My review of The Game Plan is now up at CT Movies. Read more

My review of Shake Hands with the Devil is now up at BC Christian News. Read more

Variety recently hosted a screening of the much-buzzed Lars and the Real Girl, followed by a Q&A; with director Craig Gillespie and actor Ryan Gosling. The latter plays a man who has a reportedly sweet relationship with a “woman” he met via the internet — who just happens to be a latex blow-up doll. I love these quotes: The “Lars” duo also took time to chat about their synthetic co-worker, Bianca, who made a strong impact on the cast and... Read more

This year’s edition of the Vancouver International Film Festival kicks off in an hour or so, so it’s about time I posted the first draft of my movie-going schedule. As with the schedules I posted in 2006 and 2005, this list is highly flexible and will be revised continually often over the next two weeks, as I juggle family and work obligations and the Thanksgiving holiday and so on. Any films that I do not end up seeing will be... Read more

We’ve had plenty of films about the adult life of Jesus when he was in his 30s, and a fair number about his infancy, and even a few that brought to life apocryphal legends about his childhood. But what about his adolescence and early adulthood? Variety reports: Indie financers have signed director Drew Heriot to make his feature debut on “The Aquarian Gospel,” a story of Jesus Christ’s “missing years” from ages 13 to 30. William Keenan (“Poor Things”) is... Read more

IGN.com recently spoke to James Middleton, executive producer of the Terminator spin-off series The Sarah Connor Chronicles, about his plans for the feature film Terminator 4: It will follow the events of T3 and be post-apocalyptic. It’s not known whether Nick Stahl and Claire Danes will return, but John Connor and Kate are in the script. The movie will feature a new hero as the main character. Middleton likened the story to how “Ben-Hur was influenced by Jesus Christ, but... Read more

I actually considered beginning my own review of Shake Hands with the Devil that way, but I decided against it, out of a sense that it might seem too disrespectful to those who endured the awful real-life events depicted in this film. I see, however, that Scott Foundas begins his review for Variety that way. Ah well. The film opens this Friday, so my own review will be up in a few days. 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. Mr. Bean’s Holiday — CDN $6,420,000 — N.AM $30,751,000 — 20.9%Eastern Promises — CDN $901,888 — N.AM $6,549,000 — 13.8%Sydney White — CDN $698,749 — N.AM $5,323,000 — 13.1%Superbad — CDN $13,430,000 — N.AM $116,171,000 — 11.6%Mr. Woodcock — CDN $1,660,000 — N.AM $15,700,000 — 10.6%The Bourne Ultimatum — CDN... Read more

There are many — far, far too many — Christian films based on the 19th-century concept of the Rapture and the various social and political problems that follow it. But how many non-Christian films have explored this territory? There is Michael Tolkin’s scathing The Rapture (1991), of course. But beyond that, nothing comes to mind — except, perhaps, for a low-budget flick-in-the-making that got some attention the other day in the Charleston City Paper: It’s Judgment Day. Mankind has been... Read more