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Mike McGranaghan

Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:

I started doing movie reviews in 1986, when I joined the staff of my high school newspaper and won several Keystone awards (the Keystone award is the highest honor given to high school journalists in Pennsylvania). That was all the encouragement I needed to continue. While still in college, I became the film critic for two central Pennsylvania newspapers: The Selinsgrove Times-Tribune and The Middleburg Post. I stayed with those papers for five years. In 1995, I became film critic of Gamut! - an online magazine devoted to entertainment. My website (www.aisleseat.com) is an off-shoot of that magazine. Additionally, I am the on-air film critic for Sunbury Broadcasting Corporation, which operates three central PA radio stations. My reviews run weekly.

Publications:
Favorites:

Favorite Films - The Brothers McMullen, JFK, Fletch, Do the Right Thing, Chasing Amy, Fargo, The Blair Witch Project
Favorite Directors - Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Edward Burns, Kevin Smith, Steven Soderbergh, the Farrelly Brothers, the Coen Brothers, John Waters, Edward D. Wood, Jr.
Best of All Time: Schindler's List
Worst of All Time: Caligula

Critics' Group:
Location:

Central Pennsylvania

Official Website:

http://www.aisleseat.com/

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
Affection (2025) 90% 3/4 EDIT “Affection offers additional proof that Jessica Rothe needs to be sprung onto the A-list. ” – Aisle Seat May 7, 2026 Full Review Blue Heron (2025) 97% 2.5/4 EDIT “At roughly the 45-minute mark, Blue Heron goes from being one of the year’s best films to one of the year’s most frustrating films.” – Aisle Seat May 7, 2026 Full Review Hokum (2026) 88% 3.5/4 EDIT “Far from being the bloodiest or goriest horror picture out there, it manages to freak you out through suggestion, although a couple A+ jump scares help, too.” – Aisle Seat May 4, 2026 Full Review The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026) 78% 3/4 EDIT “Streep, Hathaway, Blunt, and Tucci are a dream team.” – Aisle Seat May 1, 2026 Full Review Omaha (2025) 91% 3.5/4 EDIT “This movie broke my heart. ” – Aisle Seat May 1, 2026 Full Review RZA's One Spoon of Chocolate (2025) 38% 3/4 EDIT “One Spoon of Chocolate has a sense of anger reminiscent of Melvin Van Peeble’s classic Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.” – Aisle Seat Apr 30, 2026 Full Review Deep Water (2026) 73% 3/4 EDIT “The refusal to water down (no pun intended) the devastating impact of both the crash and the shark attacks guarantees you get the satisfying B-movie insanity you crave.” – Aisle Seat Apr 29, 2026 Full Review That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Tears of the Azure Sea (2026) 80% 3/4 EDIT “Where some anime features focus on battles and power-ups, this one admirably takes the time to explore other areas.” – Aisle Seat Apr 29, 2026 Full Review Animal Farm (2025) 27% 1.5/4 EDIT “I would love to know what the people who made the animated Animal Farm were thinking when they embarked upon this endeavor. Here is a movie so misguided that its existence doesn’t make sense.” – Aisle Seat Apr 28, 2026 Full Review Over Your Dead Body (2026) 68% 3/4 EDIT “Viewers with a taste for the twisted are going to lose their minds.” – Aisle Seat Apr 24, 2026 Full Review Michael (2026) 39% 1/4 EDIT “Michael is made for obsessed fans. It’s expressly designed to feed into their fantasy of MJ as a moonwalking Jesus.” – Aisle Seat Apr 24, 2026 Full Review Desert Warrior (2025) 26% 2/4 EDIT “There’s some good stuff in Desert Warrior, but you have to wade through a lot of nonsense to get to it.” – Aisle Seat Apr 23, 2026 Full Review Fuze (2025) 73% 3.5/4 EDIT “Relentlessly entertaining. Theo James is a standout. ” – Aisle Seat Apr 22, 2026 Full Review I Swear (2025) 97% 3.5/4 EDIT “Touches your heart and opens your eyes.” – Aisle Seat Apr 22, 2026 Full Review The Story of Everything (2026) 3/4 EDIT “Prepare to be challenged, provoked, and thoroughly fascinated.” – Aisle Seat Apr 21, 2026 Full Review Erupcja (2025) 85% 3/4 EDIT “The picture is a breath of fresh air in our franchise-heavy cinematic era.” – Aisle Seat Apr 17, 2026 Full Review The Christophers (2025) 96% 3.5/4 EDIT “The Christophers has moments that are funny, a few that are sad, and a whole lot more that get the wheels of your brain turning.” – Aisle Seat Apr 17, 2026 Full Review Lee Cronin's The Mummy (2026) 47% 3/4 EDIT “Cronin doesn’t hold back from devising sick, twisted sights to shock the audience with.” – Aisle Seat Apr 17, 2026 Full Review The Stoned Age (1993) EDIT “The laughs are few and the repetitiveness of the jokes is high.” – Aisle Seat Apr 16, 2026 Full Review Panda Plan 2: The Magical Tribe (2026) 2.5/4 EDIT “No less relentlessly silly than its predecessor, although the returns are slightly diminished this time around.” – Aisle Seat Apr 15, 2026 Full Review Wasteman (2025) 100% 3/4 EDIT “Although the plotting is a bit thin at times, the portrait of prison life is absolutely harrowing. ” – Aisle Seat Apr 15, 2026 Full Review Normal (2025) 76% 3/4 EDIT “If John Wick and Fargo spawned, this would be the result.” – Aisle Seat Apr 14, 2026 Full Review Mile End Kicks (2025) 88% 3.5/4 EDIT “A feel-good winner. It’s the kind of indie that comes with a strong voice and a sharp perspective.” – Aisle Seat Apr 13, 2026 Full Review You, Me & Tuscany (2026) 66% 2.5/4 EDIT “Pleasant but shallow.” – Aisle Seat Apr 10, 2026 Full Review Hunting Matthew Nichols (2024) 88% 3/4 EDIT “Basically follows the template of The Blair Witch Project, but director Markian Tarasiuk has a few tricks up his sleeve to make it effective.” – Aisle Seat Apr 10, 2026 Full Review
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