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The Golden Compass has been criticized for its negative presentation of organized religion. Its principal critic its the American Catholic League, a conservative body that speaks for conservative and traditional elements in the Catholic Church in America. The League says that the movie, like the books, promotes atheism, but their grievance appears to me to is that Pullman presents the history and traditions of Catholicism in a negative way. The criticism is a defensive reaction to Pullman's presentation of the belief system and power structure of the Church as repressive, exploitative, manipulative, cynical, and dishonest. The League's campaign brings to mind its reaction to Kevin Smith's Dogma. It is incongruous for parents to take their children to this movie on Saturday, and then make them to Church and Sunday school. If you believe the Church is benevolent, why challenge your child or pay someone to insult your belief?

The shoe was on the other foot when the Christian churches in America were promoting the movie version of C.S. Lewis's Narnia stories and defending Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.

The challenge for self-professed faithful Christians is whether to deny their kids the experience of consuming the latest must-see fantasy product from the movie industry in the hope of consolidating their belief in the conservative Christian version of reality. It seems to me that parents who think they are insulating their children from secular ideology and popular culture by not taking them to one particular semi-animated fantasy film based on a coming of age novel are a little confused.

This is not applause.

I wasted $8.25 and two hours on the theory that the team that created the Identity and the Supremacy could be trusted to deliver a decent sequel. The Bourne Identity was good. It was based on a Robert Ludlum thriller so I knew that I would have to surrender disbelief and enter a Manichean world. Ludlum was a reliable story teller, who could write a good character within the most fantastically paranoid story premises. In the Identity Damon was heroic, vulnerable and baffled, Brian Cox was a great scheming villain, Franka Potente stole the show and it was great fun. The Bourne Supremacy was good too. It had Brian Cox again, and Joan Allen added a strong character.

Watching TV. The Green Berets has turned up on cable. What does the movie have in common with Star Trek and Heroes?

George Takei.

For fans of George Clooney's movie "Good Night, and Good Luck", a discussion of the work and influence of Edward R. Murrow from the New Yorker: THE MURROW DOCTRINE, Why the life and times of the broadcast pioneer still matter, by Nicholas Lemann.

This is partly about the movie Prime, and partly about other things like depression, unhappiness, therapy, and young men dating older women.

Prime has been treating with surprizing kindness by many critics, but the mean score at the Metacritics site was 58. Ebert liked it because it had some good scenes and tried to say something, although he agreed it was flawed. A movie with Meryl Streep and Uma Thurman, with Uma emoting about relationships, is going to have a safe core audience, and a fan following. It isn't doing terribly well at the box office though. I thought Ebert had a point about the movie's having some good scenes, but he understated the flaws.

Serenity got some cautiously supportive advance reviews in the Free Press and I decided to catch it at a Sunday matinee when it opened last weekend. It is an adaptation of Joss Whedon's Firefly TV series. I wasn't familiar with this series - I went to the movie as a Firefly Virgin. Most or all of the regular cast of the series were in the movie. They have a fair number of TV guest credits and a few movie credits, but none of them have achieved any stature in the movie industry. Canadian actor Nate Fillion, who plays Captain Mal Reynolds, was in Saving Private Ryan. British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, who wasn't a regular in the series, was in Love Actually and Dirty Pretty Things. What this movie had working for it, to attract an audience, was Joss Whedon's reputation as the creative force behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the reputation of the series. After that it's going to rest on review and on word of mouth.

IMDb reports it did well on its first weekend. It deserves to do well. It's a clever, stylish production.

The story has a classical sf setting on the fraying edges of an interstellar human civilization. Ship's captain Mal Reynolds is a freewheeling smuggler, bandit and buccaneer, in the tradition of Han Solo. He has a past as a rebel soldier in an unsuccessful rebellion or civil war by the libertarian outer planets against the control of the more civilized inner planets and the central Parliament. His voyage becomes a mission and an adventure, protecting River Tam (actress Summer Glau) and her secret from the Parliament's sinister Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor). The acting is competent, perhaps a bit over the top - in the wise-cracking, ironic style of the early Star Wars movies and Buffy the Vampire slayer. The plot is tight and fast. The visuals and special effects are professional. There are a couple of great martial arts scenes which will certainly build Summer Glau's reputation. There is a strong ethical theme about peacefulness, aggression, social controls, free will, human nature and the messiness of life - think Brave New World or Clockwork Orange. We get an early glimpse of this in scenes of River's back story, when she was being educated and socially conditioned as a young child on a planet controlled by the Parliament. The Operative provides a second ethical theme. He is a perfect soldier, proficient in his technique, aware of the immorality of his violent intrusions into other people's lives and freedom, justifying it in the faith that he is working for a better world. Because he does have an ethical compass, there is a continuing tension in his character. But enough hints and spoilers

This movie has all the pieces and put them together very well.

Crash - the 2004 movie written and directed by Paul Haggis - is excellent. I missed it in its first theatrical release, but it is still playing in the second run theaters in Winnipeg. Haggis is a Canadian who made it in LA, writing for TV. I liked his work on Due South. He made a move to feature films a few years ago and his screenplay for Million-Dollar Baby has been highly praised.

The first season of Slings and Arrows, 6 episodes produced in 2003, was played repeatedly - mainly on Showcase I think - last winter and spring, and a second season has started on Movie Central in Canada. I think the fourth episode airs tonight.

"Semi-Tough" was on TV last night. I saw it in a theater back in 1977. Unfortunately it wasn't in the TV guide, I didn't know it was coming on, and I didn't set a tape. Then my sweet Claire insisted on watching "Dead Like Me". Damn. (Double damn - I really don't like the lead actress although it's fun to watch Mandy Patinkin in a solid role). I hope it's on again soon.

The second season of Deadwood has started on Movie Central with Episode 13, "A Lie Agreed Upon (Part 1)". Deadwood, like other HBO shows, has started numbering episodes by absolute consecutive numbers. Movie Central uses the absolute episode number in its online program guides.