Last week, I posted some thoughts on the first two Superman films; this week, I watched the other two, to be complete. I guess the best thing one can say about Superman III (1983) is that it sort of tries to be its own movie — I say “sort of” because Robert Vaughn’s goofy criminal mastermind is really just a rip-off of Gene Hackman’s goofy Lex Luthor — and the best thing one can say about Superman IV: The Quest... Read more
Sony, the studio behind the ultra-controversial feature film The Da Vinci Code and the straight-to-video Left Behind III: World at War, is now developing a feature film entitled The Resurrection, says the Hollywood Reporter, as relayed by Reuters: Using the Bible for its source material, “Resurrection” will tell the story of Jesus Christ beginning the day he died on the cross and ending about 40 days later with his ascension into heaven. According to insiders, Sony’s mid-budget Screen Gems division... Read more
It’s been a while — just a few quick items, for now. 1. Mark Moring, my editor at CT Movies, visited the set of The Nativity Story in Italy recently. Here is his report. One slight nit-pick, at the risk of “editing” my editor — at one point, he calls the film “the first major theatrical release about a biblical story from a Hollywood studio since the 1950s heyday of Bible epics (Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, The Robe).” But even... Read more
It has only been open for a few months, but I am really beginning to like the Vancity Theatre at the Vancouver Int’l Film Centre. The schedules there are a tad erratic, with films frequently paired together that have nothing to do with each other — tonight’s double-bill, if you can call it that, was an excellent adaptation of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood (1967) and a documentary on same-sex marriage and pot legalization called Escape to Canada (2005) —... Read more
My review of The Omen is now up at CT Movies. Read more
In the last few years, we’ve seen two prequels to The Exorcist and a remake of The Amityville Horror, so it was probably only a matter of time before someone got around to reviving that other popular 1970s supernatural horror movie, The Omen. The producers of this film had an especially timely marketing hook: a release date (6/6/06) that lends itself to ad campaigns with a mark-of-the-Beast theme. In other ways, though, the remake of The Omen cannot help but... Read more
I watched Alfred Hitchcock’s I Confess (1953) for the first time in years today, and was struck by the shot above, in which a priest who is about to be arrested for a murder committed by another man walks through the streets of Quebec City. The priest, played by Montgomery Clift, knows who the real killer is, because the killer told him this bit of info in the confessional — but the priest cannot reveal this information, because it would... Read more
Just a note to say I have now posted the full unexpurgated version of my interview with The Omen director John Moore, here. 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. District B13 — CDN $149,385 — N.AM $410,000 — 36.4%Deep Sea 3-D — CDN $1,270,206 — N.AM $10,031,140 — 12.7%The Da Vinci Code — CDN $20,521,235 — N.AM $172,656,000 — 11.9%Mission: Impossible III — CDN $13,071,944 — N.AM $122,664,000 — 10.7%Just My Luck — CDN $1,569,799 — N.AM $15,571,000 —... Read more
Yep, The Break-Up trounced X-Men: The Last Stand, all right. The Break-Up is estimated to have grossed $38.1 million in its first weekend, which is easily the highest opening weekend for any film featuring Vince Vaughn or Jennifer Aniston in a leading role. However, if we count supporting roles, The Break-Up marks Vaughn‘s third-highest opening, after The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997, $72.1 million) and Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005, $50.3 million), and Aniston‘s second-highest opening, after Bruce Almighty (2003,... Read more
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