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. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest — CDN $28,909,320 — N.AM $321,733,000 — 9.0%Superman Returns — CDN $15,326,177 — N.AM $178,427,000 — 8.6%You, Me and Dupree — CDN $3,860,203 — N.AM $45,318,000 — 8.5%The Devil Wears Prada — CDN $7,923,111 — N.AM $97,571,000 — 8.1%My Super Ex-Girlfriend — CDN... Read more
“With this familiar imagery, the direction of the next movie is now officially open to speculation.” So says StarTrek.com today, on the occasion of the release of the first official teaser poster for Star Trek XI — coming to a theatre near you sometime in 2008. No word yet on what the movie will actually be about, but it seems it will be set during or circa the original series — which means this would be the first Star Trek... Read more
The Toronto Star reports today that the film adaptation of Shake Hands with the Devil, starring Roy Dupuis as Canadian general Roméo Dallaire, has already begun shooting on location in Rwanda. Allan Thompson writes: “The script moves back and forth between Dallaire’s time in Rwanda and the period of his mental collapse and retirement from the military years later, with the Dallaire character speaking to a therapist.” He also notes that the real-life Dallaire has been very involved with the... Read more
Eventually I may have something more substantial to say about Lady in the Water. But in the meantime, a bizarro connection occurs to me. And warning, there be a semi-spoiler ahead. (But I’m revealing something from the middle of the film, not the end.) You know how M. Night Shyamalan has been called a Rod Serling wanna-be? Especially ever since The Village (2004) came out, and a number of people took it to be a rip-off of the Twilight Zone... Read more
My column on Facing the Giants and the controversy over PG ratings is now up at ChristianWeek. Read more
My review of Monster House is now up at CT Movies. Read more
Facing the Giants, a low-budget movie about a high-school football team, was recently rated PG for parental guidance in the U.S. The film’s Christian producers and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which hands out movie ratings south of the border, agree the film should be rated PG. But they don’t agree on why the film was rated PG — thus launching one of the latest and silliest skirmishes in the culture wars. Kris Fuhr, vice-president of marketing for... Read more
Yikes, first that hilarious collection of Darth Vader clips with audio dubbed in from James Earl Jones’s other movies, and now this collection of Star Trek clips edited to fit a famous Monty Python song. I don’t think this video is anywhere near as funny as the other one — few things are — but even so, I am in awe. Click here if the video file above doesn’t play properly. JUL 25 UPDATE: The above video file is gone... Read more
Four years ago, Roger Ebert encouraged movie buffs of all races, colours and creeds to create their own audio commentaries and to make them available online as mp3s. I have been meaning to do something like that ever since, and with one film in particular — a film that is short enough that I could almost fit the entire commentary onto a CD — but have never gotten around to it. In the meantime, it seems like others are increasingly... Read more
Lady in the Water opens tomorrow, and I may post some thoughts on it then. In the meantime, it occurs to me that I have written formal reviews of almost all of M. Night Shyamalan’s previous films over the years, the only exceptions being Praying with Anger (1992) and The Village (2004) — so I figured I’d round up the links to those reviews and gather them together here. As always when dipping into the archives, I can see all... Read more
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