Judd Apatow's Knocked Up is receiving far better reviews than any of the big sequels that were released in May. In fact, A.O. Scott in the New York Times calls it "an instant classic." He writes: "The wonder of Knocked Up is that it never scolds or sneers. It is sharp but not mean, sweet but not soft, and for all its rowdy obscenity it rarely feels coarse or crude. What it does feel is honest: about love, about sex, and above all about the built-in discrepancies between what men and women expect from each other and what they are likely to get." Joe Morgenstern's review in the Wall Street Journal is filled with equal acclaim: "Judd Apatow's high-density, high-intensity comedy of bad (and good) manners is a cause for celebration -- the laugh lines are smart, and they come faster than you can process them. For anyone concerned about the state of mainstream films, this is also an occasion for some wonderment -- at Mr. Apatow's gift for mating the crowd-pleasing raunchiness with a generous spirit, genuine sweetness, uncommon delicacy, zestful social criticism and a moral dimension that provides substance and meaning without ever getting in the way," Morgenstern comments. Claudia Puig in USA Today calls Apatow "the new king of comedy" and calls the movie "a perfectly tuned romantic comedy that is consistently funny, whether reveling in bawdiness or laying bare its soul." Kyle Smith in the New York Post describes it as "a brilliant comedy disguised as a dumb one." And Michael Booth predicts in the Denver Post: "I doubt you'll see a funnier movie this summer than Knocked Up."

Mixed reviews are greeting Mr. Brooks, often in the critics' same sentences. For example, Jack Mathews in the New York Daily News calls it "totally absurd and equally entertaining." Susan Walker in the Toronto Star remarks: "Quite a few plot lines and character quandaries remain unresolved. And yet the movie makes sense as it stands." Bob Strauss concludes in the Los Angeles Daily News: "Mr. Brooks may be too much to swallow, but it's a rich feast of perverse delicacies." Richard Roeper confesses in the Chicago Sun-Times: "While acknowledging the plot is often a mess, I have to admit I was thoroughly entertained from start to finish." And Ty Burr observes in the Boston Globe: "There are three movies crammed into this one: The first is good, the second is so bad it's good, and the third is just plain bad. That's still three times the bargain most movies offer."

The Walt Disney Company on Thursday denied a report that it plans to release Badder Santa: The Unrated Version on high-definition video in November. The report had appeared on several websites that track DVD releases. (HighDefDigest.com said that the report emanated from "a retail announcement.") Coming in the wake of Disney's announcement that it plans to abandon its "Buena Vista" banner corporate-wide, the report generated particular interest since it appeared that an unrated movie would be distributed under the Disney name for the first time. However, a Disney spokesman said Thursday that no "new official name" for the company's video distribution unit had been announced and that for the time being it will remain Buena Vista Home Entertainment.

For a change, not a single sequel is opening at the box office this weekend. That said, none of the films that are opening is expected to give any of the sequels that arrived earlier any serious competition. Not only that, next week they will have to compete against another sequel that is expected to be a big draw -- Ocean's Thirteen. Analysts say that of the new releases, director Judd Apatow's well-received comedy Knocked Up with Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl has the best chance of making any kind of showing. The only other film that is expected to draw a respectable audience is MGM's Mr. Brooks, featuring Kevin Costner as a serial killer. Each film, however is expected to take in only around $15 million. By contrast, the second weekend of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and the third weekend of Shrek the Third are expected to draw about $55 million and $30 million respectively.

Given the increasing use of digital video recorders, some movie studios are balking at paying high prices for ads to promote the opening of their latest releases when people might skip the ads entirely or watch them after the movie has already opened. "For the studios, the commercial message is timely. It has to be day-specific," Jeff Robinson of Palisades Media Group, which handles buying for a number of movie studios, told today's (Friday) online edition of Advertising Age. Reporting on the growing reluctance of studios to commit large chunks of cash to television marketing, the trade publication observed, "Movie ads that air Thursday nights on big network programs are often designed to get people to attend a movie opening the next day, and so would be worth less if viewed even 48 hours later."

