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Jim Van Nest: The bottom line is this: chihuahaus are way cuter and have cool Spanish accents. Great Danes are oafy and talk like Owen Wilson. I don't think much more needs to be said here.

Jason Lee: I agree with Matthew 100%. Do kids even know who Marmaduke is? That's gotta have held this movie back somewhat. Also, I think most parents caught on to the fact that this movie was pretty derivative of other "better" (I use that word somewhat seriously, somewhat sarcastically) talking animal films.

David Mumpower: The supposition Jason makes about Marmaduke is a great one in that the way people over 25 know Marmaduke is through the funny pages. Any kid under 10 has no frame of reference for that. Marmaduke the movie is almost collateral damage in the collapse of print media.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

Kim Hollis: Splice, the sci-fi/horror film from the director of Cube, opened to $7.5 million. It received a terrifying D Cinemascore (generally Uwe Boll territory), but is 72% fresh at RottenTomatoes. What is going on here?

David Mumpower: In terms of the box office for the film, I had hoped Splice would perform better in that it fits in that Mimic niche. For those of you who were still breast feeding in 1997, Mimic opened to $7.8 million, went on to earn around $25 million and was a cult horror hit for a while. Splice is in that vein and has a couple of exemplary actors in Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody; ergo, the positive reviews do not surprise me nor does the disappointing box office. The hostile word-of-mouth, on the other hand, is a head scratcher. The disconnect between the critical reviews and the Cinemascore is as extreme as I can ever recall. Oddly, this makes me want to watch the movie that much more. I doubt I'm alone in this. Splice has a second appeal now due to how divisive it is proving to be. Many Internet flame wars will be fought over this one in the coming years.

Kim Hollis: I thought the trailer was noisy and odd, but it did have an interesting premise behind it. I wonder if it was just a little too freaky to catch on with mainstream audiences. I have absolutely no explanation for the disconnect between the critics and the Cinemascores. The critics seem to think it's smart, but a lot of comments also indicate that the movie falls apart at the end. I'm sure the studio was hoping for a little more given the festival buzz the film had, but ultimately, Splice was a tough sell.

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