Megan Basham began her career as a film critic reviewing movies for her campus paper at Arizona State University. After graduating with a degree in English Literature, she took a position with The University of Phoenix as an adult curriculum editor. After two years of editing some of the driest, most convoluted material ever printed on paper (like philosophy curricula written by lawyers), she broke out of cubicle purgatory by writing freelance articles for Focus on the Family, Catholic Exchange, and Range Magazine.A short time later she began reviewing films Christ Church of the Valley in Phoenix, Arizona to publish in its weekly newsletter. This led to becoming a staff writer for Christian Spotlight on Entertainment and access to interviews with celebrities like Morgan Freeman, Holly Hunter, Liv Tyler and Orlando Bloom.In 2004 Megan was awarded a Phillips Foundation Journalism Fellowship for a work titled “The Parable Principle: How Liberal Ideologues Use Film to Control Political Discourse.” In addition to reviewing films for Townhall and maintaining her own blog, she is also a contributor to National Review Online. Her work has also appeared at The Weekly Standard, The American Spectator Online and in The Washington Times.Megan is currently at work on the book Behind Every Successful Man: How to Help Your Husband Create the Career of His Dreams. By “at work on” she means she mostly researches the subject incessantly, orders lots of books from Amazon related to the topic, and occasionally adds a paragraph or two to her manuscript. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham http://media.townhall.com/TownHall/icons/TH-feed-icon-128x128.gif http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham TownHall.com, Where your opinion counts. 128 Copyright (c) 2009 Townhall.com, A Salem Communications Web. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED jim.dearras@townhall.com (Jim De Arras) Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:35:22 GMT Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:35:22 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ Not long ago, Leslie Bennetts, author of an infamous tome warning mothers that failing to work fulltime for the entirety of their lives is sure to leave them eating dog food out of tin cans, feigned shock when at-home... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2008/10/04/young_women's_choices_and_old_feminists'_rage 8bb6ecbe-cb08-4c2f-8813-abdda4671428 Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:35:22 GMT The Obama campaign and their friends in the media are finally starting to admit that Republicans have gotten some things right. Not just in the last few days but also in the last few years. After John McCain gave what... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2008/09/06/republican_successes_are_not_accidents 9f03627d-ec4a-4919-aeee-2bdbd3aa201c Sat, 06 Sep 2008 17:29:41 GMT Some good news was released from the mommy war front last week. Though The Today Show and Good Morning America frequently fill time by throwing stay-at-home mothers and working moms into the ring to duke it out for... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2007/07/20/common_ground_in_the_mommy_wars 8da684db-0e3c-47f9-a000-41f971543585 Fri, 20 Jul 2007 04:00:00 GMT Last year, in response to the increasing numbers of women opting out of the workforce, author Linda Hirshman took to the morning shows proclaiming women demean themselves by becoming fulltime mothers. No matter how much http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2007/05/25/stay-at-home_economics 9feffa0b-fc54-4866-88d6-084eb3411d91 Fri, 25 May 2007 04:01:00 GMT Since the New York Times lit the fuse on the opt-out debate in 2003-reporting that a growing number of married, professional women are permanently or temporarily opting out of full-time jobs-feminist reaction has ranged http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2007/04/18/feminism's_'extreme'_solution_to_the_opt-out_revolution 252aa655-3adb-45e1-82a4-6493b7fe055f Wed, 18 Apr 2007 04:01:00 GMT After bringing in more than $70 million in its opening weekend, comic book adaptation 300 made history as the highest grossing film debut for the month of March and the third highest opening for an R-rated movie (after... