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Steve Mason is a Los Angeles-based talk show host for 710 ESPN Radio. He has previously hosted the nationally-syndicated "The Late, Late Radio Show with Tom Snyder & Steve Mason" for CBS Radio and worked the last five Olympic Games for NBC and Westwood One Radio Network. He is also President of Flagship Theatres which owns the University Village Theatres near downtown Los Angeles (www.FlagshipMovies.com) and Cinemas Palme d'Or in Palm Desert, California (www.ThePalme.com).

New Lennon Doc Set to Expand

After watching David Leaf and John Scheinfeld's crisply-executed The US vs. John Lennon (Lionsgate), I was left asking, "Who, in our celebrity-crazy culture, is his heir? Is there a left-leaning celeb who puts a legitimate scare into our current Republican administration?" Sadly, there is no heir, and despite a brief flare-up between Bush and the Dixie Chicks, most of our activist actors and musical artists don't hold much sway over the left, center or right.

John Lennon was a once-in-a-lifetime talent and personality. As co-writer/director Scheinfeld told me, "Lennon had the ability to digest complex issues and boil them down into simple statements" That allowed him to connect with a generation in ways that George Clooney and Barbra Streisand do not. As a result, the Nixon Administration viewed him as dangerous.

That sets the stage for the battle between the soon-to-resign President and the former Beatle that is documented in The US vs. John Lennon, which opened on six screens in New York and Los Angeles last Friday (9/15) and delivered a per screen average of $11,523 (second only to ThinkFilm's Keeping Mum, which opened on an even more limited two screens with a PSA of $13,556). The Nixon Administration used the FBI, including surveillance and wiretaps, to keep tabs on the legendary singer/songwriter, and ultimately spent five years trying to have him deported.

Individually, Leaf and Scheinfeld have written/directed television programming for A&E, TLC, PBS and others. Together, they have collaborated on a variety of television projects, including The Unknown Marx Brothers, but the pair viewed this as a feature film from the beginning. "What makes this a movie is that it's about one of the most beloved artists of the 20th century doing battle with an American president. It's about a titanic hero and villains in a monumental clash," Leaf told me.

Leaf and Scheinfeld approached the feature differently than when they do television. Leaf says, "The big difference is in the storytelling approach. We use a traditional three-act structure so that you get the rollercoaster ride of a scripted film." Additionally, they worked to make the archival material and interviews as "visually interesting as possible". They shot all of their "talking heads" with a green screen, then gave them each unique backgrounds that both tied them together and to individual Lennon moments.

Although both of these filmmakers are huge Lennon fans, neither had the chance to meet him before his untimely death in 1980. The closest that either of them came was when Leaf was in the audience at Madison Square Garden in 1974 for an Elton John concert where Lennon made a surprise appearance. Performing with his fellow Brit would be the ex-Beatle's final concert appearance.

The US vs. John Lennon would have been impossible to make without the help of Yoko Ono. "This is a story we wanted to tell since the early '90s," explains Leaf, "but there was only one person in bed with John during those ‘bed-ins.'" Ono has said that she was "cagey" at first, but ultimately she grew to trust Leaf and Scheinfeld. She opened her personal archives, including a treasure trove of never-before-seen photos, film and video.

Of the pair of filmmakers, it is Scheinfeld who focuses on the archival material. Leaf says that "John never takes no for an answer," and his insistence pays off in the film with some remarkable footage.

After Lennon's controversial "more popular than Jesus" statement, he tried to clarify his remark. Virtually every Beatles and Lennon work over the years has used the same three or four shots to amplify the firestorm, but Scheinfeld uncovered an undeveloped 20-minute roll of film that brings new clarity to the controversy.

Everyone knows about the famous "bed-ins" that Lennon and Ono executed in Amsterdam and Montreal, but there was also a whimsical stunt promoting "bag-ism" in Vienna. The couple called a press conference and, when reporters arrived, they were both in a big white bag to answer questions.The premise was that if everyone was hidden inside a bag, issues like race and religion and gender wouldn't matter. For the first time, we see this entertaining demonstration in The US vs. John Lennon thanks to a ten-minute roll of film that has never been seen in the United States, and possibly never even aired in Austria.

