Gospel.com Blog

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

Last week brought us the second entry in the summer blockbuster sweepstakes and a solid slate of releases. This week, the pace doesn’t slack off even though it’s not up to last week. And the checkered flag goes to…… Speed Racer!

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

When the worst movie released on a given week is merely an uninspired romantic comedy starring Patrick Dempsey, you’re not doing too bad.

Leading the pack, of course, is the much-anticipated Iron Man, a comic book superhero PG-13 adaptation starring Robert Downey, Jr. Michael Brunk was wholly won over. “If Iron Man is any indication of what we can expect this summer,” he says, “I think we’re in for a great time.”

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Each week, Past the Popcorn offers a thorough look at the latest round of films opening on big screens. We’re a few days late with this latest roundup—our apologies!

It’s not a banner week for new releases. The best of the bunch is the new Saturday Night Live alum flick Baby Mama, in which Tina Fey stars as a single businesswoman who hires a surrogate (played by Amy Poehler) to carry her child. It’s a PG-13 SNL-type effort in which “the humor never comes across as mean-spirited,” says Michael Brunk. “While it has its rude, crude moments, I never felt it was gratuitous or thrown in for shock effect. Not all of the jokes work, but in general it’s consistently witty and funny.”

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

The film that everybody is waiting for this week is Expelled: No Intelligence allowed. Like the movie itself, even a review barely does the topic justice. But Greg Wright gives it stab: the movie, he says, “certainly provides proof of bias, in both intentional and unintentional ways. And the vituperative response from detractors who haven’t even seen the film proves that, yes, there is a much larger war going on out there. On the entertainment level, the film comes in at about a B. When it comes to its subject matter, though, Expelled fumbles the ball quite a bit. At the end of the day, I don’t find that the film makes a compelling case. Yes, I am inclined to believe that the opposition fights pretty dirty; I simply don’t think those folks are really the same cabal that Expelled.” If the filmmakers are really right, Wright says, they simply playing too nice to catch the culprits “red-handed.”

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

With less than a month to go before the summer blockbusters break upon us like, well, blockbusters, the indies and the studio botique labels are trying to make as much hay as they can before all of the screens are sucked up by the megaflicks.

The darkest (and sharpest) of the bunch this week is Street Kings, a police-corruption action thriller starring Keanu Reeves in a familiar-looking role. But the well-pedigreed film is probably not what you expect, says Greg Wright: “I don’t think you’ll hate this movie. No, if either cop movies or Keanu Reeves are your thing, you’ll probably even love it. Still, I’m not sure you need this kind of dark vision of America, either.”

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

Look no further than Ted Haggard or Jeremiah Wright. Evidence abounds that wearing the name of Christ exempts no one from fits of inexplicable behavior.

So it should come as no great surprise that one of the major releases this Holy weekend features a Christian who behaves very poorly—not because he’s a Christian, but because his basic character flaws are so profound that his weak grasp on Christianity isn’t enough to save him. David Gordon Green’s Snow Angels is “a drama that pulls no punches,” says Michael Brunk. “There are moments of levity, but overall the tone is fairly bleak… Personally, I found it riveting.”

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

Last week, Past the Popcorn Managing Editor Greg Wright was none too kind to 10,000 B.C., calling it a less-than-fresh mashup of homages to better films. He concluded by pointing out that every recipe is made up of a list of ingredients, but not every dish is memorable or original.

This week, two reworkings of 1980s staples manage to do what 10,000 B.C. couldn’t. (more…)

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

It’s Spring Training time, so we can now officially use baseball metaphors for our moviegoing experiences. And while there’s no home-run derby, this week’s batting average is well above par. (Wait… that was a golf metaphor!)

The first inning led off with a solid single up the middle. 10,000 B.C. isn’t going to have everyone in the stands cheering—particularly not the critics—but, as Greg Wright remarks, “as long as you’re not expecting Oscars-like, obtusely irrelevant drama or summertime first-rate spectacle, you’re not going to be too sorry you spent your ten bucks on this instead of, say, Fool’s Gold.” (more…)

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

The two biggest releases this week are about what you’d expect, if not a whit more. The flashiest of the pair is The Other Boleyn Girl, starring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson as Anne and Mary Boleyn — both mistresses to Henry VIII, and the former his second wife. Says Greg Wright, “It’s too bad, really, that Chadwick ends up steeplechasing through the film’s final act. At a thematic level, his film is an enticing look at the question: ‘Is ambition a sin or a virtue?’ The question also works well as a metaphor for the film itself. Did it shoot too high, or too low? In any event, the film is ultimately more sin than virtue.”

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

As empty a snack as it might be, the latest Dennis Quaid vehicle, Vantage Point, showcases the actor at his best. Here a plays a Secret Service agent who stumbles onto a conspiracy during an attempt on the President’s life. The films “final sequence is awfully satisfying,” says Greg Wright, “even if there isn’t any quotable dialogue in the film and Vantage Point ends up being about nothing at all. It’s like getting to the bottom of your popcorn bag and realizing you’ve just had nothing but popcorn.” And sometimes, he concedes, that’s just fine.

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