...the fifth of November. Well, it would've been easier to remember had gradeschoolers around the world learned about Guy Fawkes, the Roman Catholic Brit who tried to blow up the Parliament but later caught and hanged before the plan was carried out. He was a well-known figure in the UK and most citizens of the British Commonwealth have heard of him, but the average American sure has not. That's why it is quite phenomenal for the comic-based flick to open at number one with a little bit over $26 million over the weekend. The timing is not the best one either (or it actually is?), but there's nothing like controversy to catch people's attention. The protagonist of the film, V, is in fact a terrorist albeit he's more in the camp of Robin Hood than Osama bin Laden.

V for Vendetta opens with Evey (Natalie Portman) at the hands of the fingermen — state-sanctioned watchers who caught her for being outside when curfew was already in effect. As Evey was helplessly struggling to break free, V came to the rescue, billowing cape and all. Thus begins the uneasy yet dependent relationship between the two.

There was no single frame in the film that wasn't amazingly cool: from the swashbuckling action to the near-futuristic london to Portman's bald head. Granted the story was a bit verbose for lack of better words. To its defense though, V for Vendetta was not an action flick nor is it scifi. Well, perhaps it has some scifi and action element to it, but first and foremost it's a drama, a philosophical drama about the "power" of the people against a totalitarian regime. Fans of Orwell's 1984 would be hard-pressed to resist swooning over it. Fans of the Fast and the Furious, on the other hand, would be hard-pressed to keep their eyes open through the opening sequence.