Movie Monday: The Equalizer
Don’t mess with Denzel Washington—especially if he’s armed with a nail gun. The Hollywood A-lister proved that yet again this weekend: The Equalizer took an estimated $35 million slice from moviegoers and hammered down the No. 1 position at the box office. You might say it was a constructive victory, plane and simple. The Equalizer […]
The Fault in Our Movie Nights
Sometimes bad movies can be good. You know what I’m talking about: Most of us have likely seen one or two. Movies can be both problematic and resonant. They can be filled with bad behavior and good messages. You find films that you or I couldn’t recommend to a friend … and yet, if that […]
Movie Monday: The Maze Runner
When I stepped into an early screening of The Maze Runner last week, the theater was only about 80% full. Well, that’s odd, I thought. Normally these events—even for the most obviously horrible movies—are stuffed to the gills with folks. People stand in line for hours to see Machete Bakes a Cake. So when the […]
Pushing Past the Culture Clash
You never know where Plugged In might show up. We’re on your computer. We’re on your phone. And if you don’t understand a word I’m saying right now because you only speak Arabic, we’ve got that covered now too. Plugged In has a site for the Middle East, dedicated to dealing with pertinent entertainment issues […]
Running the Maze of YA-Themed Movies
The Maze Runner dashes into theaters this Friday. And while Thomas and his buddies are hoping to leave their green glade in the movie, its makers are hoping to make a little green. Given the movie’s young-lit pedigree (it’s based on a bestselling book by James Dashner), they probably feel like they’ve got a shot at […]
Movie Monday: No Good Deed
One featured a creepy killer. The other featured a tail-less dolphin. Together, they managed to do something that even a certain megalomaniacal villain with an Infinity Stone couldn’t: Topple Guardians of the Galaxy. After nearly two solid months of superhero domination—mainly by Guardians but with a solid assist by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles—another film scaled […]
The Problem With a Pocket-Sized God
September is a month of tradition—of rote ceremony that we observe to mark the beginning of another fall. School has just begun or is beginning. The football season kicks off. And, reliably as clockwork, the folks at Cupertino unveil another Apple product to get gadget fans a-drooling. I am, admittedly, one of those fans. Every […]
Dolphin Tale 2: A Film With Porpoise
The movie Dolphin Tale 2, which releases tomorrow, is a secular story. You won’t find preachers laying hands on injured dolphins or anyone discovering eternal salvation. But despite the fact that bottlenose dolphins don’t pray here (as far as we know), a surprisingly spiritual undercurrent buoys this movie. The makers of Dolphin Tale 2 have […]
Movie Monday: Galactic Repetition
They don’t call the universe the “black void of space” for nothing. Everything we see and can detect out there—stars, planets, galaxies—makes up just 4% of the universe. Sure, there’s some dark matter and energy to consider, scientists tell us. But for the most part, the cosmos we live in is pretty empty. A lot […]
They’ve Won the Movies: Now, Superheroes Return to the Small Screen
You’d think we would’ve gotten sick of ’em by now. I’m talking superheroes. And before y’all start throwing rocks at me, let me remind you I’m a longtime fan. Like, the first words out of my mouth were “up,” “up” and “away” kind of fan. I grew up watching many of them on TV, from […]