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2007/03/15/300_is_more_than_a_bloody_tale_of_good_versus_evil 59afcb8d-7017-42b5-b15b-3926265e8e50 Thu, 15 Mar 2007 15:52:17 GMT It's been over 30 years since Katherine Paterson, a former missionary and wife of a pastor, put pen to paper to write Bridge to Terabithia. Yet even though her beloved Newberry award-winning novel seems tailor-made for... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2007/02/16/a_refreshing_match_made_in_hollywood 8b8a5bba-6cb2-4d2b-9dec-40aa9c499456 Fri, 16 Feb 2007 05:00:01 GMT Almost half a million fewer women tuned into the big three morning shows this season compared to last. And though that number may not be devastating to ABC, CBS, and NBC just yet, the 10 percent drop off is making... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2007/02/13/morning_show_retreat 19c52d83-0575-4b89-bb69-d00303d12e84 Tue, 13 Feb 2007 21:22:40 GMT In a rare example of journalistic integrity, CNN correspondent Rick Sanchez actually called A-list actress Charlize Theron (most famous for her Oscar-winning portrayal of serial killer Eileen Aileen Wuornos in the film... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2007/02/08/oscar-winning_monster_mouths_off dd8f3fb1-f20f-4964-99fc-f47b1d577907 Thu, 08 Feb 2007 05:00:01 GMT It has become yet another heralding of "the most wonderful time of the year." Along with the temporary inclusion of Bing Crosby and Burl Ives into light rock radio formats, holiday sales, and cheerful family photograp http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/12/19/a_little_perspective_on_the_war_on_christmas 9e8673c4-5fbd-499e-88ba-baaf52c56ab1 Tue, 19 Dec 2006 05:01:54 GMT It has been a long time coming, but Leonardo DiCaprio is finally all grown up-cinematically speaking, that is. However great his acting abilities, with the exception of 2002's Catch Me if You Can, his last few major... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/10/06/dicaprio_grows_up f15dfb25-12f2-4e67-b00e-74322b1302f1 Fri, 06 Oct 2006 14:03:29 GMT Like a lot of conservative film critics, I was more than a little apprehensive to hear that anti-American conspiracy theorist Oliver Stone would be making a movie about 9/11. Fortunately, whatever his past cinematic... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/08/14/conservatives_look_a_gift_film_in_the_mouth 79b2a4ec-c490-4745-ac19-2d77c7b19b7f Mon, 14 Aug 2006 05:02:53 GMT To a lot of Christians, the worst happened this weekend when their great crusader for faith in Hollywood took a very public, very appalling tumble from grace. To many others (read: rabid secularists and the press)... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/07/31/gibsons_folly 98afddd6-416a-46d7-92c4-5b3967f77f81 Mon, 31 Jul 2006 18:01:00 GMT Watching M. Night Shyamalan's latest, Lady in the Water, one gets the distinct impression the writer/director must have just finished reading Rick Warren's best-seller, "The Purpose Driven Life," so intent is he on... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/07/21/a_purpose-driven_fairy_tale da61f8ba-18fe-4f66-9f44-1954d21b9784 Fri, 21 Jul 2006 04:00:00 GMT This is one review in which I will never have to issue the warning, "Spoiler Alert". Oh, sure, I could reveal a few minor shifts and surprises, but it would be impossible to give away the ending to Pirates of the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/07/11/pirates_ii_--_chaos_on_the_high_seas 9357ad90-32f3-445d-87a9-c833dd701d0f Tue, 11 Jul 2006 04:00:00 GMT Superman had to survive a lot more than the evil plotting of Lex Luthor to make it to the big screen this summer. First he had to survive the executives at Warner Bros. Over the past ten years, rumors repeatedly flew... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/06/28/superman 26f7d0be-4aa6-4846-87c4-df294f0597de Wed, 28 Jun 2006 04:01:00 GMT In their own way, Jared and Jerusha Hess, the husband and wife screenwriting team who penned 2004's sleeper hit Napoleon Dynamite, changed the landscape of modern moviemaking as much as Mel Gibson did with The Passion... