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.

Unorthodox Jukebox

Bruno Mars employs his considerable vocal prowess in the service of songs that are so primally sexual that even Rolling Stone calls them “smut.”

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Almería

California alt-rockers Lifehouse return with a tweaked sound … and the same earnest, upbeat message.

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Just My Luck

Lindsay Lohan is the walking, talking—perky—personification of luck. Until she kisses her ‘cosmic’ opposite, Chris Pine.

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Maintaining Digital Vigilance

In our increasingly wired world, sometimes we run into really nasty things in cyberspace through no fault of our own. I had one of those experiences over the weekend. And it happened at my local YMCA of all places. I was pedaling away on a recumbent st …

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“I Knew You Were Trouble”

Good girl Taylor Swift falls for a bad boy on “I Knew You Were Trouble.” Does she finally learn her lesson? Do we learn ours?

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Red Dawn

A group of determined, courageous adolescents repels North Korean invaders (not Russians) in this rowdy remake of the 1984 “classic.”

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PG-13: Red Dawn Revisited

Back in 1984, movie violence was ratcheting ever upward—even in films with a PG rating. A nasty little beastie got baked in a microwave and exploded in Gremlins, for instance, and an unfortunate sacrificial victim got his still-beating heart ripped out …

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Love’s Abiding Joy

Do you still miss Little House on the Prairie? Did you name your family’s goldfish Laura? This fourth Michael Landon Jr. adaptation of a Janette Oke book is just the thing, then.

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“Scream & Shout”

The latest effort from Black Eyed Peas frontman and synth maestro will.i.am features hypnotic beats, a shout-out to club life … and a vulgarity-laced contribution from Britney Spears.

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Unapologetic

Rihanna doesn’t show any signs of submitting to anyone else’s idea of who she should be—or who she should be with—on her aptly titled seventh album.

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The World From the Side of the Moon

American Idol’s 2012 champion strums his way through a moody, lyrically dense but mostly optimistic debut effort that fans of Dave Matthews Band and Mumford & Sons will likely love.

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Anna Karenina

The latest cinematic incarnation of Leo Tolstoy’s cautionary tale about adultery stars Keira Knightley in the title role as a woman who sacrifices everything to sustain an increasingly damaging affair.

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“Beauty and a Beat”

Justin Bieber delivers his vision of what, exactly, the good life really consists of: a beauty and a beat.

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Take Me Home

This Irish/British boy band is headed in only one direction: the wrong one.

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“One of Those Nights”

Let’s just say that Tim McGraw is old enough now to know better.

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