What a drastic shift in style and substance Nobel Son is for director Randall Miller, who previously this year gave us Bottle Shock, the somewhat quiet docu-drama about the triumph of the wine industry in California. In direct contrast, this film is a loud, grotesquely humorous, and noirish kidnapping thriller with more plot twists then you can shake a stick at. Fortunately, that’s just how I like them. This is really only the jumping off point for Nobel Son which turns into that classic kind of film noir in which every character has their own motivation and somewhat loose morals. This leads to enough backstabbing, betrayal and misrepresentation to keep your head spinning right up to the mostly unexpected conclusion.

Past the Popcorn, now partnered with Christian Cinema.com, is an attempt to reflect, through criticism, the love that Christ has for artists working in film. We hope to do that (albeit imperfectly) by demonstrating that we at least care what these filmmakers’ works are trying to say—whether we agree with those ideas and worldviews or not. The world knows full well that Christians know how to speak, and how to speak loudly. We’re trying to demonstrate that Christians also know how to listen, and listen attentively. As to the question of whether anyone ought to be seeing any of these films… well, given that Hollywood entertainment is arguably the art-world’s equivalent of crack cocaine, even The Sound of Music can be seductively dangerous.

Director Jessica Yu made Ping Pong Playa, in part, to address what she felt was a void in Asian-American cinema. “This is kind of dangerous territory,” she cautions, “because I don’t want to suggest that I’ve actually seen all Asian American films that have come out. But I would say that when you go to Asian American film festivals, there are a lot of really good films; but they do tend to be on the heavier, dramatic side. A lot of them—although this is changing somewhat—have been quite earnest in tone. So we were looking for something that was maybe a little more irreverent and a little more subversive. And also something that was filling that void of great, superficial comedy in Asian American film. That’s one thing that’s been missing.”

If the audience at the screening I attended is any indicator, there’s definitely a place for this film. Like its predecessor, the 1975 Death Race 2000, Death Race is not art. It doesn’t have a deep plot, and it’s not going to win any awards for acting talent; but it doesn’t promise any of that either. It promises cars with machine guns mounted on top, massive explosions, and the squishy wet consequences of speeding metal and human organs. But fans of the first film looking for the satirical Second Coming of David Carradine are going to be disappointed. For the rest of us? If you’re thinking about seeing this film, then you’re probably not too interested in the storyline or its classic roots anyways. Grab yourself a group of rowdy friends and an extra-large popcorn and let your brain take a load off.

“I feel like everybody is dealt a certain hand, so to speak,” says Gil Cates, Jr., the director of Deal, just out on DVD. “And it’s up to you how you want to play it. You can’t just look down and go, I’ve got an Ace-King, so I’m definitely going to do this, or I’ve got a Two-Seven, the worst starting hand in poker; I’m definitely going to fold. There might be an opportunity, or a reason— You know, Joe Hachem won the 2005 World Series of Poker with a Three-Seven, and then a Four-Five-Six came on the board. But you just don’t know. It’s all circumstantial. So that is kind of the way that I like to live life.”

“The line that I sort of walk,” says Mike Nawrocki, the 3-2-1 Penguins! spokesman for Big Idea, “is wanting to make sure that the stories that we tell have biblically-grounded messages in them, so they can be a resource for their parents to pass values along to their kids. That’s at the core. And then we’ve got to be really funny, really entertaining, and have really great music. And then just hope that people are going to want to see them. And keep enabling us to keep doing that—with Veggietales, and with 3-2-1 Penguins! It’s a tricky thing. Entertainment itself is a very tricky business, and then when you add the ministry aspect to it—the faith aspect—it gets even trickier.” Look for Save the Planets! on DVD come September 2.

“You just want your movie to get out there,” says Gary Wheeler, director of the award-winning film The List, disagreeing with the notion that the Fox Faith label is a kiss of death. “I think that Fox, as a distributor, is also learning about the market; and they have a sincere desire to stay in this market, and hopefully make better and better films. So I think what they’re doing now is using the Fox Faith label as more of a seal of approval to Christians; and then when it’s released in Blockbuster or other places, it then comes under Fox Home Entertainment. So I think where they’ll end up is that Fox Faith will come to be seen like the Dove Awards, or a Movieguide recommendation. But for the general market—for the Wal-Marts, the Targets—you’ll see things come from Fox Home Entertainment.”

The more I think about this, the less I think that the film is a defense of shady governmental policies justified in the name of fighting evil. From my perspective, the film is sympathetic to Batman’s decisions, but ultimately argues that his choices remain not only wrong, but fruitless and even destructive. And this, I think, accounts for the broad appeal of The Dark Knight: it is complex, as I noted in my review, yet still remains balanced. It can see our pragmatically-fueled political reality for what it is—without having to come down squarely on one rhetorical side or the other, allowing plenty of room for an audience (and individuals) to react, to think, and to reflect. Such room for thought exceeds whatever biased clap-trap our other sources of political commentary are offering these days. In an election year when major media outlets are turning news into mere entertainment and talking-head blather, mere Hollywood entertainment is offering up one of most meaty analyses of “what interests us and frightens us” that we’ve yet seen.

In 1970, United Theaters opened the original Southcenter theater—the last 70mm Cinerama-capable single-auditorium moviehouse built in the United States. It seated over 1200, and featured a sloped floor and an 88 by 32-foot curved screen. I specifically remember waiting in line years later to see Raiders of the Lost Ark during my second college summer break. The theater was actually too state-of-the-art, and had trouble finding films big enough to grace its enormous screen; it was demolished in 2002. Thanks to AMC Entertainment, Southcenter now has a new multiplex, the AMC Southcenter 16. So what does state-of-the-art mean these days? 100% digital projection. This theater couldn’t screen a 35mm print if it wanted to… because there are no film projectors!

At the core of The Dark Knight is Harvey Dent’s observation that you “either die a hero or you live long enough to become a villain.” It’s a mantra that even Bruce Wayne sees the sense in. Already dancing on the precarious edge of vigilante justice motivated by first-strike pragmatism, Batman runs into a new kind of seemingly motive-less killer/terrorist in The Joker. And what happens when Wayne comes up against that point? Well, he takes actions remarkably similar to unconstitutional wiretapping and torture. Sadly, all of the fine performances (including Aaron Eckhart’s) become irrelevant to yet another summer blockbuster effects and mayhem extravaganza. It’s a pity, too, because (like At World’s End last summer) this is a film that will bear up under repeated viewing… if you are willing to feel bludgeoned by your entertainment.