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/06/20/nacho_is_funny_because_of_and_despite_black cbc1c945-4ce9-4481-8d68-f2a8e7f7790d Tue, 20 Jun 2006 04:01:00 GMT There's an interesting dichotomy in Hollywood when it comes to interpreting Scripture on film. While they seem to have great regard for the bad news of the Bible (demonic possession, seven seals of pestilence and... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/06/06/the_omen_doesnt_stick_to_script c8b6cec1-94b8-4d33-811d-6f3d92cefedd Tue, 06 Jun 2006 04:01:00 GMT It should have been a standard Q & A session following a typical film screening for the press. But from The Da Vinci Code denouncements by the Vatican to cries that United 93 portrayed events too raw and recent to be... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/06/05/the_omen-courting_controversy 560a5952-2ed0-42f3-8f53-56c9e70a4b9a Mon, 05 Jun 2006 04:01:00 GMT It took in $45.5 million on the day of its release-the second highest opening day haul in film history, behind only Star Wars: Episode III. It earned $120 million in its first four days, making it the biggest Memorial... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/05/31/x-men_getting_your_moneys_worth 23368558-e54a-4d67-b540-3acaff57363f Wed, 31 May 2006 04:01:00 GMT For those, like myself, who somehow managed to make dinner party conversation over the past year without reading Dan Brown's pulpy novel, The Da Vinci Code, following the film's marketing edict to "seek the truth"... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/05/22/oldest_sin_in_the_book 2d771ffa-7fd7-422c-a904-eed56ed0356f Mon, 22 May 2006 04:01:00 GMT "The message of the movie is not only that kids are smarter than adults, but that.it's great to see activism at an early age." In the new movie Jimmy Buffet is referring to, Hoot, children are indeed smarter than a... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/05/05/hoot_falls_short 04a7e9dc-4123-4833-8f8b-1e7e37d3cf33 Fri, 05 May 2006 04:01:00 GMT Not long ago, unwilling to acquiesce to the flabby ravages of time, I started working out with a trainer. Having just begun our sessions, he wasn't yet too familiar with what I did for a living. He had some sense of my... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/05/02/ordinary_heroes eca0d731-91bf-4175-a3e5-b65829baace2 Tue, 02 May 2006 04:01:00 GMT Once upon a time, the phrase, "The American Dream" evoked something good, proud, and pure about our nation. It prompted reflections on hardworking immigrants lured to the U.S. by the promise of home ownership, financial... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/04/28/from_sea_to_shining__stage ecf17896-3a46-486c-b355-51dd9a1c0b60 Fri, 28 Apr 2006 04:01:00 GMT If you build it, they will come. That's the way most studios look at children and family films, which are by far the biggest moneymakers in the movie business. But this weekend, despite the built-in cache of being a... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/04/20/the_wild_fails_to_excite b52e79e4-e90a-41c6-ab9c-389bca3eb752 Thu, 20 Apr 2006 04:01:00 GMT When she walks into our interview room at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons, first-time film director Liz Friedlander looks flushed with the excitement of finally seeing months of her work on screen and captivated by the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/04/07/mad_hot_hip-hop ee5bb87a-4fec-4c53-b983-2e8eb5b637a4 Fri, 07 Apr 2006 04:01:00 GMT Let me be clear: a movie like Slither isn't for the uninitiated. If memories of killer tomatoes and armies of darkness claim no cherished place in your teenage memories, I can almost guarantee you won't appreciate it.... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/04/05/not_for_the_uninitiated 502cb2c6-6b39-4174-9b99-5f39b3b1cc1d Wed, 05 Apr 2006 04:01:00 GMT An amazing thing happened at cineplexes across the country this weekend. Adults went back to the movies. Spike Lee's latest more than outperformed expectations; it brought box-office receipts out of yet another... