- 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
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- 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
- June 14, 2015
‘Jurassic World’ is ‘Jurassic Park’ on steroids
“Jurassic World” — the franchise’s fourth film but first in 14 years – follows pretty much the exact same plot as the original “Jurassic Park” but
- John Hansen
- June 11, 2015
Gorgeous-looking ‘Insurgent’ further explores ‘Divergent’ world (Movie review)
“Insurgent” further clarifies the political structure of the “Divergent” universe, features award-worthy set pieces in a run-down Chicago two centuries in the future and – like
- John Hansen
- May 28, 2015
‘Tomorrowland’: The latest cult classic from Damon Lindelof, or possibly just a bad film (Movie review)
The first thing I did after watching “Tomorrowland” and discussing its peculiarities with my buddy Michael was to look up articles explaining what the hell happened in
- John Hansen
- May 21, 2015
Cannon, Banks deliver aca-competent follow-up with ‘Pitch Perfect 2’ (Movie review)
First-time director Elizabeth Banks, who also plays half of the “Pitch Perfect” series’ a cappella podcasting team, and returning screenwriter Kay Cannon deliver a slick,
- John Hansen
- May 13, 2015
Garland smartly explores artificial intelligence in sparsely beautiful ‘Ex Machina’ (Movie review)
“Ex Machina” could be a stage play, as it features four actors in various austere rooms of an isolated scientific compound. Writer Alex Garland, who also
- John Hansen
- May 9, 2015
10 movies John wouldn’t mind seeing this summer (Commentary)
Here are my picks for 10 movies to check out this summer: “Maggie” (May 8) – This could be what “Cop Land” was to Sylvester Stallone
- John Hansen
- May 7, 2015
‘Lazarus Effect’ a tidy little 90-minute horror riff (Movie review)
“The Lazarus Effect,” a horror flick that recently hit the cheap theaters, is arguably not even as good as one of the weaker Season 1 “X-Files”
- John Hansen
- April 10, 2015
‘It Follows’ masterfully blends horror and coming-of-age genres (Movie review)
“It Follows,” the first great horror film of the year, mixes nightmare imagery with a poignant coming-of-age drama with a travelogue of economically depressed Detroit. The