A reader known only as “wngl” has posted a very interesting comment about Superman Returns at Jeffrey Overstreet’s blog: I was reminded of The New World, actually, and the tension Pocahontas experiences between her two love interests. Like that film, Lois has chosen the man devoted to her through everything. That was a nice character touch, in a film that is otherwise almost entirely devoid of character or character development. So, if we follow this interpretation, Superman is the Colin... Read more

In the early days — for example, in the cartoons produced by the Fleischer studio during World War II — Superman fought for “truth and justice”. In later years, certainly by the time of the 1950s TV show, this was revised to “truth, justice and the American way”. But now, it seems that Superman Returns has taken “the American way” back out of the equation; in one scene, Perry White asks if Superman still stands for “truth, justice and all... Read more

Time for another batch of quickies. 1. Vampire novelist Anne Rice made news not too long ago when she wrote Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and openly talked about her return to faith. Now Variety reports that she has signed the inevitable book deal — with a brand-new Christian company! Good News Holdings, formed last fall to produce faith-based content in multimedia formats, has made its first significant movie deal by acquiring Rice bestseller “Christ the Lord: Out of... Read more

My article on Superman movies — particularly the first, second and fifth ones — is now up at CanadianChristianity.com Read more

Quick question: Did the James Bond films ever refer to his status as a widower during the Pierce Brosnan era (1995-2002)? Bond got married at the end of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), starring George Lazenby, and his wife was promptly killed. Diamonds Are Forever (1971) begins with Sean Connery’s Bond tracking down the person(s) responsible for his wife’s death. The Roger Moore films also refer to her death, e.g. when Barbara Bach’s Russian spy rattles off what she... Read more

Nearly two weeks ago, JoBlo.com reported: Finally, look for the first trailer for THE NATIVITY STORY with SUPERMAN RETURNS. Now run to your local multiplex and kneel before the silver screen! Trailers often don’t come to Canada as soon as they do to the U.S., and if they do, they often play in front of different movies. Still, I would be interested to hear if anyone has seen this trailer. And if it already exists, I imagine it will pop... Read more

My review of Superman Returns is now up at CT Movies. I think I went a couple hundred words over our usual word count, but it still feels like I left quite a bit of stuff out. Mind you, a lot of the stuff I might have wanted to get into is ultra-geeky and nit-picky and spoiler-intensive. So, in that spirit, I will post some additional thoughts in the comments under this post. 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 Da Vinci Code — CDN $25,085,724 — N.AM $205,589,742 — 12.2%The Break-Up — CDN $8,862,182 — N.AM $104,235,420 — 8.5%X-Men: The Last Stand — CDN $18,127,479 — N.AM $224,506,162 — 8.1%The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift — CDN $3,452,987 — N.AM $43,144,240 — 8.0%Over the Hedge — CDN... Read more

My friend and fellow Bible-movie nut Matt Page is blogging again, now that he’s taken some time off to welcome his newborn daughter into the world — hello, Nina! — and one of his first posts is this round-up of items relating to the upcoming film The Nativity Story. Among other things, Matt links to this blog devoted to The Nativity Story — and it, in turn, links to recent items on the film that have appeared in Time magazine,... Read more

This is interesting. A guy named Ronald just posted a comment at an earlier blog post here, indicating that Bruce Marchiano, who played Jesus in the Visual Bible’s film versions of Matthew and Acts in the mid-1990s (my reviews), is now planning to reprise the role — in a self-produced version of John! Click here for the new film’s website, which includes a video greeting, a letter of endorsement from the folks who own the New International Version of the... Read more