- John Hansen
- December 26, 2015
10 random observations about the Christmas classic ‘Gremlins’ (Movie commentary)
I’m not as big of a Christmas movie guy as I am a Christmas TV guy, but I have settled on my answer – at
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- John Hansen
- December 23, 2015
Hermione Granger is black and white and read all over (Commentary)
The casting of black actress Noma Dumezweni as Hermione in J.K. Rowling’s new “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” stage play – set a couple decades after
- John Hansen
- December 8, 2015
Why is Katniss Everdeen so reluctant to be a hero? (And why ‘Gotham’ features the rarest of heroes)
When faced with a totalitarian government, institutionalized corruption or a plain ole supervillain, pop culture’s superheroes and revolutionaries are almost always reluctant, and it’s getting
- John Hansen
- October 27, 2015
Loss of ‘Star Wars’ words might be even more tragic than loss of ‘Star Wars’ worlds (Books and comics commentary)
The loss of 37 years’ worth of “Star Wars” Expanded Universe continuity gets talked about a lot as the saddest element of Disney’s takeover for
- John Hansen
- October 13, 2015
The 25 biggest ‘Star Wars’ Expanded Universe unanswered questions (Books and comics commentary)
Before its cancellation in 2014, the “Star Wars” Expanded Universe (now called Legends) was a treasure trove of interconnected stories, creative retcons, and – admittedly
- John Hansen
- June 26, 2015
A dozen random observations about ‘Jaws’ for its 40th anniversary
“Jaws” debuted 40 years ago this month, and I was lucky enough that my local theater featured an anniversary screening. Needless to say, the film totally
- John Hansen
- June 16, 2015
Why aren’t the ‘Jurassic Park’ movies scary anymore?
In my review of “Jurassic World,” I mentioned that these movies aren’t scary anymore, but I didn’t theorize about the reason beyond noting that I’ve outgrown being
- John Hansen
- May 10, 2015
All 8 long-running ‘Star Wars’ Legends comics series, ranked (Comic book commentary)
With the new ongoing Marvel comic series, not to mention the trailers for “Episode VII” and “Rebels” Season 2, drawing interest from new and casual
- John Hansen
- November 8, 2014
The top 10 ‘Star Wars’ song parodies of all time
With Nerdist’s “All About That Base” seemingly locking up the title of best “Star Wars” song parody of the year, I thought it’d be a
- John Hansen
- June 4, 2014
30 years later, ranking the 12 tracks of ‘Born in the U.S.A.’
Some people called Bruce Springsteen a sellout for delivering 12 radio-friendly hits (seven became top 10 singles) on “Born in the U.S.A.,” which hit record stores on