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 $844,143 — N.AM $844,143 — 100%Sin City — CDN $8,793,527 — N.AM $70,619,000 — 12.5%A Lot Like Love — CDN $1,490,793 — N.AM $14,698,000 — 10.1%The Interpreter — CDN $4,291,839 — N.AM $43,567,000 — 9.9%Sahara — CDN $5,485,802 — N.AM $57,177,000 — 9.6%The Hitchhiker’s Guide to... Read more

Can’t let the day go by without blogging at least a little bit, so here’s an especially jumbled post for ya, mixing a bit of film, a bit of religion, a bit of personal anecdote. I have been attending my wife’s Orthodox church for just a hair over two years now, and last night marked the third Pascha (Easter) service that I have attended there. In fact, the first Pascha service I attended was one of the very first Orthodox... Read more

Came across this in a recent Canadian Press story on sci-fi author Robert J. Sawyer: The worst thing that ever happened to science fiction occurred in May 1977 when Star Wars premiered, says Toronto science fiction author Rob Sawyer. “Because it started with these words ‘A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…’ George Lucas established indelibly in the public consciousness that science fiction was at a discontinuity from our reality,” Sawyer says during a discussion about references... Read more

Here’s another article of mine that has just gone online. My story for BC Christian News on retired and controversial Bishop John Shelby Spong‘s recent visit to Vancouver was going to include some interview material, at first, but I was given a relatively low word count, and I didn’t speak to him until after his evening lecture and book-signing, by which time we were both pretty tired, and he didn’t really say much that he hadn’t already said in the... Read more

A few days ago, I posted a few first impressions of Todd Solondz’s Palindromes, focusing mainly on how the film skewers pro-lifers and pro-choicers. I was taking the easy road, though; it isn’t too hard to figure out how a director is directly mocking his characters, but it does take a keen mind to focus on how a director indirectly takes aim at his characters. To wit, here is a very perceptive passage on the film’s portrayal of the somewhat... Read more

It’s Pascha (the Orthodox Easter) this weekend, so I probably won’t have that much time to blog. In the meantime, here are a couple new items of mine that have just gone online: 1. My review of Dear Frankie for CT Movies. 2. A movie-based Bible study that I wrote, based on the 1956 version of The Ten Commandments. This was a particularly challenging assignment. I had written three of these Bible studies before — the ones on Troy, Bruce... Read more

Just a few Kingdom of Heaven links I’ve picked up. 1. “SIR RIDLEY SCOTT’S new blockbuster, ‘Kingdom of Heaven,’ could hardly be more topical. It shows Muslims resisting Christian invaders…” Well, the New York Times would start last Sunday’s article like that, wouldn’t they. The situation is certainly a lot more complex than that, not only historically but in Sir Ridley’s film, too, where Salah-ad-Din is quite clearly a conqueror with a string of past successes, even if he is... Read more

I just got an e-mail from an editor who was at the Evangelical Press Association conference this week, and he tells me that my film column for BC Christian News placed fourth in the award for “Standing Column”. I had no idea I was even in the running here, so this is a pleasant surprise. I don’t see any info on this online yet, but my editor tells me that this is the company I’m keeping: 1. Indeed, “A Parting... Read more

The wife and I caught the new film version of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy last night, and I regret to report that the film never really caught on, for me. I hope I can appease certain friends of mine by humbly bowing low and covering my head in ashes and saying I probably just don’t “get” the series, but I would be relieved beyond measure if it turned out that a fair number of them thought the film didn’t... Read more

Just a few quick random things. 1. Four weeks ago, I posted a link to an article I wrote on Orthodox converts. Today, that article has been re-posted here, with a snazzier layout — and a good thing, too, as the original link has been dead ever since ChristianWeek revamped their website. 2. I have been wondering lately if Steven Spielberg had changed his mind about the peaceful nature of aliens, as depicted in Close Encounters of the Third Kind... Read more