The early '70s were tumultuous times in America, featuring a profoundly unpopular war and a motivated peace movement with marchers demonstrating in DC on a regular basis. The same paranoia that led to the Watergate break-in created a fixation on Lennon. He was influential, especially among younger Americans, and in 1971, the 26th Amendment was ratified allowing 18- to 20-year-olds the right to vote. Nixon, his Attorney General John Mitchell, J. Edgar Hoover and other right-wing establishment figures decided that the guy who wrote "All we are saying, Is give peace a chance," was a threat to the President's reelection in 1972. So using a trumped up marijuana possession charge from the '60s, they began deportation proceedings.

While he was reviled by the right, Lennon was also looked down upon by the intellectual left. There's an amazing sequence in the film in which New York Times writer Gloria Emerson confronts John about his "bed-ins" and other unique protest efforts. She tells him that he is better and smarter than what she regards as his silly tactics. Ironically, the reason that he connected with a generation is exactly what Emerson was complaining about. He reached people because of his sense of humor and a certain lightness in his demeanor. He fought for what he believed in, but he was never shrill or vitriolic.

That leads to my original question about why there is no popular culture figure who has Lennon's influence. "We are living in an era of handlers," says Scheinfeld. "What struck us about Lennon is that he had no entourage. The way he spoke out was fearless and without regard for possibly career-killing risks." The other problem is the way activist celebs speak out. It's not enough to be angry, and hate, condescension and snobbery are not effective ways to communicate (Janeane Garofalo, Alec Baldwin and Michael Moore should take note).

In fact, meanness was not really in Lennon's makeup. Even after he finally wins his green card after a long and trying battle, he has every opportunity to gloat and lash out. Instead, in a never-before-seen piece of footage, Lennon is asked if he holds any grudge against Nixon, Mitchell and the rest. He says simply, "Time wounds all heals." Funny, concise, clever, cute, whimsical and true – all the things that we love about him.

It is impossible to look at the Nixon Administration in the early '70s and not see the obvious comparison to the Bush Administration. In what Leaf calls "a whiplash moment," Nixon is shown saying that we would withdraw from Vietnam when the South Vietnamese are able to defend themselves and that it's a mistake to set a timetable for withdrawal (not unlike Bush's "as the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down"). But, Leaf says, "We are not making any comparison between these two wars. We want to provoke thought, not tell the audience what to think."

Scheinfeld is more candid. "Bush and the right wing media like Fox News Channel are constantly confusing dissent with disloyalty. When someone is opposed to their policies, they attack the messenger and make it seem like they're not a good American."

Lennon was not an American at all, but he rallied a generation in this country – and around the world. The US vs. John Lennon gives US film-goers a chance to see the courage, humanity, grace and humor that made him a masterful artist and communicator. This powerful documentary is indispensable viewing for Lennon fans, but it's also an important primer on the ways that power and corruption can be used to quash dissent. And perhaps it's a blueprint for how the American Left can better connect with and rally everyday citizens.

Jackass Number 2 Set For An Upside Surprise

Let me tell you right off the bat that I'm a huge fan of the first Jackass movie. It is flat-out one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. The scene where the guy goes into the doctor's office with a toy car in his rectum is ass is worth the price of admission.

Jackass: Number Two (Paramount) isn't for everyone, but if you're a guy, it's must see. If you're a guy under 25, you're probably going to see it Thursday night at the special early midnight showings. Obviously, it wasn't screened for critics, but I got advance word that the opening sequence involves one of the guys' members, a little sock made to look like a mouse's face and a hungry snake. How can you not love this movie?

I'm told that tracking points to $23-$24 million, but I say $27-$28 million. That's because a fair number of people who will come out on opening weekend would never admit to seeing it.

Jackass Number 2 By The Numbers

Top 5 Johnny Knoxville Films – Domestic Box Office
1. Men In Black II - $190,418,000
2. The Dukes of Hazzard - $80,270,000
3. Coyote Ugly - $60,786,000
4. Walking Tall - $46,437,000
5. The Ringer - $35,428,000

I got around to seeing The Black Dahlia (Universal) this week, and it is - and I'm not exaggerating - the worst film of 2006. It's a great cast and they all deliver laughably bad performances, and Brian DePalma has never been worse. The last half hour devolves into a campy (and awful) Saturday Night Live sketch.

