The Catholic League thinks it's anti-Catholic. Admirers of Philip Pullman's 1995 His Dark Materials trilogy, of which The Golden Compass is the first part, think Chris Weitz's film guts the backbone of the book. Me, I just think it blows. What does it matter if you spend millions on a movie – love the talking, battling bears! – if the effects are cheesy, the story runs off on tangents and after watching the movie fail utterly to be the next Lord of the Rings, you just want to go home. One wag said Nicole Kidman looked like "a Botoxed Marilyn Monroe" playing Mrs. Coulter, the slinky villainess who does terrible things to children to separate them from their souls, which take the form of furry animals called daemons. Are you with me? Didn't think so. Anyway, Kidman was way nastier in Margot at the Wedding. She and co-star Daniel (007) Craig strike as many sexual sparks as they did in The Invasion, which was none. The studio is threatening two sequels. Please make them stop.

“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."