Voices
Is V For Vendetta A Drag?
by Larry Gross

V is about the gayest superhero of all time.

I mean, he makes Batman look like Tarzan by comparison. An outcast who cannot be himself in the ultimate ways, he is at the same time a dedicated gourmand, lover of 40's torch songs, a great dancer, an unrepentant high culture aesthete, an exceptional interior decorator and an enthusiast of 1930s black-and-white period-costume tear-jerking swash bucklers - and maybe he's just tomorrow's with-it metro sexual, but given his lack of nostalgia for nuclear family or lost love, and given that he can only warm up physically to Natalie when she's bald, it would seem to me that, well ... you get where this is going.

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MCN DVD Wrap-Up
Chicken Little

This time, the world's most famous alarmist is joined by pals Ugly Duckling (Joan Cusack), Runt of the Litter (Steve Zahn) and Fish Out of Water. The CGI feature isn't up to usual Disney standards, but younger children should find it enjoyable, as will the interactive bonus features.

The Chicken Rap
The Trading Cards

Plus: The Busby Berkeley Collection, Buster Keaton: 65th Anniversary Collection, Bukowski: Born Into This, Capote, Chicken Little, David and Bathsheba, A History of Violence, Huff, A League of Ordinary Gentlemen, Loggerheads,Over There, Paul Mooney's Analyzing White America, Remember the Titans, Show Me, South Park, Stalag 17, The Ten Commandments, The Thing Called Love, Through the Fire, Townes Van Zandt, The White Shadow, The Year of the Yao, The Young Riders

Gross Behavior
Admission Slips ..
by Leonard Klady

Just as movies in the age of television offers a manifestly sharp contrast in eras without that particular box, the fact that one has considerable revenue potential from such areas as DVD and Pay-cable exploitation alters the perspective of movies released prior to those elements. And it's not simply new technologies that alter the landscape. The manner in which films are released and advertised has undergone significant change that makes side-by-side comparisons of current releases with films that opened in 1989 or 1995 of limited value.

The Weekend Report
by Leonard Klady

Heavily promoted to emphasize its artistic connection to The Matrix, tracking suggested a buoyant domestic opening between $25 million and $30 million for V for Vendetta that proved accurate.

“The picture had even better exit polls than the first Matrix,” noted producer Joel Silver. “We were also surprised to see that the audience was on average pretty much split between those older and younger than 25 years old. Those are both good signs that it will continue to play well.”
Weekend Estimates (Full List)
Domestic Market Share

Digital Dretzka
ShoWest Wraps It Up
by Gary Dretzka

ShoWest 2006 threw itself a wrap party Thursday night, but not before Warner Bros. availed itself of the opportunity to brag on its upcoming slate of “event” movies. The company, which once was known for sponsoring the most star-studded of all ShoWest banquets, has been a no-show for the last few years. Instead, the “new” MGM – a company with more lives than a pride of big cats – paid for the luncheon, while WB honcho Alan Horn chipped in for dessert. It arrived in the form of extended clips from Poseidon, Superman Returns, Lady in the Water and Happy Feet.
A Prairie Home Companion Preview
Skip The Butter, Add The Floss
Cars Hits The ShoWest Track In Gary Dretzka's New MCN Blog, Digital Dretzka
ShoWest & The Ghost Of Cinema Future

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The Ultimate DVD Geek
Ryan's Daughter
by Doug Pratt

Imagine the ‘straight A' student who receives, deservedly, a ‘B' on his term project and you will capture the quandary surrounding David Lean's 1970 mega-feature, Ryan's Daughter, which has been released as a fine Two-Disc Special Edition by Warner Home Video (65170, $27). Lean himself was devastated, as any over-achiever would be, by the reception that greeted the feature, and apparently went into a filmmaking funk that lasted more than a decade. Those who were jealous of his previous successes decried the film as an utter failure, though of course it is not, it just isn't quite as good as his other movies.

Pride, Unprejudiced
by Ray Pride

Two long interviews in this column: writer-director Gavin Hood talks about his Oscar-winning South African Tsotsi, and Eugene Jarecki talks about Why We Fight and its analysis of war, money and belief in the U.S. as well as his forceful reaction to a rancorous review by the New Yorker's David Denby.

The idea for the film began with Jarecki's first encounter with President Eisenhower's 1961 farewell address to the nation, in which he coined the phrase "the military-industrial complex," warning of the potential of its gathering power to bulldoze democracy.

Updated throughout the day
Updated: 9:04 pm

Lord Of The Rings: The 3 Hour Musical Opens In Toronto... Toronto Sun.... The Globe & Mail... The Telegraph Sends A Critic... So Does The LA Times... But NYT Does Not

Anne Thompson Looks At The Risky Talent Agency Game Circa 2006

Antony Sher's Personal Look At Gay Cinema On The Eve Of London's Gay Fest, Wearing A Condon On His Sleeve

Turturro Talks Movies

Hidden (Cache) Passes The Million $ Mark In England... How'd It Happen?

