iPhone app iPad app Android phone app Android tablet app

Zaki Hasan
GET UPDATES FROM Zaki Hasan
 
Born and raised in Chicago -- with a decade-long detour in Saudi Arabia -- before settling in the San Francisco Bay Area, Zaki Hasan is a professor of communication and media studies, and co-founder of Mr. Boy Productions, an LA-based independent film and video company. A lifelong pop culture buff, Zaki has been a media scholar and critic for more than fifteen years. He is co-host of the MovieFilm Podcast, co-author of Quirk Books' Geek Wisdom: The Sacred Teachings of Nerd Culture, and his work has been featured in Q-News and Illume.  He is also contributing editor at Altmuslimah.com. Since 2004, his blog Zaki's Corner has been his one-stop forum for musings on news, media, politics, and pop culture. He was included in 2010's Top 35 Political Blogs by BestBloggers.org, and has been nominated for "Best Blog" and "Best Writer" in 2010, 2011, and 2012 by the Brass Crescent Awards, receiving an Honorable Mention for "Best Blog" in 2011.

You can e-mail him at zaki@zakiscorner.com

Blog Entries by Zaki Hasan

The MovieFilm Podcast: Gatsby, Star Trek and More!

(0) Comments | Posted May 21, 2013 | 9:34 AM

It's just Brian and Zaki for this week's installment of the MovieFilm Podcast, but they have plenty to discuss. First up, Zaki offers his thoughts on The Great Gatsby and the all-new animated feature...
Read Post

INTERVIEW: Director Sarah Polley Talks Stories We Tell

(4) Comments | Posted May 18, 2013 | 10:45 AM

Sarah Polley has been working consistently in film and television since she was a child, and what's most astounding about the multi-hyphenate filmmaker, who spends her days smoothly segueing back-and-forth between actor, writer, and director, is how much enthusiasm she continues to have for the industry as she seeks out new, innovative ways of...

Read Post

Zaki's Review: Star Trek Into Darkness

(26) Comments | Posted May 17, 2013 | 3:04 AM

Read my review of 2009's Star Trek here

2009's hugely successful sequel/prequel/reboot Star Trek did a lot more than apply the paddles to the moribund Trek brand after a brief, apathy-induced interregnum. It also opened the franchise up to a wider, more diverse audience than it ever...

Read Post

Zaki's Review: The Great Gatsby

(4) Comments | Posted May 10, 2013 | 1:39 AM

After four wildly different tries at bringing F. Scott Fitzgerald's much-admired tome The Great Gatsby to the silver screen, I'm starting to think it may simply be unadaptable. Maybe the acknowledgement of such will keep hubristic filmmakers like Baz Luhrmann from dusting off the text every few decades to try,...

Read Post

The MovieFilm Podcast: Examining Iron Man 3

(2) Comments | Posted May 6, 2013 | 2:21 AM

Just in time for the summer movie season, Brian Hall rejoins the MovieFilm boys for an in-depth, spoileriffic discussion of Marvel Studios' Iron Man 3, which kicked off...
Read Post

Zaki's Review: Iron Man 3

(3) Comments | Posted May 3, 2013 | 2:45 AM

Read my 2008 review of Iron Man here

Read my 2010 review of Iron Man 2 here

Read my 2012 review of The Avengers here

I have to admit, as a fan of the comic book incarnation of Iron Man going all the way back to...

Read Post

The MovieFilm Podcast: Man of Steel, Lone Ranger, and What's Right With Tom Cruise

(0) Comments | Posted April 22, 2013 | 1:42 AM


When it came time to record the big 20th episode of the  MovieFilm Podcast, Brian was too busy earning a living to join us, but Joblo.com News Editor Paul Shirey gamely...
Read Post

Zaki's Review: 42

(0) Comments | Posted April 11, 2013 | 1:39 PM

42 is an exceptional story told unexceptionally. As a depiction of the trailblazing story of Jackie Robinson, who shattered the color barrier for professional baseball (and really for all pro sports), its subject matter is worthier than its execution. Then again, that's not necessarily a fault of the movie, per...

Read Post

The MovieFilm Podcast: In Praise of Jurassic Park!

