My wife and kids are watching 101 Dalmatians (1961) right now, and every now and then a dog comes onscreen and my boy, standing next to the couch and staring attentively at the screen, says, “Arf! arf!” If I knew where my camera was, I’d preserve the moment for posterity. But this blog post will have to do. Read more

The New York Times had an interesting profile the other day of Marc Forster, the German-born Swiss director of The Kite Runner and the next James Bond movie, among others. An excerpt: The ability to generate suspense from some of the more aberrant emotional states may serve him well in his new assignment, because Bond, as played in his most recent incarnation by Daniel Craig in “Casino Royale” (2006), seems, Mr. Forster said, “very isolated, a man who’s damaged in... Read more

It seems so. But according to the MTV Movies Blog, he gave it up for Tim Burton’s remake of Planet of the Apes (2001). Yowch. Interestingly, I had not considered until now that Alan Rickman is technically too old to play Snape — he was 55 when the first film came out, yet the character is supposed to be the same age as Harry Potter‘s parents, who would have been in their early 30s if they had not been killed... Read more

Atonement was nominated for seven Golden Globes today, so now is as good a time as any to quote this interesting — and semi-spoiler-ish — comment on the film that Brian D. Johnson of Maclean’s magazine made at his blog last week: Although I’m not exactly the most ardent reader (I’ve lost the habit to movies), I’m a huge fan of Ian McEwan. I’ve read every word he’s published. And we all know how easy it is to find fault... Read more

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix came out on DVD this week, and I was lucky enough to get a copy that has two bonus discs, one of which consists entirely of a 20-minute featurette on ‘Building the Magic: The Sets of Harry Potter’. Watching it, I was struck by this close-up on the logo for the Ministry of Magic: It’s kind of reminiscent of the logo for the Magisterium in The Golden Compass — which you can... Read more

If ever there was a much-debated topic where people needed to learn to just let words mean what they say, abortion might be it. Earlier this year, the commentary on films like Waitress and Knocked Up went in some curious and bizarre directions, reaching its nadir with Mireya Navarro’s ridiculous claim in the New York Times that “Many conservative bloggers have claimed ‘Knocked Up’ as an anti-choice movie”. Uh, no we didn’t. We might have said the film has a... Read more

Variety reports that the Toronto International Film Festival’s organizers have released their picks for Canada’s Top Ten of 2007 — and I have seen only about three-quarters of one of them. Yikes. Here is the list; the one I have sort-of seen is in bold: Amal (dir. Richie Mehta)Continental, a Film Without Guns (dir. Stephane LaFleur)Days of Darkness (dir. Denys Arcand)Eastern Promises (dir. David Cronenberg)Fugitive Pieces (dir. Jeremy Podeswa)My Winnipeg (dir. Guy Maddin)A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey... Read more

Variety reports that Paul Rudd has signed on to star in a comedy called I Love You, Man: Hamburg-penned script centers on a man about to get married who actively seeks out a male friend to be his best man for the wedding. This, of course, cannot help but bring to mind that article by Justin Shubow that I quoted here two months ago, on the emerging genre of “man-crush romantic comedies” such as Wedding Crashers, I Now Pronounce You... Read more

Lou Lumenick of the New York Post reports that 20th Century Fox will not be screening Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem for critics before the film opens two weeks from now. There is a precedent for this, inasmuch as the previous film wasn’t screened in advance either when it opened almost three and a half years ago — though Fox did have a “courtesy screening” for critics just before the matinees for that film began on opening day. Somehow I don’t... 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. The Golden Compass — CDN $2,670,000 — N.AM $25,783,232 — 10.4%Awake — CDN $1,020,000 — N.AM $10,743,207 — 9.5%American Gangster — CDN $11,420,000 — N.AM $125,553,670 — 9.1%No Country for Old Men — CDN $2,520,000 — N.AM $28,744,592 — 8.8%Beowulf — CDN $6,720,000 — N.AM $76,119,822 — 8.8%Hitman — CDN... Read more