Though whittled down to a theatrical two hours, as opposed to the material it was adapted from, Kevin Macdonald's journalistic/political thriller "State of Play" manages to be an entertaining, wonderfully acted (especially by Russell Crowe), wholly satisfying experience. Viewers and critics loved the six-part BBC original "State of Play" (directed by David Yates and starring John Simm, David Morrissey, Kelly Macdonald, Bill Nighy and James McAvoy) and will, inevitably, compare and criticize the Hollywood take. From the movement of setting (from London to Washington, D.C.) and faceless corporate villains (from large oil company to a private security company that resembles Halliburton), you'll hear some grumblings, though not justifiably so. Neither change has caused problems in a script written by Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy ("Michael Clayton," "Duplicity") and Billy Ray ("Shattered Glass" and "Breach"). The movie works.

And Crowe is superb. As investigative reporter Cal McAffrey, he plays a rumpled, old-school newspaperman (remember those?) with a slobby kind of machismo that felt missed in a cinema of studs or straight schlubs (there are Jeff Lebowski-like hot schlubs in the world and their stories should be told!). The movie has Cal becoming highly involved in his newest story when his former friend, a U.S. congressman (whom he was a former campaign manager to as well) Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) becomes embroiled in a major scandal. Collins' political career is nearing ruin after his mistress and research assistant (Maria Thayer) is found dead under very suspicious circumstances. As Cal investigates the story, many more issues are raised (both politically and personally) and, in the movie's most timely and interesting observation, so is the business of writing for print. Rachel McAdams represents the new school of journalism as a blogger who Cal must work alongside and mentor. The result is an incredibly balanced look at old media vs. new, something everyone seems to have an opinion on, including one of the movie's stars, Affleck.

While promoting "State of Play," a charming, intelligent and amiable Affleck had an informed, well-thought-out and interesting take on new media. Affleck said: "Part of the blogging culture that's good is it's made the traditional press much more nervous. They've become more accountable, because they are sensitive to what the bloggers are going to say. Most Americans don't spend the day waiting for what the bloggers are going to say. The mainstream media sweats it, because for the first time they are actually accountable to someone who is going to write about them and their work. Which has a real strong impact on the mainstream media and how they work."

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In a more negative light, Affleck (who is no stranger to media frenzy -- his previous girlfriend need not be mentioned) continued: "It has coarsened the dialogue a little bit. There's a lot of shaming, a lot of finger wagging, a public gossip high school mill. Every time a story comes out, 50 people start digesting it and a lot of them are very jaded. You get different viewpoints on it and ultimately you have a million blogs, and a lot of them delineations of the same take on something. And there are a few that are really good and smart and a lot of them that are just people who want to be ugly about something. One of the things that will be interesting to see is that a lot of bloggers are sourcing from the mainstream media, newspapers, right? So if the newspapers are gone, bloggers are going to have to do more reporting, which I think will be good. I hope that's what will happen. Conversely, newspapers have gotten lazy and gotten nervous and started sourcing from blogs, and that, I think, is dangerous. Because you could pick any blog. I could start a blog tomorrow and write, 'I heard that so-and-so is an alien' -- a lot of false stories got started and got some currency because they were placed in blogs."

Affleck also issued his opinion on the private vs. public life of political figures: "I think we don't need to know anything about a political figure's sex lives. I guess Matt Drudge did break [the Monica Lewinsky] story, if you think that's a story worth breaking. I think it was a story that bogged down the wheels of government for two years. I don't care, personally. Some people say that's a fair reflection of a candidate's character. I don't. I'm not voting for your sexual predilection, I'm voting for your policy positions."

"State of Play" opens March 17.