Contributor: Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

“Burn It Down”

In classic Linkin Park style—both lyrically and sonically—”Burn It Down” splits the difference between brooding self-awareness and brooding self-destruction.

Read more

“Payphone”

Maroon 5’s latest begs the question of whether frontman Adam Levine has been spending too much time listening to fellow Voice judge Cee Lo Green’s last hit.

Read more

We Own the Night

Yet another gritty, grimy police story—this time chronicling the efforts of an NYPD captain to take down a Russian kingpin … even as his rebellious brother gets caught in the crossfire.

Read more

Titanic and Sexting

I have a confession to make. There are a couple of pretty big movies that I’ve never seen (at least not in their entirety in one sitting): The Wizard of Oz (the monkeys and the witch terrified me as a kid), The Sound of Music (I could sing all the song …

Read more

True Defiance

Ten years later, Demon Hunter is still snarling and growling out a Gospel-inspired message, aiming it squarely at its infernal adversaries.

Read more

Boys & Girls

The bluesy, incendiary debut of this Alabama-based roots-rock band seethes with equal parts world-weary wisdom and an earnest, innocent and hopeful outlook on the future.

Read more

Movie Monday: Filled (Again) With Hunger

Let me be honest: I’ve had my fill of The Hunger Games. Nothing against the movie, mind you. I haven’t seen the thing—which may make me one of only three dozen people in the United States that haven’t. It only feels like I have, given what I’ve heard a …

Read more

My Head Is an Animal

Two years ago this alternative folk-rock outfit won Iceland’s national battle of the bands contest. Now they’re the biggest musical export in their country’s history, delivering to the world their haunting mythological storytelling.

Read more

Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded

Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded throws the gauntlet down and then puts a bullet through it. This is Nicki Minaj’s big bid for total pop star domination as she alternates wildly between filthy gangsta rap excess and some surprisingly vulnerable confessions about love and insecurity.

Read more

Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded

Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded throws the gauntlet down and then puts a bullet through it. This is Nicki Minaj’s big bid for total pop star domination as she alternates wildly between filthy gangsta rap excess and some surprisingly vulnerable confessions about love and insecurity.

Read more

The Lumineers

In some ways, The Lumineers are marching to Mumford & Sons’ massively popular folk rock drumbeat. In other ways, this rising Denver trio has taken a fork in the road leading in a completely different lyrical direction.

Read more

“Radioactive”

The Dragons imagine, it seems, soldiering on after a nuclear apocalypse. Then again, maybe “Radioactive” is about something else altogether … like stuffed animals forced to fight to the death.

Read more

“Dance Again”

JLo all but proves the old saw about pop music and dancing only leading to one thing.

Read more

The Weather Man

A middle-aged TV weatherman struggles to come to grips with his fragmenting family relationships and his lack of purpose in life—a melancholy midlife crisis in slow motion.

Read more

Bully

Bully has generated plenty of publicity in the ongoing battle over what it should be rated. But there’s a lot more to this sad-but-important story than whether or not it’s an R.

Read more