Peter Kerr, in a vignette article in the book,
Understanding Evangelical Media (edited by Schultze and Wood), writes about how Evangelicals filter which mainstream movies should be watched. "WWJD" is often an acronym that comes up in oonversation: what would Jesus do? Well, in a way, I think that is a bit of a loaded question. Would he go to a movie in the first place? Not sure - they didn't have movies when He was on the planet, so we don't know. We know that He ate with sinners, which I suspect might be similar to going to bars and so forth. He drank real-life wine - most would agree with that. Would he engage with modern media and entertainment? Well, if He was truly human (and most would agree with that), then he would have engaged with whatever mainstream media there was then.
I wonder if people would consider what Jesus would do when they get into a car. Would He drive? Not sure. He didn't drive while He was on the planet (most would agree with that). So should we drive now?
But that's maybe not a moral issue. Or is it?
Back to media, and the article at hand, Kerr suggests that Paul might have something to say about watching movies. Kerr quotes 1 Corinthians 6:12 and comments:
He refuses to become a slave to things that are merely permissible and not really beneficial. He captures the middle ground between outright rejection and mindless acceptance. (p.63)
I suspect that Paul liked entertainment a lot. He was a scholar after all, and probably liked to think about how things, thoughts, metanarratives, work. He did flesh out much of the theology of the Christian Church (most would agree with that).
And I think most of us like entertainment. That's why many of us find it hard to just stop watching everything; you know, Jesus didn't own a television (most would agree with that).
My final question, though, is how do you know if some kind of media object (film television broadcast, popular song) is ultimately beneficial. Who is the judge of such things? What is the answer? Who knows (and most would agree with that).