Contributor: Bob Hoose

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

Planes: Fire & Rescue

Dusty Crophopper is back, not as an ace air racer this time, but as a fire fighter in training.

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Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes often feels exactly like what it is: a second installment, a step in between, a transitional fossil.

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Boyhood

It seems to me that the moments people might spend watching this film could be more fully lived somewhere else.

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Tammy

This Melissa McCarthy vehicle is a one-dimensional sludge-fest of a film that once again sets up a big, sloppy, foulmouthed and sometimes cruel stereotype.

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Civilization Revolution 2

The latest Civilization effort exports its streamlined world-building ambitions straight to your smartphone or tablet.

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Sniper Elite III

Here’s a shooter/combat game that wants you to see exactly what damage you’re causing—every crushed bone and ruptured organ.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction

It’s three years after the evil Decepticons demolished Chicago and the Autobots fearlessly fought them off. High time for yet another big ol’ robot rumble! Or maybe not.

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No Country for Old Men

Driving straight through the night from ‘Fargo’ to West Texas, the Coen brothers have created a blood-soaked (Oscar-winning) modern Western that’s as chilling as it is hopeless.

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Mamma Mia!

ABBA’s finally off Broadway and on movie screens. Thousands, maybe millions, cheer and dance, but do you really know what this manic musical is about? What it wants to teach you?

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Tropico 5

This dictator-obsessed strategy sim is designed to make you giggle while you hereby decree—but it’s not all fun and games.

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Think Like a Man Too

Even in Las Vegas we can eventually get to a few sweet relational affirmations. But by then it’s been a long, bleary-eyed, skin-baring night. And our moviegoing hangover has already begun to set in.

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Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

While Manny and Ellie wait for their first furry bundle of joy, Sid’s adopting three baby dinos. Boy, this family photo is gonna be a humdinger.

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The Box

Whatever you do, don’t push the bright red button on that box in front of you! If you do somebody’s bound to die. But there’s $1 million with your name on it if you dare to touch it.

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22 Jump Street

Cinematic offal that’s incredibly inane, tedious and foul; a dimwitted waste of time and mocker of morality that makes Dumb and Dumber look like a product of high art.

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Tomodachi Life

Nintendo’s virtual world Sims-like micro-life game has a head and heart all its own. And that’s all right by Mii.

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