to be applauded. A true breakout performance. (Hershey is good, too, if a bit histrionic for my taste.)"

Posterized: Marvel Cinematic Universe

This weekend sees the release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the third film in Marvel's Phase 2 of movies seemingly designed to introduced an expanding roster of comic book figures into a multi-film universe for the rest of human history. Confirming this latter point, Marvel film impresaro Kevin Feige mentioned (jokingly? seriously?) in an interview published this week that his brain trust has a line-up of films planned, potentially, up to 2028. Now, whether anybody genuinely things that having that kind of long game planned out is remotely practical, if Marvel is just thinking out loud, or if they're genuinely just that hubristic, nobody can say at this point. And cannot say for 14 years. But the fact that Feige can even joke about it says that Marvel plans to be in it for the long haul.

So it's undoubtedly premature, but with CA: TWS coming in as the ninth film in the overall series, it gives us the exact right number of titles so far to run the series through the Film Experience's patented Posterized system.

How many have you seen?

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I M 3

JA from MNPP here. I'm sure this is something that Nathaniel has considered here on the site before, but it's fresh on my mind with that there fifteen second teaser for tomorrow's actual full-sized trailer for Iron Man 3 sucking all the air out of the room today. Ignoring it would be the best way to not give in to the micro-seconding of hype, but I'm so continually struck dumb by these teaser-trailer-for-trailers that it almost makes me kind of appreciative in a backwards sort of way? Of course that's where we were heading as a culture! Of course. It all makes sense now, so I thank you, harbinger of doom, for the clarity. It's like those screenings where you bring your iPads to play along, or the commercials that they force us to watch on YouTube. What do I say to that? Besides just packing up a bag and moving into a cave, of course. Next stop Honey Boo Boo: On Ice: The Movie. In summation, get off my lawn.