20 observations about ‘Jurassic Park’ for 20th anniversary
Movie commentary: With “Jurassic Park” back in theaters for a 3D 20th anniversary release, here are 20 reasons why I love the movie.
Lists and Rankings
‘Star Wars’ flashback: The top 10 short stories from ‘Tales from Jabba’s Palace’ (1996) (Book review)
Jabba the Hutt’s palace in “Return of the Jedi” was George Lucas’s “faster and more intense” answer to the cantina in “A New Hope.” Also benefiting from a second chance was “Tales from Jabba’s Palace” (1996), the […]
‘Star Wars’ flashback: The top 8 short stories from ‘Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina’ (1995) (Book review), and ‘Tales from Mos Eisley’ (1996) (Comic book review)
Like so many “risky” concepts, “Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina” (1995) ultimately proved to be a brilliantly obvious one. Up to this point on the “Star Wars” publishing schedule, every adult book had featured at least […]
All 22 episodes of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Season 7 (2002-03), ranked
TV review: “Buffy” doesn’t exactly go out with its best work. But even a weak Joss Whedon season is better than most of what’s on TV.
‘The Killing’ isn’t dead after all! Plus: 9 other resurrected shows (TV commentary)
With the awesome news earlier this week that AMC changed its mind about “The Killing,” which it canceled a few months ago but has now resurrected for a third season (to air later this year), […]
A look back at the best albums of 2012 (Music commentary)
Making a list of my favorite albums of a year is fairly simple: I think of which discs I spun most often in my Jeep in 2012, then subtract the ones that weren’t released in […]
All 22 episodes of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Season 6 (2001-02), ranked
TV review: “Buffy” mostly abandons metaphors and goes for the straight-ahead drama in its penultimate TV season.
John’s top 10 movies of 2012
Here are my picks for the top 10 movies of 2012: 1. “This Is 40” — Writer-director Judd Apatow’s first great film in five years, rather than being one long joke about getting older, instead chronicles a […]
John’s top 10 TV shows of 2012
Here are my top 10 TV shows of 2012: 1. “Parenthood” (Season 3-4, NBC) — I hate to have the same No. 1 two years in a row, but “Parenthood” — the only current series where having a […]
John’s top 10 ‘Star Wars’ novelists (Book commentary)
I’ve been doing occasional “Star Wars Flashback” entries, but I thought I’d take a break here and give a rundown of my top 10 “Star Wars” novelists. For geeks like me, it might provide a […]