After at first rejecting out of hand Rupert Murdoch's bid for Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, the Bancroft family, which owns the company, said Thursday that they would consider Murdoch's bid as well as others from potential buyers. In a statement, the family said that they had agreed to meet with Murdoch to discuss his bid but that they would insist on preserving and protecting the Journal's editorial independence. They also indicated that their talks with Murdoch might not necessarily lead to negotiations with him. Murdoch has indicated that he intends to rename his projected Fox Business Channel the Wall Street Journal Channel if the deal is completed. In reporting the Bancroft family's change of heart, the Wall Street Journal itself observed in its lede: "Dow Jones & Co.'s 125-year history as an independent media company could be nearing an end."

USA Network has agreed to pay $28 million for network rights to Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, following its airing next summer on the Starz pay-TV network. The previous two Pirates films generated record ratings for the cable network. USA will be able to air the latest sequel for a five-year period beginning in September 2009. The deal is not exclusive; USA agreed to allow Disney to sell one-run rights to another cable or broadcast network during the five-year period.

Viacom's Nickelodeon channel is getting into the hotel business with Marriott to provide kid-friendly atmosphere at 20 resorts featuring water parks and interactive entertainment provided by the likes of SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer, the two companies said at a New York news conference Thursday. The first resort is expected to open at the former site of the San Diego Naval Training Center in 2010 -- an expanded version of Nickelodeon Family Suites by Holiday Inn that opened in 2005 in Orlando, FL, which Nickelodeon has been using for customer testing. The new hotels will feature numerous in-room technology features, including high-definition TV sets, and children's rooms decorated with Nickelodeon characters in suites. The hotels, costing $200-300 million, are expected to be completed by 2020 and will be owned by Miller Global Properties.

Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who defied euthanasia laws and agreed in 1998 to be shown on CBS's 60 Minutes administering a lethal injection to a terminally ill man, will be released from a Michigan prison today (Friday) after serving eight years of a 10-25-year sentence in connection with the death of the man, authorities said Thursday. Kevorkian, 79, who is said to be gravely ill himself, has promised not to help anyone else commit suicide following his release. However, he said that he plans to remain an advocate for the right to assisted suicide, and, in that regard, plans to return to 60 Minutes on Sunday for an interview with Mike Wallace, who interviewed him for the feature that resulted in his murder conviction. Sunday's program, which also features a Wallace interview with actress Vanessa Redgrave and a repeat of an interview with Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmandinejad, is expected to close with a tribute to Wallace by colleague Andy Rooney.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has chastised the country's television stations for packing their program schedules with cheap programming from other countries that has had "a massive cultural influence" on young people. He urged TV stations to "create the conditions so that the coming of age of the younger generation takes place in a wholesome atmosphere of home-grown culture." Currently some of the most popular shows on Russian TV are adaptations of programming from abroad, including Who Wants to Be a Millionaire from the U.K., the game show Fort Boyard from France, and the country's biggest hit, Don't Be Born Beautiful, from Colombia, whose U.S. version is titled Ugly Betty.

By selling an additional 25-percent stake in his Nine television network to CVC Asia Pacific for $427 million, Australian media mogul James Packer has effectively ceded control of the company that his grandfather founded 74 years ago. Packer, the wealthiest man in Australia, plans to use the proceeds to extend his investments in gambling casinos. In an interview with Bloomberg News, John Guadagnuolo at Equity Trustees Ltd. in Melbourne, commented, "It's the end of an era for the Packer family. ... James has made the decision there's a better return to be made in gambling."

Good Morning America co-host Diane Sawyer has landed an exclusive interview with the man suffering from a particularly virulent strain of tuberculosis but who nevertheless traveled on at least two airline trips, exposing fellow passengers to the disease. In the interview, taped at a Denver hospital where he was placed in quarantine, Andrew Speaker told Sawyer that he hoped that the passengers "understand that I truly never meant them any harm." He said that he did not realize that he was contagious.