The Associated Press seems to begin its latest report on Quantum of Solace with a major spoiler, but if you skip over that bit, there are some other interesting tidbits about the newest James Bond film: Despite the heightened realism of the last Bond film, not to mention its commercial success (over $500 million worldwide), the German-born Swiss director was wary of joining the bombastic franchise. Forster negotiated with producers to ensure he had as much creative control as possible... Read more

Time for another batch of newsworthy goodness. 1. Variety reports that Armie Hammer — the 21-year-old rumoured to be playing Batman in George Miller’s Justice League movie — has been cast as the young Billy Graham in Billy: The Early Years. The cast also includes Martin Landau, Lindsay Wagner, Kristopher Polaha, Josh Turner, Stephanie Butler, Jennifer O’Neill and Sierra Hull — but there is no mention in this story of Hal Holbrook, who was the only cast member announced one... Read more

My daughter happened to be sitting on my knee as I was scouring the web for references to films that had mixed animation with live action, or used traditional animation as a special effect, prior to the invention of CGI. I came across this video clip from Anchors Aweigh (1945), a film that my siblings and I grew up with — my sisters and I still sing the somewhat naughty ‘If You Knew Susie’ every now and then — and... Read more

My review of Nim’s Island is now up at CT Movies. Read more

Oh, sure, “sweding” may be popular nowadays, thanks to films like Be Kind Rewind and Son of Rambow — but all of those home-made re-creations of classic Hollywood films were all beaten to the punch years ago by Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation, a shot-for-shot remake of the original film produced by some teenaged fans over the course of six or seven years. I have never seen this film myself, but I may get a chance to do... Read more

The newest issue of BC Christian News is now online, and with it, my film column, which includes brief, brief notes on Bella, Billy: The Early Years, Agora and Year One. This issue also includes an amusing article by the paper’s founding editor Lloyd Mackey on the shift in Christian attitudes towards film over the past half-century: I have a couple of Odeon stories to tell, even though I grew up in a home where attendance at the theatre was... Read more

The in-flight movie on my way down to the States: August Rush. The in-flight movie on my way back up to Canada: The Golden Compass. Hmmmm. 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. Run Fat Boy Run — CDN $363,364 — N.AM $2,340,743 — 15.5%Never Back Down — CDN $2,810,000 — N.AM $21,249,499 — 13.2%10,000 B.C. — CDN $8,660,000 — N.AM $84,992,525 — 10.2%The Bank Job — CDN $2,420,000 — N.AM $24,084,605 — 10.0%21 — CDN $2,170,000 — N.AM $24,105,943 — 9.0%Superhero Movie... Read more

My CT Movies colleague Josh Hurst is marking the second birthday of his blog today — and in doing so, he reminds me that I completely forgot to mark the third birthday of my own blog a couple weeks ago. I began this blog on March 16, 2005, barely a month after I had gotten married. Now, three years later, I have three kids and a bigger apartment and I no longer live a few blocks from the major arthouse... Read more

I hate April Fool’s Day. But if what I posted in this space before turns out to have been genuine, I’ll post it back. Read more