Few films have provoked such intellectual scrutiny as Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel, starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. Consider A.O. Scott's comments in the New York Times: "The individual scenes are sometimes so powerful, and put together with such care and conviction, that you might leave the theater feeling dazed, even traumatized. Babel is certainly an experience. But is it a meaningful experience? That the film possesses unusual aesthetic force strikes me as undeniable, but its power does not seem to be tethered to any coherent idea or narrative logic. You can feel it without ever quite believing it." Now, consider Carina Chocano's comments in the Los Angeles Times: "Clearly, González Iñárritu knows his Weltschmerz, and he burrows deep into the existential loneliness of each character to create a kaleidoscope of cumulative human sadness and grief over the state of the world. With uncommon empathy and insight, he elicits moving performances from all the actors." Virtually all of the critics agree that Babel is one of the best films of the year. Rex Reed in the New York Observer goes further. Calling it a "masterpiece," he writes: "We still have two months to go, but at this point, in my opinion, I consider Babel the best film of 2006."

Writing about Death of a President, critics are compelled to focus their attention on a scene in the film in which an actor, playing the role of the president of the United States, is assassinated in Chicago in 2007. The actor's face has been digitally replaced by George W. Bush's. "As a medium-left liberal with a fierce belief in free speech and artistic expression, I'm proud to live in a country where the government can't prevent the release of a fictional film depicting the assassination of the real-life president," Richard Roeper writes in the Chicago Sun-Times. "That said, I find the idea repugnant and morally objectionable." But his cross-town colleague, Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune begins his review with the words, "It is not irresponsible." Lisa Kennedy in the Denver Post calls the controversial scene "a crude stunt." Carrie Rickey in the Philadelphia Inquirer expresses ambivalence about it. "Sure, movies are protected speech. But is this exploration or exploitation?" she asks. However, if the actual face of the actor were shown, she concedes, the film might not have "scored the same points." Indeed, Kyle Smith writes in the New York Post, "If this movie were about the murder of a fictional president, it wouldn't even earn a theatrical release." On the other hand, Gene Seymour in Newsday calls the controversial scene "more a crafty technical exercise than an incendiary device." Michael Sragow in the Baltimore Sun, who describes the film as "excitingly well-made," also defends it as "a responsible piece of political fiction." And Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times writes, "Somewhere within this smoldering heap of controversy is a technically inventive, thoughtful, but otherwise not particularly earth-shattering movie."

There'll be something for just about everybody at the box office this weekend. For sheer mindless entertainment as Halloween approaches, there's the horror film, Saw III, which is expected easily to sell the most tickets (but which was not screened for critics); the film stars Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith, who also appeared in the first two films of the franchise. For those who enjoy film as art, there's the highly praised and award-winning drama Babel, from director Alejandro González Iñárritu and his frequent collaborator, screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga. There are also several controversial smaller films, including Death of a President, Catch a Fire starring Derek Luke, Shut Up & Sing, and Running with Scissors with Annette Bening.

PC World magazine has tested all of the major movie-download services and has found each of them wanting. "Some downloadable films are more expensive than their DVD counterparts and offer fewer features," the magazine says in its online edition. "Downloading the movies can be tiresome. And watching films on something other than your PC or portable device can be a pain." The magazine observed that Apple's iTunes Music Store provided the "slickest" service but pointed out that it currently offers only about 100 feature-length films -- all of them from Disney -- and that many of them don't come with the "extras" that are featured on DVDs. The magazine concluded: "For now, downloadable movies are like popcorn without any butter or salt -- tolerable, but hardly tempting."

After enduring one of its worst slumps -- the aftereffect of last year's box-office downturn -- the DVD business is expected to set a new record for October, according to Home Media Retailing magazine. The trade publication observed that the 16 theatrical films released this month together earned $1.1 billion at the box office, including 20th Century Fox's X-Men: The Last Stand, which alone accounted for nearly 25 percent of that amount. Five million copies of the DVD version were sold during its first week in stores. Other strong performers were The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, The Little Mermaid Platinum Edition, Click, and Over the Hedge. In an interview with HMR, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment president Mike Dunn observed, "The summer box office was up 7 percent this year, which is translating into a strong fourth quarter for home entertainment."

