By William Donahue

"The Ten" is billed as an irreverent comedy (rated “R” for crudeness) that ridicules the Ten Commandments; it opens on August 3 in select theaters. Here is what film critics are saying about it:

· "Only Christians with a very liberal sense of humor are likely to enjoy 'The Ten.' Even lay viewers will need to be tolerant of gags as envelope-pushing as anything in 'Borat.'" [Variety]

· "[Gretchen] Mol stars as a 35-year-old virgin who gets deflowered---in lusty romance novel fashion on a trip to Mexico. Her hunky lover boy's name? Jesus Christ." [philly.com]

· "The Ten is, I guess, sacrilegious in the strictest sense of the term'."[slantmagazine.com]

· "The Ten is cohesive in the irreverence of its scenarios (in my favorite, Jesus Christ - Justin Theroux as a disheveled, overly hirsute carpenter".)" [notcoming.com]

· "Mol plays a mousy librarian, who travels alone to Mexico and has a wildly sexual fling with a local handyman named Jesus H. Christ (Justin Theroux in long hair and beard)." [AP]

· "They're almost gleeful in their crudity; grinning ever-wider as they seem to ask the audience just who this bit of blasphemy is hurting." [eflimcritic.com]

· "Comprised of ten blasphemous vignettes, each inspired by one of the Biblical Commandments, [it] goes out of its way to be irreverent and hilarious'." [emanuellevy.com]

· "The Ten is as sacrilegious as 1979's The Life of Brian'." [filmstew.com]

· "'The Ten' is comprised of 10 blasphemous and hysterical stories that put the insanity back in Christianity." [Roger Ebert]

· "(By the way, I did mention that conservative Christians may find this film offensive?)" [independentcritics.com]

If Hollywood were to substitute Muhammad for Jesus, it is a sure bet that many of these same critics wouldn't find the humor in it.

Moreover, we'd all be watching the fallout that such a movie would engender on the evening news.



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