49th Parallel (1941) is simply one of the best wartime propaganda movies ever made, and I’m not just saying that because it takes place in my native Canada. The film — produced by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger before they went on to do The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), I Know Where I’m Going! (1945), Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948) and other classics — is a little more self-critical than you might expect, and it... Read more

Rumour has it that at least two movies opening later this month will not be screened for critics, said movies being The Invisible, which opens April 27, and Pathfinder, which opens this Friday. In fact, the press screenings for one of these films were cancelled in multiple cities across North America. Incidentally, both films just happen to be American remakes of Scandinavian movies, though both of the American films were shot in the Vancouver area. BTW, does anyone know if... Read more

Hollywood North Report reported today that Scott Derrickson is preparing to shoot a remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951; my comments) here in Vancouver. HNR is calling their item a “scoop” — but rumours of Derrickson’s involvement in this film have been around since at least 34 days ago. Hmmm, maybe it’s just the Vancouver angle that makes this item a “scoop”. Anyway, here are the important bits: According to our sources, Scott Derrickson – last here... Read more

Back in September, I noted that CleanFlicks and similar companies that edited DVDs to make them more “family friendly” had been shut down entirely, following a court decision in July that ordered those companies to turn their inventories over to the Hollywood studios whose works they had been editing illegally. But now the website for CleanFlicks is up and running again, and the Associated Press tells us why: Thanks to what they say is a loophole in copyright law that... Read more

Here are the figures for the past weekend, arranged from those that owe the highest percentage of their take to the Canadian box office to those that owe the lowest. Reign over Me — CDN $2,206,783 — N.AM $17,406,000 — 12.7%Shooter — CDN $4,456,839 — N.AM $36,656,000 — 12.2%300 — CDN $20,840,464 — N.AM $193,880,000 — 10.7%Grindhouse — CDN $1,064,645 — N.AM $11,591,000 — 9.2%Wild Hogs — CDN $12,226,664 — N.AM $145,453,000 — 8.4%Blades of Glory — CDN $5,737,096 —... Read more

The Associated Press reports that Helvetica — a popular typeface which, like the air we breathe, is so omnipresent that we barely notice it — is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Click here for a link to a 15-month-old story on movies that have mistakenly shown Helvetica being used in earlier eras — movies like Titanic (1997) and Good Night, and Good Luck (2005). And click here for even more examples of such films! UPDATE: Whoops. It turns out... Read more

And I can’t wait for the inevitable mash-up video that will link this film with Bridge to Terabithia, the other movie which features AnnaSophia Robb leading people into supernatural forests. Haven’t got much else to say at the moment. I do think this film is probably a hair better than, say, Bless the Child (2000), which was also a dull, plodding, cheesy apocalyptic thriller starring an Oscar-winning actress. But then, I guess that isn’t saying much. Read more

Wow. We all knew that the Wachowski brothers had been hired to oversee some pretty substantial reshoots on Oliver Hirschbiegel’s The Invasion, the long-in-gestation fourth version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (following the versions made in 1956, 1978 and 1993). But now Collider.com reports that the reshoots may have been way more substantial than any of us had guessed: I have spent the last few days researching this story on The Invasion and if you’re a fan of The... Read more

Children of Men is on DVD now, so Christopher Orr at the New Republic takes another look at it: “Cinema,” Alfonso Cuarón told The Seattle Times in December, “[has] become now what I call a medium for lazy readers. … Cinema is a hostage of narrative. And I’m very good at narrative as a hostage of cinema.” He was referring to his film Children of Men, and he captured its strengths and weakness admirably. It is a frequently moving, occasionally... Read more

Today must be Faith & Film Day at Variety magazine, since a long list of brand new articles on the subject popped up at their website last night. One of the first articles I noticed, alas, was this one on Christian critics, which begins by quoting “Dr.” Ted Baehr: “When you’re listening to Roger Ebert, you’re listening to his puffery, his opinion,” says Ted Baehr, founder of Movieguide, a ministry that evaluates mass media according to biblical principles, receives approximately... Read more