Last Monday, while their mother and newborn baby brother were resting in the hospital, I took the twins (and my sister) to catch a matinee screening of The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything. It was the first time I had taken the twins to see a movie; the wife and I had dragged them along to a couple of “movies for mommies” type events when they were only five or six months old, but that was for their parents’ benefit,... Read more

“Under construction.” That’s what it says at the bottom of the newly launched official website for Star Trek XI. But it’s not just a reference to the website itself. It is also reportedly the tagline for the teaser that will play in theatres starting tomorrow — a teaser which, to judge from the photo released by Moviefone today, really will depict the construction of the U.S.S. Enterprise itself. Keep in mind that the Enterprise predates the era depicted in the... Read more

Breitbart.com posted an article over the weekend about an Iranian Muslim life-of-Jesus movie — and it sounds like this may be one of the two films I wrote about here over a year ago. Jesus, the Spirit of God is directed by Nader Talebzadeh, whose name also appears on the website for The Messiah — and while Talebzadeh says he made the film to emphasize the “common ground” between Christians and Muslims, he also goes on to say that his... Read more

I know, I know, it’s silly to nitpick an Indiana Jones movie for realism. But even so, I get the feeling that past caves and temples and dungeons and whatnot have been a little … darker. Read more

See introductory post here. These are the Canadian and North American box-office totals for films that played in 2008, as of their last appearance in the Canadian top ten. Click on the years for 2005, 2006 and 2007. Since Canada has about 9.7% of the combined Canadian-American population, red indicates the films that made over 10.7% of their money in Canada, orange the films that attracted about the same proportion of Canadians as Americans, and green the ones that made... 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. P.S. I Love You — CDN $5,230,000 — N.AM $46,830,324 — 11.2%Atonement — CDN $2,420,000 — N.AM $25,130,656 — 9.6%Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street — CDN $4,110,000 — N.AM $44,053,400 — 9.3%Charlie Wilson’s War — CDN $4,760,000 — N.AM $59,353,790 — 8.0%I Am Legend — CDN $18,740,000... Read more

Nicholas Chattaway — the middle name is yet to be determined — was born at 12:49am on January 14, and he weighed 10 lbs 10 oz at the time of his birth. That’s more than the twins weighed at their birth combined; then again, they were born at least six weeks premature. It’s also less than the 12 lbs 11 oz that I weighed at my birth; then again, I was born at least two weeks late, I believe. Read more

Last Thursday, I reported that Jaden Smith, son of Will and Jada Pinkett, had been cast as one of the three main characters in the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. Tonight the Hollywood Reporter confirmed that news, and added a few more details. Read more

Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere has posted a brief exchange between an “Industry know-it-all” and a “Lionsgate publicist” on the subject of Rambo, AKA Rambo IV — and it looks like the film will not be screened in advance for critics. If true, then it’s not exactly surprising, since Lionsgate generally doesn’t screen its horror movies or Tyler Perry movies for critics, either. JAN 22 UPDATE: Well, what do you know. Yesterday, some of my American colleagues were notified that... Read more