Stephen Fry Makes A Joke About How V For Vendetta Got Its Location Permits... Parliament Erupts

And You Thought Woodstock Was Muddy... Try Julian Temple's Glastonbury

The Bagger Returns, In His Clark Kent Get Up, To Talk With Steve Buscemi

New From Germany (And You Know How Precise They Are)... Criticker, The Personalized Film Reccomendation Engine

Universal In The UK Takes A Home Entertainment Step That May Well Become The Trend Of The Future... A DVD & Two Downloads For One Price

Ross Johnson On The Latest Pellicano Accusation... Is The FBI's Lead Investigator Out To Take Pellicano's Place As Hollywood's Hot Private Investigator?

Snakes On A Plane Adds More R Rated Material So As Not To Shortchange The Geeks

Politics Are Politics Everywhere
"The departments I dealt with - the Ministry of Defence, the Metropolitan police, etc - it would not have helped if I said that Euan Blair was working on the film."

Xan Brooks Can't Help Dipping A Toe Into The Tom Cruise Waters

Spike Lee Is Almost Mellow These Days

MTV's Top Ten Bank-Heist Movies

A Dose Of McSweeney's
"The End Of My Marriage Rendered In The Elegant Phraseology Of Celebrities"

The New Studio Habit Of Not Screening Films That Marketers Feel Can Only Be Hurt By Critics Hits England

Movies & Nazis & Commies... Oh My!

Goldstein On Netflix... A Business The Studios Would Prefer To Go Away In Favor Of DVD Sales... Underscoring The Importance Of The Hype Of Theatrical Reaction, Which Intermission Got Via Festivals And Critics, To DVD Rentals

The Man Looks At New Directors Series In NYC... Touts The Easily Broken Half Nelson... Shorts The Far More Truthful, If Roughly Made, The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros

Winterbottom's Controversial Road To Guantanamo Falls To Roadside, Where They Will Care For It, But Have A Fight For Screens.... Expect A Sony DVD To Follow, As Per Habit

Ir's Springtime, With A Hint Of Villains In The Air

Move Over Robert Wagner And Fred Astaire
Will Smith Updates It Takes A Thief

Hong Kong Gossips Sharpen Their Knives On Mainlander Zhang Ziyi

Maybe They'd Sell More Tickets If They Renamed It "Hate Story"
Perhaps The Most Successful Dogma95 Film, Festen (aka The Celebration) To Hit Broadway... But All Anyone Seems To Want To Talk About Is Ali "Sexy At 67" McGraw

South Park Apparently Will Return Fire Against Alleged Scientology-Driven Censorship

The Chicago 10
Marty Richards Says He Had It Coming... Sues The Weinsteins/Miramax/Disney For $10 Million

Sharon Stone, 14 Years Later

Cinema Scope 26: David Bordwell And Something Worthy Of The Art We Love

The Cannes Schedule Is Starting To Take Form

They Aren't Sure How Much Chicago Has Made, But They're Pretty Sure Miramax Owes Them $10 Million Of It

Ebert's Overlooked Lineup For 2006

"It may not be a Gibson-level, dead-language epic smash, but never underestimate the entertainment value of an undersexed priest."

Trailer du Jour
New From The Da Vinci Code

Ross Johnson Looks At Pellicano's Strategy & Argument

"The movie business is a little like the drug business. We are the pushers, and our customers are the users. Even if business is good, you have to keep giving people what they want."

Michael Wilmington On The 35 Year History Between Robert Towne And Ask The Dust

One Editor Finds The Teen Movie Blue Velvet Could Have Been
And - The Relationship Movie Vin Diesel And Paul Walker Could Have Had
And - The Mountain Ledger, Gyllenhaal And Mel Gibson Could Have Climbed

The Spring Movie Preview

The Sometimes Scary, But Always Interesting Tommy Lee Jones
"He can talk with equal ease and authority about how to rope a steer or to decode an arcane religious allegory."

The Big Three - Lee, Foster And Washington

In"American animated features, the characters chatter incessantly, as if they're trying to use up their last 500 minutes from Verizon."

Napolean Dynamite's Jon Heder, Not Exactly Your Typical Hollywood Up-And-Comer

Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Mask .. Please

Following In the Footsteps Of Penguins

Scott Bowles Offers ShoWest Highlights

Easy Rider, The Not So Easy Sequel

Of Tom Cruise, South Park, Scientology And That Pesky First Amendment

John Patterson's Latest Rant: Heist Movies

The Woz Looks At Oscar 2007 - The Big Pictures

Ben Stein's Own Little Theories About Hollywood And The Oscars
"Stop spitting in the face of Americans and maybe we will go to the movies."

The Sell Off Of The Dreamworks Library Is (Close To) Done

The French Still Love Jerry Lewis, And The Legion Of Honour Proves It

Growing Up With Winona Ryder
"After kooky, gravitas is difficult and sophistication is nearly impossible."

More Tribeca Titles