Hollywood's Surge Defeated?

Desperate to counter the victories General Petraeus has fought, won and earned in Iraq and Washington DC, Hollywood's Hitlerian type Ardennes Offensive may be just as doomed as the vaunted Waffin SS Panzer Armies that the Lucky Strikes smoking, gum chewing, Garand totin' GI's of yesteryear took the 'Panzer' out of in WWII.

The cinema surge with three movies that try to make the case America is more evil than her enemies is getting a response all right - just not the one Hollywood moguls expected - and certainly not earning the cash to finance them. "Rendition" stars Meryl Streep and Reese Witherspoon. "Elah" stars Tommy Lee Jones, Susan Surandon and Charlize Theron. These cats don't act out with their art for cheap. So far, Hollywood has met defeat.

"Rendition," which features three Oscar winners in key roles, grossed $4.1
million over the weekend in 2,250 screens for a ninth-place finish. A re-release
of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" beat it, and it's 14 years old.

Whoa! Say it ain't so! Aren't all Americans supportive of a retreat at any cost defeat in Iraq?
Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo isn't so sure.

"Many of these recent dramas fail on all those fronts," Mr. Gray says. "They're
too heavy handed in their presentation."

Even soon to be released anti war surging movies are looking weak. Like Brian De Palma's "Redacted".

Scheduled for a December release, the low budget/no stars movie is based on real
events involving American soldiers who raped a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, then
killed her family. Mr. De Palma has been complaining publicly that disturbing
photos, which run at the end of the film showing dead and dying Iraqis have,
ironically, been redacted by the distributor, Magnolia Pictures.

Now that's irony for you - in it's sweetest form and from De Palma's own peers - no less. There is hope though, maybe it's like redefination. If you constantly say GOP=Taliban, or Kfed = Sir Paul McCartney, Americans may actually start to believe it.

Not even documentaries are collecting much cash.

Beyond the fiction features, the anti-Iraq war documentary "No End in Sight"
(box office: $1.4 million) couldn't capture the indie crowd, beating a swift
retreat to DVD next Tuesday despite glowing reviews.

Any chance of a movie about Americans being the good guys? Not anytime soon.

Hollywood's antiwar drive continues Nov. 9 with "Lions for Lambs," in which Tom
Cruise, Miss Streep and Robert Redford spar over matters of patriotism and war.

Yawn. Robert Redford is a tired old man whose recent inappropiate.boring handwringing seems disjointed, weak and almost pitiful. Naive, out of touch and encouraging to our enemies it may be, yet the funny thing is most American really don't care how ex Al Qaeda or Taliban are faring at Gitmo. Or give a heck what people in countries with no free media and a very unimpressive 38% literacy rate may think. And Americans certainly don't seem concerned about killing our enemies in Iraq - to the point of extinction. Can an all star cast rescue the stalled offensive?

Mr. Gray remains skeptical, citing a lack of clarity from early peeks at the
film.
" 'Lions' will be an interesting test," Mr. Gray says. "Is it simply
them sitting in rooms giving speeches? That's what it looks like."

Americans don't like to lose. The surge has turned things around in Iraq, indeed, Iraq has lost headlines to the upcoming Mullah mashing mayhem the Great Satan is prepping for Iran.

The current crop of antiwar films simply don't offer new insights into the Iraq
conflict.

True enough. Hollywood's out of touch insights are essentially that America is led by evil capitalists, her armies fielding hillbilly white trash, out of control ho's and murderous playas. Americans who attend movies don't buy it. Unless Hollywood gets her act together and starts realizing victory could be a box office blockbuster.