Mike Robertson

As humans, we’re wired for order and chaos, discipline and disorder, reason and passion. This fundamental dichotomy is a major source of conflict in our lives and in the fictions we create. One permutation of this theme ” the individual caught between duty and desire ” has been retold a thousand times in a thousand […]

In 2005, “The Simpsons” featured an episode titled “Future-Drama,” in which Bart and Lisa get to see their lives eight years in the future. Aside from the “you’re gay for Moleman” line, one of the episode’s best gags comes when Marge announces, “Everything’s so easy since scientists invented magic!” It may not be the first […]

Back in the day, filmmakers were careful to maintain a certain moral hierarchy, making sure that the bad people got what they deserved, and the good people walked off with maybe a scratch or two, but no real damage. It was just an understood thing, a product of the studio system in which content ” […]

It’s difficult, if not impossible, to predict whether a movie will be good or bad. Sometimes you hear about a movie that just sounds stupid (“Avatar” comes to mind), and then it makes a billion dollars. And then sometimes a movie has an OK premise and reputable actors, but turns out to be the equivalent […]

Over the last 25 to 30 years, we in the United States have become increasingly aware and fascinated with Japanese pop culture. Anime, manga, Pokémon, Dragonballs, Airbenders and all manner of odd, what-the-hell-is-that-all-about imports from the land of hara-kiri and used-panty vending machines have been introduced to Americans, with varying success: Sometimes, they’re embraced and […]

Sequels usually maintain a certain consistency from their source material. Even if it isn’t a direct continuation of the original story, the characters and their places within the fictional universe are more or less set in stone. With “Get Him to the Greek,” director Nicholas Stoller creates an interesting deviation from the normal sequel template […]

In “Mother,” 20-something Yoon Do-joon (Bin Won) lives with his mom (Hye-ja Kim), still sharing a bed with her and allowing her to treat him like a boy. She watches Do-joon while she works, worries about him when he isn’t home, and has generally devoted her entire being to his well-being. Unfortunately, Do-joon is kind […]

As we’ve seen several times over the last 30 years, adapting sketches from “Saturday Night Live” into full-length movies is a hit-and-miss proposition. For every “The Blues Brothers,” we get five “Coneheads.” Or worse, “It’s Pat.” Will Forte and his “MacGruber” writing crew wisely didn’t try to expand their 30-second “Macgyver” spoofs from the show […]

Art, in its purest form, isn’t about money or fans or Facebook liking or even about making sense to anyone in particular. It’s about the artist doing whatever he or she feels like to move an inner vision of reality into the outside world. Some people paint, some people write, some people sew, and some […]