Hollywood has long turned to comic strips for its source material, from Li'l Abner back in 1940 to Dick Tracy in 1990 to today's CGI-enhanced Garfield franchise. Now we have the live-action Marmaduke, in which a mostly real Great Dane speaks with the voice of Owen Wilson, despite the fact that Marmaduke is one of the few comic strip animals that never spoke. And while Great Danes are certainly adorable, we can't help but think about all of the much better comic strips out there that have never gotten and will likely never get their own movies. Here's a smattering of strips that we'd love to see play out on the big screen.

Oh man, this movie is boring. You don't even know yet, probably, but it is. I can't believe I made it out of there awake. For the first six hours I was pretty focused on my fear that I would go into one of those really deep hibernation comas, like a bear, and that I'd have to be dragged out by the AMC staff and end up on the news, which would be very embarrassing and not at all worth it. I guess it's for kids? Is that the problem? Last time I checked, though, kids hate being bored, so if this is for kids, they have done it wrong.

The new Sex and the City movie is a shining example of why everyone -- especially screenwriters -- should learn math and chemistry. Math, because the movie's 140-minute runtime could do with a little subtraction -- this isn't Gandhi, here, although Sarah Jessica Parker looks more like him every day. And chemistry, because the movie's two most important elements, "sex" and "the city" -- you know, the ones that are in the title -- are practically nonexistent in this installment, which takes away much of what usually makes this compound so potent. Statistically speaking, if New York City is "the fifth cast member" of the show, then 80% of this film is missing 20% of the cast.

Dear Channing Tatum. Your first name is a last name. Could you change it? Stockard Channing is quite upset about the situation. And yes, we're writing to her about her first name next.

Considering how well How to Train Your Dragon has been doing ($44 million opening weekend, $211 mill to date), it's no wonder that the fourth installment in the popular Shrek franchise, Shrek Forever After would do even better. After all, it has dragons and overweight cats! Adorable! That, a lack of kid-friendly competition and the money-printing combo of IMAX and 3-D helped Shrek go medieval on the box office and earn $71 million, and although that's less than the last two Shrek films did in their opening weekends, it was still enough to knock Iron Man 2's knight in shining armor out of the top spot. However, since the armored Avenger has made a quarter-billion in the U.S. and one and a half-bill world wide in only three weeks, we won't feel too sorry for him.

There was a strange phenomenon happening with MacGruber in its early months of test screenings -- the project quickly went from a laughably ill-advised idea to a buzzed-about, anticipated comedy, and nobody could believe it. I saw the movie last night, and I can tell you that although I definitely did laugh quite a bit, it is far from a classic, and anything but brilliant. Stupid, childish, forgettable fun, however? That, it absolutely is. And I think that's all it wants to be.

The Internet collectively gasped yesterday when silver screen sexpot Megan Fox was not invited back to the Transformers movie franchise. True, Fox had bad-mouthed the plot (as it was) and safety standards of the last two movies, as well as director Michael Bay, but Bay seemed to be okay with her controversial interview style, and to actually be looking forward to making her sweat it out in a leather catsuit one more time. But then, suddenly, she was out, and the search for her replacement was underway. Of course, now Fox is saying that she left the production of her own free will, that she in fact chose not to come back, and while that would be a dubious career move for her, we're going to assume she's telling the truth, especially since she immediately followed it up with several more clarifications that ring true. Here's some additional knowledge Fox dropped on us.

Recently, at the Cannes film festival, Wall Street 2 star Shia LaBeouf gave an interview in which he criticized two of his previous films: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. We say "Bravo, Mr. Beef" -- both movies were awful, and while we kind of expected it of the former, the latter's goofy action and CGI made fans of the original Indy films cry. But while LaBeouf's criticism of TF director Michael Bay comes with its own risks -- he does like blowing stuff up, Shia, and you are making another movie with him -- the actor's criticism of Spielberg is even more shocking. Crystal Skull may be a stinker, but Spielberg is a major power player in Hollywood, and somewhat of a legend. But when you're right, you're right. Here's a list of other things people should feel comfortable saying to Mr. Spielbergo.

This week brings the drama, with heavy, Oscar-nominated films coming out alongside frothy confections that dissolve in your mouth. Plus, films from France, India, Japan and the wild, wild west.

Invictus
We're actually kind of disappointed that Clint Eastwood didn't appear in this movie himself, in addition to directing it. He would have made a great Mandela, squinting at those who question his ability to unite blacks and whites in a post-Apartheid South Africa, asking them if they feel lucky, then scaring off brawling gangs by pointing a rifle at them and telling them to get off his lawn. (Also available via Movies on Demand.)

In a testament to the power of superheroes (not to mention Robert Downey Jr.'s charm and Scarlett Johansson's bodysuits) Iron Man 2 came out on top for the second week in a row, preventing Robin Hood from rising to the number-one spot. Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott did all right, with $37 million, but IM2 made another $53 million, putting it over the $200 million mark and overtaking How to Train Your Dragon, which is still making money in its 8th week. Perhaps if Robin Hood had been riding a dragon, we might have had a different champion.