After disappointing adult releases in back-to-back weeks – Hollywoodland and The Black Dahlia – All the King's Men (Sony) arrives. The Steven Zaillian written and directed adaptation starring Sean Penn, Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law and Kate Winslet was put on the Sony slate with a real Oscar pedigree, but early reviews are soft-to-middling. The worse news for Sony is that there is very little awareness and interest in this political yarn.

All the King's Men won't even match The Black Dahlia's opening weekend. Look for a very soft $7-$8 million.

Top 5 Steven Zaillian-Written Films - Domestic Box Office
1. Hannibal - $165,092,000
2. Clear and Present Danger - $122,187,000
3. Schindler's List - $96,065,000
4. Gangs of New York - $77,812,000
5. The Interpreter - $72,708,000

Top 5 Sean Penn Films - Domestic Box Office
1. Mystic River - $90,135,000
2. The Interpreter - $72,708,000
3. Bad Boys - $65,807,000
4. The Game - $48,323,000
5. Colors - $46,616,000

Top 5 Jude Law Films - Domestic Box Office
1. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events - $118,634,000
2. Road To Perdition - $104,454,000
3. The Aviator - $102,610,000
4. Cold Mountain - $95,636,000
5. The Talented Mr. Ripley - $81,298,000

Top 5 Anthony Hopkins Films - Domestic Box Office
1. How the Grinch Stole Christmas - $266,044,000
2. Mission: Impossible II - $215,409,000
3. Hannibal - $165,092,000
4. The Silence of the Lambs - $130,742,000
5. Red Dragon - $93,149,000

Top 5 Kate Winslet Films - Domestic Box Office
1. Titanic - $600,788,000
2. Sense & Sensibility - $43,182,000
3. Finding Neverland - $51,680,000
4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - $34,400,000
5. The Life of David Gale - $19,955,000

All-Time Top 5 Political Movies – Domestic Box Office
1. The Manchurian Candidate (2004) - $65,955,000
2. Dave - $63,270,000
3. The American President - $60,079,000
4. The Distinguished Gentleman - $46,666,000
5. Wag the Dog - $43,061,000

MGM's new Tony Bill-directed Flyboys starring James Franco is a crowd-pleasing WWI drama with some pretty impressive effects. It's schmaltzy and sentimental, and it might benefit from better-than-expected reviews, but don't look for more than $4-$6 million.

Flyboys By The Numbers

Top 5 Tony Bill-Directed Films - Domestic Box Office
1. My Bodyguard - $22,482,000
2. Untamed Heart - $18,898,000
3. Crazy People - $13,236,000
4. Six Weeks - $6,558,000
5. A Home of Our Own - $1,677,000

Top 5 James Franco Films - Domestic Box Office
1. Spider-Man - $403,706,000
2. Spider-Man 2 - $373,585,000
3. Never Been Kissed - $55,474,000
4. City By the Sea - $22,448,000
5. Annapolis - $17,127,000

All-Time Top 5 War Movies – Domestic Box Office
1. Saving Private Ryan - $216,540,000
2. Pearl Harbor - $198,542,000
3. Platoon - $138,530,000
4. The Patriot - $113,330,000
5. Dr. Zhivago - $111,721,000

The fourth new entry into the box office derby this weekend is Jet Li's Fearless (Focus Features). After the success of The One, big things were expected for Focus' Unleashed, but it generated just $24 million back in 2005. There is, truthfully, nobody else who can do what Li does, but it seems like there's a steady stream of film product like this. It just doesn't feel special or unique anymore. Still, Fearless has a great shot to finish #2 for the weekend.

Jet Li's Fearless By The Numbers

Top 5 Jet Li Films – Domestic Box Office
1. Lethal Weapon 4 - $130,444,000
2. Romeo Must Die - $55,973,000
3. The One - $43,905,000
4. Kiss of the Dragon - $36,845,000
5. Cradle 2 the Grave - $34,712,000

All-Time Top 5 Foreign Language Films from Asia – Domestic Box Office
1. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - $128,078,000
2. Hero - $53,710,000
3. Kung Fu Hustle - $17,108,000
4. Iron Monkey - $14,694,000
5. House of Flying Daggers - $11,050,000

Here are the weekend box office projections from your humble columnist and independent theatre owner:

1. Jackass: Number Two - $28 million
2. Jet Li's Fearless - $8 million
3. All the King's Men - $7 million
4. The Gridiron Gang - $7 million
5. Flyboys - $5 million