Critics, Schmitics, Popsters!!

Remember when a "Two Thumbs Way Down" or a "* (out of 4 ****)" would impart a certain box office doom and gloom to even the most overhyped of movies? Well, darlings, it appears the days of the influential critic are o-v-e-r. Last week, critics overwhelmingly disliked the epic film "300," calling it among other things, "overblown, overheated," "pea-brained ... overscaled and overwrought" and "a ponderous, plodding, visually dull picture." Then, "300" banked $70 million. Tee hee!! Such is the current state of the box office, where critics can uniformly pan a movie (hello, "Norbit" anyone??), yet it still exceeds expectations and pulls in big bucks. Not only big bucks ... DaddyWarbucks!!! What does this say about the American pop culture out there, kiddies? Are we fighting to make up our own minds and therefore those "tastemakers" to whom we once turned simply have no clout? Or is it that we simply follow the masses when making our "own" decisions? If my posse (do people still say "posse"?)...if my posse is going, I'm going! If I were marketing a movie today I would pay off a bunch of hot teenagers to walk around telling all of their hot friends that they can't wait for the next "So-and-So" movie to come out so they can all go be hot and watch it hotly together. Rox is work is done ...