Got the strangest thing in my e-mail today. You’ll just have to read it for yourself: HEART of the BEHOLDER is Now Available on DVD HEART of the BEHOLDER is based on the true story of a young couple who refused to buckle to a fanatical religious group who demanded the removal of Martin Scorsese’s controversial film, “The Last Temptation of Christ,” from the couple’s chain of video stores. The couple’s employees and family endure intimidation, harassment, and death threats,... Read more

Just a few links to new news stories and old blog posts. 1. Gladiator (2000; my review) and Ben-Hur (1959; my review) are getting spiffed-up DVD re-releases later this year, reports the Hollywood Reporter. The former, originally released as a 2-disc set and now only available as a single disc, will be re-issued as a 3-disc set featuring an extended version of the film and Russell Crowe’s first-ever commentary track; while the latter, originally released as a 2-sided single disc,... Read more

Gosh, I love Secrets and Lies (1996). I’ve had the DVD for weeks now, but it was only last night that my wife and I finally got around to watching it; it was the first time she had ever seen it, but I had described it to her so often that watching it for the first time must have been, for her, a little like watching it the second or third time, for me; e.g., because she knew that a... Read more

A few weeks back, I watched David Lean’s Summertime (1955), in which Katherine Hepburn plays a spinster who goes to Venice and has a fling with a married Italian man. And then, two days ago, I watched Ryan’s Daughter (1970), in which Sarah Miles plays a virginal Irishwoman who marries the older widower Robert Mitchum during World War I and then has an affair with a British officer, which earns the, um, ire of the local villagers, who are all... Read more

I’ve had SiteMeter for just over a month now, and I got it largely so I could keep tabs on how people have been finding this site. And it’s been interesting to see some of the Google searches people have run. A number of these searches seem to be tied to the releases of certain films; for example, lately, a few people have been looking for “foosa”, the predatory animals in Madagascar. And for a few weeks now, people have... Read more

Three items in the news caught my eye today. 1. The Prince of Egypt had three soundtrack albums — or four, if you count the exclusive promotional Wal-Mart CD, which had several minutes of Hans Zimmer score that were unavailable on the other discs — so, naturally, not to be outdone, Disney’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe will have four soundtrack albums of its own: one Christian, one pop-rock, one for children, and of course the score by... Read more

I’m a little surprised that my coverage of Kingdom of Heaven at CT Movies hasn’t generated more feedback. The Crusades are a controversial subject at the best of times, and since I had a more positive take on the film than a lot of Christian critics — a take that I somewhat regretted when I saw the film a second time, as I mentioned here two weeks ago — I expected there to be more criticism of my review. But... Read more

Nearly two months have gone by since I posted a link to the brand new Amazon page for Scandalizing Jesus?, an upcoming collection of essays on the book and film versions of The Last Temptation of Christ that is timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary this year of the publication of Nikos Kazantzakis’s original novel. Now, today, the editor of that book e-mailed a copy of the cover to all the contributors — and look who made the front... Read more

I think I might have just come up with another way of approaching Peter Jackson’s controversial decision to eliminate the Scouring of the Shire from his film version of The Lord of the Rings. I recently quoted the following passage from my review of The Myth of the American Superhero to somebody: In The Myth of the American Superhero, philosopher John Shelton Lawrence and New Testament scholar Robert Jewett claim the myths and legends that have defined the American imagination... 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. Le Survenant — CDN $1,443,263 — N.AM $1,443,263 — 100%Kingdom of Heaven — CDN $4,803,400 — N.AM $41,031,000 — 11.7%The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — CDN $4,967,736 — N.AM $46,854,000 — 10.6%The Interpreter — CDN $6,913,837 — N.AM $65,295,000 — 10.6%Unleashed — CDN $1,720,618 — N.AM $17,567,000 — 9.8%House... Read more