We can easily define the genre of the film: mock documentary feature film. The writer-director is mixing the genres intentionally, totally confusing the unsuspecting viewer. A further complication arises, though, since in the film he is following a filming crew which is shooting a true(?) series of events, but the members of the crew also make use of the video material of the characters who recorded their own crimes with their video cameras. Thus the effect of film-within-film, or rather video-on-video is further twisted: an amateur video-on-video is born, of which a video recording was made, complemented with sketches of a real documentary film. Having seen all these rather confusing momentums, we might get the impression that this somewhat intricate film is hard to follow, but it is not so. Since what we see in the film, or rather on the video, is but the flash of some of the most important and unresolved (and insoluble?) problems of Hungarian society. Several issues are touched upon, perhaps too many. The events are sometimes swirling on like those in action films (for instance, the "investigation" for money), while at other times the documentary film-style "in-depth" interviews (with the "hired mother", the owners(?) of the peepshow or Viki, the Blonde Cyclone) slow down the tempo. The plot is set here (in Budapest) and now (in 1997-98). Géza Forintos (Cérna) sells popcorn at Blaha Lujza Square. He tells the film-makers how he also had to change his life after the political changes (after the "gangsters were removed", as he puts it). One of his employees, Sándor Setét (Sutyi), however, skips off with the money (around 3 million forints) he has saved for years. The report submitted to the police and the procedures prove to be unsuccessful and hopeless, so Cérna seeks and find contacts with the Mafia. Cérna, accompanied by two cunning musclemen, Terminator and Penge, begin hunting for Sutyi and with their "original" methods they encounter rather suspicious characters. They are constantly being followed by the film crew, which makes interviews with the participants of the events. The value of the sociological type of dialogues is diminished by the intentional blurring of the boundary between a documentary and fiction. It is too much of a documentary to be fiction, but not authentic enough to be a documentary. Despite all these, the most powerful parts of the film are those giving a sociographic description of the characters' background. They carry a strong meaning, the situations and lifestyles are all too well-known, they all parts of "our life" - unfortunately. A separate line in the film deals with Cérna and his wife's money saving efforts; since they cannot have a baby of their own, they decide to buy a newborn baby for one and a half million forints. But the money is gone, so the hired mother refuses to hand over her baby. The only real tragedy of the film is their desperate desire for a child, and is somewhat "stands out" of the plot, which is turning increasingly grotesque. Cérna's church scene does not make the story any more credible, although it bridges the gap between him and ideas. Depicting the total lack of ideals and the materialistic nature of our world in its naked truth could have been the merit of the film. (Nevertheless, the film achieves this aim when nakedness is used in the strictest sense of the word.) Sutyi wasted the money, he did some shopping, he "lived" a little on it, but finally, it was stolen from him as well. Although they have done their utmost, the three "inspectors", headed by Terminator, could not reach their aim. They could only find those, whom money ran through, but by then the "dough" itself has already vanished in the haze of the great Hungarian eastern wilderness. Their violent methods (kidnapping, fatal threats) could not fail to grab the attention of the police, resulting in the complete elimination of instigator and executor circles. Following the television reports of Kriminális, the film (trying to preserve its documentary nature) unnoticeably switches to the scene where a special police squad professionally raids on Cérna's flat. The long-awaited baby is born after Cérna, Terminator and Penge are captured, but the mother is unwilling to give the child to Mrs. Forintos, due to lack of money. The toughest sentence of the film, which might as well be its motto, is uttered at this very moment: "No money, no child." The last pictures of the film draw a parallel between the birth, the innocently crying baby and Cérna who is sentenced to imprisonment, although the film would have deserved a more original ending, built less upon emotions. Nevertheless, the film does not remain completely meaningless after drawing the obvious and trite moral conclusions (What is an otherwise honest man is forced to do because of the failure and slowness of jurisdiction? And why does Cérna - whom we believe is the least guilty of all the characters - get the toughest sentence, 8 years imprisonment?).

The credible account given by the witness of the escape, which also documents the grotesque nature of our world, also deserves special attention.

We must not forget about the sometimes extremely refreshing, sometimes slightly depressing performance of the amateur actors and actresses either. Although the hard-core Ferencváros-fan Terminator with his gibberish talk, his lifestyle and brutality cannot win our sympathy at all, both his natural simplicity and rough power have a certain special charm to them: he is frightening and refreshing at the same time. The film is far from being a moral preach, its characters do not moralise. They are only looking for their own truth(?) and money with whatever tools (baseball bat, small axe, knife or gun) they find. Once again we have to face the rough violence and brutality of this world, seemingly or actually lacking any form of ideals and thoughts. Popcorn is a film about people forced to engage in wild eastern struggles, but who are, in fact, pitiable and feeble under the shield of their brutality.