IndieWIRE has an interesting item on three documentaries about camps for kids that are currently playing the festival circuit — two of which, Jesus Camp and Camp Out, I have mentioned here before. The former film, which premieres this week at the Tribeca film festival, concerns a camp for right-wing fundamentalists, while the latter film concerns a camp for gay Christian kids. Sounds like they would make an interesting juxtaposition, no? Read more

Mark Steyn has re-posted a column that he wrote shortly after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, commenting on the way many people said “It was like something out of a movie.” He introduces the column by noting a certain irony: The fuss over this week’s release of United 93 – “It’s too soon”, “We’re not ready” – would have astonished almost any American moviegoer from the first half-century of motion pictures. Flight 93 is a story of such... 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. Lucky Number Slevin — CDN $2,661,571 — N.AM $18,607,000 — 14.3%Take the Lead — CDN $3,748,350 — N.AM $29,556,000 — 12.7%Inside Man — CDN $8,478,784 — N.AM $81,233,000 — 10.4%Scary Movie 4 — CDN $6,126,516 — N.AM $67,697,000 — 9.0%American Dreamz — CDN $331,173 — N.AM $3,690,000 — 9.0%Ice Age:... Read more

Pardon the delay in posting this item; it’s been a busy, hectic weekend, what with deadlines and baptisms and all. Anyway, on Friday, Studio Briefing noted that yet another movie — i.e. Silent Hill — had been released without being screened in advance for critics, or at least without being screened for most of us. Once again, in the United States, the studio behind this decision was Sony; however, in Canada, the film was released by Alliance-Atlantis, which, in my... Read more

I am enough of a Trekkie and a completist that I made a point of getting all ten Star Trek movies on DVD. The last three films all came out in the past year, after I started this blog, and I even posted some comments on First Contact (1996) and Insurrection (1998) when those discs came out. But Nemesis (2002) was such a lame disappointment that, even though I got the disc, I never felt motivated to write it up.... Read more

Has it really been 11 months since The Big V, the documentary in which I outed myself as an adult virgin, aired on Vision TV? (The interview took place several months before my wedding, but the documentary premiered a few months afterwards.) Hmmm, I guess it has. Anyway, if you missed it the first time and you’re curious to see it, the hour-long documentary will be re-run on CBC Newsworld on Tuesday, April 25 and on Saturday, April 29. And... Read more

Variety reports that Scott Derrickson, director and co-writer of The Exorcism of Emily Rose, is attached to direct (and co-write?) a big-screen adaptation of John Milton‘s Paradise Lost! The film is being developed by Legendary Pictures, the outfit behind Batman Begins and the upcoming Superman Returns. Variety also says: “Paradise Lost,” published in 1667, tells the story of Lucifer’s failed rebellion in heaven and subsequent role in Adam and Eve’s fall from grace. . . . Phil DiBlasi and Byron... Read more

Roughly one out of six Canadians — and one out of eight Americans — believe that Jesus faked his death on the cross, got married, and had a family, according to a poll conducted last week for CanWest News Service. Curiously, the region with the highest rate of belief in this theory — a whopping 22% — is Alberta, which is often described as Canada’s version of Texas, because of its ranches, its oil industry, and its Bible-belt religiosity. The... Read more

Tomorrow marks the 100th anniversary of the famous San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. Apart from the quake’s political and scientific significance, it is also noteworthy as one of the earliest disasters of its sort that was caught on film; early silent films of the fire and the ruins are available on DVD and at the Internet Archive and Library of Congress websites. On a more pop-cultural level, the disaster came up in songs like ‘Put the Blame on... 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. Lucky Number Slevin — CDN $1,953,655 — N.AM $14,140,000 — 13.8%Take the Lead — CDN $2,741,635 — N.AM $22,517,000 — 12.2%V for Vendetta — CDN $7,535,856 — N.AM $65,991,000 — 11.4%Inside Man — CDN $7,798,000 — N.AM $75,285,000 — 10.4%Ice Age: The Meltdown — CDN $12,528,545 — N.AM $147,188,000 —... Read more