- John Hansen
- December 23, 2020
In the holiday spirit: All 10 Shane Black films, ranked
With Christmas approaching, it’s a good time look back at the films of Shane Black, the unofficial King of Christmas among moviemakers. Although he may
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- John Hansen
- August 14, 2020
‘Monster Squad’ (1987) like a proto-‘Stranger Things’
Fans of “Stranger Things” who are curious about the influences behind Netflix’s 1980s-set series have probably already seen “E.T.” (1982), “The Goonies” (1985) and “Stand
- John Hansen
- April 9, 2020
‘Lethal Weapon 2’ (1989) jumps into franchise’s stupid phase
It’s a stereotype that action movie franchises start off strong but get stupid as they go along, and if there’s truth to every stereotype, “Lethal
- John Hansen
- March 5, 2020
‘Last Boy Scout’ (1991) has classic one-liners, can’t sustain momentum
“The Last Boy Scout” (1991) has some of the best one-liners in action-film history. I was 13 when the film came out, and I recall
- John Hansen
- February 27, 2020
‘The Nice Guys’ (2016) is Black’s masterpiece
“The Nice Guys” (2016) is an entertaining action thriller even if a viewer isn’t already a fan of director/co-writer Shane Black. Viewed through the lens
- John Hansen
- February 20, 2020
‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’ (2005) pokes fun at hardboiled noir
Writer Shane Black, in one of the most assured directing debuts ever, delivers a great modern detective noir while also poking fun at the genre
- John Hansen
- February 6, 2020
‘Long Kiss Goodnight’ (1996) gets overblown toward end
After launching the “Lethal Weapon” franchise – still going strong to this day — in 1987, Shane Black shifted to writing one-off movies, but he
- John Hansen
- January 30, 2020
‘Last Action Hero’ (1993) deconstructs genre’s absurdities
Today, the TV Tropes website catalogs TV and movie tropes, but “Last Action Hero” (1993) did it before the internet was around. The film, which
- John Hansen
- December 19, 2019
‘Lethal Weapon’ (1987) shouldn’t be overshadowed by ‘Die Hard’
“Lethal Weapon” (1987) introduced the masses to writer Shane Black (and his penchant for setting his films at Christmastime) and gave director Richard Donner a
- John Hansen
- December 27, 2018
‘The Predator’ reviews
Shaune’s review, Sept. 19, 2018 John’s review, Dec. 27, 2018