My review of Yours, Mine & Ours is now up at CT Movies. FWIW, my siblings and I grew up watching the original 1968 version on video, and I re-watched it a few months ago in preparation for this review. I posted some comments on it here. Read more

Click here for Moviefone’s exclusive clip from a battle scene in the upcoming Narnia movie. Compare and contrast it with the battle scenes in just about every epic movie released since The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). Try to imagine why they gave us a clip of yet another battle scene, instead of, say, a more character-oriented moment (like Mr Beaver going ice-fishing, or Mr Tumnus befriending Lucy, or…). Read Jeffrey Overstreet’s concerns here. Ponder the sad possibility that this... Read more

My interview with Dennis Quaid is now up at CT Movies. There’s a bit of a story behind this. Most of this interview comes from a private one-on-one that I had with him at the junket in Los Angeles two weeks ago; only, maybe, two-and-a-half paragraphs come from the roundtable interview where all the questions were asked by other reporters. And Quaid’s profession of faith came as a complete surprise to me. If I had been more on the ball,... Read more

Here’s a cute new wrinkle in the controversy over those infamous video companies that edit films without the studios’ permission: KUTV in Salt Lake City reports that Mel Gibson’s Icon Productions is suing CleanFlicks for selling and renting out a version of The Passion of the Christ that has had three minutes cut out. For the last six years, Ray Lines has been editing the nudity, violence, and language out of films. But now one of Hollywood’s biggest stars and... 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. Pride & Prejudice — CDN $749,659 — N.AM $5,971,000 — 12.6%Derailed — CDN $2,630,257 — N.AM $21,837,000 — 12.0%The Legend of Zorro — CDN $4,805,270 — N.AM $42,785,000 — 11.2%Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire — CDN $10,124,883 — N.AM $101,425,000 — 10.0%Jarhead — CDN $4,961,153 — N.AM $54,317,000... Read more

Remember Nacho Libre? The in-the-works Mike White-written, Jared Hess-directed, Jack Black-starring movie based on the “true story” of “a Mexican priest who secretly moonlights as a masked wrestler in order to save an orphanage from closure”? JoBlo.com has just posted the first photo from this film, a portion of which appears above, as well as the following plot synopsis, courtesy of Paramount Pictures: From the creators of NAPOLEON DYNAMITE and SCHOOL OF ROCK comes a wildly original, off-the-wall comedy about... Read more

Time for some more newsbites. 1. FilmStew.com reports that Martin Scorsese‘s next film will be an adaptation of Shusaku Endo’s Silence, which “concerns a pair of 17th century Portuguese missionaries who choose to go to Japan to preach Christianity to Japanese converts even though the religion has been outlawed, and violators face a death penalty.” FWIW, I have not read Endo’s book myself, but I have seen at least one other film on this subject. To quote an article I... Read more

The Academy has issued a list of the ten films that are eligible to be nominated for the Best Animated Feature award. Only three will be nominated. And of course, only one will win. The list: Chicken LittleGulliver’s TravelHoodwinkedHowl’s Moving CastleMadagascarRobots (my comments)Steamboy (my comments)Tim Burton’s Corpse BrideValiant (my review)Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (my review) FWIW, I have seen all these films except for Hoodwinked, which opens December 23, and Gulliver’s Travel, which doesn’t even seem... Read more

Apparently we Canadians get to see a longer version of Pride & Prejudice than most of the rest of the world, because eight minutes were added to the ending to “sweeten” it up for the American market (and Canada is, for better and for worse, considered part of the American studios’ “domestic” market). Reports USA Today: North American moviegoers are being treated to a smoochier finale to Pride & Prejudice, which opens wider Nov. 23, from the one playing overseas.... Read more

My review of Paradise Now is now up at CT Movies. Read more