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.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Mermaid tears and the endless years are what’s on Captain Jack Sparrow’s mind this go-round. Is his latest theme park ride-inspired trek more aye-aye or arrrggh?!

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The Next Big Wave?

For those of you still wondering what wooden stake or silver cross might finally send all the vampires scurrying from our entertainment landscape, it appears the answer is gurgling up from the deep. If the rumors and messages in floating bottles are tr …

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L.A. Noire

Ads for this game may have you thinking about swell threads and smooth rides. But Noire is really all about the smoke-filled interrogation rooms necessary to solving the dirty crimes that keep cops up at night.

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Sit and Die

I’ve got some bad news for you. Right now, while you’re sitting there reading this … you’re killing yourself. Yep, a study published in Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise found that those who sit for most of the day are 54% more likely to di …

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LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game

Shiver me LEGOs! Jack Sparrow’s gone all plastic in a game version of the hugely popular franchise that tamps the full-throated arrghs down to a few quieter humphs.

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Transformers

The Autobots and Decepticons are back from the ’80s dead in crash-boom CGI-perfected action. Is it time for a new generation of morphing robots already?

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Just Forget It

Whether you were a fan or not, 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was something of a mind-blower (pun intended). A logline description of the Jim Carrey indy pic might read: A couple, both devastated by their failed relationship, have memorie …

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The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Resurrect an ancient Chinese emperor, rule the world. Right? When will we realize that disturbing dead demon-people never turns out well?

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Love?

“Love is a many-splendored thing,” the old song goes. But here it’s mostly just bumping and grinding on the dance floor.

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The Stranger On the Other End

Think about this for a second: When you plug into the Internet and chat with people from potentially anywhere around the world, do you really know who you’re connected with? Can you be sure of who’s using who’s phone or signed in on who’s email account …

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Darkspore

The DNA creature-builder Spore franchise is back for a fiercer-looking go-round. Is this the natural evolution of a fun franchise? Or a mangled mutation?

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Water for Elephants

Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson runs away with the circus and promptly falls in love with the ringmaster’s wife … and her elephant.

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No Time Travel For You!

Let’s face it, here in the U.S. we’ve got some folks who want to regulate nearly everything about our lives—from how many minutes of sunshine exposure we should have to the number of doughnuts we should legally be able to consume. But that’s nothing co …

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“Run the World (Girls)”

Women can and do run large parts of our world. But they didn’t rise to positions of power by marinating in Beyoncé’s snarling sensuality.

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Portal 2

A popular puzzler sends gamers in for another set of physics-bending challenges—and rewards them with a few chuckles along the way.

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