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/03/28/who_says_you_have_to_pander c2477cd4-f243-41ac-b5b8-488d74f973ee Tue, 28 Mar 2006 04:01:00 GMT I have seen the terrorist, and he is me. And you. And all of us. So says Evey (Natalie Portman), an acolyte of V (Hugh Weaving), the swashbuckling savior of future England who disguises himself as Guy Fawkes. But... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/03/20/v_for_vendetta,_t_for_terrorist,_and_a_for_thats_a-okay 42ba0373-b28d-44a6-8ab1-ff0a9b30d428 Mon, 20 Mar 2006 04:01:00 GMT Sometimes critics are a little harder on fluffy romantic comedies than the films' modest aspirations deserve. Sure there are those rare masterpieces of the genre, your When Harry Met Sallys, Four Weddings and a... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/03/16/failure_to_launch,_successful_to_amuse c224bc83-1f4f-487d-aeaa-59be07b09436 Thu, 16 Mar 2006 04:01:00 GMT When writer/director, and now Oscar winner, Paul Haggis accepted his best original screenplay award for Crash, he revealed something fundamental about the way Hollywood looks at art. "Bertolt Brecht said that art is... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/03/07/if_hollywood_had_a_hammer 3e77c9b9-4324-4fae-b3f6-e0333daa62b9 Tue, 07 Mar 2006 05:01:00 GMT Like many films that champion faith, family, and personal responsibility, Madea's Family Reunion boasts some solid dialogue, hilarious interactions, and truly uplifting moments. Too bad, like a lot of those same... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/03/03/dysfunctional_family_reunion 37148262-4337-49ec-9f8a-56cb26b53bb6 Fri, 03 Mar 2006 05:01:00 GMT I can't prove it, but I have a theory that Freedomland, an over-the-top allegory on racism clumsily wrapped in thriller garb, was supposed to be one of Sony's Academy Award contenders this year. But when the final... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/02/21/when_playing_the_race_card_doesnt_work 11312688-6b00-4dea-9f98-3955dedfdb0f Tue, 21 Feb 2006 05:01:00 GMT Message to Harrison Ford's agent: its time to take a page from the Jack Nicholson guidebook on acting. When leading men reach a certain age, good scripts become as scarce as natural body parts on Rodeo Drive. Not... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/02/14/on-screen_and_over-the-hill 5ca86605-53ad-4056-a204-d123f1142cdc Tue, 14 Feb 2006 05:01:00 GMT "It's a preference not a prejudice." So says Kenya (Sanaa Lathan), a black accountant in her early thirties to Brian (Simon Baker), a white landscape architect of roughly the same age about her decision not to date... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/02/08/preference_and_prejudice 9341ecd5-9dfb-44e5-9e2a-559bdb63cf63 Wed, 08 Feb 2006 05:01:00 GMT I can just imagine how the pitch meeting for Annapolis went: "Remember Officer and a Gentlemen? Well, that was a good movie, right? And remember Rocky; that was a good movie too. So what we've done is combined them and... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/01/31/a_story_left_untold 26c44a4f-5bc8-4a0f-9781-3c7e8e39251c Tue, 31 Jan 2006 05:01:00 GMT The Christian community has good reason to feel encouraged by the new film, End of the Spear, if we will let ourselves. Not because it is a great movie (it isn't, though it is a good one). And not because it will earn... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/01/27/its_just_good_art cd5bdf1e-3261-458e-a7c2-e54c9ece83c0 Fri, 27 Jan 2006 05:01:00 GMT Whenever history is adapted for film, there are certain elements that are unknowable. We may know what Lincoln revealed in his correspondence, but we don't know what he said in conversations or what feelings he may have... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/01/20/the_real_pocahontas_story 2d91458d-4700-4691-af80-48a9e554423a Fri, 20 Jan 2006 05:01:00 GMT It's become a well-worn axiom among conservative circles in the last few decades: Hollywood hates Christianity. They make films where the worst villains are people of faith (Seven, Kinsey, Kingdom of Heaven, to name a... