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Note that the reviewer saw this film on a Saturday night of opening weekend -- in a largely empty theatre.

Is this a blockbuster movie or a movie to target what W.C.Fields said: "Never give a sucker an even break". And also the phrase: "A sucker is born every minute."

I guess to recoup the $200 million investment in the movie, the producers must rely on the sucker syndrome -- sort of like the China Syndrome -- since you need lots and lots of people...

I had received an email from the Archbishop's office about this because of an earlier inquiry.

The USCCB NCCB has pulled the review of Golden Compass.

Several Bishops and Archbishops have condemned the film at this point (of the Roman Catholic Church).

cold, angry, anti-religious fable

Must have seen a different movie of the same name. The Golden Compass I saw was kind of fun. The byplay between humans and their "demons" was often amusing. Mostly the "anti-religious" stuff was easily ignored and I'm sure it was lost on children who were in the theater when I saw it.

The movie will never be a classic. There was precious little development of the characters, except the heroine. And parts of the story were simply incoherent. (What the hell is "dust" and why should anyone care?) But I've gotten worse times for $6. (I saw a matinee)

The upshot is that this review is the only angry thing about the movie. That doesn't mean I recommend it - I don't. I'm just saying it's not a fair review.

There was a joke told at a Roman Catholic Church Mass as part of the homily.

The joke fits Philip Pullman, an avowed atheist, and a bear (a key character in the film Golden Compass).

The joke is as follows:

An avowed atheist loved nature, and went hiking one day. As he looked around, he saw how beautiful things were, and exclaimed: "What beauty there is here on earth, and I know that God did not create it."
Later there was a brief shower, and a rainbow appeared, to which the avowed atheist exclaimed: "What a beautiful rainbow that I know that God did not create this rainbow".
The atheist hiked further. Suddenly a ten foot black bear appeared, and the atheist started running for his life. He suddenly found himself trapped by the huge black bear.
Out of desperation, he prayed feverishly to God to help him.
God FROZE the bear just before the bear was about to start eating the atheist. At the same time God appeared to the avowed atheist.
The avowed atheist, seeing how the situation had changed, said to God:

"I know I have thought all my life that you do not exist and taught others that. For me now to acknowledge your existence would be hypocrisy on my part. I bid you, however, in the interest of mercy, to make this bear a CHRISTIAN bear."

God responded: "Your request is granted."
At that God disappeared and the bear was unfrozen.
The bear knelled down on his knees and prayed: "We thank thee, O Lord, for these gifts we are about to receive from thy bounty, and the meal that is before us."
After praying, the bear had his dinner -- the avowed atheist...

You can flush this movie down the toilet as a big loser.

For a movie that costs about $200 million to make money, it needs to gross more than its cost.

At this point, Golden Compass only has about $142 million, so even if 100% of the gross on the movie went to offset production costs, then it still loses about $40 million.

Movie theaters get a chunk of the gross, as well as other pieces of the pie probably goes to others.

Considering a movie of comparable budget, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe made about $750 million at the box office, this one is a big time flop -- with estimates from Christmas weekend and Christmas day in.

They need to sell millions of DVD's to try to re-coup some of their investment. Oh well, at least it was a British bank that was dumb enough to back this movie. I guess they can afford a $100 million loss -- all in a day's work...