Phat Girlz, Benchwarmers: not screened for critics

Since I started attending press screenings of films, there has always been the odd film that the studios withheld from critics, afraid that bad advance reviews would be worse than no reviews. But 2006 has been a new low for Hollywood in this regard, with 11 films not screened, so far. And this weekend is a first, at least in my memory: two major studio films opening on lots of screens have not been seen by critics: Phat Girlz and The Benchwarmers.

To paraphrase Zaphod Beeblebrox, if the studios don’t want me to see these movies that bad, then I want to see them ever worse. How bad can they be? I’m gonna find out today -- I’m gonna see one after the other. It’s not gonna be pretty. If you don’t hear from me, send a search party.

There’s lots of very good movies opening today too, and I’ll get to covering those ASAP.