Moving Sesame Street … to HBO
When I was a youngster watching Sesame Street, I always knew that it had its sponsors: Two letters and a number. “Sesame Street is brought to you by the letters T and W,” I might hear at the end of the show, “and the number 9.” As of this fall, the landmark educational show will […]
Straight Outta Compton Goes Straight to the Top
Straight Outta Compton, a biopic about the controversial and influential rap act N.W.A., busted through the box office noise and climbed to the top, banking a pretty phenomenal $56.1 million. It crushed the rest of its competitors, earning more than the rest of the Top Five combined. Bad rap? Well, the movie certainly didn’t wow […]
Impossible Speeds to Improbable Win
For years, the box office trajectory of movies based on comic-book superheroes has been as reliable as death and taxes. And for the makers, the formula for success has been quite simple. Step One: Make a superhero movie. Step Two: Watch the movie hit No. 1. Step Three: Start shopping for that ocean villa in […]
Taking Your Dating Cues from Hollywood
Earlier this week, Lisa Anderson, director of young adults for Focus on the Family and host of the wildly popular and incredibly entertaining The Boundless Show, spent some time on Focus on the Family’s daily broadcast chatting about her new book The Dating Manifesto: A Drama-Free Plan for Pursuing Marriage With Purpose. You can catch […]
Impossible Franchise Refuses to Take Vacation
Mission: impossible? When it comes to collecting cash from weekend moviegoers, call it mission: inevitable. Riding Tom Cruise’s seemingly eternally young coattails, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation grabbed hold of the speeding box office and held on for dear life as the thing rose into the clear, blue air. Cruise’s latest turn as superspy Ethan […]
The Terrible Tubes
Grayson Dobra was about to turn 2. His mother, L’erin, wanted to throw him a party he’d never forget (or, at least not for for a day or two). But what sort of party theme could inspire glee and wonder in her little boy? Should she festoon the living room with pictures of cute little animals? Nah, […]
Ant-Man Gets Small, Pixels Smaller
It’s often said that movies make subjects larger than life. But this week, the movies at the local Cineplex looked a little … smaller. Ant-Man, Marvel’s amazing shrinking superhero, lost much of its monetary bulk from its opening-week win, losing nearly 57% of its audience and collecting an estimated $24.8 million. But it was still […]
Getting Real (Fictionally, of Course)
Comedian Jim Gaffigan recently launched his very own sitcom titled, perhaps a bit uncreatively, The Jim Gaffigan Show. It’s on TV Land, and the show’s gotten all sorts of attention. I reviewed it earlier this week, and while it has its share of problems, I have to say I enjoyed parts of it. Not just […]
Ant-Man Makes Large(ish) Splash
Superheroes don’t get much smaller than Ant-Man. But the guy still made a big impact. Like one of those six-legged critters that can lift lemons over their waving antennae, Ant-Man hoisted an estimated $58 million and skittered away with it, all the way back to Disney’s increasingly palatial offices. Granted, Ant-Man’s opening gross fell a […]
Doctor Who and our Changing Culture
As Plugged In’s resident television reviewer, I am often asked by hypothetical people, “Paul, with all the TV that you have to watch for work, what do you watch for fun?” I always tell these hypothetical people that I never watch television for fun. Television should always be educational and enriching and very serious business. […]