The studios have been hiding movies from those pesky scribes all year long, but this time they've outdone themselves. This week, three movies won't be screened before getting tossed into the theaters: Neil LaBute's remake of "The Wicker Man," starring Nicolas Cage; "Crank," another high-octane actioner starring Jason Statham; and Mike Judge's "Idiocracy," a "Futurama"-esque comedy starring Luke Wilson.

What's odd about this batch of unscreened films is that two of them are directed by established helmers. They include the generally blameless Judge, the man behind such beloved creations as "Beavis and Butthead" and "Office Space," and LaBute, whose filmography is a bit darker ("In the Company of Men," "Your Friends and Neighbors") but has never been uninteresting. Even stranger, "Idiocracy" is opening in limited release, but is bypassing the normal release pattern by playing outside of New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area.


No, these aren't the sad movie critics waiting in vain to see "The Wicker Man"....

So we're going to play that increasingly popular party game: Guess the Tomatometer! (If the studios continue to stop screening movies beforehand, GTT may replace the NFL and Nascar as one of the most popular games in America.) But we'll make it easier for you with some super unscientific calculations. The average Tomatometer of the movies not screened for critics is just under 15 percent; Basically, we've taken the average Tomatometer of unscreened films plus the average Tomatometer of the key participants' films divided by two. By factoring in the combined Tomatometers of LaBute, and stars Cage and Ellen Burstyn, we're guessing "The Wicker Man" will wind up around 42 percent. Utilizing Judge's and Wilson's Tomatometers, "Idiocracy" may wind up in the area of 38 percent. And since the directors of "Crank" are relative newcomers, we'll use Statham, Amy Smart, and Dwight Yoakam to guesstimate that "Crank" will end up around 32 percent. Feel free to knock as many points off as you feel is necessary.


...and no, this is not a metaphor for what the studios think those mean ol' critics will do to the opening weekend grosses.

Films Not Screened For Critics In 2006 (Best To Worst Tomatometer Score):
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69% -- Snakes on a Plane
28% -- Silent Hill
27% -- Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion
23% -- Phat Girlz
16% -- Grandma's Boy
15% -- Underworld: Evolution
11% -- The Benchwarmers
10% -- Ultraviolet
10% -- When a Stranger Calls
7% -- Date Movie
7% -- Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector
6% -- Material Girls
6% -- See No Evil
5% -- Doogal
5% -- BloodRayne
5% -- Stay Alive
0% -- Zoom