Army brass have sent a cautionary warning to military medical personnel about the soon-to-be-aired HBO documentary "Baghdad ER," which gives a graphic view of the Iraq war through the eyes of trauma doctors and nurses, even filming during an amputation. Despite many disturbing scenes, filmmaker Jon Alpert said the film had actually been toned down. "Some of the real raw scenes were just a little bit too brutal. My first two days there, I witnessed four amputations," said Alpert.

A private screening was held in Washington on Monday, and the film will air on HBO on Sunday. Around the United States, it will be shown at 22 U.S. military installations, but military medical officers are concerned that it may spark adverse reactions among those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The Army Surgeon General, Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley, sent out a memo last week warning the film may prompt flashbacks or nightmares among some veterans. "It's gritty, it's graphic at times, and those who have a loved one deployed or may have lost a loved one might find certain scenes to be such that it might be something they would want to be careful about in viewing," said Army spokesman Paul Boyce.

Boyce said the memo was designed as a sort of "viewer discretion" warning within the ranks, "particularly for those viewers for whom this may strike very close to home." "We want to make certain that people know what to expect," he said. The film records two months at the 86th Combat Support Hospital in Iraq, where medical teams treat those injured by improvised explosive devices. Filmmakers Alpert and Matthew O'Neill were given access to the hospital, and the result, Alpert said, "is a very patriotic film." "It shows the true consequences of war. Americans haven't had the chance to be able to see some of the consequences. It shows the heroism of the soldiers, and you can't understand the heroism of the doctors and soldiers unless you see the horror that they face every day," said Alpert. The filmmaker said he has since spoken to many of those featured in the movie who told him they are proud to have been a part of it.

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Tom Hanks Defends The Da Vinci Code

The Catholic Church has told its members not to see it. A Catholic Bishop wants to sue over the film. Opus Dei, the secretive Catholic society that is a prime villain in the film demanded that Ron Howard change the script to portray them more favorably (he refused). Now, Tom Hanks is speaking out in defense of the film.

Da Vinci Code star Tom Hanks has said the film of Dan Brown's controversial best-seller is just "a good story" that should not be taken too seriously.... "If you are going to take any sort of movie at face value, particularly a huge-budget motion picture like this, you'd be making a very big mistake."

*****

Leading figures in the Catholic Church have called for a boycott of the film, which they claim is blasphemous and an attack on their faith. Author Brown's book includes a tale that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and had children, a secret bloodline that has been covered up by the Catholic Church. But Hanks, who plays a Harvard professor in Ron Howard's film, said the film was "a lot of fun", likening it to a "scavenger hunt". "We always knew there would be a segment of society that would not want this movie to be shown," he said. But he claimed that it "never hurts" for a film to provoke "dialogue" about religious issues and history.

The film opens nationwide on Friday, May 19, 2006. We can't wait!

Posted on May 15, 2006
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Jack Black Is Nacho Libre

Before we saw Mission Impossible III, we were treated to the trailer for the upcoming Jack Black film, Nacho Libre. By day, Ignacio (Jack Black) is a cook in a Mexican orphanage. Ignacio's friends call him "Nacho." But by night he moonlights as a lucha libre wrestler to raise money for the orphans in this comedy brought to us by the creators of Napoleon Dynamite.

The film also stars Ana de la Reguera as the beautiful and unobtainable Sister Encarnacion. The Official Site has lots of photos and some very funny Video Confessionals by Jack Black. It opens June 16, 2006 and looks completely ridiculous. Works for us.

Posted on May 12, 2006
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Vince Vaughn Chats With Oprah

Vince Vaughn appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss his new romantic comedy with Jennifer Aniston, The Break-Up.

Now Vince stars opposite Jennifer Aniston in The Break-Up, a romantic comedy about a couple falling not in but out of love. In recent headlines, Vince was the rumored groom in the $8 million wedding Oprah was supposedly throwing for her friend, Jennifer Aniston. Vince says he doesn't plan on getting married anytime soon, but jokes, "I'm expecting a pretty good band for $8 million!"

Vince speaks highly of his Break-Up co-star, whom he is also dating. "Jennifer's great. She's one of my favorite people," says Vince. "She's just really smart and funny and easy to be with—very considerate. She's great." Does Vince want to have kids? "At some point I would," says Vince. "I've always liked kids a lot—but no plans for the future. First we have to have the $8 million wedding!"

Has Vince discussed having kids with Jennifer? "No, I have not talked about having kids with Jennifer," he says. "I think [having children] takes a lot of focus, takes a lot of attention. I think it would be nice at some point to have a different priority in something else as you've sort of done stuff and challenged yourself, I think that time would come. But not any time in the near future for me, I don't think."

The clips from The Break-Up look really funny. It hits theaters nationwide June 2, 2006.

Posted on May 11, 2006
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Britney Tells Dave She's Expecting Second Child

Britney Spears ended the tabloid speculation about her expanding waistline by announcing to David Letterman that she is expecting her second child.

The baby bump is for real. Britney Spears told David Letterman on Tuesday that she is pregnant with baby No. 2. "Don't worry Dave, it's not yours," the pop princess quipped on "The Late Show."

