Writing about these two directors is like grabbing both ends of the spectrum. On one hand, you have Judd Apatow and his upward trajectory. Over the years, he's slowly built critical cred for himself, moving from panned projects like The Naked Truth, to short-lived but high-praised Freaks and Geeks and then into the widely-popular The 40 Year Old Virgin. On the other hand, you have Mel Gibson, whose stock has dipped a bit. Sure, he's still finding success as a director, but he's lost a lot of the fan base from his earlier years. It is, therefore, no surprise that both of these filmmakers hold quite different views about how to deal with response and criticism.

Apatow is currently writing guest columns over at MTV, and he's decided to give his point of view on the whole critic debate. His spin is a good one. As much as he finds negative criticism to be a blow, he realizes that it isn't the end-all of the critics opinion: "One would think that after the beating I have taken on movies like The Cable Guy, I would have decided that critics don't know what they're talking about. But if I did that, then I couldn't enjoy the moments when they are so clearly on the money. So I always think of them as being brilliant." While brilliance can be debated, kudos to Apatow for seeing the other side of the scale.

And then there's Mel. Just when things died down and we thought his drama was over, it has bubbled up again. According to TMZ, Gibson got entirely ticked off during a talk at Cal State. During a Q&A, an assistant professor reportedly asked if he had read up on Mayan culture before making Apocalypto. He said that he had, and she responded that his representations of sacrifice and blood lust were wrong and racist. To that, Mel apparently exploded with anger and said: "Lady, f*ck off." Gibson was then further challenged by people of Mayan ancestry, who were escorted out with Gibson trailing after them, screaming "Make your own movie!" Hecklers can be annoying and I've seen them make Q&A's all sorts of awkward, but the guy has got to get a handle on his anger. Or, maybe he should join up with David O. Russell for a movie! Now that would be something to see. They could even have a behind-the-scenes reality show to really make the most of their shouting!

In a great interview with Danny Glover over at Latino Review, the actor discusses his new movie Shooter, and his admiration for co-star Marky Mark and director Antoine Fuqua. He also mentions one of the greatest character actors of all time, Ned Beatty, who I was thrilled to learn will appear in Shooter (mainly because I thought he was dead!). There's even a brief mention of his role in Michel Gondry's Be Kind Rewind, one of my most anticipated films this year. But let's focus on the big question: Will there be a Lethal Weapon 5? Or Lethal Weapon 5.0? Or Live Free or Lethal Weapon?

Sorry, action fans, Glover blows that question off pretty quickly, saying "No, no, no. I think it's good with the four. It's been nine years now since we finished Lethal Weapon (4). There was a lot of change in nine years. I think that for me and I feel for Mel (Gibson), it's good to leave that behind."I assume by "a lot of change," Glover is referring to Gibson's robo-insanity of late. The interviewer brings up Indiana Jones 4: The Search For Quality Lower Back Medication and Die Hard 4: The Magic Is Gone, but Glover remains firm, saying those movies were predicated on one guy and the Lethal Weapon series was more of a relationship piece. He states that Gibson could do one on his own and that he could do one on his own but it just wouldn't be the same. (I think if Glover believes people would turn out for a movie called Murtaugh! he's sorely mistaken, but that's neither here nor there.)

We'll see if Glover changes his tune once Warner Brothers and Mel's PR people back up the money truck, but for now, this is a good call. One need only watch the dismal Lethal Weapon 4 to know the series ran its course a while ago. I mean, Danny Glover first uttered that immortal line "I'm getting too old for this shit" in 1987! So now, twenty years later...I think it's safe to say the man is officially too old for this shit.

Director George Miller has told the AAP two interesting things: Mad Max 4 is going to happen and Mel Gibson won't be the lead. Miller says frankly that Gibson is now too old and too 'focused on his own films' to reprise the role of Rockatansky, so instead he's going to try to recruit a new, young star for the lead. The AAP also notes that Miller began developing Mad Max 4 before production began on Happy Feet, and now that he's finished with that, he's turning his full attention to the project. "I have a few projects in the pipeline including an animation...but I want to do another Mad Max movie and get stuck back into that," Miller said. "It won't be Mel. He was 21 when he made the first one, now he's a lot older and his passion is for filmmaking and directing. I don't think he is into acting and I don't think he would be interested in being involved at all."

