Contributor: Paul Asay

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

Not All Heroes Crawl Walls

I woke up in my own home this morning. Incredible. Last Wednesday, I wasn’t sure I had one. It’s been a week since the Waldo Canyon Fire blew up around our neighborhood, threatening my house and thousands more in the Colorado Springs area. I missed the …

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The Amazing Spider-Man

Ten years after Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man was released and officially launched our current cinematic superhero craze, Marvel delivers a reboot that might just set your Spidey senses a-tingling.

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Movie Monday: Ted

Well, it was a good run. For 15 straight weeks, the No. 1 movies in North America had borne a PG-13 rating or lower—many of them which would even qualify as “family friendly.” Not since 21 Jump Street was bumped by The Hunger Games way back in March ha …

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Fathers: Not Just Comic Relief Anymore

Just got through watching ABC Family’s new sitcom Baby Daddy (watch for the review tomorrow), and really the only thing remarkable about the show was how unremarkable it was. Baby Daddy felt as though it had been transported straight out of network tel …

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Beasts of the Southern Wild

Near the Louisiana coast there’s a place called the Bathtub, where people love the land and one another with an unparalleled passion. But will all that love save them from a hurricane blowing in?

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Where There’s Smoke, There’s Facebook

“Twitters broke, my life has no meaning anymore.” Those were the words of an unnamed tweeter who—in a spat of despondency—took to another, smaller social networking site to lament a temporary outage of Twitter last week. And she was far from the only p …

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Movie Monday: Brave

It was a showdown between an arrow-shooting heroine and an ax-swinging president—a family-friendly fairy tale versus R-rated blood and guts and teeth. As it turns out, it wasn’t much of a contest: A certain Scottish princess easily won the weekend’s ha …

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Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Four score and seven undead critters ago, Seth Grahame-Smith brought forth a new book—and then screenplay—that turned our nation’s 16th president into an ax-wielding vampire slayer, dedicated to the turning of stomachs equally and everywhere across this great land.

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Brave

Pixar’s Brave is a quite good tale deftly told, filled with moments of insight, beauty and humor. And of course the animation is amazing. But in terms of content, it cowers ever so slightly.

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The Typewriter is Dead. Long Live the Typewriter!

Last April, I wrote a blog lamenting the death of the typewriter. The last company to make ’em—an outfit in India—decided to put an end to production, leaving the old machines to fade into history, as if their last words were being typed with an old, w …

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The Bourne Ultimatum

Jason Bourne still can’t remember who he is. But he’s trying hard to put the pieces of his past back together. And he’ll outsmart and outfight anyone who gets in his way.

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Revolutionary Road

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet reunite in Sam Mendes’ despairing meditation on the emptiness and hopelessness of 1950s suburbia.

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Gracie

After her brother dies in a car crash, Gracie wants to honor him by putting on his cleats and playing soccer with the boys. But it’s 1978, and girls are more suited to volleyball … aren’t they?

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Movie Monday: Madagascar Roars Again

I think I used up most of my animal puns last week, so let’s just cut to the chase: Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted repeated as box office champ again this weekend, collecting an estimated $35.5 million. Its mane competition (OK, so I didn’t use the …

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Existential House Hunt: What Reality TV Has to Say About Faith

Theology, philosophy and reality television would seem to go together about as well as peanut butter, mayo and pickles. I can’t imagine CBS would clamor to stuff a bunch of pastors into the Big Brother house and film them fighting over original sin and …

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