Meat And Two Veg

The usually sleepy autumn months are seeing quite an upturn for cinemas this year. No longer are we frolicking in the fallen leaves, nor strolling through the russet and gold of autumnal parks, no, apparently we're all packing off to the cinema to watch Anthony Hopkins eat people again. Red Dragon took $37.5 million in the States over the weekend, unsurprisingly dominating the box office as Hopkins adopts his Hannibal Lecter persona for a third, and final, time. What is surprising however - and more than a little worrying - is that the Biblical adventures of Larry the Cucumber and friends in Jonah: a VeggieTales Movie, surged into sixth place. Edifying the masses by proselytising Christian messages via the medium of talking vegetable (yes, that old chestnut), VeggieTales drew $6.5 million from enthusiastic punters eager for a round of legume-oriented moral instruction. You can bet there'll be more than a few children giving their mothers a stiff talking to on the sanctity of all God's creations, next time she's seen eviscerating Tom the Tomato, Larry and the gang to fill their sandwiches.