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/01/19/faith_at_the_movies b23096cd-9fe3-48ea-aa7d-918b443d3f77 Thu, 19 Jan 2006 05:01:00 GMT It never pays to know too many facts behind a "based on a true story" movie. Inevitably, you either spend your time check marking everything the film gets right or grousing over the things it gets wrong. Despite... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/01/13/glory_road ae2443f7-65da-4f99-b369-7445b15b28ec Fri, 13 Jan 2006 05:01:00 GMT A person just cannot trust film trailers anymore. These days, movies that look like good-spirited holiday comedies turn out to be propagandistic clunkers, and movies that look like grade B schlock turn out to be... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/01/13/last_holiday a8418da3-8206-462c-9968-7dd683494647 Fri, 13 Jan 2006 05:01:00 GMT "Based on a true story." Once upon a time, audiences might have taken these words to mean that every word and action they were about to witness would be portrayed exactly as they happened in real life. Today, on the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/01/11/color-blind_not_in_hollywoods_telling e0b7a0cd-64e9-4dec-a730-2ce04ae2f21b Wed, 11 Jan 2006 05:01:00 GMT Despite the general grousing of some older movie patrons that Hollywood just doesn't make 'em like they used to, the last few years have marked several major accomplishments in big screen entertainment. Since 2000,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2006/01/03/memoirs_of_a_geisha 8df05a59-ce90-4b4d-9bf1-ff49f011b9a1 Tue, 03 Jan 2006 05:01:00 GMT I remember once reading about a pundit who criticized William F. Buckley for writing his columns too quickly: "In twenty minutes, flat." "Too little time for serious contemplation of difficult subjects," the writer... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2005/12/25/the_new_world 17727b40-45f4-4baa-adcb-b8889710a4a3 Sun, 25 Dec 2005 05:01:00 GMT Pot-smoking, gay adoption, and mothers gleefully discussing how their daughters lost their virginity. Ahh, just what the Christmas season is all about. What? Not in your family? Then you must not work in the film... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2005/12/21/the_family_stone 1b382335-db8f-483e-a036-663d1cff7ff5 Wed, 21 Dec 2005 05:01:00 GMT It's never a positive sign when a studio decides not to provide advance screenings of a high budget production to critics, as was the case with this weekend's only major release, Aeon Flux. Usually, it means that... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2005/12/05/aeon_flux feecacb4-b136-4e7a-b674-92750ae77b41 Mon, 05 Dec 2005 05:01:00 GMT "I love doing physical comedy," comments aging heart-throb Dennis Quaid as we discuss his new film, Yours, Mine and Ours. "My dad turned my brother [Randy Quaid] and I on to the Three Stooges and Laurel and Hardy at a... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2005/11/28/the_junketeer fb1a6d67-cc35-419e-a4b3-bee4b51ae2f2 Mon, 28 Nov 2005 05:01:00 GMT After the box office success of Cheaper by the Dozen last year, it must have seemed like a good idea to some Paramount executive to green light a remake of the 1968 family classic Yours, Mine, and Ours. Clearly, the... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2005/11/23/yours,_mine_and_ours 0e560656-5d05-4f44-872f-558649ef7765 Wed, 23 Nov 2005 05:01:00 GMT Each winter, as we enter the homestretch of a given year, Hollywood begins limiting itself to two kinds of holiday releases: "films"--austere art that usually (though not always) self-consciously market themselves as... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2005/11/23/just_friends 90352dda-8696-41da-94c3-f943a7c58335 Wed, 23 Nov 2005 05:01:00 GMT There's a new Harry Potter in town, and he's more compelling (and perhaps controversial) than any of his earlier big-screen incarnations. No longer an awkward boy, Harry is in the process of becoming an awkward... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MeganBasham/2005/11/18/harry_potter_and_the_goblet_of_fire 859b1959-f53e-4121-8903-f334dfbf89e8 Fri, 18 Nov 2005 05:01:00 GMT