The amusing AAP story also has Miller claiming that he received good career advice from his fellow Aussies Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman -- to not get a big head after his Oscar success with Happy Feet. "I was warned not to inhale too much because you can take it a little too seriously," Miller said. "We didn't expect to win, but it was a good excuse to drink, party and to act like teenagers again." No further details were offered as to the timetables and plans for the Mad Max sequel, but my two cents is that Gibson should return if only for a small role. Is it really Mad Max without Mad Mel?

There aren't any plans for an official sequel to The Passion of the Christ (unofficial is another story), but one Bible publisher is producing what seems to be a related product. This October, Nelson Bibles will release a 25-hour audiobook of the New King James Version complete with a star-studded cast, including Jim Caviezel as the voice of Jesus.

The rest of the Passion cast has been substituted with other big names, and there doesn't seem to be any affiliation with Newmarket Films or Mel Gibson, but obviously Nelson is using the connection to its advantage. Otherwise the real appeal of the audiobook, entitled The Word of Promise: New Testament, should be Terrence Stamp, who provides the voice of God, and Richard Dreyfuss, who plays Moses.

There will be a follow-up (or, should I say prequel?) to the audiobook that will be based on the Old Testament, and Stamp and Dreyfuss will return in their respective parts. Unfortunately, Caviezel's role will not be included. Neither will the parts played by Marisa Tomei, Lou Diamond Phillips, Kimberly Williams, Ernie Hudson, John Heard or Luke Perry (try to imagine Judas with Dylan McKay's sideburns).

The Academy has shortlisted another seven finalists for one of its award categories, and at least one movie on the list was a surprise to me. Click, which is considered by many critics to be one of the worst movies of 2006 (though is popular with "the people"), has been recognized for its achievement in makeup, and depending on how the Academy's makeup branch votes on January 20, it could even garner an Oscar nomination.

Of course, a lot of bad movies are nominated for Oscars, particularly in specific artistic and technical categories like Best Makeup, but typically with this category the nominations are obvious. 2000 winner How the Grinch Stole Christmas, for example, is perfectly apparent as having distinguishable makeup, if little else of worth. What does Click have in the way of significant makeup? Well, there is some special aging makeup -- designed by the master, Rick Baker, no less -- but does anybody, including the voting makeup professionals, really pay attention to aging makeup anymore? As I think should be the case with any Oscar category, the award should honor outstanding, innovative, monumental and pioneering work. Nothing less.

I forgive readers for not reading completely through my post on international box office. It was a very long post, and at least one commenter decided that its information was boring. But if you did make it to the bottom, you may have seen a story that I thought to be slightly interesting, if not significant: Consumer groups in Italy were protesting the all-ages rating stamped to Apocalypto.

It didn't seem too important because consumer complaints are made all the time. But now it is more significant because the consumer groups have won, at least temporarily. An Italian court has overruled the Italian censors by placing an age restriction on the film. At least until a hearing commences on January 17, children under the age of 14 will not be allowed to see the film. According to the country's censors, the violence in the movie is historical, artistic and "a way of life" and therefore not inappropriate, but the one consumer group that brought the case to court thought differently (our own James thinks the violence is "clammy and silly stuff -- boring and blood-soaked and incredibly obvious"). Here in the States the rating was R, and similarly restrictive ratings were placed on the film in other markets. After this ruling, only Russia still lacks an age limit for admission.

It's that festive holiday time of year, and somehow this makes it difficult for me to focus on the usual types of gossip tidbits as much as I normally might. And you know I am not all that focused to begin with. I stare at a photo of Mel Gibson with food on his shirt, and wonder, "Why should I care about this?" as my mind wanders off to thoughts about whether I need to buy more gift wrap. Besides, I am sometimes a messy eater too, so I can't really pick on Mr. Gibson. And I can't think of anything the least bit cutting to say about director Gus Van Sant being arrested on a DUI charge; I just feel a bit sad. Meanwhile, the gossip world rolls on, at all times of the year, so this week's roundup includes marriage, birth, paternity tests, birthday gifts, and celebrity tattoos.

• It's been a big news week for Britney Spears. Not only did she get a hand tattoo, but was also voted World's Worst Celebrity Dog Owner in an online poll. At least it looks like Santa has brought me my special Christmas present of not ever having to see certain bits of Spears again.
  
• In case you're interested, Defamer provides us with a glimpse of Jake Gyllenhaal's birthday gifts. Or were they gifts for Hanukkah? It's so hard to tell with socks.

