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All 21 Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, ranked (Commentary)

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ho will live? Who will die? Who will be resurrected? How will our heroes defeat Thanos? Big questions are on the minds of Marvel Cinematic Universe fans heading into the 22nd outing, “Avengers: Endgame,” which will hit theaters Friday, April 26. It’s not the end of the saga by any means (trailers for July’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home” are already out, so I have a good feeling about Spidey’s fortunes), but it’s definitely the end of an era as some of the original Avengers – such as Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man and Chris Evans’ Captain America – might be calling it quits with this film, one way or another.

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‘Glass’ is overlong, but it’s great to spend more time in the ‘Unbreakable’ universe (Movie review)

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lass,” now available for home viewing, is an excuse to spend more time in the universe of “Unbreakable” (2000) and “Split” (2017), and I like that universe, so I can’t complain too much. On the special edition DVD of “Unbreakable,” writer-director M. Night Shyamalan says he wrote a three-act story but decided to use only the first act for that film because Acts II and III didn’t engage him as much as David Dunn’s (Bruce Willis) superhero origin story.

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First episode impressions: ‘The Twilight Zone’ (TV review)

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BS All Access’ new version of “The Twilight Zone” is certainly putting itself out there. Using the name of the revered Rod Serling series (1959-64) that hasn’t lost its cachet despite all the times it has been resurrected (this is the fourth series by that name), the new series is demanding attention but also setting the bar high. The network has made the pilot episode available for free on YouTube. But like the titular “Comedian” of the episode, its confidence is misplaced and unearned.

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‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ loses something in 2D home viewing (Movie review)

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pider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” (2018) is a typical, solid animated kids’ movie about teenager Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) learning how to be Spider-Man, but on my home viewing I got the sense that it’s mostly supposed to be a visual spectacle. Many action sequences are tailored to theatrical 3D, and some frames look like when you remove your 3D glasses and peek at the screen. My Cold Bananas colleague Shaune tells me this isn’t lazy 2D conversion, but rather a mimicking of old-school comic-book printing, with colors bleeding together. I might’ve enjoyed the visuals more with that perspective.

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‘Roswell, New Mexico’ is a rare example of a reboot done right (TV commentary)

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 generally reject reboots of my favorite franchises, but I flat-out love “Roswell, New Mexico,” The CW’s reboot of my beloved “Roswell” (1999-2002). So I should explain why this is. First of all, it’s really well made, with creator Carina Adly MacKenzie and her team showing respect and knowledge of the original material. Secondly, it doesn’t remake the original story; it plays with the same game pieces but has plenty of reasons to exist on its own. Third, it has a distinct title, making it easier to avoid confusion. And fourth, it didn’t cancel an ongoing story in order to start this new one; the original story was wrapped up in books in 2003.

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Throwback Thursday: 20 years later, it’s still worth taking the red pill and entering ‘The Matrix’ (1999) (Movie review)

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he Matrix” was a cultural phenomenon when it was released on March 31, 1999. It elevated Keanu Reeves from movie star to superstar and introduced the world to “bullet time” (the slow-motion portion of an action scene). It was a critical and commercial success, spawning two sequels and a series of animated shorts. Does it hold up 20 years later? Let’s take a look:

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First episode impressions: ‘Titans’ and ‘Doom Patrol’ (TV reviews)

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elieve it or not, there was a time when there were zero superhero shows on TV. Now there are so many that they don’t all fit on TV. Even though most of The CW’s lineup is DC Comics adaptations, there isn’t room for all of them. “Titans,” which premiered last fall, and “Doom Patrol,” which launched last month, are both on the DC Universe streaming channel. The pilot episodes are available for free through March 29.

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Strong performances, action, ’90s nostalgia outweigh ‘Captain Marvel’s’ head-scratching mythology (Movie review)

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t’s been a cliché for more than four decades now that spectacle can’t overcome a bad screenplay, but it’s still remarkable how many films can nail everything except communicating to a viewer what the heck is going on. With “Captain Marvel,” the fun and technically amazing 21st Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, I can’t discount that I may have spaced out on important details, but I do suspect I was spending too much time trying to figure out the nature of Carol Danvers’ (Brie Larson) superpowers rather than kicking back for the ride.

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Throwback Thursday: ‘Dragon Teeth’ (2017) isn’t really a dinosaur story, but it’s an enjoyable example of early Crichton (Book review)

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n 2017, HarperCollins published a Michael Crichton novel with a dinosaur skull on the cover. The bad news is it’s not the unearthing of the late author’s third “Jurassic Park” novel. The good news is “Dragon Teeth” is pretty good. It was written in 1974, and apparently Crichton – who died in 2008 – didn’t feel it was suitable for publication, but with all due respect, I disagree.

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