Five months ago, it looked like The Big Question — a documentary shot on the set of The Passion of the Christ (2004) — would be released in theatres in time for Easter. But now, Amazon.com indicates it will go straight to DVD instead, and it will be available for a mere seven bucks. Why the change in plans? Well, as Christian News Today reports, the film may be “too Christian for the mainstream, but not Christian enough” — in... Read more

Not only are there times when it is impossible to take Movieguide‘s “Dr.” Ted Baehr all that seriously, there are times when he is actually so off-the-wall he becomes perversely entertaining. And this rant against The Da Vinci Code and The Last Temptation of Christ is right up there, in my humble opinion. Here are two of my favorite bits: Needless to say, at that point in history, just a few short years ago (1988), Christian leaders were willing to... 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. Brokeback Mountain — CDN $9,924,287 — N.AM $78,906,000 — 12.6%Ultraviolet — CDN $877,939 — N.AM $9,000,000 — 9.8%Eight Below — CDN $5,545,424 — N.AM $58,767,000 — 9.4%The Pink Panther — CDN $6,242,177 — N.AM $69,785,000 — 8.9%Firewall — CDN $3,596,566 — N.AM $42,515,000 — 8.5%Date Movie — CDN $3,415,833 —... Read more

George Clooney got the Oscars off to an interesting start tonight by saying that he was “proud” to be “out of touch” with mainstream America. And the evening ended with the top prize going to Crash, easily my pick for the worst of the five Best Picture nominees. What’s striking about this latter point is that, as I noted in my last post, every single Oscar winner for at least a quarter-century (from 1980 to 2004) has been one of... Read more

Time for some Academy Awards statistics geekiness! Someone observed a while ago that this just might be the first year in which a Best Documentary Feature nominee has out-grossed all five Best Picture nominees, and as of last Thursday, this was still true — though it looks like Brokeback Mountain ($76.4 million as of Thursday) could pass March of the Penguins ($77.4 million) before the awards are handed out Sunday night. For those who like to ponder such things, BoxOfficeMojo.com... Read more

Click here for Jeffrey Overstreet’s latest impassioned — and very justified — rant against “Dr.” Ted Baehr of Movieguide. I don’t really have much to add to what Jeff says here, because he makes his case so well — except that I myself, in my film column for BC Christian News, did exactly what Baehr inaccurately accuses my CT Movies colleagues of doing — namely, dubbing “a movie about an abortionist” the top film of 2004. Vera Drake (my review)... Read more

My review of 16 Blocks is now up at CT Movies. Read more

The movies that come out in the first few months of the year are often, shall we say, crappy. So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Ultraviolet — which, at first glance, looks like a retread of Milla Jovovich’s Resident Evil movies (2002-2004; my review) — is the latest presumably schlocky film to open in wide release without being screened for critics in advance; as far as the studio’s concerned, critics are irrelevant at best and a hindrance at... Read more

The newest issue of BC Christian News is now online, and with it, my film column, which is basically a hodgepodge and a revision of things I’ve said elsewhere about Brokeback Mountain, the Oscars, and my top ten for the past year — with an extra note about the upcoming ‘Canada’s Top Ten‘ program at the Pacific Cinematheque. Read more

Assist News Service reports that American Film Renaissance has released its list of the top ten dramatic films and the top five documentaries of 2005, as selected by industry types and journalists representing various outlets including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, National Review, Christianity Today, etc. I mention this because I was the Christianity Today guy. Read more