The revelation ended weeks of speculation in entertainment magazines, which have been regularly publishing pictures of Spears' apparently expanding waistline. Spears, 24, and her husband, backup dancer-turned-rapper Kevin Federline, 28, were married in 2004 and have an 8-month-old son, Sean Preston. Federline also has two children, Kori and Kaleb, with his former girlfriend, Shar Jackson. Child welfare officials and a sheriff's deputy reportedly visited Spears' home in April after her son accidentally tumbled from a high chair.

In February, authorities visited the home after photographs showed the singer in a car with her son in her lap, rather than in a car seat as required by law. Spears later apologized, saying she held the boy in her lap because of a "horrifying, frightful encounter with the paparazzi."

Britney looked good, although the confirmation that she is having yet another child with the horrible K-Fed is sending shockwaves through the Britney Spears fan base. She says she will go back to work, but will try to balance motherhood and her work. This means that K-Fed now has four children. The man is a menace.

Posted on May 10, 2006
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J.J. Abrams Completes His Mission

Mission Impossible III opened this past weekend with a U.S. take of $48.025 million and a European take of over $70 million, which is a great deal of money. But all the headlines are blaring about what a "disappointment" the box office take was, because it opened in the U.S. about $10 million less than MI:2 did. The New York Times weighs in:

Paramount Pictures and its leading star, Tom Cruise, failed to live up to expectations this weekend when "Mission: Impossible III" opened to weak numbers at the domestic box office despite a barrage of public appearances by Mr. Cruise to promote the film.

The poor opening followed nearly a year of public mocking of Mr. Cruise, Hollywood's most reliable star and the centerpiece of Paramount's biggest franchise, across the pop culture landscape — by Internet bloggers and late-night comedians and constantly on tabloid covers — after his public, over-the-top wooing of the actress Katie Holmes and his outspoken remarks against psychiatry and antidepressant medications last year.

Opening in 4,054 theaters, "Mission: Impossible III" had estimated ticket sales of $48 million for the weekend, according to Exhibitor Relations, almost $10 million less than the second "Mission: Impossible" movie in 2000, which opened in 385 fewer theaters and at lower ticket prices. Based on market research, the film had been expected to reach about $65 million at the box office.

Many in Hollywood had been watching expectantly to see if the negative publicity surrounding Mr. Cruise would have an effect at the box office, and this weekend — as "Mission: Impossible III" kicked off the film industry's peak summer moviegoing period — it appeared as if it had. Paramount reported that "Mission: Impossible III" took in $118 million worldwide in 55 countries, doing well in Asia, Latin America and Britain and poorly in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, where there is public opposition to Mr. Cruise's championing of his religion, Scientology.

Of course, what's missing in all these self-absorbed, gleefully vitriolic analyses is the most important point of all: so, how was the movie, anyway? Well, it was great. J.J. Abrams did a fantastic job with the film. He took this mysterious guy, Ethan Hunt, and made him human. He gave him a fiance, a cover job studying traffic patterns at the Department of Transportation, and IMF offices that look a lot like the offices of SD-6 on Alias. And that's not the only Alias infusion: the comraderie between the agents, the conflict between the personal and professional lives of the agents and the marvelous villain portrayed by Phillip Seymour Hoffman. These elements jumpstarted this franchise. The action never let up, but this time we cared about the characters.

When we heard that Felicity herself, Keri Russell, was slated for a role we were less than enthusiastic. But we have to admit, she did a great job with the role. J.J. Abrams accomplished his mission: this was the best Mission: Impossible ever. Now, if we could just get Tom Cruise to take a vow of silence when he's not actually making a film.....

Posted on May 9, 2006
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ABC's Bird Flu Movie Sure To Freak Everyone Out

Tomorrow night on ABC, millions of Americans will tune in to see a fictionalized account of how a bird flu pandemic will basically destroy the United States. Experts are worried that the movie is going cause a panic all by itself.

A film about a fictional bird flu pandemic that will air on television on Tuesday has experts worried it will panic some people and convince others that legitimate warnings are mere hype. But the same experts are taking advantage of publicity surrounding the made-for-television movie to stress what they see as the need for individuals, businesses and local officials to do what they can to prepare.

The Health and Human Services Department issued "talking points" to staff who may get questions about the movie, Pennsylvania is rolling out a new Web site and telephone line to coincide with the release, and the Trust for America's Health held a briefing to try to sort fact from fiction.

"Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America" features scenes with actors wearing spacesuit-like protective gear, a terrified populace and an ending scene in which most residents of an African village lie dead. "I am not happy," said Mike Osterholm, a University of Minnesota public health expert who has been warning about and consulting on the threat of an influenza pandemic. "I worry that this could very well be portrayed by many as ultimate example of sensationalism," Osterholm told reporters in a telephone briefing on Monday.

Mike Osterholm may not be happy, but you can bet that ABC executives are. With all this publicity and officials telling people not to watch, what's not to love? We'll be geared up with our SARS masks, alcohol wipes and some Xanax...just in case we totally freak out.

Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America airs Tuesday, May 9, 2006 at 8pm Eastern/7pm Central time. You can visit the website for the movie here. If you absolutely insist on knowing the actual facts about bird flu, you can go here.

Posted on May 8, 2006
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Welcome to Watchers Watch!

Welcome to the newest blog in our network: Watchers Watch! We'll be covering movies, TV and video...and whatever else catches our interest, of course.

Posted on May 7, 2006
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