In a deal with Paramount, Finland-based Nokia will sell its new Nokia N93 camcorder/video player complete with a memory card holding the full-length version of Mission: Impossible III, the company said Thursday. The device, which sports a 2.4'' color screen, is due to be offered first in Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and the U.K. "Once you have watched the movie," a company news release said, "you can store it on your PC and enjoy the 512MB of storage for shooting pictures and video." (Curiously, the release also states, "Please note that the movie cannot be played on the PC nor can it be copied to another memory card.")

Michael J. Fox's political commercials supporting embryonic stem cell research may be harming Republicans according to a study conducted earlier this week and reported today (Friday) by CNSNews.com, a unit of the conservative Media Research Center. According to the study by HCD Research and Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion, support for such research increased from 78 percent overall to 83 percent after those surveyed viewed the ad by Fox, whose Parkinson's symptoms are apparent in it. The survey also concluded that Republican respondents' support for a Republican candidate decreased by 10 percent after seeing the ad while Independents' support for Democrats grew by 10 percent. Meanwhile, in an appearance on the CBS Evening News Thursday, Fox denied that charges by conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh that he had stopped taking his medications in order to exaggerate his Parkinson's symptoms. The medication, he pointed out, counteracts the rigidity of Parkinson's and allows him to speak. "The irony of it is that I was too medicated," he told anchor Katie Couric. "Would you support a Republican candidate?" Couric asked later. "I've campaigned for Arlen Specter, the Republican Senator from Pennsylvania who supports stem-cell research." (Fox also portrayed a conservative preppie on the long-running Family Ties TV series.)

NBC and the new CW network have refused to carry ads for Shut Up & Sing, the documentary about the Dixie Chicks' opposition to the war in Iraq, which opens this weekend in Los Angeles and New York, according to the film's distributor, the Weinstein Co. "It's a sad commentary about the level of fear in our society that a movie about a group of courageous entertainers who were blacklisted for exercising their right of free speech is now itself being blacklisted by corporate America," Harvey Weinstein said in a statement. Today's (Friday) Daily Variety reported that while NBC has acknowledged that the spots were declined because they are "disparaging" to President Bush, the CW maintains that it did not reject them. A spokesman for the CW told the trade paper: "We were told they were not going to make a national spot buy on CW." Reviews of the movie indicate that the film takes a strong stance against the president. "Clips of Bush make him seem callous," writes Ann Powers in the Los Angeles Times. Anti-Chicks "protesters come off as foolish; one demands that her tiny, puzzled son repeat an expletive directed at the Chicks." (The spurned ads have been posted on the Internet at www.shutupandpost.com.)

Competition from satellite operators forced cable companies to invest in infrastructure that added Internet and phone service to their basic TV offerings -- features the satellite companies have not been able to provide effectively, Comcast Chairman Brian Roberts said Thursday as the company reported better-than-expected results in the third quarter. Comcast said that revenue from broadband Internet services increased 22 percent to $1.4 billion during the quarter, while phone service rose a whopping 51 percent to $252 million.

Ten percent of online consumers are now watching TV shows on their computers and two thirds of those are watching network newscasts, according to the Consumer Internet Barometer, produced by the research group The Conference Board. In a CIB study, reported in today's (Friday) Los Angeles Daily News, half of those surveyed said that they go online to catch up on such primetime shows as Desperate Housewives on ABC, the CSI dramas on CBS, and The Office on NBC, with ABC receiving the greatest number of hits. The primary reasons for online viewing: personal convenience, "portability," and fewer commercials.

The Today show's Meredith Vieira has landed an exclusive interview with Madonna, which is scheduled to air on the morning program next Wednesday and Thursday. Parts of the interview will also be telecast on Dateline NBC on Wednesday night. Madonna is expected to discuss the controversies over the crucifixion number for her November 22 concert special that was censored by NBC and her recent adoption of a Malawian boy. Meanwhile, the latest Nielsen ratings of the morning shows have indicated that ABC's Good Morning America saw its audience rise against NBC's Today show last week as Diane Sawyer continued her reports from North Korea. According to the Nielsen figures, 5.66 million viewers watched Today, while 4.93 million tuned in to GMA.

The FCC on Thursday ruled that Jay Leno's recent interview with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was a legitimate news interview and that NBC was therefore not required to offer equal to time to Phil Angelides, his Democratic opponent in next week's gubernatorial election. In response, a spokesman for Angelides said, "We are disappointed but not surprised that the Bush-controlled FCC has made a political decision over the use of our public airwaves." Currently three Republicans and two Democrats sit on the commission.