My review of September Dawn is now up at CT Movies. Read more

Time for a few more quickies. 1. Remember that animated version of The Ten Commandments? Variety reports that it is the first in a series of Bible cartoons: Promenade Pictures — the family-oriented banner headed by former studio topper Frank Yablans — has set the release of its first project, a CG-animated version of “The Ten Commandments.” Promenade announced Thursday it will open “Commandments,” the first of a 12-pic “Epic Stories of the Bible” series, on Oct. 26 at 500-800... Read more

It’s bad enough the MTV Movies Blog doesn’t let Canadians watch any of their video clips. Now we can’t access the “age-restricted” content on the websites for Shoot ‘Em Up and Beowulf unless we have American zip codes and American government-issued ID. (Incidentally, this is the first time I have mentioned this version of the Beowulf story here since I blogged it over two years ago.) AUG 25 UPDATE: The official website for No Country for Old Men also requires... Read more

The summer movie season is pretty much over now. There are two weekends left, to be sure, but the last several days before Labour Day are usually pretty slow. So, with all that said, here is another way to look at the dismal box-office figures for Evan Almighty. Evan Almighty was one of the year’s most expensive movies, and it faced almost no competition on its opening weekend; the only other new wide releases that week were 1408 and A... Read more

V.A. Musetto at the New York Post says War, the action movie starring Jet Li and Jason Statham, will not be screened for critics before it opens this Friday. But while that might be true in the States, the film actually screened for critics here in Vancouver last night — perhaps because it was filmed here? (I didn’t see the film myself; I was at the Mr. Bean’s Holiday preview screening.) Meanwhile, a daytime press screening of Rob Zombie’s remake... Read more

After a few postponements, September Dawn — a dramatization of the Mountain Meadows massacre, in which a wagon train full of pioneers passing through Utah was slaughtered by local Mormons on September 11, 1857 — is finally opening this Friday. My review will be up that day at CT Movies. In the meantime, the pre-release buzz has begun. The Los Angeles Times reports: Co-writer-director of “September Dawn” Christopher Cain dismisses the idea the movie puts a bad light on Mormonism,... Read more

Last Saturday, the National Post ran an editorial on The Simpsons Movie by “Dr.” Ted Baehr and his colleague Tom Snyder — and as with so much else that gets published under their names, there are several bits that make you go “Huh!?” The article begins: An interesting thing happens during The Simpsons Movie, which recently opened number one at the box office in the United States and Canada. Ned Flanders, often mocked in the television series for his Christian... Read more

Two years ago, Warner Brothers forced paying customers at the Vancouver International Film Festival to endure the sort of intense security measures that are usually reserved for invitational preview screenings — frisking, scanning the audience with night-vision goggles while the movie plays, the works. The Georgia Straight had a brief report on this at the time. Oh well, at least the studio could always argue that festival screenings are sort of like preview screenings. But now, reports The Consumerist, Warner... 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. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix — CDN $30,470,000 — N.AM $278,646,000 — 10.9%The Simpsons Movie — CDN $17,730,000 — N.AM $165,117,000 — 10.7%Stardust — CDN $1,940,000 — N.AM $19,087,000 — 10.2%Hairspray — CDN $10,100,000 — N.AM $100,577,000 — 10.0%The Bourne Ultimatum — CDN $15,620,000 — N.AM $163,806,000... Read more

Anne Thompson of Variety says the trailer below for Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story — a Judd Apatow-produced parody of recent biopics like Ray (2004) and Walk the Line (2005) — “sank like a stone” when it premiered at Comic-Con last month. Click here if the video file above doesn’t play properly. As a parody of a particular kind of movie genre, I think this film may have its merits, based on what we see here. But many of... Read more