Big weekend for cinemaniacs! What's on the table? Who will take the coveted top spot? Will Ohio St. cover against Michigan?

Commentary on the projected top 5 new films follows:

1. Casino Royale: Yet another Bond installment launches with Daniel Craig snatching the 007 baton. Based on the trailers it looks as though Bond has taken a page from Bourne. This is probably a good thing. Matt Damon's Bourne films have a sleek realism about them which contrasts a bit with such Bond films as Moonraker, that one where Connery is Japanese, and that one where Walken is blonde. Thos bombastic Bonds have given way to a more accessible, yet a bit more ass-kicking Bond. I might actually pay to see this one.

Prediction: Craig unseats Cohen's Borat  with a swift fist to the "ahn-oos". $45 mill.

2.  Happy Feet: Yet another computer animated installment for the youngins that hopes to be clever enough to keep parents (dads) at least mildly entertained enough not to spend most of their cinematic experience checking football scores. You know what's funniest to me about this movie? Not one African-American provides his/her voice for the penguins. Apparently in the land of the Emperor Penguins, the surroundings aren't the only thing that's all white.

Prediction: There's enough star power here to push it #2 where it beats last week's #1 by a beak. $25 mill.


3. Borat continues to hold strong with $19 mill.

4. Ferrell's Stranger Than Fiction won't drop by a lot- $12 mill.

(5.  For Your Consideration: This might be the toughest spot to call and I might be way off base on this prediction but I, being a movie snob (and what movie snob doesn't love the Guest mockumentary parade?), will go with this piece which follows the making of a film called Home for Purim. Finally Guest, Levy et al. delve into peculiar social enclave that is:  The Movie Business. Let's hope they didn't pull any punches.

Prediction: With the glut of family shlock out there that bloated Tim Allen pic gets flushed a little further down the list and-  OK  so I  just realized For Your Consideration is in limited realease today so it'll probably make 50 grand which puts it at about 72nd place. Apologies for my lack of foresight.)


5. Flushed Away doesn't get dumped too far down the list. $9 mill.

6. S3 Tim "I sold my soul to make only shitty kiddie pics" Allen continues to pad his pockets. $8 mill.

7. Fast Food Nation "Ring the alarum bell! Hamburgers are bad for you! In fact, the whole burger industry is bad for everybody!" Like we didn't know this already. Still, in Richard Linlater's (Dazed and Confused, School of Rock) new film where Sinclair's The Jungle meets Thank You For Smoking meets Supersize Me, the little guy socks it to a big-time industry. That's what we like to see.

Prediction: Non-obese people in mostly blue states turn out for this film where they don't eat popcorn with lots of butter on it. $6 mill.


8. Babel Pretty people stranded in the third world just isn't compelling to most movie-goers. $5 mill.

9. The Departed Scorsese's crime flick (is that redundant?) continues to remain in the top 10. $4.5 mill.

10. The Prestige Christian Scott Bale's magician film does much better than his gangsta film which suffers from one of the worst titles ever: Harsh Times. $4 mill.





Oh yeah: OSU vs. Michigan? Take Michigan and the points. They will be buoyed by the spirit of Schembechler who just passed on today.