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Behold the power of cheese: Three intentionally dopey movies ruled the box office this weekend, including new offerings Big Momma's House and Gone in 60 Seconds. Christian critics were less than happy with the processed American cuisine, but—unlike vicious mainstream reviewers—conceded the fun of such fare.

Most Christian reviews for the car-theft caper Gone in 60 Seconds were formatted in "but" sentences:

"Zippy car chases and flashy autos set a fast pace," says the U.S. Catholic Conference, "but underdeveloped characters, weak scripting and trite dialogue do little to keep the momentum going."

John Adair of Preview says "the action is exciting," but "the actual stealing of the cars comes off as fairly easy and glamorous."

(The Dove Foundation bills the film as How to Commit Felonies.)

The blunt mainstream reviews, on the other hand, featured no ifs, ands, or buts. Flashy autos? Just "slickly produced pornography for the sports car lover," says Charles Savage of the Miami Herald.

Zippy chases? Glamorous thievery? Not according to the Calgary Sun's Louis B. Hobson, who says the "one major car chase [is] pretty paltry. The actual car thefts are equally dull."

Walk in an hour late for maximum enjoyment, suggests Christian reviewer Michael Elliott of Crosswalk.com: "For the first three-quarters of the film, there just isn't much happening. While I appreciate the effort to establish characters and relationships, this particular story line just doesn't support a great deal of introspection."

As the Christian faith of Mission: Impossible 2 director John Woo becomes more widely known, more reviews are offering thoughts of where Woo's beliefs are present in the film.

Josh Spencer of Stranger Things magazine notes the "images of doves flying in chaos, which are intentionally spiritual.… Other possible indications of his beliefs include an obvious avoidance of nudity (two implied sex acts gave ample opportunity) and self-sacrifice as a main plot element."

Woo explained in Premiere magazine how he first used doves as spiritual metaphors in The Killer

("When the men die, I cut to the dove flying—it's the soul, rescued and safe, and also pure of heart"), but doesn't mention how it applies to M:I-2, merely calling the dove "one of my habits."

PlanetWisdom didn't find in the film anything "close to a Christian worldview. But, then, it doesn't have much of a worldview at all. It's just a cartoon.… It's hard to take any of [it] seriously." That pretty much echoed the sentiments of other Christian reviewers, who passed off the movie as fluff.

The U.S. Catholic Conference calls it a "lightweight thriller," World magazine calls it "watered-down James Bond," and Sarah Barnett of Culture@Home says its "all style and not much substance. The violence and the acrobatics are excessive and even, at times, pretentious."

None of the reviews of Big Momma's House could be categorized as "glowing," but many Christians found the film to be genuinely funny, if inappropriately so.

"By the normal standards of movie reviewing—plot, characters, direction, cinematography—Big Momma's House is a failure," writes J. Robert Parks of The Phantom Tollbooth.

"But by the ultimate standard—did I have a good time?—it's quite successful." The movie features Martin Lawrence as an FBI agent who impersonates the obese grandmother of a criminal's ex-girlfriend to weasel information out of her. "This is one funny movie," says the Dove Foundation, although the objectionable language and crude content rankled its reviewer.

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June (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44