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Pete Kilmer: But the Triplets of Belleville had a...let's call it "warmth" to its style that Zemickis so far has lacked. This newest film by him is miles better than Polar Express, but Kim nailed it. With the dead eyes it's tough to get invested in the film.

Sean Collier: The gimmicks and technology are secondary to the story, I feel; it can look great but be deadwood, or it can look dreadful but have me complete immersed on its other strengths. I don't believe I've ever seen a film as immersive as Spirited Away, and I doubt I will. I should say that I personally enjoyed A Christmas Carol quite a bit, and found the use of 3D to be very strong; as far as the motion capture technology goes, I don't see the advantages over computer animation.

David Mumpower: I fall somewhere in the middle on this. Like Michael, I very much enjoyed The Polar Express and it was in fact one of my first Blu-Ray purchases. Conversely, Beowulf is one of the creepiest, most surreal movie-viewing experiences of my life. It felt like a waking nightmare of animation. Zemeckis chose a fantasy style for it that I found quite unnerving. In short, I find this technology entirely reliant upon the decisions the director and animation team make about the world they create. It can work brilliantly or it can make Ray Winstone look like Patrick Swayze's evil twin brother.

Just for fun, I tried to do some cloud busting yesterday

Kim Hollis: The Men Who Stare At Goats, the Overture Films release starring George Clooney and Ewan McGregor, opened to $12.7 million. Is this a good enough result for a film with so much star power?

Josh Spiegel: Considering the quirkiness of the topic, and the fact that George Clooney may be well-known but isn't a guarantee at the box office, this result is fairly impressive. I actually would have pegged this opening weekend somewhere around $10 million, if not lower. In general, I'm not sure how strong this film's legs are going to be, but for a movie about...men staring at goats to do this well is pretty good news for Overture.





Tim Briody: Outside of the Ocean's films, Clooney rarely picks highly commercial projects and The Men Who Stare At Goats qualifies in that category from the title alone. This is definitely a decent enough opening.

George Rose: These men aren't stars anymore. They are critically acclaimed actors with highly recognizable faces, but that's about it. When's the last time any of these actors opened a film on their own? Clooney's Leatherheads opened to only $12 million. Heck, the even more ensemble Burn After Reading had Brad Pitt and opened to under $20 million. McGregor, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey are hardly bankable names either. They might have been better off with a limited release and slow rollout, to build buzz and to soften the blow of such small numbers. As it stands, it just feels like a failure, which is sad because so many of my friends have shown interest in it and the trailers looked funny. Then again, was this ever positioned to be a huge hit? It feels like a cross between a cult comedy and a quirky Coens attempt at an Oscar. Maybe the confusion it has caused was too much for the audience to handle. Either way, it fell short of even the lowest expectations.

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