X-Men: The Last Stand has some lovely images of British Columbia scenery and Vancouver architecture. But, um, I just don’t get the buzz off of it that I got off of the first two movies. Not at all. Is it just me, or does anyone else get the feeling that these actors are trapped in a franchise that has jumped the shark, etc., etc.? I mean, think about it. In 2000, when the first movie came out, Halle Berry was... Read more

Congratulations to my friend and colleague Ron Reed and his Vancouver-based theatre company, Pacific Theatre, on scoring 16 Jessie Award nominations last night — including one for Ron’s performance as C.S. Lewis in Shadowlands, a play that got six nods in total. Worth reading, incidentally, is Ron’s CT Movies essay on the 1985 and 1993 film versions of that play. Read more

Just a note to say I’ve done another radio interview about that movie. This time, it was pre-recorded for the show GodTalk, and an edited version will air Sunday night on CJOB in Manitoba. I believe it will be available for download here on Monday. Read more

Just in case anyone’s interested in this film, which I mentioned a couple months back, this is from a press release I got today: The film follows newly engaged Ben Murphy (John Krasinski) and his fiancée Sadie Jones (Mandy Moore), who’s always dreamed of getting married in a traditional wedding at her family church. The problem is, St. Augustine’s only has one wedding slot available in the next two years, and its charismatic pastor Reverend Frank (Robin Williams) won’t bless... Read more

Gosh, it’s early, but that’s what happens when you do an interview in another time zone. I just got off the phone following an on-air chat with Martin and Lorri at FamilyNet Radio, talking about guess which movie. The podcast should be here in a few hours. Read more

It had to happen. Sony Pictures has hired the team that made The Da Vinci Code — including producers Brian Grazer and John Calley and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman — to adapt the first Robert Langdon novel, Angels & Demons. Variety has the scoop. Read more

I’ll stop posting items on The Da Vinci Code soon, really I will. But a few more thoughts on the matter have wafted into my brian. First, this is an opportune time to return to a brilliant essay on film that G.K. Chesterton wrote 70 years ago. Several years ago, I posted a copy here; the relevant bit is this (emphasis added): The second fact to remember is a certain privilege almost analogous to monopoly, which belongs of necessity to... Read more

This time the most recent stories go at the top, and the older ones are further down. If I come across any more noteworthy stories about The Da Vinci Code in the immediate future, I’ll probably just add them to this list, rather than start a new post. Pakistani Islamists get ready to bash Da Vinci CodePakistan’s Islamist parties will hold nationwide demonstrations against “The Da Vinci Code” later this week, to protest the film’s “offensive” alternative take on the... Read more

FWIW, Reuters reports that The Da Vinci Code just had the second-biggest worldwide opening ever. In North America, the film grossed only $77 million — twelve other films have done better — but overseas, it grossed a record $147 million. The two figures combine to form $224 million, which is second only to the $253 million that Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith earned worldwide on its opening weekend last year. Read more

Two weeks ago, I mentioned that the original pre-Special Edition versions of the original Star Wars trilogy were finally going to come out on DVD. That sounded rather exciting to me at the time. But now, TheDigitalBits.com reports (here, here, and here) that the new DVDs will be transferred from outdated letterboxed masters that were originally created for the laserdisc and VHS editions way, way back in 1993. In fact, this has been public knowledge since as far back as... Read more