Movie Monday: American Sniper
After spending three weeks holed up in just a handful of theaters, Clint Eastwood’s biopic of SEAL marksman Chris Kyle broke cover this weekend and scored a dead-center bull’s-eye, gunning its way to an estimated $90.2 million. It was enough to land American Sniper at No. 1 with a bullet, of course, and set an […]
What Is a Christian Movie, Anyway?
A year ago, as 2014 opened, the entertainment world was declaring that it would be the year of the Christian movie. Hollywood, we were told, heard our cries! They answered our longings for movies that speak to us Christians and our God-loving souls! We Christian moviegoers would show the entertainment industry our true and mighty […]
In Movies, Everything Old Is New Again
We all have to grow up sometime … but our entertainment doesn’t. If you look at some of the big movies coming out this year, you’ll see that a whole bunch of them are predicated on pretty old properties. Full disclosure: I am old. I am 45 years old, to be exact. My first favorite […]
Movie Monday: The Hobbit’s Win Streak Goes Ever Ever On
When Peter Jackson gets his hooks into a work of Tolkien, you can count on the movies stretching out a bit. The Lord of the Rings movies ran just about 11 hours, all told (13 if you watched the extended versions). And while The Hobbit flicks didn’t run quite that long, Jackson did stretch out […]
Pop Culture’s Top 10 Movers and Shakers (2014 Edition)
Pop culture was, as always, in a giving mood in 2014. Hollywood gave us blockbusters like Guardians of the Galaxy and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1. Television parceled out its annual allotment of crime procedurals, prestige dramas, reality shows and zombies. Ariana Grande gave us a “Problem” (with help from Iggy Azalea). Grand […]
Megatron Hates Selfies
Finally, we can say something good about the Transformers. Oh, not about the movies! But Megatron, who Universal Studios in Florida somehow convinced to entertain its paying customers, offers more wisdom in 38 seconds than the four movies did in 10 hours. “Use your mind!” He (it?) says. “Create new memories! Interact, don’t just add it […]
Movie Monday: The Hobbit Remains Unbroken
Despite a challenge from two formidable newcomers, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies once again stood at the summit of the box office’s lonely mountain, presumably hurling taunts down at the movies below. The third Hobbit movie pillaged moviegoers for an estimated $41.4 million in the days following Christmas, bringing its estimated total take to a very […]
Television Tops 2014: Paul Asay’s Year-End Picks
Television just keeps getting better and better. It also gets worse and worse. It’s the frustrating paradox of reviewing television. While TV-based stories have gotten more nuanced and complex, they’ve also become more needlessly foul and salacious—and sometimes it seems like Emmy awards often go hand in hand with withering content. Which leaves discerning viewers […]
Movie Monday: The Battle of the Five Armies
What was the secret to having a successful movie this past weekend? Colons. Four of the week’s Top Five box-office finishers sported that oft-overlooked double-decker period in its titles. Leading the charge, naturally, was a bevy of punctuation-loving dwarves in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. (Even the picture seems to pay homage: […]
Why I Like ‘The Interview’
We talk a lot at Plugged In about how influential movies can be in our lives. But rarely do we see one cause an international incident. The Interview was supposed to be a silly, throwaway R-rated comedy—counter programming to the slew of high-prestige Oscar hopefuls trundling out this month. I mean, the flick stars Seth Rogen […]
