Yes, Shazam is Great Fun. And It Has a Great Message, Too

Last updated on: April 4, 2019 at 10:08 am By Paul Asay

D.C.’s on a roll. After spending years in a post-Christopher Nolan wilderness, D.C. and Warner Bros. are re-discovering what makes a good superhero movie. Latest evidence: Shazam! It’s the D.C. Extended Universe’s second-best movie—behind Wonder Woman, ahead of Aquaman and leagues better than Justice League. It’s light, fun and even silly. But while Shazam! doesn’t take itself too seriously, that doesn’t mean that you can’t find some pretty interesting themes here and there—ones that, if you’re so inclined, point to... Read more

Zach Snyder Just Doesn’t Get Batman

Last updated on: March 29, 2019 at 7:18 am By Paul Asay

If Batman throws a party to celebrate his 80 years in action, I’m hoping Zack Snyder misses the invite. Pretty sure he’d pour wine on the couch, give Alfred a noogie and draw crayon glasses on the portrait of Thomas Wayne. You remember Snyder, the guy who Warner Bros. put in charge of its D.C. Extended Universe until WB thought better of it. Before he left, Snyder turned Superman into a killer in Man of Steel. Then, in Batman v.... Read more

“It Was a Moment I’ll Never Forget.” Bill Riddick Talks About the Real ‘Best of Enemies’

Last updated on: March 27, 2019 at 6:49 am By Paul Asay

Durham was a powder keg in 1971, according to the film The Best of Enemies. The North Carolina city was deeply segregated and virulently polarized. And when the subject of school integration was foisted on the community, it looked like it just might be the match to set the whole thing off. Bill Riddick (played by Babou Ceesay) walked into that seething city with an optimistic idea: Gather the issue’s biggest stakeholders for what he called a charrette—10 days worth... Read more

This is ‘Us.’ And It’s Horrifyingly Spiritual

Last updated on: March 27, 2019 at 6:53 am By Paul Asay

Jordan Peele’s smart, terrifying new film Us is tethered, you might say, to the Bible—specifically the verse Jeremiah 11:11. Adelaide (played for most of the movie by Lupita Nyong’o) first sees the Scripture reference when she’s just a little girl. It’s scrawled on a piece of cardboard, held by the sort of guy who’d preach about the end being near. And the verse points to exactly that. In the King James Bible, it sounds particularly impressive: Therefore thus saith the... Read more

‘If Someone is Allowed to Touch History, Then It Sticks With Them.’ Scholar Robert Cargill Talks About the History Channel’s New Show About Jesus

Last updated on: March 22, 2019 at 10:34 am By Paul Asay

The History Channel will unveil a new eight-part miniseries based on the life of Jesus March 25—and it’s a little different than most of the docudramas we’ve seen about Christ before. Titled Jesus: His Life, the program shows this Man from Galilee through the eyes of other people: Folks who loved him, like his mother Mary and disciple Peter, to folks who wound up sending him to His death, like the Jewish leader Caiaphas and the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate.... Read more

Walking in the Shadow of Death in The Long Goodbye

Last updated on: March 21, 2019 at 7:39 am By Paul Asay

Her blog was called “Mundane Faithfulness,” but there was nothing mundane about it. Not ever, really, and especially not at the end. Kara Tippetts lived life large before being diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. She was the wife of a pastor and church planter, mom to four children and a popular mommy blogger. Friends say that she had a talent for making everyone she met feel like they were the most important person in her life. Even when she... Read more

Wonder Park Contains a Wonderful Message about Creativity

Last updated on: March 15, 2019 at 9:19 am By Paul Asay

In Genesis, God speaks the universe into being. “Let there be light,” He says, and so it is. June’s Wonderland, her fabulous and imaginary (?) amusement park at the heart of Paramount/Nickelodeon’s new film Wonder Park, is made in much the same way. June and her mom made Wonderland. They’ve designed and “built” it together—so much so that a whole wall in June’s room is covered in park blueprints and the house is filled with models of fantastic rides. But... Read more

Captain Marvel Isn’t a Great Movie. But it has a Great Message

Last updated on: March 8, 2019 at 11:51 am By Paul Asay

Captain Marvel is … just fine. It’s fun. It’s entertaining. It’s got a very likable cat, and Ben Mendelsohn kills it as the shape-shifting Skrull leader Talos. But as I said in my Plugged In review, the movie feels too small for its hyper-charged superhero. When you introduce a character as powerful as Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers, you’ve got to make her feel vulnerable somehow: Give her a most-ferocious bad guy, for instance, or show the character in moments of... Read more

Dumbo Takes Flight (in This Behind-The-Scenes Snippet)

Last updated on: March 6, 2019 at 10:49 am By Paul Asay

“Movies have gotten so bad!” People sometimes tell me. “The sex! The violence! The swearing!” And in a lot of respects, they’ve got a point. The Hays Code (which essentially required that all films be fit for “general audiences”) is long gone. Putting problematic content is often incentivized in our crowded entertainment culture, too: Pushing out the “bloodiest” or “sexiest” or “most shocking” flick in a given genre is a way to stand out from the crowd. Little wonder so... Read more

‘I’m Just Fascinated by It.’ Morgan Freeman Talks About Religion, Faith and ‘The Story of God’

Last updated on: March 3, 2019 at 3:14 pm By Paul Asay

Morgan Freeman knows more about God than most of us. It’s not just that the Oscar-winning actor has literally played God a couple of times (in both Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty), or that his voice sounds like it comes straight from Mount Olympus. Since 2016, Freeman’s been the host of one of National Geographic’s most interesting, most provocative shows: The Story of God with Morgan Freeman. Its third season begins this Tuesday, March 5, on the National Geographic channel.... Read more

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