Chris Lacy

Mild spoiler: This essay discusses Peter Parker’s arc and a pivotal exchange from Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The live-action Spider-Man debate often goes nowhere because people keep arguing about different things. Some mean the actor who starred in the greatest movie. Some mean the actor who most perfectly captures Peter Parker’s personality. Some mean the performance that has done the most with the character over time. Those aren’t the same question. Tobey Maguire still owns the best Spider-Man film.

My case for the original Bad Boys has to start with an admission: critics didn’t think much of it. Roger Ebert gave the film two stars and called it a retread. Its Rotten Tomatoes score sits in the mid-forties, with a consensus praising Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s chemistry while accusing director Michael Bay of drowning it in explosions and set pieces. Good. That last fact is why the 1995 original is still the best in the franchise, and why nothing since has caught it.

Michael Jackson Steps Out of Formation How Motown 25 staged his passage from family act to solo myth. Press enter or click to view image in full size Photo Source: NBC/Getty Images March 25, 1983. The Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Michael Jackson is twenty-four. He has finished performing a nostalgic medley with his brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Randy. The colorful coordination, the synchronized choreography, the classics the world watched him grow up inside.