I hope all of you had a great Labor Day! I also hope that at least a few of you got out to the movies. Looking at this week's takes, it appears that a few did. I was right there with you, although I crammed in all my viewing on Saturday, while using Sunday to have a fun barbecue with the family, a safe distance from my computer. So what did I do on Labor Day itself? Why, I caught up on the weekend's reviews! Still, it was nice spending time away from the PC long enough to hang with family and eat a ton of great food!

While I was consuming mass quantities, Tropic Thunder was busy fighting to retain its place atop the box office charts. It was a hard battle, but it fared admirably in the face of much competition, including a resurgent The Dark Knight. When going by the four day figures, the star-studded satire held strong. I am actually surprised by its resilience. I like the film, think that it's very funny and does a great job hitting its target square on the nose, but after its slightly lackluster opening, I suspected it would fall quicker than it has. It's nice to see good films hold strong.

Coming in hot behind Tropic Thunder is the latest Vin Diesel actioner, the horribly lackluster Babylon A.D. The film seems like a complete underachiever. Although it seemed to do well in its opening frame, this is almost guaranteed to drop like a stone. Well, if there is anything right with the world. It is, quite simply, a bad movie that even had its own director speaking out against it.

Two other new releases were able to break into the top ten. The first is Traitor, which came in fifth. This was, hands down, the best quality film released this weekend past. It is a brave portrayal of a Muslim man, strong in his faith, faced with difficult decisions with long reaching ramifications. It is not destined to be a big money maker, but it did open stronger than I was expecting, much to my delight. Do yourself a favor, go see this movie, if you haven't already.