I’m not a big fan of video-game movies. I was bored out of my tree by Street Fighter (1994), and by the original Resident Evil (2002), too. And pretty much the only thing I liked about Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004; my review) was the sight of Toronto City Hall getting nuked. I guess the silly Alien Vs. Predator (2004; my review) owed more to the video game of that name than to either of the movies that inspired it, too.... Read more
My review of Stay is now up at CT Movies. Read more
There are movies that pull the rug out from under their audiences in the very last moments, and in doing so reveal that much of what we have just seen was actually an illusion. Then there are movies that pull the rug out from under their audiences somewhere in the middle, thus giving us, and the characters, time to come to terms with what the relationship between reality and illusion depicted in these films might mean. And then there are... Read more
Harry Potter is growing up, and hopefully his audience with him. The British Board of Film Classification has rated Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 12A, which means no one under 12 can get in without a parent; while the American Classification and Rating Administration has rated it PG-13, which doesn’t really mean anything, except it sounds a little more serious than PG. All the previous Harry Potter films were rated PG in both countries. No word yet on... Read more
My interview with Alice Marie Crowe, the real-life mother of Elizabethtown writer-director Cameron Crowe, is now up at CanadianChristianity.com. A bit late, perhaps, but the interview took place the day before the film opened, which was too late to get it written up in time for last Thursday’s web update. FWIW, I find this film one of Crowe’s weaker efforts. Yeah, even weaker than Vanilla Sky (2001; my review), his director-for-hire shot-for-shot remake of Alejandro Amenabar’s Abre los ojos (1997).... Read more
It isn’t every woman who gets to see a pivotal moment from her life interpreted for all the world to see by an Oscar-winning actress. It’s an even rarer woman who gets to see two Oscar-winning actresses re-enact such episodes from her life. But as anyone who has seen Almost Famous or Elizabethtown might have guessed, Alice Marie Crowe — the real-life mother of writer-director Cameron Crowe — is a rare woman indeed. Almost Famous was the semi-autobiographical account of... Read more
I have been re-reading C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia lately — for the first time in years, if not decades — and I hope to post more substantial thoughts on the books here at some point. But for now, I just want to note one little detail that jumped out at me as I was finishing Prince Caspian last night. To wit, I am intrigued to see how Aslan and Bacchus and the Maenads and all the other “Old... Read more
Left Behind III will be playing in almost 3,000 churches this weekend, after which it will be coming out on video, and CT Movies editor Mark Moring posted his interview with producer Peter Lalonde today. One thing that intrigues me is Lalonde’s description of the role that church-based movies played in his conversion: I’ve heard that your experience of seeing The Prodigal in 1983 changed your life. What did you learn about the power of film that day? Peter Lalonde:... Read more
I just edited a page at Wikipedia. I have never done this before. But gosh, it was fun. I just might do it again some day. And the weird thing is, the page I edited concerns a subject I know and care almost nothing about. That subject is “Lilith Fair“. But, see, here’s the thing. I was the culture editor at the Ubyssey when we ran a couple photos (on page 8 of this PDF file) of the “Lilith Fair”... 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. Into the Blue — CDN $2,610,604 — N.AM $17,253,000 — 15.1%A History of Violence — CDN $3,301,018 — N.AM $22,634,000 — 14.6%Two for the Money — CDN $2,079,959 — N.AM $16,524,000 — 12.6%Domino — CDN $454,761 — N.AM $4,675,000 — 9.7%Flightplan — CDN $6,620,342 — N.AM $70,766,000 — 9.4%Wallace &... Read more
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