The Sad Case of Amy Winehouse
I wonder whether 2010 will be known as “the age of the celebrity meltdown.” Singer Amy Winehouse is the latest star to fall—though, in truth, she’s had so many problems lately she didn’t have far to tumble. Ever since she stormed the Grammys in 2008, snagging five statuettes for her work on Back to Black, […]
What’s the Best Animated Movie Ever?
I’m a sucker for lists. I’m a big fan of animated movies. So when Time came out with a list of its Top 25 animated movies, I was as happy as if someone had given me a year-long membership to the Bacon Club. So many movies! So many opinions with which to quibble! And that’s […]
Movie Monday: Cars 2
So what if it suffered a couple of critical dings? So what if reviewers thought Pixar’s newest animated vehicle didn’t hum quite as smoothly as it ought? When Cars 2 raced into movie theaters Friday, it ran just fine. Cars 2 took a $68 million checkered flag this weekend, winning the box office derby and […]
Yosemite Slam
Plugged In recently published a story of mine called “Around the World in 80 Clicks,” which examined the amazing (and kinda scary) ability we have to go practically anywhere we want to via the Internet. I started by telling readers I was taking a “naycation” this year: A holiday via YouTube, where the only literal […]
Movie Monday: Green Lantern
Green Lantern’s mighty ring of power can do many wondrous things. But it couldn’t generate much excitement at the ol’ movieplex this weekend. Oh sure, Ryan Reynolds’ alter-ego Hal Jordan flew to the top of the box office, zapping his way to a very green $52.7 million. But considering that Warner Brothers spent an estimated […]
Movie Tuesday: The Hangover Part II
The box office derby sent us Plugged In movie reviewers searching for Alka-Seltzer over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. It kinda made us feel a little headache-y and sick to our stomachs. If you’re looking for the reason for our billious angst, look no further than The Hangover Part II, which lorded over the box […]
Aaarrr! Hornswaggled!
When I was a kid, I thought pirates were pretty nifty. They had eye patches, peg legs, cool parrots (who might also have eye patches and peg legs), cool hats, pieces o’ eight (whatever those are). Then one night (surely without my parents’ knowledge) I was cruising around the television dial and settled on a […]
Movie Monday: Did Pirates Find Treasure?
Shiver me timbers! Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides raked in plenty of booty this weekend, with Capt. Jack Sparrow dragging more than 90 million dubloons out of the North American box office. You’d think that kind of loot would be enough to make any Roger jolly. But even though Pirates hornswaggled the biggest […]
Comfortably One
Time magazine recently published an article (“Bursting the Bubble: Are We Isolated in a World Wide Web of One?”) that discussed how search engines and social networks tailor our searches and pages for us, giving us stuff they think we want. Google and Facebook carefully track how we spend our time online and then, once […]
Movie Monday: Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Thor
Once again, Thor thundered mightily at the box office, bellowing to a $34.5 million weekend to take the title. But Bridesmaids, a gross-out R-rated comedy by and for women, won a nice consolation prize. But not the crown for Miss Congeniality, mind you. Bridesmaids earned $24.4 million this weekend, sidling into second place. That’s about […]
