Vancouver Sun columnist Peter McKnight has written one of the sharper pieces in the ongoing culture war — more of a skirmish, really — over the moral meaning of March of the Penguins: It’s not often Christian conservatives take a page from the book of liberal gay activism, but when they do, you know it won’t be worth the read. . . . These comments suggest that the commentators slept through parts of the movie — or were too busy... Read more

Wow. While Howard Shore has been prepping the extended Lord of the Rings CDs, he has also been composing and recording music for Peter Jackson’s next film, the retro-remake of King Kong. (Click here for a KongIsKing.net production diary to that effect, which went online four weeks ago.) But now Soundtrack.net reports that, with just two months to go until the film’s release, Shore has been replaced by James Newton Howard. I’m a big fan of the new Howard’s scores,... Read more

Time for another round-up. 1. The Hollywood Reporter says Fox and Warner Brothers are planning to release almost a dozen classic films to DVD in January, just in time for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month — and one of these films will be The Green Pastures (1936), a collection of Old Testament stories told or re-enacted by an all-black cast (including Rex Ingram as “De Lawd”). 2. The original King Kong (1933) comes out on DVD... Read more

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

The first of four planned Narnia soundtracks came out last week — the Christian one, as it happens — and the New York Times reports that Disney’s marketing strategy may backfire: The spiritual character of “Narnia” is being reinforced with the debut on the charts last week of a Christian pop album of music inspired by the film. But prospects for a previously announced secular soundtrack now seem cloudy, executives involved in the process say. Disney executives say that at... Read more

Quick question: Who was the first actor to play James Bond? Hint: It wasn’t Sean Connery, who played the character seven times between 1962’s Dr. No and 1983’s Never Say Never Again. Give up? It was an American actor named Barry Nelson, who played James “Jimmy” Bond in a 1954 adaptation of Casino Royale produced for American television. That’s him in the bathtub in the photo above, about to be tortured by Peter Lorre and/or one of Lorre’s henchmen. The... Read more

First Scotty, now this! That makes two Mark Steyn commentaries on sci-fi TV shows that became movies in one day! Be warned, if you haven’t seen Serenity yet, there may be one or two soft spoilers here. But I think I can quote this bit: By now you’re probably wondering, yeah, so you liked the rough’n’ready sets and TV dialogue and reaction shots, but is it about anything? Well, it claims to be. The tag line on the posters in... Read more

It has been nearly three months since James Doohan died, but only now has Mark Steyn been able to post the full version of the obituary he wrote for last month’s Atlantic Monthly. It’s a fun read. One slight correction, though, if I may. Steyn writes: With the Congressional Record awash in “Beam me up, Scottys”, eventually somebody decided it was time for Star Trek to put the famous words belatedly in Captain Kirk’s mouth. So, after the best part... Read more

The Devil’s Miner began as a project about devout Catholics who also happen to worship Satan — or if not Satan himself, then something very much like him. Apparently the Bolivian miners who populate this film do believe that God rules above the ground, but they also believe that a capricious, horned, and rather well-endowed entity called “the Tio” rules below. And so, in addition to attending mass at the local Catholic church, these miners also make offerings of garlands,... 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. Where the Truth Lies — CDN $184,496 — N.AM $184,496 — 100%A History of Violence — CDN $2,338,625 — N.AM $16,697,000 — 14.0%Into the Blue — CDN $1,875,773 — N.AM $13,873,000 — 13.5%Serenity — CDN $1,877,924 — N.AM $17,594,000 — 10.6%Two for the Money — CDN $866,299 — N.AM $8,380,000... Read more