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It seems movie stars are growing less reliable these days. Christian critics, at least, were happier with a guy in a rubber suit (Godzilla 2000) and several TV comics (The Original Kings of Comedy) than they were with such star vehicles as The Art of War (Wesley Snipes), The Cell (Jennifer Lopez), or The Crew (Richard Dreyfuss). As an interesting counterpoint, Us Weekly reports that stars are finding more fulfillment in their families than their celebrity these days.

Bring It On, a high-school cheerleading comedy that reveals cheering as a grueling sport, topped the box office with an unexpectedly robust $17.4 million. Mary Draughon of Preview writes that "unlike many teenage films portraying cheerleaders as egotistical and shallow, these high school students work hard and learn that competing fairly is more important than winning. … [It also delivers] laughs in the comical mishaps of teenagers struggling to meet the challenges of competition." Focus on the Family's Lindy Beam highlights a strong lesson in fair competition, as the squad's decision to drop its stolen routine and create an original one "gives hearty affirmation to the fact that doing the right thing really feels good." But negatives outweighed positives for most Christian critics. "It's 99 minutes of ogling underdressed and underaged girls who behave like future tabletop dancers," argues the Dove Foundation. Crosswalk.com's Holly McClure adds that "this is an irreverent look at high school, so there's plenty of colorful language, crude dialogue, jokes about gay cheerleaders, locker room scenes with girls in their underwear, lots and lots of sexual remarks and a couple of implied sexual situations." Michael Elliott of Crosswalk.com found himself easily bored: "Ordinarily, any movie centering around a competitive situation will have enough built-in tension to hold interest, but this film is so dependent upon cliché-riddled plot twists and character non-development that interest wanes fairly early on."

Even less impressive was The Art of War, which found nothing but bad press. The title is taken from the famed book by Chinese general Sun Tzu, which details ways that deception and strategy can win wars without actual battle—but you'd never know that from the film's body count. "Not only are bodies strewn throughout the seemingly endless nonsense," writes the Dove Foundation, "but the camera enjoys lingering on corpses. In one scene, the grisly discovery of decaying Asian aliens in an abandoned truck gets the close-up routine." The U.S. Catholic Conference agrees that the film shamelessly "presents brutal violence as exciting." The movie's plot and its politics also rankled reviewers. Wesley Snipes plays an elite spy for the United Nations who tries to stop a saboteur from destroying precarious trade negotiations with China. Michael Elliott of Crosswalk.com calls it "an incomprehensible mess of a movie. … For most of the film, we have a hard time following the story, but once it is made clear, then we have a hard time believing it." Preview's Paul Bicking objected to the spies' immoral actions, even if they might prevent a war: "[The] team uses extortion and blackmail to force a leader back to the negotiation table, which seems to justify their illegal acts." Movieguide wasn't pleased with the upholding of U.N. values, nor with the blame placed on "right-wing" conspirators. "Snipes is out to save the United Nations from destruction so that it can engage in 'aggressive peacekeeping' around the world. This globalist agenda supporting godless world government is matched by an attack on the 'right-wing' ideologues in the movie. … The filmmakers needed to consult with someone who knows what conservatives really believe."

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August (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44