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In ‘The Dictator,’ Sacha Baron Cohen makes another awful person rather likable (in the context of the film, at least) (Movie review)

“The Dictator” is one of those comedies where you like a despicable main character simply because he’s the main character. This works only in the movie

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John’s 10 favorite TV characters at the moment (Commentary)

The 2011-12 TV season has almost faded to snow and the dust has settled from the cancellation carnage. Looking back, I’d say it was a

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Preston and Child do impressive ‘24’ impression in ‘Gideon’s Corpse’ (Book review)

Last year’s “Gideon’s Sword” was a somewhat rocky start to Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s new Gideon Crew series that felt a bit like a

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Ron Swanson: TV’s greatest libertarian character ever? (Commentary)

Since I’m venturing into politics with this post (which will eventually be about television), I’ll admit my bias up front: I’ll be voting for the Libertarian Party

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‘Star Wars’ flashback: ‘Han Solo at Stars’ End’ (1979-80) (Book and comic review)

In an interview with Star Wars Insider, Jeff Grubb (author of the new novel “Scourge,” which I’ll review in a future post), separates “Star Wars”

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5 buzzworthy season finales (TV commentary)

It’s that time of year when summer movies start to steal the headlines from TV, but boob-tube fans have one last gasp, at least: The

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‘Prometheus’ and 9 other summer movies John wants to see (Commentary)

Based on the trailers, here are the 10 movies I’m most looking forward to in the summer of 2012. They are listed in order of

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First episode impressions: ‘The L.A. Complex’ (TV review)

“The L.A. Complex” (8 p.m. Central Tuesdays on The CW), which can be sneak-previewed at Hulu and premieres on old-fashioned TV on Tuesday, repackages the tried-and-true

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I admit it. I liked ‘Ringer’ Season 1 (TV review)

I guess I shouldn’t speak of “Ringer” in the past tense just yet, although I would be surprised if it came back for a second season on

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All 22 episodes of ‘Angel’ Season 4 (2002-03), ranked

“Angel’s” fourth season (2002-03, WB), also known as “The Destruction of Cordelia’s Character,” has the same problems as Seasons 2 and 3: It relies so heavily

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