Mike Ryan

“If this were a TV show, I’d watch it every single week.” These were the words I spoke right after watching Antoine Fuqua’s theatrical version of ‘The Equalizer,’ which is kind of a dumb thing to say considering that ‘The Equalizer’ was a TV show. Though, this updated version of ‘The Equalizer’ bears little resemblance to the mid-‘80s version, even though it kind of has everything to do with it.

“Can you believe Popeye is played by the guy who plays Mork?” These words from my mother blew my seven-year-old mind. That's my intro to a piece I don’t know how to write and, honestly, probably shouldn’t be writing so soon after learning about Robin Williams’ death. I only had one encounter with Williams professionally – an interview promoting ‘Happy Feet 2,’ of all things – yet there are tears coming down my face as I type this for what is essentially a stranger. Even though he’s not a stranger. Everyone knew him. This is everyone’s loss.

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.

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.)

‘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.