--sarcasm ahead--

Mel Gibson is re-releasing his "Passion of the Christ" later on this month. I can't find a specific date, but I'm guessing it'll be either the week before, or the week of Good Friday. Jerry Falwell's already standing in line for tickets.

I'm wondering if a "Passion" re-release will end up as an annual event. I can't say that I would be all that surprised if that ended up being the case. Maybe it'll end up like "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," with people throwing loaves and fishes at the screen.

He's going to release a new version of the movie that has a lot of the violence cut out of the film. The scourging scene in particular will be cut to 40 lashes, instead of the 100 or so he received in the original version. They're cutting out (no pun intended) some of the more flesh ripping scenes that they had in the original.

Oh, and in the end, Jesus ascends to Heaven on a tauntaun.

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In all seriousness, all the more power to Mel, his bank account, and anyone who finds anything of meaning in the movie. Although I didn't care for it all that much, I can't deny that it struck a nerve with a LARGE number of people.

matt out