(0) Comments | Posted April 8, 2013 | 5:00 AM

In this episode of MovieFilm, the gang share their thoughts on the global blockbuster G.I. Joe: Retaliation and lionize the late Roger Ebert. In addition, we use the occasion of Jurassic Park's...
Read Post

Zaki's Review: Jurassic Park 3D

(11) Comments | Posted April 5, 2013 | 2:09 PM

When director Steven Spielberg's dinos-on-the-rampage blockbuster Jurassic Park first hit the screen twenty years ago (I'll let you process that number for a second, along with the resultant reality of how much older you are since you first saw it) it was a legitimate phenomenon. A true game changer. To everyone but...

Read Post

INTERVIEW: G.I. Joe Creator Larry Hama Reflects on 30 Years of the Real American Hero

(0) Comments | Posted April 1, 2013 | 1:07 PM

Larry Hama began his long tour chronicling G.I. Joe in 1982 while working as an editor at Marvel Comics, when he took on the little "toy book" that no one else wanted to write. From there, he helped shape every aspect of the extended Joe universe, down to penning...

Read Post

Zaki's Review: G.I. Joe: Retaliation

(0) Comments | Posted March 28, 2013 | 1:16 PM

Read my 2009 review of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra here

Now that's more like it.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation is the Joe movie I've been hoping to see since I was a little kid, and it's exactly the kind of movie that its predecessor, 2009's exercise in cotton candy excess...

Read Post

The MovieFilm Podcast: Olympus Has Fallen, G.I. Joe, and More!

(0) Comments | Posted March 25, 2013 | 1:30 AM

The latest MovieFilm installment starts off with my interview with legendary G.I. Joe writer Larry Hama as he discusses the origins of the Marvel Comics run and the continuing popularity of the "Real American...
Read Post

INTERVIEW: Actor Jim Sturgess Talks Upside Down

(1) Comments | Posted March 16, 2013 | 11:44 AM

Ever since his breakout performance in 2007's Across the Universe, actor-musician Jim Sturgess has leveraged his reputation as one of Hollywood's rising stars to seek out unique, interesting projects that represent unique, interesting artistic visions.

His latest film, the dreamlike modern day fairytale Upside Down, which opened yesterday in...

Read Post

The MovieFilm Podcast: Jim Sturgess On Upside Down, Plus Oz, Oscar Wrap, and More!

(0) Comments | Posted March 11, 2013 | 12:43 AM

On this week's show, I starts things off with an exclusive interview with actor Jim Sturgess about his new film Upside Down. After that, the gang and I discuss why big budget fairytale Oz...
Read Post

Zaki's Review: Oz the Great and Powerful

(5) Comments | Posted March 8, 2013 | 2:32 PM

The last time director Sam Raimi, one of the most talented visual voices of his generation, tried his hand at a big budget blockbuster, this happened. And so, with the unfortunate, unplanned end of his post-facto Spider-Man trilogy proving an unsatisfactory experience both for him to make and the...

Read Post

The MovieFilm Podcast: Dissecting Die Hard!

(0) Comments | Posted February 25, 2013 | 12:53 AM

For this week's installment, the MovieFilm crew spends the bulk of the time discussing Bruce Willis' latest exploit as Detective John McClane in the critically lambasted A Good Day to Die Hard. Is it just...
Read Post

Zaki's Review: A Good Day to Die Hard

(0) Comments | Posted February 22, 2013 | 4:31 PM

It's now twenty-five years since a shoeless, shirtless Bruce Willis, as beleagured NY cop John McClane, uttered his first "Yippee-ki-yay" while taking down hordes of heavily-armed baddies in director John McTiernan's Die Hard. I doubt the filmmakers had any inkling at the time, but that thriller (which launched Willis' big...

Read Post

The Argo Effect

(23) Comments | Posted February 21, 2013 | 12:55 PM

The Academy Awards are this coming weekend, and based on its mad march through the rest of the award shows this season, it sure looks like Argo is well positioned to take the Best Picture prize even as its helmer, the resurgent Ben Affleck was perplexingly robbed of a...

Read Post

The MovieFilm Podcast: Stallone Bombs, Justice League Folds, and Summer Movie Season Ramps Up

(0) Comments | Posted February 12, 2013 | 10:57 AM

For this week's MovieFilm Podcast, Brian emerges from the hyperbaric chamber that is "film post-production" to get caught up on the latest out of La-La-Wood. In Headlines, we discuss the total floppage of Sylvester...
Read Post