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The Da Vinci Code took in an estimated $77 million last weekend, despite mixed reviews and a smattering of Catholic protestors. Coming out of CitiPlace Sunday—after seeing the hilarious Over The Hedge, which took in $37 million—there were six or seven people holding signs calling the Da Vinci Code blasphemous and shaking their heads at each driver turning onto Corporate. Should some dude feel shameful for getting a scoop at Marble Slab?

I think Catholics and Christians certainly have the right to boycott and protest the movie, but it’s not as if these claims are being presented as documentary fact. They are written into a fictional adventure movie to tell an intriguing story, just like any other fantasy film—Spock reading minds and a huge asteroid hurling toward earth aren’t real either, just entertainment. It’s a little too nervy to think a fictional thriller will have an impact of people’s faith. Just watch any of the documentaries on the History Channel to realize how far-fetched Dan Brown’s claims can be. And where were these picketers when hundreds of millions of people were buying the book? Not outside of Barnes and Noble. So, what, readers are intelligent enough to discern fact from fantasy, but movie watchers are not? What do you think about the protests? Leave your feedback below.

X-Men: The Last Stand opens Friday. Check out the trailer here. Say what you will about the now overblown superhero trend, but Batman Begins aside, the X-Men movies have been the best of the genre. Yes, better than Spiderman which seems to receive inerrant praise 24/7. This third entry in the franchise was directed by Rush Hour’s Brett Ratner, who stepped in after Bryan Singer left the project to helm Superman Returns. Looks like the film is loaded with characters and action, which should quicken the pace and amp up the thrills—a consistent criticism of the first X-Men movie. So if you’re in the mood to see mutant powers and lots of stuff blow up, check it out this weekend.

Out on DVD this week are the Oscar-nominated Transamerica and a special edition DVD of indie classic The Boondock Saints. The latter stars Willem Dafoe and the underrated Sean Patrick Flannery, also known as SPF, also known as Young Indiana Jones. The Boondock Saints is a remarkable story of revenge and redemption as two Irish brothers become vigilantes for justice on a “mission from God” to kill off the Boston mafia one-by-one with Dafoe’s detective in hot pursuit. It’s a great ride of a movie and now after it has become an underground success they are releasing the extended special edition DVD. It is only a cult phenomenon instead of a mild box office hit because Miramax barely spent a dime marketing the movie back in 1999 and rolled it out at something like 20 screens nationwide. That’s a bad rap.

Richard Kelley’s Southland Tales may have gotten a bad rap at Cannes last week…or maybe the movie really is terrible. Poor Kelley. The guy gets detained by Homeland Security on grounds he’s a terrorist and flies halfway around the world to have French journalists laugh their way out of his movie after 10 minutes. On top of that, bastion of taste Daily Variety called it a “pretentious, overreaching, fatally unfocused fantasy." Let’s see, the movie stars Buffy, Stifler, and The Rock. Casting director Mary Vernieu, we salute you.

And finally, LSU grads got Cheney. UPenn grads got Clarice Starling. And those are the breaks. Congratulations graduates. Please step forward to receive words of wisdom from this guy 19% of the country likes, your diploma, and your unemployment check. Maybe O’Keefe will lobby to get Kate Beckinsdale next year. I hear her approval numbers are way up.