In Spielberg’s ‘Ready Player One,’ is the Oasis a fun game or a stultifying trap? (Movie review)

July 14, 2018May 10, 2021 John Hansen Movies

Director Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of “Ready Player One” – now available for home viewing — captures the spectacle and banter of Ernest Cline’s novel without fully tapping into the serious stakes nor the veneer of […]

Before Steven Spielberg’s movie, Ernest Cline’s ‘Ready Player One’ was the novel that even your non-reader friends read (Book review)

April 5, 2018May 10, 2021 John Hansen Books

Earlier this decade, Ernest Cline pulled off a remarkable feat: He got seemingly everyone who grew up in the 1980s to read his very first novel, “Ready Player One” (2011). Friends who never talked about […]

Where were you in ’98?: ‘Fanboys’ will make ‘Star Wars’ fans smile (Movie review)

May 22, 2009April 18, 2021 John Hansen Movies

At the beginning of “Fanboys,” two of the titular characters argue about Boba Fett’s degree of coolness, the Fett-hater noting that the Rocketeer also had a jet pack, so that can’t be a point in his favor. […]

Ernest Cline

In Spielberg’s ‘Ready Player One,’ is the Oasis a fun game or a stultifying trap? (Movie review)

Before Steven Spielberg’s movie, Ernest Cline’s ‘Ready Player One’ was the novel that even your non-reader friends read (Book review)

Where were you in ’98?: ‘Fanboys’ will make ‘Star Wars’ fans smile (Movie review)

In ‘Terrifier 3,’ Art is a psycho for all seasons

‘Eruption’ is a disaster, but not in the intended way

Bloody romp ‘Abigail’ could’ve used sharper stakes

‘Strangers: Chapter 1’ a strange project, but not all bad

We’re caught in the Shyamalan ‘Trap’ yet again

Fall movie preview 2024: 10 films I wouldn’t mind seeing

Fall TV preview 2024: 10 shows I wouldn’t mind watching

‘Agatha Christie’s Poirot’ takes step backward in Season 5 (1993)

‘Poirot’ skillfully adapts three novels in Season 4 (1992)

Suchet’s ‘Poirot’ gets classier in Season 3 (1990-91)

‘Poirot’ Season 2 (1990) finds groove with Christie-Exton mash-ups

Summer movie preview 2024: 10 films I wouldn’t mind seeing

John’s top 10 movies of 2023

John’s top 10 TV shows of 2023

Such sights to show you: All 11 ‘Hellraiser’ films, ranked

‘The Birds’ (1952) flies higher as a short story than as a movie

‘Eruption’ is a disaster, but not in the intended way

‘Beloved’ (1987) makes brutal U.S. history achingly personal

‘Jurassic Park’-style concepts don’t face ‘Extinction’ yet

The moor the merrier in ‘Hound of the Baskervilles’ (1902)

Legendary gumshoe takes first steps in ‘A Study in Scarlet’ (1887)

Three-pronged plot of ‘The Dain Curse’ (1929) is worth the effort

Continental Op makes rip-roaring leap to novels in ‘Red Harvest’ (1929)

du Maurier’s ‘Rebecca’ (1938) a slower burn than the film

‘Last Bookshop in London’ (2021) blends love of books with WWII