Critic Edward Rothstein takes on the thesis of director Steven Spielberg's new film Munich, which is basically that violence begets violence.

Wanna see a film where journalists are made to look good? Try Good Night, and Good Luck, or Capote. Wanna see one where they look bad? King Kong, Munich and The Constant Gardener might be more to your liking.

Attentive consumers of Toronto news media products may recall the bust of some DVD pirates last week, with more than 150,000 DVDs reportedly seized.

Well, it appears that monster has more than one head. Walking up Spadina from Dundas St. Friday afternoon, I saw about three little freelance DVD stands hawking the latest in pirated discs.

Do with this information what you will.

Aeon Flux is a new sci-fi thriller starring the stunningly beautiful Charlize Theron (appearing in this role in black hair).

I was toying with the idea of seeing it, but I wanted to see a review first.

At RottenTomatoes.com, there wasn't much posted, but there was this little note:

Charlize Theron has her Oscar. Now she has her Catwoman.
-- David Frese, KANSAS CITY STAR

Ouch.

There's no review in the Star or Globe and Mail. In email correspondence with a friend of mine, supercritic Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal said the studio declined to make a review copy of the film available.

I'm presuming this must be a deliberate strategy to try and salvage some revenue.

A.O. Scott of the NYT appears to support that theory.