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Christianity Today’s added a new blog to their growing blog community! The new Christianity Today Movies blog is authored by CT editor Mark Moring and film blogger Peter Chattaway (of FilmChatBlog, one of the staples of my daily blog reading), and seems an excellent companion to the film discussions that CT has hosted over the years.

If you haven’t checked in at CT lately, they’ve been expanding their blog presence quite a bit over the last several months. In addition to their established Out of Ur blog, they added a Politics blog last year to cover the 2008 election cycle (among other things) and more recently a Christian History blog. They’ve got some solid Christian writers driving the blogs—well worth adding to your list of daily reads.

Next month is the 2009 Academy Awards ceremony, when the best films and performances of 2008 will be chosen and honored. While the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences does the actual voting, that hasn’t stopped every film geek and blogger in the world from weighing in with their opinions. Here are a few Christian film critics with some interesting thoughts on the nominated films. How do their opinions match with your own?

• First, what films have been nominated? Hollywood Jesus helpfully lists all of the nominations. Elsewhere on the HJ site, critics Tim Berroth and Darrel Manson share their picks for the best films of 2008.
• Jeff Walls and Greg Wright from the Past the Popcorn crew weigh in with their own lists as well.
• Film critic Peter Chattaway’s thoughts on the Academy’s list of nominees.
• Jeffrey Overstreet of Looking Closer doesn’t think much of this year’s nominations, and proposes something different for Oscar night.

Enjoy the Oscars tonight (or not), and browse around these critics’ websites to see what else they’ve got to say about faith and film.

Image by flickr user Anne Siegel.

Note: this post originally mis-stated the date of the Oscars ceremony. The correct date is February 22.

Your best bet for family entertainment on DVD this week is a collection of Big Idea’s new made-for-TV episodes of 3-2-1 Penguins! The collection is titled Save the Planets! and features three of the most recent episodes aired on NBC and Qubo. Says Greg Wright, “If you’re a fan… have no fear. If anything, the pace is quicker, the jokes come faster, and the laughs follow right behind. Honestly, this is some of the funniest stuff I’ve seen on DVD in a long, long time.”

Also new on DVD this week:

• The Genius Club
• Reprise
• The Promotion
• Then She Found Me
• Married Life
• Outsourced
• Hidden Secrets

Visit the DVD releases page at Past the Popcorn for details on these and other titles.

Each week, Past the Popcorn offers a thorough look at the latest round of films opening on big screens.

Hollywood must know what its doing. We have a long holiday weekend coming up, which would sure seem like a good bet for boffo boxoffice; but ticket sales are as low right now as they’ve been all summer. So maybe it makes sense that the studios haven’t given us anything to get excited about this weekend.

(more…)

If you hear the name “Gil Cates” and think it sounds familiar, it’s probably because Gil Cates, Sr. has produced the Academy Awards umpteen times over the last couple of decades. He was also the dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television from 1990 to 1997, and is the Artistic Director of UCLA’s Geffen Playhouse. He’s the uncle of actress Phoebe Cates… and he’s the father of director Gil Cates, Jr.

Cates, Jr. has been producing and directing his own films for nearly a decade now, and his latest film—Deal, set in the world of high-stakes televised poker and co-starring Hollywood legends Burt Reynolds and Charles Durning—was just released on DVD this week after a disappointing limited release in theaters earlier this year.

Past the Popcorn Managing Editor Greg Wright talks with Cates about studios, critics, and the “narcotic” effect of filmmaking.

Each week, Past the Popcorn offers a thorough look at the latest round of films opening on big screens.

The gloves appear to be off as the studios dump the last of their summer fare on us at the tail end of August.

The lone bright spot in wide release is, somewhat surprisingly, an adult-oriented Hitchcockian thriller starring Woody Harrelson. Jeff Walls calls Transsiberian “a terrific thriller. Anderson and co-screenwriter Will Conroy kept me on my toes and I was never quite sure where the film was taking me next. The snow-covered, barren landscape is photographed beautifully, reminding me a bit of Fargo“—as does the rating. Even the best film this week is rated R. (more…)

Each week, Past the Popcorn offers a thorough look at the latest round of films opening on big screens.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, says Mike Smith, is the rare beast: a sequel that improves on the original. The secret? More mature actors, he says… and a director that really gets the material. “Call me sexist,” Smith writes, “but Sanaa Hamni gets the chicks. Sorry, Mr. Kwapis—you’re a guy (like me), which pretty much prevents us from really ‘getting’ the psyche of the target audience convincingly. The original enjoyed some success, but I expect the sequel will outdo the first—it is simply the better film.”

Meanwhile, three of this week’s releases begin with the letter B. (more…)

Each week, Past the Popcorn offers a thorough look at the latest round of films opening on big screens.

One of the funnest films of the summer, says Greg Wright, is a gentle political satire… starring Kevin Costner, of all things. Swing Vote, going into release today is “a skewering of lax parenting, national politics of all stripes, political correctness, blue-collar stereotypes, and network news,” says Wright. “If you’re at all apathetic about voting, or if you’re at all fed up with the state of politics in America—and you don’t mind a little hayseed stuck between your teeth or up your shorts—get out and see Swing Vote. I’m very glad I did.” (more…)

Okay… It’s official. The Dark Knight is a certifiable cultural phenomenon. Dedicated fans are flocking to the theaters in droves. Everyone’s talking about it. We’re running a second article at Past the Popcorn.

And yet, in the true spirit of the business, no one—including the studio—seems to understand the “recipe” behind this Perfect Cinematic Storm. At least if they do know, no one’s spilling the beans. My theory—given that it’s been ten years since Titanic—is that we won’t be seeing another film event like this for a decade or so; and that will be proof enough that the Secret Ingredients remain a mystery.

After having had a couple of weeks to mull things over, though (a rare gift of about two weeks’ more time than I had to actually write my review!) I came up with a few observations that might shed some light on why this film has become an overnight sensation.

Each week, Past the Popcorn offers a thorough look at the latest round of films opening on big screens.

Let’s just get it out of the way. The one real clinker in wide release today is the new Will Ferrell comedy Step Brothers. Ferrell’s private parts… Need we say more? Jeff Walls doesn’t… much. “It’s just plain disturbing,” he says.

Greg Wright gives The X-Files: I Want To Believe a fairly cool review… but it’s not bad, he says. (more…)