Merry Christmas! Oh wait...we still have a couple days. Did you know that Christmas was a religious holiday at one point in time? If you think that Christmas is about buying armloads of L'Occitane products for each of your cousins then I've got some exciting news to divulge. Christmas is actually about the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ -- believed to be the Savior of humanity according to Christian doctrine. Perhaps you should take a look at this holiday season's adaptation of the biblical journey of Mary and Joseph. and thier going to Bethlehem for the birthing of said child in The Nativity Story.

Domestic box office sales fir The Nativity Story are expected to perk up as we get closer and closer to Christmas day. The film opened on December 1 with very meager beginnings, but as the weeks went on the film has boosted its sales, currently rounding out at about $40 million to date. This uplifting turn around is not to be expected overseas.

The Nativity Story is currently failing to bring in any substantial amount of money in Europe and its screenings have even been reduced significantly (505 to 91 in Italy...ouch) due to a barely-there audience. Highly religious areas aren't even bringing in numbers contributing to the film's overseas failure.

Somehow distributors paralleled The Nativity Story's success to that of Mel Gibson's (everyone's favorite Catholic) The Passion of the Christ. I can't imagine that this was an actual thought in their prediction of The Nativity Story's success. The Passion of the Christ was ridden with controversy before it hit theatres and I think in that film's case -- the more negative hype the more tickets sold. I know I was curious because of it. The only thing drawing me to see The Nativity Story is Keisha Castle-Hughes from Whale Rider. Perhaps controversy is the winning ticket for religious based films and unfortunately, The Nativity Story is more about telling a biblical tale rather than about screaming expletives within ear shot of Hollywood reporters.

Well, a few weeks ago I made a prediction about Apocalypto's prospective box office as a side note in a review. And I was wrong. Not about the idea that Apocalypto would be a flop -- more on that later -- but to do so in the first place. First of all, a review is no place for box-office prognostication -- it's foolish to pretend movies don't cost, and make, money, but that's not my beat, frankly. I was just plain angry after Apocalypto -- it's one of those movies that is, to me, so bad it doesn't just represent the presence of bad storytelling but also the absence of whatever four movies we could have had in its place.

I mean, Apocalypto was budgeted at $40 million -- not a lot by modern standards, but a heck of a lot when you consider that it was in fact shot on video. (I'd hesitate to guess what a shot-on-film Apocalypto would have cost -- $60 million? A hundred million?) Add in the usual 50% of the orginal budget for prints and advertising – the cost of posters, commercials, and the shipping and manufacture of heavy, celluloid prints – and you get approximately $60 million total. And all I can think of is the four $10 million dollar movies you could have gotten instead -- give $10 to Karen Moncrieff, $10 to David Gordon Green, $10 to Kasi Lemmons and $10 to Don McKellar, say -- and have gotten at least one film more interesting than Apocalypto. As for my suggestion that Apocalypto was going to be a flop? (Actually, what I said was "(Shot for approximately $40 million, it's nearly impossible to imagine Apocalypto making more than a quarter of that investment back.)") So, if we look at the numbers? Or, precisely, a budget of $40 million with a P&A investment of another $20 mil, as compared to the initial two-week box office of $28 million? Right now, Apocalypto's made 50% of what it cost -- better than some movies do, more than others. (And my prediction was wrong, and I'll say that. It wasn't that far wrong, though, and I don't think Apocalypto's suddenly gonna sell tickets like a house on fire, either.) But, frankly, the even more telling statistic isn't Apocalypto's 46% drop-off in box office, which is pretty much a shellacking -- it's the fact that Mel Gibson's prior film before Apocalypto opened to $83 million. And if your last film opened to $83 million and your newest film opened to $15 that, then, makes your new film a flop -- a big, fat flop -- that lands broken and splay-legged on the cold, hard ground of the court of public opinion with the unspinnable thud of incontrovertible fact.

Math is fun,

J.

Well, another year is in the can folks, and what do we movie lovers have to show for it? Actually, we have a lot. 2006 has seen it's highs (Martin Scorsese gives us his best flick since 'Goodfellas'; a "racist" Kazakh reporter draws the fury of thousands, bags Pamela Anderson -- literally -- and scores box office gold) -- and its lows (Sidney Lumet's 'Find Me Guilty' is guilty ... of sucking; all couples who go see 'Date Movie' together break up within two weeks). I was lucky enough to see a whole lot of good flicks and only a moderate level of what we experts like to call crap. Below, I present my picks for the Top 10 Movies of 2006.* My fellow Moviefone editors will be posting their own lists later this week, so remember to check back for those. Happy Holidays!

