We don't go to many movies these days.

With four children 7 and under it's just not real doable. Nor very cost effective.

Quick dinner before the show: $28.76 with tip.

Movie itself: $14.00.

Large popcorn, medium drink (no Milk Duds this time): $5.75

Baby sitter for four hours: $28.00

Total: $76.51

Contrast that to the $3 movie rental from just over the hill and you'll have a good idea where the Revercombs watch most of their silver screen features these days ... on the green screen ... the 24-inch green screen, to be exact.

But last Saturday the wife and I decided to "step out" and go see "The Perfect Storm," a "true-fiction" piece based on the book by Sebastian Junger about a real life mega-storm that developed off the New England coast in 1991. In the novel, Junger documents the loss of the "Andrea Gail," a sword fishing boat out of Gloucester, Mass., and the very real people who lost their lives and loved ones when the ill-fated ship went down. Having no way of knowing the actual events that transpired on the water in the final hours, the author did a good bit of research and then ventured his best guess as to a likely scenario that would well depict their unfortunate demise in this most extreme of weather phenomena.

Hollywood, as it is wont to do, took it a step further, adding several high-action scenes that made for a movie that was fast paced and hard driving like the rain that blew madly across the screen. Like any good action feature, it grabbed hold of you early and wouldn't let go. The wife said she was worn out after watching it -- feeling pretty much as though she had been on board herself for a night or two. I suppose the director would say that that was exactly what he was hoping for.

Movies are powerful things. They have an extraordinary ability to "hold sway" over us and to produce a range of emotional responses that, were we not to venture to the theater from time to time, we might not often feel. I suspect the wellspring of tears that have flowed beneath the projectors over the years would be more than enough to float the "Andrea Gail" herself.

As emotional as the wife and I sometimes get, we might be able to do it ourselves.

Movies sometimes remind us who we are, and when they are able to do so, they have perhaps accomplished their greatest potential. But they can also suck the very life out of us -- and like most things that have the capacity to tear down as well as build up, they can do it in a way that is almost completely beyond our knowing.

It's easy to set aside our concerns and deny their influence over us as we continue our seemingly never ending search for "entertainment." But the preconceived notions and stereotypes that are repeatedly built into our minds, and the endless viewing of violence and evil rendered in such incredible detail, does take its inevitable toll. Scenes that would once shock us horrifically pass by our eyes as though they were just another part of our everyday lives.

Even the American Medical Association was able to figure it out after spending a couple of million research dollars:

"After enough repeated exposure to violent acts, the child experiences desensitization to the emotional reactions that aggression and violence normally produce. If what we call 'entertainment' desensitizes our children to the very real consequences of violence, something is very wrong."

In the words of Gomer Pyle, "Sur-prise, Sur-prise ..."

But I think the prevalence of such unenlightening fare can blind us to the more positive aspects of modern cinema -- one of the most unexpected of which is what appears to be an increasingly valid effort to preach something of the word of God. Hollywood would never admit this of course -- God is far too scary a concept within our capitalist culture for that. But even some mainstream "blockbusters" are beginning to quietly offer messages that the most orthodox Jew and the most conservative Christian would have a hard time arguing with.

Look at the success of such movies like "Titanic" and "The Green Mile," which within the context of their stories, explore the depths of human love and compassion and the relationships between people that lead to new understandings of both. Even in a movie such as "The Perfect Storm," an action piece that is 90 percent about the human will to survive amidst overwhelming odds, the last line uttered by the main character as he is about to perish is, "Christina -- remember that I will always love you ... I know now that in the end there are no goodbyes - there is only love."

The next scene is several days later and Bobby's girlfriend Christina is recounting a recurring dream that has returned each night since the boat was reported lost. She describes Bobby speaking the parting words exactly as he said them alone amidst the towering waves. She goes on to say that after he has done so, "he walks away with the most beautiful smile on his face ... so I know he is happy -- and in a far better place ..."

Just a couple of believers sneaking in a message here and there representative of their faith so that they can gently nudge others? Or real efforts by an industry that acknowledges and seeks to better reflect the beliefs and mores of the society they serve?

With any "luck" it's both.