10. Children of Men
Director Alfonso Cuaron follows up his masterful 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban' adaptation with a film about a war-torn future world in which women no longer bear children. Not surprisingly, the flick is bleak and most certainly not for kids. But its hopeful message is more powerful than a hormonal teenaged wizard hopped up on gillyweed.

9. The Descent
This lean, mean thriller about six sexy female spelunkers battling bloodthirsty cave mutants avoids all the classic horror-film pitfalls: lame plot twists, gratuitous shower scenes (OK, I secretly approve of these) and a silly hook-wielding killer. Plus, it oozes with a certain quality lacking from so many horror pics these days: actual horror.

8. Stranger Than Fiction
Will Ferrell tones down his shtick and reaps the benefits in this funny and poignant tale about an IRS agent who awakes one day to find that his life is being narrated by an author bent on killing him. The cornerstone of the movie -- the budding romance between Ferrell and the baker (Maggie Gyllenhaal) he's auditing -- is so sweet you'll want to start dating a baker just so you can bring her "flours."

7. Apocalypto
Say what you will about Mel Gibson, but the guy took a cast of mostly Yucatec-speaking non-actors and a topic (the downfall of the Mayan civilization) that isn't exactly hot-button and made a two-and-a-half-hour film that's gorgeous, captivating, unique, supremely violent and, frankly, awesome.

6. Casino Royale
Finally, a James Bond flick where 007 is a real guy who bleeds when the bad guys cut him, scars when the love of his life hurts him and wins the day with brut force and smarts rather than gadgets. It sounds like blasphemy, but Daniel Craig might be the best Bond ever. Yes, even better than George Lazenby.

5. Thank You for Smoking
Writer-director Jason Reitman has done something awe-inspiring with his adaptation of Christopher Buckley's satiric novel: He's made the smug, self-righteous chief lobbyist for Big Tobacco into a -- wait for it -- sympathetic character. For this, he owes no small debt to Aaron Eckhart, who imbues said lobbyist with equal parts piss, vinegar and vulnerability. Sounds gross, but it goes down smooth.

4. Borat
Despite offending just about every ethnic, religious, political and gender group known to man, woman or goat, Sacha Baron Cohen's improvisational road-trip comedy was a runaway hit and hands-down the funniest flick of the year. By the time the credits roll, you'll want to make sexytime with this moviefilm. Niiice.

3. Little Miss Sunshine
Dysfunctional family dramedies have become something of a cliché these days (damn you, 'Family Stone,' for being the nail in the coffin!), but the yellow-VW-van-driving Hoovers somehow managed to weasel their way into my heart nonetheless. Every performance -- from Steve Carell's gay, suicidal Proust scholar to Alan Arkin's drug-snorting, curse-spewing grandpa with a heart of gold to Paul Dano's mute, Nietzsche-loving pilot wannabe -- deserves an award. And, more importantly, despite their Grand-Canyon-deep flaws, each character is, at his core, good and intensely likeable. You'll laugh, you'll cry and you'll go wild for the film's finale, set to none other than Rick James' 'Superfreak' -- because they're the Hoovers, bitch!

2. Pan's Labyrinth
Fantasy and reality -- harsh reality, actually -- collide in director Guillermo del Toro's captivating yarn about a 10-year-old named Ophelia (the brilliant Ivana Baquero) who, at the behest of a faun named Pan, undertakes a harrowing quest to protect her family at the tail end of the Spanish Civil War. I'd say it's a fairy tale for adults, but not too many fairy tales feature a peasant being bludgeoned to death with a wine bottle. Still, it's beautiful, hopeful and more heartbreaking than anything I've seen in a long, long while. If you don't cry at the end, you have no heart in your hollow tin chest.

1. The Departed
Martin Scorsese's blood-soaked, cuss-filled urban morality tale about two undercover moles on opposite sides of the law (one a cop infiltrating the mob, the other a mobster posing as a cop) boasts a pitch-perfect script, some of the best actors in the biz (DiCaprio, Damon, Nicholson, Wahlberg, Baldwin) at the very top of their game and an ending so powerful it'll knock the wind out of you like a Louisville Slugger to the nards.

Honorable Mentions
Babel
Brick
Half Nelson
The Illusionist
Inside Man
The Last Kiss
The Prestige
Slither
Superman Returns
United 93

*Note: A few films that might have made this list were left off because I was not able to see them in time. These include, but are not limited to, 'Dreamgirls,' 'Notes on a Scandal' and 'Letters From Iwo Jima.'

POST: Do you agree with these picks?

POST: What are your favorite movies of 2006?